Summer's End and Fall's Beginning for Anthon Man

Well, little girl is down for the night, and so are my boys. So, that leaves me and you, blog readers...to catch up on some long overdue updates of our oldest child :) Granted, as you may have noticed from my last post, these updates will be FAR more scarce in regard to pictures, but, the important (to me, anyways) updates will be here.

Matthew put Anthon down tonight while I kept Addie company. A little while after Matthew left his room, Addie started crying. From Anthon's bedroom I hear, 'it's okay, bebe. it's okay bebe.' andddd my heart melts. Ten times over.

Today, there were multiple times where Anthon is a little rough on a toy or me and I'll tell him he needs to be soft. He'll then do whatever it is he did again, but this time softly--then look at me, and, while furrowing his brow and shaking his head 'no', say, 'bigg' (indicating he shouldn't do it big, but little/softly :)

Yesterday, as I was putting him down for his nap, he walked out the door, stood at my bedroom door, and blew kisses to Addie in her bassinet across the room  before returning to finish reading stories with me. He blew her one, two, three kisses. Then, turned to me, said 'hoooooooj', and blew her an extraaa massive kiss. He then turned again to me, and said 'bigggggg' and blew a slightly smaller, but still extra big kiss.

We've been working on being happy lately. If there are tears or a whine, we ask him if he can be happy, say please, or ask nicely. Ideally, all three :) He equates asking nicely/happily with a voice roughly two octaves higher than his usual voice and it.is.ADORABLE. hahaha. He'll be frantic and wanting something, then we say, 'how do we ask?' and he'll cock his head to the side, smile, and (in that two octaves higher than usual voice) say, "up, please" or "watch Cars, please" or "help, please".

It KILLS every time. Whatever the number limit is on a heart melting and still sustaining life,  I HAVE to have exceeded it.

One of my favorites is hearing that happy, high voice, accompanied by that smile and head cock when I'm in the kitchen. Regardless of what I'm in the middle of cooking or cleaning...how can you just not scoop him up in the air and love every second of it? And, really, it happens at least five times a day. 'Up, please!' (cue smile and head cock).

Anywho....back to our updates.

August 17-September 17

This month was full of family. A trip to Oregon and a trip to Colorado. Apparently, I lied about the pictures, because I just looked through some of them and just can't NOT post them.

When we travel, we do it in pajamas. Especially when we travel at 5 AM, but, really...when traveling in general. <3

Someone is clearly excited about his big boy cup...

Traveling with a pregnant wife and toddler: not for the faint of heart.

haha. My husband, I'm telling you--he's the BEST. Seriously such a champion.

We took to having him board during family boarding and Anthon and I wandered around the airport keeping busy until the last minute to spend as little time in tiny airplane spaces as possible. When I say last minute, I mean--call our names over the loud speaker last minute...

haha. I didn't exactly communicate how long I'd wait to Matthew the first time...so, he started to think I was somewhere in the airport in labor or something...

haha. Sorry, babe.

Arrived in Portland, and Grandma and Grandpa couldn't be happier.

Darla bought the movie Cars for Anthon. He was in HEAVEN. I'm not sure he'd ever seen it before..

This trip was the trip we discovered just how tender-hearted Anthon is. With the time-difference, he/we were up at 3AM every morning. One such morning, we watched some of the movie Homeward Bound. He started balling when Sally was caught in the water. I had to fast forward to the part where you see her dry and open-eyed, he was so, so frantic over it :(

Our little boy is seriously SO tender-hearted.

Grandma whipped out the 'ole slip and slide for us. Anthon's favorite part was finding the water puddles and drinking them.

Meet Anthon, master manipulator.

He repeatedly asked Grandpa Lyn to come over with him. When he did, Anthon walked over and sat in his chair.

Both Matthew's family and mine live within a 2 minute walk of a park.

Whenever we buy a house, I'd like to carry on this trend.

Shirt, compliments of Cathy Hall, my fabulous neighbor. Shorts and shoes, compliments of a thrift store in Oregon. There were sooo many sizes of the shoes for like $1.50. If we could go back, we would have bought them out. Heaven knows Anthon wouldn't have minded. He wore the HECK out of those things.

Grandma and the grandbabies

Lyn and his girls <3

 fun in the church gym. I don't have many pictures/videos from it...but trust me, it was a hoot.

 Anthon's face in this one! <3

Olive Garden for Madison's graduation. We bring cars everywhere we go and we know it'll be a success.

One of Anthon's favorite things in the world--holding dad's hand in the car.

 I told Darla Anthon could have some cookie...

A rookie mistake...

I realized after turning around to see just what 'some cookie' looked like hahahaha

With uncle Jason <3

 Darla reading the book she got Anthon to him. The first time I read it to him he had me read it four times in a row. LOVES it...

 

Barefoot, wheeled something in hand, dirt on his face. Yep. Looks like a happy boy!

Andd...a few from the beach. Darla has most of them of the rest of the gang, but here are a few of Anthon man...

This week, when I asked Anthon who was in this picture, his response was 'cars! two cars!'


Thoroughly tuckered out

 Lyn seeing us off...

 sleepy boy...

And...onto Colorado..

 

who knew Anthon's curls would turn so beautiful in the Colorado dry? Not me! (insert heart smileyface emoticon not on this computer...)

homeboy loved watching out the windows at the airports, not surprisingly, he got more excited about the trucks he saw than the planes. 

Our creature of habit...

Whatever couch, in whatever home, his perch for milk and reading before and after bed/nap times is on the far right, propped up with a pillow..

Lafayette

Sorry Disney,

THIS is the happiest place on earth.

 

Also, who doesn't look for an excuse to post a picture of themselves in swimgear while pregnant?

(cue sarcasm). But, it's a picture with all of us, so--I'll survive, for the sake of having one with all of those who were there for our trip.

Also, check out Brad's beard!

Kellie will love that I posted this one of her.

Also, she gifted me those pants.

Best sister EVER.

Not that I fit into them yet...

Three of my greatest loves. Matthew once said I talk to him like I talk to Shasta. Thankfully, he knew me well enough to take that as a compliment....

I don't really know what to say about that...

But it's pretty funny.

I do LOVE that dog.

However...via skype, the feelings aren't really reciprocated.

Being pregnant is a funny thing. You have pictures like me at Lafayette, where I'm like, wow--self, you are looking pregnant everywhereeeee. And then, you have pictures like this, where I'm like, hey, self--look at your belly! What a cute pregnant person we are.

Pregnancy, full of funny things, I tell you...

One of Anthon's newest favorite things: running his fingers through Matthew's hair while Matthew holds him.

 

Blanket: check

Bink: check

Happiness: check

And....back to our upstate home..

This month had lots of outdoors, a few good hikes, and, naturally, lots of fun..

 I'm aware these next gazillion pictures are all from the same day...

but will you just LOOK at Anthon's face?

I can't NOT post a million...

  A hot date with my mister..

But, seriously, how cute is he??

Oh! And I didn't realize until going through these pictures...

August involved a visit from Lyn and Darla to us here in New York as well!

As usual, we LOVED having them.

Best guests around, really!

We did an apple orchard with them while they were here. Anthon loved the Hay Maze and animals particularly :)

<3

Matthew helping get  some smile for a selfie with Grandma and Grandpa Lyn..

Anthon for some reason kept doing this at the park one day. It was cracking me up.

Lyn helped us haul away our Purple Mattress (finally). Thank GOODNESS for awesome return policies.

At the library..

Watching cars go over bumps were still one of Anthon's favorite things.

We'd just park the stroller by the bump and wait for cars.

The many excited faces of Anthon...

(or, a few of them, at least.. I think there were about five more faces in the folder I got these from on the computer... haha)

Someone was already ripe and ready for brotherhood! <3

He's smart enough to know it's only a doll...I'm not sure he'll be quite as willing to share those goldfish with Addie when she's old enough to eat them :P

Matthew met us at the park on his way home from work one day..

Anthon was ecstatic.

Just pretend the random man on the right is cropped out...

You call that driving?! What was he thinking!!

If you like pina coladas..

Anthon and Matthew's favorite park to go to together this month..

Picnic at the park. Some extremely flattering pictures of me.

Favorite things this month:

-hot dogs

-goldfish

-busses

-trucks (Oregon was magic for him. There were semis EVERYWHERE)

-anything car

-walks

-watching cars go over bumps

-bike rides

-sleeping with me (often out of necessity (for my sanity, that is) on trips

-staying on New York time no matter what state we're in or for how long :O

-his blanket

-his bink

-snuggling with mom

-singing songs on the floor after reading stories in the chair

-Movies (my phobia of technology addictions is still alive and well...so he doesn't get to watch too much... but he LOVES it when he does)

-Aunt Madison

Not so favorite things:

-my fruit/veggie mixes he's always eaten so well :(

-bees (he's never been stung. Apparently, he just inherently knows!)

-sleeping in new places

September 17-October 17

Ha. Yeah. Not Happening.

You should have guessed that when I said I decided to include pictures...

...until next time!

Oh, wait! I can't write a post without a little something about Addie girl.

These pictures are from her first month, since we haven't uploaded to the computer since then...

sleepy smiles, from the both of us :)

Put 'em up.

(and Matthew, per his wonderful usual self, playing with Anthon man in the background :)

 homegirl is SO alert for a newborn.

If it's not dark and she's being rocked/swayed, it's very unlikely she'll fall asleep.

Smudged mascara, tired faces. Looks about right :)

**Insert heart eye emoticon..

I LOVE this picture.

And it looks like I've still got room in there for her!

I've been fairly busy, but, after looking through her first month, one thing is clear---I need to take more pictures of Matthew with Addie :)

As far as current updates with little girl..

-she's found her thumb (she still has great difficulty repeating that, but that doesn't keep her from trying)

-lots of alert smiles

-lovessss sleeping on her tummy and honestly, can't really sleep well any other way, unless it's on another human being

-gets crazy air bubbles no matter what we do, so it's a lot of work helping her keep comfortable after feedings when she's got residual air/burps hidden

-loves facing out while she's awake

Anywho....

In short... (or long ;)

...

We LOVE our kiddos.

My husband amazes me and is SO incredibly helpful and hard-working.

I'm so grateful for these two bundles of joy, their growth and the fun it is to see them both grow, and just the knowledge that our little family is forever.

Life with Two

 

Yes, this is life for us now. Two calm kiddos, snuggling with us on the couch. We really just hang out and play all day. It's really picturesque.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the first month with sweet Addie girl added to our family...

-WHAT THEEEEEE

Okay, so that was just one thought. But, really.... How did NO ONE warn me about how crazy life is going from one kid to two kids? I mean, I know a lot of people with kids. A LOT of people with kids. Furthermore, with kids close in age (i.e. the two years Addie and Anthon are apart).  If you are reading this and are one of those people, I hold you personally responsible for the shock my system has taken adjusting.

Shame. on. YOU.

haha. Okay, no shame.

But, honestly....craziness!!!!

I don't even know what else to say...

Some days are so easy and really, just awesome.

Others, I have two kids crying, dishes covering the counter, laundry spread on the couch waiting to be folded, and toys all over the floor.

I've gained a true appreciation for...

Saturdays

These have previously been days I look forward to because we can all do something fun and Matthew can come party with us. Now, I realize Saturday is coming and I'm overcome with a huge sense of relief. Halellujah! I have an extra pair of hands to hold and help during the dayyyyyy!!!

Late Nights

Honestly. For the first time, I understand why my mother stayed up late doing stuff around the house. Because, some days, it is THE only time you have to get things done around the house.

Showers

People with babies always say things about not getting showers. With one baby, I never understood that. For me, showers every day are my sanity. So, at some point during Anthon's sleeping times, I would definitely get a nap. With a two year old and a newborn on different sleep schedules, there are days when I don't get showers now...and I now understand what those shower-less moms were talking about.

Our Income

Because, lately, me spending an hour making dinner just isn't going to happen. I'm SO grateful for Matthew's job and the option to have him pick up food somewhere for us.

My MOTHER

Oh my gosh. She was here for two and a half weeks and cooked all our meals after Addie was born (and many before). She also took some late night shifts with homegirl so I could get some much needed sleep. OH and made Anthon's LIFE by taking him on a few outings after Addie was born. But, back to the cooking....best mom EVERRRRR. Oh, and did some much needed organizing in my kitchen. And some laundry. And anything else I asked for help with. Oh my gosh. SO grateful.

Time

Time? What is that.

Dear other friends that are going to have kids close together. . . you've been informed.

You're welcome.

Now...on to the magical side of being a parent of two...

Anthon loves when I changed he and Addie's diapers at the same time. It's one of the few times me asking to change his diaper elicits a smile (or happiness, for that matter). He gets excited, says "TWO?!" and holds up his fingers to indicate I'll be changing not only his, but Addie's as well.

As Matthew was wheeling me into an elevator at the hospital when we were going up to Labor and Delivery, I started crying. I heard about people crying about having their second child, but never had it hit me until we got to the hospital. I was terrified of changing our family. It was SO good just the way it was. I didn't want it to change.

Three weeks later, I'm home, sitting on my couch with Anthon after just having put Addie down to sleep. I'm adoring his sweet little self jumping up and down next to me as he puts his smiling face excitedly right next to mine, hands on either of my cheeks, just squeeling in a 'gosh mom I love you so much' sort of way. He then sits down close next to me to read a book with Matthew and I. As I sit, it feels like there's not enough space in my body to hold the joy I feel being near this little boy of ours. Simultaneously, my arms yearnnn for the baby girl I literally JUST set down in her bassinet. To have her snuggled on my chest, nuzzled in so I can just lean down the slightest bit to kiss the top of her head.

I feel like that moment best describes how insane it is--that you really can feel SO much love for two little critters. Your heart just somehow makes room. That doesn't mean it isn't ridiculously hard to find one on one time with each kiddo, but it does mean that you find so many magical moments to share all together. --

I was sitting in Anthon's room, he in his chair, and Addie and I on the floor right next to it, as I rocked Addie back and forth. She let out a massive laugh. Remember, she' was less than three weeks old at the time... But, Anthon and I both look at each other, excitement and shock in our eyes, before we proceed in attempts to get her to replicate the laughter. Magical moments like that...

Again, don't get me wrong, sometimes Anthon begs me to put her in her bassinet (he makes a snoring noise and points to Addie... haha), and sometimes he has a breakdown when I come to get him up from a nap and I have her in my arms, but, for the most part, it's moments like this--

I'm reading to Anthon (Addie asleep in the other room), and Addie starts to cry. Anthon leans over, takes the book in both hands, moves it to his lap, says "baby", and then waits for me to go tend to her and/or bring her to join us.   

Addie: Month 1

 

Loves:

-sleeping on/with mom

-sleeping on her stomach (which was the only remedy we found to sleeping on mom) But man, it's QUITE the remedy

-sleeping for 6 hour stents at night, sometimes longer

-having her hands up by her head

-smiling

-sucking on anything

-tilting her head up to look at you while you hold her

-being bounced

Hates:

-being swaddled

-being put down

-when I sway side from side when she's still awake

New Things:

-laughing (happened only once, and totally randomly). It was magical.

-staring intently--as if she's totally understanding/trying to process what you're saying. It was like a flip switched and she started doing it one day--Matthew and I both noticed it and it was crazy!

Anthon: Month 23

 

 Loves:

-being naked

-being chased while naked

-cookie dough (he moves faster than anything you've ever seen when he's going for a handful)

-his put-put car

-all cars

-the movie and characters from the movie CARS

-Look and find books

-all books cars

-basically anything and everything cars

-Walks

-Hide and Seek

-Apple Jacks

-helping mom (throwing away diapers, getting diapers/wipes, putting things away for me)

-his blanket

-milk

-all things fruit

-his bink

-bubbles

Hates:

-carrots and all things vegetable

New Things:

-a hair cut!

-kicking the bink. He was a CHAMP about it

-Using the potty!

-Words, words, and more words--sooo much talking! A lot of it we understand because of so much interaction with him, my mom didn't understand as much. But by the time she was leaving she was understanding him a lot better.

-swinging for more than 1 minute. Usually he's in and out, but he started enjoying it more and wanting to swing for longer!

Matthew...

I don't know how ANYONE is a single parent. Of one child, let alone two or more. The few times in the last little bit Matthew has worked late, I think about that so much. I can't imagine being a single parent and am SO grateful I have Matthew. A husband who will...

-eat totinas pizzas, ravioli, pb&js, taco bell, Wendy's for however long without complaining once

-change baby diapers

-go into work at 3AM to be home to help me because he knows I've been struggling (that after going to bed at midnight)

-make up new games or car ramp ideas for Anthon endlessly. Honestly, I don't know how he does it!

-do the grocery shopping

-sooth a screaming baby without complaint

-be concerned for me

-love our kids unconditionally

-tell me I'm a good mom

Words can't really describe how grateful I am for Matthew. This transition has been tough, but I can't imagine experiencing it with anyone besides him. He is so incredibly helpful, willing, and kind. After insanely long days at work (which he's had a few of lately), he'll come home, play with Anthon for hours, take Addie (who is sometimes screaming) while I put Anthon down --or put Anthon down himself, and then do to-dos (whether they be bills or shopping) while I do other to-dos.

Additionally, he takes notes about his conversations, thoughts, and experiences at work to share with me in the evenings, talks to me while we do the dishes, and lets me keep him awake to talk at night after the lights are out.

In Conclusion...

Holy cow, is two kids hard.

Holy cow, is two kids magical.

Holy cow, is my husband the best.

Holy cow....

it's now 1:47 AM