Two Brothers and a Cousin

Last Saturday night we invited Aunt E, Uncle Jeff, and Kate over for dinner and to watch the LSU baseball Super Regional. I made these yummy fish sandwiches and Kenny whipped up a batch of tasty margaritas. All of the kids were decked out in their Tigers gear, although Rory had to be changed out of his white onesie before the game on account of a diaper explosion.

Before we had dinner we lined the kids up on the couch for a group picture, and the resulting shots were priceless.

Kate reaches out to touch Riley, who isn’t quite sure what he thinks about it.

Then Riley is distracted by Rory, who is screaming, while Kate keeps her hand on Riley’s arm.

Okay, we’re good now with the addition of a paci for the little one. Oh, and Riley has taken his arm back. Sorry, Kate.

Finally, a good one! Kate does not appear to be her usual chipper self, probably because it’s past her normal bedtime.

Riley hams it up for the camera, while the younger two sit there like lumps.

Enjoy it while it lasts, son……they’ll be just as animated as you are before you know it.

After dinner and some extended playtime while we watched the beginning of the game, Erin and I decided to bathe Riley and Kate together to save time. We weren’t sure what either of them would think of it, but it worked pretty well.

 

 

Riley and Kate went to bed, while Rory skipped his usual evening fussiness and zonked out on Aunt E’s lap. I told her she’d have to come back every night but, funnily enough, we haven’t seen her since.

Thanks for joining us, y’all; we had fun!

Oh, and LSU won the game that night and is now playing in the College World Series in Omaha. They unfortunately lost their first game on Sunday against UCLA and play UNC this afternoon.

Even though I have ties to the UNC system, I have to be loyal to my first school. Geaux Tigers!

Video Monday: The Dot Burrito

It’s not quite as good as the original, but here is Rory’s version of the morning wake-up stretch after being swaddled all night long. He sure is cute.

Happy Monday!

Happy Father’s Day

To all of the dads out there, especially my own, I wish you a very happy day.

And to my husband, thank you for being such a wonderful dad to our two little boys. We love you so much.

Three Months {Rory}

Rory is three months old today! He weighs in at 14.4 pounds and measures 24.25 inches long. His head is 16.4 inches around.

Here’s what I want to remember about this past month:

• He’s up to 5 ounces of formula at most feedings, but he sometimes takes an ounce more. He usually eats 6 times a day, about once every three hours. He’s definitely filling out and chunking up!
• He is still getting Zantac twice a day, although we’re not sure if it’s really doing anything.
• He is still spitting up. Some days are worse than others.
• He is sleeping pretty well at night, going down around 9 or 10pm and sleeping for 7-8 hours. (Our first 8-hour stretch was the night of May 29.) He wakes up early in the morning a lot of the time (around 4 or 5am) but will usually settle if we give him a paci. I’m hoping we can start putting him down for the night earlier, but I’m not sure he’s ready for that just yet. We are still swaddling him.
• His daytime sleep is going okay. Sometimes he naps well; sometimes he doesn’t. He obviously gets tired after being awake for a couple of hours, but he doesn’t always settle great. We’re working on it, though!
• He is losing some of his hair, which is apparently typical but didn’t happen at all with Riley. And I think his hair is getting a bit lighter in color. He has a touch of cradle cap, but it’s not nearly as bad as Riley’s was.
• He really likes to sit up. If he’s in a reclined position on our laps, he’ll scrunch up his head and upper body in an attempt to sit up. He also likes to stand up, too, and he can support his weight quite impressively.
• He is doing okay with tummy time, although I don’t do it as much as I probably should because he is still spitting up.
• He loves looking at his hands and has started sucking on them at times.
• He loves watching his big brother. He has also seemed to enjoy Mickey and the bird movie a few times.
• He can raise both of his eyebrows independently.
• He rewarded me with his first giggle while he was in the bathtub on May 23, but he hasn’t done it again since. He smiles at us all the time, though, which is so cute.
• Kenny has dubbed him “crazy fries” since the title of wonk potatoes is already taken.

Three months old!

  

Final Music Together

Grandma took Riley to his very last Music Together class last Friday morning. It’s hard to believe that Riley’s very first class was more than a year ago. He’s certainly come a long way since then!

We decided not to sign him up for the next session since he seems to have lost a bit of interest. Plus, he’ll be starting school in August, and I’m sure we’ll get involved with lots of other things that keep us busy on the weekends.

However, he really has learned so much throughout his four sessions of music. He’s constantly singing lots of the songs from class, as well as making up his own little songs. It amazes me just how much he absorbed and brought into his home life.

I also think part of why Riley liked music so much was his wonderful teacher, Kathleen. I know he’s going to miss seeing her every week!

I hope he continues to enjoy all things musical. He’ll definitely be exposed to more instruction at his new school come fall: music is one of their enrichment activities in the younger grades, and all students are required to take band during their 5th grade year. Plus, the school boasts a really great extracurricular band program, which Kenny is hoping his sons will want to be a part of, just like he was.

But we have Grandma to thank for introducing Riley to music in the first place. Thank you so much for suggesting the idea of these classes. I think he’s really enjoyed them, as well as getting to spend quality time with one of his favorite people every week.

We love you, Grandma!

Bean in Boots {Again}

Remember this?

He was just shy of six months old then.

 

He’s a tad bit bigger now.

Sticker Fun

Riley has a bit of an obsession with stickers these days. He likes to stick them on paper, on his trucks, and, most fun of all, on himself. He also likes to peel stickers off of things, including some of the ones that adorn his toys that should be left alone. (He just can’t seem to help himself. He also likes to peel the paper off of crayons and any little bits of tape he finds on something.)

One afternoon last week all three of us were upstairs in the office playing, and Riley peeled two bunny stickers off of a sheet of paper and handed them to me. I promptly put them on each of my cheeks.

Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything about my doing so. He just decided he wanted a car sticker on his shirt, so I obliged. Then he started decorating himself with lots of little stickers, so I joined in the fun and put a few more on myself and gave Rory three little ones too.

And that’s how Kenny found us when he got home from work a little while later.

He said we looked pretty cute, but I bet in his head he was thinking two words for all three of us…..

Wonk potatoes.

Video Monday: Fingers in Mouth

One day last week I was sitting on the couch with Rory in my lap, and Riley climbed up next to us. Rory is loving looking at his big brother these days. On this particular morning, he reached out his hand and got a hold of Riley’s face. Specifically, his mouth.

Their interaction was so cute that I grabbed the camera to take a video. I was rewarded with all of 10 precious seconds before Rory started to cry because Riley had bitten down on one of his fingers.

Then the next day Riley pulled on Rory’s bib, hard, and made him cry again.

Then a couple of days later Riley apparently smacked Rory on his cheek while I was washing my hands after a diaper change, making him cry yet again.

I fear things are going to get worse before they get better.

Super.

Happy Monday!

A Conversation {Rory and Aunt E}

The following took place one afternoon while Riley and I were out swimming in Nola and Nopsi’s pool. Aunt E stayed in with the little one and documented some of their time together.

Hi, Aunt E! Let’s talk, shall we?

Are you excited that school is out for the summer?

I thought you might be!

And you know what that means, right?

You get to spend more time with me!

I think that’s fantastic. Summer is awesome.

Okay, time to sleep.

Thanks for the chat, Aunt E. I love you!

Friday Night Reunion

What do you get when three high school friends get together with their families?

One heck of a good time.

Michelle and David came into town late yesterday afternoon with their two kiddos (Jackson and Alden) for a short visit, and everyone gathered at my house. Bridget sadly couldn’t make it, but Karen was able to bring Molly and Nathan over.

The kids played and ran around, and the adults drank and caught up. The noise level was just shy of ear-shattering at times.

I loved every second of it.

I loved how well the kids played together, I loved talking with two of my best friends, I loved the chaos all around us.

I loved it all.

Thanks for coming to visit, Miche and Karen. I had such a fun night with y’all…..let’s make it a regular thing, okay?