Family Update

Life with two kids is so busy, but definitely so much fun! It is much harder for me to get things done during the day, but I have gotten used to that fact. I am loooving this baby stage with Rett, something I never thought possible. In fact, after a rough week or so of getting up every few hours and not sleeping well, Rett actually slept from 9pm to 6am!! It was such a relief. I was starting to get really discouraged and exhausted. He has also just started reaching for things and actually grabbing toys and it is amazing to watch. His eyes scrunch up like he is concentrating really hard and he slowly gets his hands closer to what he is trying to reach and when he finally makes contact I have to stop myself from jumping up and down and cheering for him! He loves to be held upright, pretty much all the time, so we went out and got a Bumbo from a consignment store. I've gone back and forth over whether it is worth it to get one of these since they really only need it for a few months until they can sit up on their own, but after a full day of not being able to put him down I decided it was worth it!

 Grabbing the rings with his pinky finger:

Of course, James decided that he needed to try out this new seat too. I couldn't believe that he fits in it!

Anthony needed to replace his grippers that he uses to grab the mouth of fish that he catches, so he got a new pair that also has a weight built-in, so you can see how big your fish is. We needed to test it out, so we decided to weigh Rett! We tested it out with dumbbells too to make sure that it is accurate. Rett weighed 13.5 pounds!

 Anthony's parents got us a rotisserie cooker for Christmas and we are loving it! It is so easy to use and the two chickens we have made in it so far have been delicious. I have started looking up all kinds of recipes I can use from the leftover chicken, with the idea that maybe we could make one chicken and then use all of the meat and leftovers in our dinners for the rest of the week. We would save so much money on meat that way!

Now that the holidays are over, I've started thinking about what to do for James' 3rd birthday. (How did my baby get to be 3??????) I don't think we are going to do a big party and invite other kids, since just the thought of planning that gives me a stress headache. I think we are just going to take the day and let James decide what activities he wants to do and make it all about him. So far when I've asked him, he first wants to go to the pirate ship park that is about 20 minutes away from our house. They used to have just one pirate ship playground, but they just added two more to it. It really is a fun park! You can walk the plank, go on treasure hunts, and even make loud cannon noises with the cannons.

He also said he wants cake, ice cream, pizza, and that he wants Grandma, Mimi, and Papa to be there. When I asked him what presents he wants to get, this is what he says. Every time. I swear, I never saw a kid so sure about what he wants:

So he wants a Jolly Roger (Captain Hook's pirate ship), Captain hook, and Mr. Smee. They make all of those to match the pirate ship he got for Christmas, so I'm assuming that is what he is thinking. The first time he told me what he wanted I had no idea what he was saying! I was expecting, "boat" or "pirate ship". It took me forever to figure out he was saying "Jolly Roger". 

For his most recent reward on his good behavior chart, James wanted to go to the mall and ride the train. Thursday night we made the trip to the mall just to ride the train. After riding the train, we went over to the ride-on toys to take a few rides on it. James' favorite was the fire engine. His favorite book right now is "Curious George and the Firefighters" and he says that he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. So cute :)