Memorial Day

I know Memorial Day was several weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to downloading my pics. We went to the lake house in Marble Falls with our good friends, the Hejls.

It was tons o' fun and very relaxing. Luke actually went golfing (a rare occurrence) with Ty and beat him! See Luke, you should golf more often. Sara made us a great dinner and didn't burn the cutting board this year, while Cooper continued to call Colt like a dog by patting his leg while calling, "Come here, Colt." Classic. As always, we ended the weekend with brunch at the Bluebonnet Cafe! Thanks for sharing your weekend with us, Hejls.

The Days of Our Lives

Just took some random pictures as we were hanging around the house. I bought a bubble blower machine, since Colt loves bubbles. Here he is chasing the bubbles around our back porch.
Colt loves helping me cook and pulls a chair into the kitchen multiple times each day, in order to watch or help stir.
Levi likes to smile often these days. He's getting so strong and likes to lift up his head to look around.

Whenever Colt is going from point A to point B, he is running. I've found that I have less laundry if he runs around with just a diaper (and less stains to remove), so that's been our MO lately.
Levi has a new rocker/bouncy seat that he loves. He just kicks his feet and the toys swing back and forth. He'll sit here peacefully for a while, entertaining himself!

Mother's Day

My 2nd Mother's Day was great! I got this great new Vita Mix blender that does EVERYTHING I could ever imagine and has made my life much easier. Ty made us a great breakfast Sunday morning, then we went to lunch with friends. This year, Mother's Day just happened to correlate with Ty's 1/2 birthday. I guess as a kid he went to Chuck E Cheese on his 1/2 birthday, so in his attempt to get out of making dinner as well, suggested we give CEC a whirl. It definitely wasn't as good as when we were kids, and the food was horrible, but Colt had a great time and was mesmerized by the mechanical characters on the stage.

Colt loved Chuck E Cheese.

Levi just chilled. I actually got to eat my meal without holding a baby, what a great gift! Levi, you are so thoughtful, even at such a young age :)

Notice Colt is trying to throw the ball. Ha!

Ty came home from work with a shaved head!!

Sleep training

Levi is generally a good baby... but, he has LOTS of trouble falling asleep at night. Last night we were up till 1:30am with him crying half in and out of sleep. Whenever we'd lay him down, he'd wake right back up. This has been going on for 8 weeks now, and we are TIRED (literally and figuratively) of it! So, we decided to start sleep training tonight, for everyone's good. We didn't start sleep training with Colt until he was 6 months old, and after 3 nights of letting him cry it out, wished we would've started sooner. Ty and I are planning a trip to NYC in a few weeks, and will leave Levi with his grandparents. Since we don't want them to endure this misery every evening, we thought we'd go ahead and start sleep training tonight. Well, I'm proud to announce that Levi only cried for 30 minutes, then whimpered for about 5 before he finally fell asleep. He is so much better than Colt, who cried for an hour and a half before he went to sleep on his first night of sleep training. Thank goodness for one night down!

Cooking with Colt

Colt has been helping me cook in the kitchen, just about every day. He loves it, and I don't mind too much either. We've made the following recipe a few times and it is easy and DELICIOUS, so just thought I'd share it. Plus, it includes carrots, apples and zucchini, which Colt snacks on the entire time we are making it, and he doesn't even notice he's eating healthy!

Golden Harvest Cake, taken from Cooking Light magazine:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt, stirring with a whisk.
3. Add 1/2 cup grated peeled Granny Smith apple, 1/2 cup grated carrot, 1/2 cup shredded zucchini, and 1/4 cup chopped, toasted walnuts to the flour mixture.
4. Combine 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk (I use half and half), and 2 eggs in a small bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined.
5. Spoon batter into an 8x4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cook at 350 for 50 minutes. Makes 9 servings.

Play time

Colt has always been really good about playing by himself. But lately he's been enjoying playing more with others, and has been more into playing games (like playing hide-and-go seek, and hiding the object in his brother's mouth). Colt LOVES bikes, so I found a cheap one on Craigslist last week. He's been riding it around the house non-stop!

Also, he loves for me to cover him up with a blanket, then he walks around bumping into things. He laughs and laughs while doing this. It is too funny! Here he is walking into our dog, Molly.
I took this next picutre a few weeks ago. I just love it. A boy and his dog :) They would play together in the backyard everyday, all day if I'd let them.

Levi at 2 months

First of all, Levi's screw finally came out on Thursday! No, I didn't take a picture of it, so you can keep on reading :) I didn't save it either. I have an identical screw that I'll save for his baby book. Levi had his 2 month well visit today. He weighs 13 pounds 12 oz, 24 inches long, and 40.3cm head circumference. No vaccinations for us, so it was a great doctor visit with no crying! They had masks sitting out, in case you thought you had swine flu. Interesting. Levi is a great baby. He eats well, doesn't spit up much, has an easy disposition, and makes cute coos. He has a really strong neck and doesn't mind tummy time. He does have some trouble going to sleep at night. He loves to be swaddled, but still refuses to take a pacifier. In the next few weeks, we'll start sleep training, so hopefully he'll learn to fall asleep faster and then we'll all be happier!

This past month, Levi started smiling. We LOVE it!