Two Week Check up!

Tucker is now two weeks old! I was a little nervous about this appointment. When Hayden was a newborn he lost almost an entire pound and was slow to gain it back. The past several nights I've found it extremely difficult to get Tucker to wake up in the middle of the night to feed him let alone stay awake once he'd nursed on one side! Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I was awake for nearly two hours trying to get him to wake up! After a while I was so frustrated I was speaking out loud and crying which in turn woke Hayden up (Jason worked Monday and Tuesday and I was a softy and let the big guy sleep in my bed too). Of course, he's such a sweet boy he said "I give you a hug Mommy?" So because Tucker hadn't been eaten very well at night I was getting a little nervous he wouldn't have gained enough weight. As it turns out I was worried about nothing! He is now up to 6 pounds 13 ounces (almost an entire pound bigger than he was at birth!) and is 20 and a quarter inches long (2 inches longer than at birth!)! He's not huge by any means but definitely growing like he should!

This evening I took the boys out back to play. For about 20 minutes I'd hit the volleyball across the yard and Hayden would chase it down giggling the entire way! He kept telling me to "kick it to the sky!" Kick, hit, same difference when you're three right?

Two weeks old!!

Lunch at the park

Wednesday I kept Hayden home from daycare again. I know it's completely throwing off any sort of schedule/routine he has but I really don't mind having him at home with Tucker and I. He enjoys it and I like getting him involved with Tucker. Of course, being stuck in the house for more than 24 hours at a time gets horribly boring and claustrophobic so I decided to take the boys to the park for lunch. The weather was beautiful! Hayden couldn't hardly sit still long enough to eat his peanut butter and jelly (his favorite sandwich) he was so excited to go play!

The only downside to the trip? I put my insulated water cup on top of the Jeep, forgot I put it there and lost it on the bridge on Kansas near the DMV. Oops.

This was his "horse"!

Lessons Learned

Potty training is going to be something I have a feeling we're going to be working on for years! After a weekend of no accidents I was thinking Monday was going to be a breeze. I took the boys to Augusta so Grandma McCoskey could meet Tucker and Hayden could play with Delaney. Because he usually falls asleep in the car, I just left Hayden in a pull-up so he didn't have an accident in the car. Probably a bad idea. Hayden never went to the bathroom once - just peed in his pull-up. Same thing at home. Sigh. He's just a stubborn little boy I guess! But on the plus side of things, he played so hard that he went to bed early that night!

Second lesson - watch out for the stream! I forget how spontaneous newborns are with their bodily functions! While giving Tucker a bath I got a shower myself - a golden shower that is. All down the leg of my jeans! Luckily, it was later in the evening and the only thing on the agenda was watching the Cowboys game.

Third lesson - don't teach your kid to say something just to irritate your dad! My dad despises the Dallas Cowboys which is not only America's team but my team as well (and I'm in the minority in this in my family). Over the weekend we were watching the K-State football game and my dad kept trying to get Hayden to say "Go Wildcats". Much to his dismay, Hayden would only say "Go Cowboys! Go Cowboys!" while raising his right fist into the air. Monday night I got it back. During the first quarter of the game, Hayden got excited and started cheering "Go Wildcats!" Poor confused child! 

The last lesson, really wasn't a lesson at all, more of a realization I guess. Daddy hooked up some speakers in the front room and has been playing two CDs continuously ever since - Fiona Apple and Kings of Leon. Tuesday before going to work, he had Kings of Leon playing and went to the garage with Hayden. That left me and Tucker in the living room. Tucker was a little fussy so I picked him up and just danced with him for a little bit. He immediately calmed down and almost fell asleep. While standing there in the living room, swaying with the little man in my arms, I started thinking about the "old days" of drinking, staying up late, sleeping in and just generally being irresponsible and stupid. Then I thought about the tiny little man in my arms. How anyone could not enjoy this ride is beyond me. One night Jason and I were talking about family members and how some are making good on the ambitious goals they put forth while others how gotten lost somewhere along the way. And we both decided that we're completely happy in our boring mediocrity. Not that every day is completely boring (especially with two little boys!), just not the type of stuff people would write books or make movies about! And that's fine with us!

This was not staged! Tucker was in the car seat and Hayden climbed up on the couch next to it!

Potty Training

We've been trying to work with Hayden on potty training for a couple months now. He does really pretty good on the weekend. Have very few accidents when we're at home and has even gotten better at not having accidents in his pull-up at daycare! Still haven't moved to big-boy underwear at daycare yet but we're getting there! Sometimes though, we'd rather play with our underwear rather than wear them like a normal kid!

For some reason he thought it was a good idea to run around with his clean underwear around his ankles. Then Grandma got the idea to put the underwear on his head! Such a silly boy!

Every week I want to get a picture of my boys together just to document how much they change over the course of a year! Here's a picture of Hayden and Tucker at Tucker's one week birthday!

He's still a little guy but I'm pretty sure he's gotten lots bigger in 1 week! ;)

Here's a few more pictures of the boys from the weekend

Hayden's 3 year doctor's appointment

Usually (and especially in public), Hayden is a pretty good kid! He has his moments when he gets loud but what 3 year old doesn't? Mom and I took the boys to the Clinic for Hayden's appointment, not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Boy were we in for a surprise! Hayden was quiet in the waiting room but as soon as we went back and the nurse tried to weigh him all hell broke loose! He did not want to take his shoes off and he absolutely did NOT want to take his clothes off! For what seemed like hours (but was really probably only 10 or 15 minutes) Hayden screamed and cried at the top of his lungs shouting "no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!". Then he'd throw himself in the corner or resort to slapping me in the face. At one time he even kicked me in the chest which any nursing mother will know hurts like holy hell! Finally Dr. Miller came in and Hayden calmed down enough to let Dr. do his job! After that he was fine! Even let the nurse give him his Flu Mist (the flu vaccine in a form that can be given in the nose) without so much as a whimper! My big boy weighed in at 28 lbs (about the 15th percentile for his age) and 38 and 3/4 inches long (about the 75th percentile)! So he's tall and skinny! Not a surprise if you see his dad and uncles! But the best part about the whole appointment? Baby brother slept through the entire tantrum!

Family Time!

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty uneventful except for the family that came to visit!

Tuesday Aunt Marcie and cousins Bri and Delaney stopped by with a yummy chicken and rice casserole! Poor Delaney does not like our dogs. When they came inside, her leg was clear up by Bri's head! But once we were down in the basement she was fine!

Wednesday Great Grandma Cooper brought mom back to McPherson and hung out with us for awhile. Big brother Hayden stayed home from daycare (after going to pre-school on Tuesday) and had a blast showing off for everyone! He's such a goofball!

Zoo day!

Monday we kept Hayden home from daycare and instead went to the zoo! We had gone last year but Hayden wasn't too interested in the animals. He liked looking at the fish and birds but he was a little scared of the monkeys (which was surprising because he loves monkeys!). Also, we went in mid-May on a Thursday which is apparently the time of the year in which EVERY elementary school takes their students to the zoo! It was way crowded and a lot of the animals were hard to get close to just because you'd have to fight six or seven 6-8 year olds just to get to the glass!  This time around there were just a handful of people there and the animals were all out and about!

This little squirrel had jumped into the trash can!

Hayden had a great time! He wasn't too impressed with the Rainforest or the American farm (the animals were just too close) but if the animals were separated by glass he was right up there!

Meanwhile Tucker slept almost through the entire place, only really waking up when he got his diaper changed and even then it was only long enough to eat!

After the zoo we stopped at Target (where the checker called Tucker a girl - not sure why because the blanked in the car seat was blue and he was wearing a green and brown sleeper with frogs on the feet!) and then at Lowes. I decided to stay in the car with the boys at Lowes so I could try and get Tucker to eat again. While getting back into the car, I hit my ankle on the door and told Hayden "ouch I just hurt my ankle" to which  he replied "Oh damn it!" Apparently I've used that phrase one too many times around him because he's been saying it A LOT! Forgot three year olds repeat EVERYTHING - especially the things you don't want them to! Just hope that changes before Kindergarten!

Sunday Funday!

Even though Sunday means the end of the weekend and a new work week starts the next day, for a few months out of the year Sunday is the best day of the week!! There's football on almost all day long and for 16 weeks (hopefully more this year) I get to watch my Cowboys rock! (off and on when we're not shooting ourselves in the foot!) Even Hayden has gotten into football and says "Go Cowboys!"

This Sunday we watched the Chiefs bomb (to Detroit no less) and had a visit from Jason's mom and dad (GaGa and Papa - Hayden calls both sets of grandparents GaGa and Papa!)

It wasn't until I looked at this picture later that I realized Hayden smiles just like his Papa! Let's just hope that he gets some athletic ability from his Dad and Papa as well because his Mom has little to none!!! ;)

After a uplifting Cowboys victory over the 49ers in overtime, Tucker got to experience his first movie in the basement theater - Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope! We broke down on Friday and got the BluRay box set and I have to say I'm really glad we did! Now I know it probable seems pretty silly to purchase the entire set on BluRay if we already own it on DVD but the digital audio and video is pretty amazing! Plus every time the commercial comes on Hayden gets super excited! But while the rest of the family enjoyed the movie, Tucker had a mini melt-down which lasted about 15 minutes and then slept through the entire thing. Oh well, eventually he will grow to appreciate the theater and the movie as much as the rest of us do!

Weight check!

Saturday was Tucker's newborn followup/weight check in Hutch. I was a little nervous. When Hayden was born we had trouble getting him to nurse and he consequently ended up losing almost a whole pound. (From 7lb 5oz to about 6lb 4oz) Looking back at pictures of Hayden from that first week or so it was scary just how skinny he did get! Not that 7lb 5oz is huge but he did have a few rolls at least! But my nervousness was for no reason because Tucker only lost about 7oz which is in the normal range! He even passed his bilirubin test as well!

That afternoon Jason and Dad put up some tile in the kitchen for our back splash. Our kitchen is almost complete now! Just a little grout on the tile and some painting touch ups (there are some exposed walls now where cabinets and window trim used to be that need to be painted to match!) and we will be done!

That evening we had more visitors - Brian, Angela and Olivia Miller brought supper over and the Shaw's joined us as well. The three older kids had fun running in circles around the house, sliding down the two stairs from the kitchen to the living room face first and playing with Hayden's new race car toy. Tucker was great and probably a little spoiled from all the attention!

Our First Friday

Friday we took our first trip to the store! But first we stopped at big brother Hayden's daycare (to pay the bill and) to show off baby Tucker! Tucker didn't make a peep at either place even though Wal-Mart was kinda busy for a Friday morning! Already he's eating better, sleeping better and behaving better than his big brother!!!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until the evening when Matt and Mom got to the house with Hayden. At first Hayden was quiet and didn't really want anything to do with Jason, Tucker or me and instead just wanted to play with his "birthdays" (the new toys he got for this birthday which was Monday the 12th). It took him about 15-20 minutes to warm up to the idea of his baby brother. But once he did he's been involved ever since!

He loves holding his baby brother, giving him kisses on the head and looking at his fingers and "piggy" toes! He even gently pats his head and has to see what he's up to every 5 minutes or so. So happy that he's as good to Tucker as he is. Being three, I was a little nervous that he would be jealous to have to share us with another child but so far he's been helpful, patient and an all around good kid!!

Then Papa got there and Hayden decided to act a fool!

I would say Day 2 was a success!!