First, E had his 6 month appointment tonight – yes, he really IS 6 months already as of last week.  He has gone down to about the 80th percentile for weight and about 75th for length; which means he’s not as chubby as William was at his age, his weight percentile actually went down.  I can explain the reason for this.  William was such a laid back baby, and not that E isn’t, he’s just a mover.  He can’t stand still for more than a few minutes.  He will purposely fall over to his side (when he is sitting ALL by himself) just so he can roll ALL around the living room.  Seriously.  That’s how he gets around, no interest in crawling, but he rolls ALL over the place.  William never did that, he was content sitting there all by himself for months, as long as he had a toy near him, he was happy.  Not this guy. 

As far as William goes, he is learning his alphabet very well, he is about halfway through and knows all the letters (capital and lowercase) and the sounds and although he is shy about it, he will sing the whole ABC song for Mommy and Daddy once in a while.  He’s my little sponge with a 2-year-old attitude.  I can’t say the terrible 2′s are hitting us very hard, sure he gives us “No’s” on occasion (daily), but it really hasn’t been that bad – YET.  I am waiting for the day when E gets to this point, he is already seriously on the move, I can see him being my little defiant child.  He is going to get into everything, not matter what we say.

Last weekend Daddy took Will to LEGO Kidsfest at the Mpls Convention Center and from the sounds of it they both had a great time and are already looking forward to next year.

A little about me – I am excited to be the one and only favorite Auntie for my brother’s first child due in early July!  Otherwise I would like to get my PC (Pampered Chef) business back on the board so I am trying to look hard at my calendar and see how to schedule time to work on my business…family/boys (check), gym (check), full-time job (check), PC (nadda, nothing, zilch).  Need to find space for it somewhere…along with my neglected blog!

Other WONDERFUL news is that Andrew was able to fill his time off from Cargill with another part-time job as an electrician.  It is actually working out really great, 3 1/2 days as an electrician and 2 1/2 days in the Feed Mill at Cargill.  He really likes working for Cargill, the people there are great and treat everyone well.  He also seems to like being an electrician again so apart from the odd pick up/drop off day care schedule everything is starting to come back together for our finances, kind of anyways.  Not sure you can fully recover from being laid off for nearly 2 years!

Can’t make any promises, but I will certainly try again from this point forward to update at least 1x/week, which was my intent all along.  Even if its brief.

Also, it takes time to upload pics to multiple locations so to see some of the most recent pics of us go to my Facebook page.  I will try to get some on here eventually too.

I can’t ignore William, my now 2-year-old little big man.  He has more energy than ever and likes to jump and run around the house like a mad man.  He is recognizing the potty when going pee and poop, but he has yet to do it himself on the seat.  We’re not pushing it, we’re just trying to make him realize and recognize it so when he’s ready he will do it.  I really don’t think he’s quite ready, he doesn’t like the feeling of his naked bum on the potty for some reason and REALLY dislikes having his pants off so I am thinking it will be at least another 6 months, we’ll see.

Both their appointments are next week, E’s 4 month (in 2 days) and Will’s 2 year so we will have to see how they measure up.

I promise pics are coming soon…we just had the big St. Patty’s Day celebration in Maple Lake this past weekend with the parade and Chris (my brother) has been home for the past 2 weeks on leave from Afghanistan so it has been a really good couple weeks with family.  More to come…

Okay, so onto my boys and what they’ve been up to…let’s start with E, he turned 3 months old last week, yes, I know…can you believe it?  I can’t.  My wonderful SIL Jody took some great pictures last weekend of my little 3 month old, see a few of them below.  She is really great, but not sure how much more I can abuse her generosity as she is over 5 months pregnant with my niece or nephew (we will find out in about a week when my brother is on leave).  So, she will be busier with other things in about 4 months!  I am SO excited to be an auntie again!!!  Not too much else is new with E…he gave us 2 full weeks of complete bliss of sleeping through the night, but now he has reverted to his regular schedule of waking up 1x/night.  No, not bad at all for a 3 month old, but I really enjoy my sleep so I would like him to go back to his good sleeping ways. 

Now onto William…have I ever asked who taught him to talk?  Seriously, we can’t get him to be quiet now.  Daddy has to watch his mouth even more now cause he has picked up on a few choice words here and there.  Yes, kinda funny hearing out of his little mouth, but we try not hold it in and tell him he can’t say those words.  (all while laughing)  Both my boys have been sick since I returned to work, William is on his second ear infection and they both have had some form of a cold it seems like for well over a month.  We even took Will into the doctor late last week because he was wheezing so terrible, but apparently its just a bad cold going around – wonderful.  On top of all that, this is no fun, but the ear infection meds he is on is causing some major messy diapers.  We think its even causing him some major stomach pain so we’re looking forward to him being done with the meds by the end of the week.

In other news, I can’t tell you how discouraged I was last week and over the weekend knowing my brother was stuck in Afghanistan trying to get out for his 10 day leave.  It’s so hard when you’re looking forward to something and then to be disappointed, over and over again.  I don’t know why I don’t expect it, it’s the military, they’re never on time or remotely predictable whatsoever, why should I expect my brother to come home when they say he will?  At least we heard through his wife that he has started his trip home.  He is done with the first of 5 legs in his trip, which will take approximately 4-5 days.  My SIL Jody invited me to go to the airport with her so, as long as I am able, I plan to pick him up with her.  I am SO excited she asked me to go with her!!  He hasn’t met his nephew yet so I was thinking about bringing him with, but Andrew wasn’t so keen on me bringing him to the airport so we may pass.

What’s new with me?  Just crazy busy with everything from work, the boys and husband…they all keep me running around.  I plan to get my business back up and running so if anyone is interested in hosting a Pampered Chef cooking show, let me know I’d be happy to come and cook for you and your friends!

And now onto the pictures…Thank you again Auntie Jody!  (I have some more we took at home, I will have to get some time to post them as well!)

E is only waking up once a night, usually around 2 or 2:30 to eat so it’s really not too bad.  Andrew and I are taking turns as he was asked to work full-time for a couple weeks.  It is new for all of us so E was kinda crabby and didn’t want to go down at his normal time and even Will was crabby, mainly over-tired from playing with his friends all day.

Will was VERY good when I was home the past 7 weeks or so, but this week he has really started to show his jealousy.  Monday I came home and immediately gave him hugs and kisses and played a bit and then I went to hold E and he threw himself to the floor.  So, last night I was planning to hold E so I asked him if it was okay and he said yes…needless to say he changed his mind as soon as I picked him up.  So, we’ll keep working through this new schedule of ours and the little jealousy issues.

Currently we are dealing with a sick little William.  I have found him sleeping in his throw up the past 2 mornings.  It is very odd though, he is acting just fine, no fever, playing, but a few issues with his stools and that’s it.  Just have to figure out why he’s throwing up at night and then sleeping in it, gross!

They had a great welcome back for me at work with rolls, pancakes, muffins and everything…a whole big breakfast it was quite the nice welcome.  I can’t say enough for the great people I work with everyday, it makes it worth coming in to the office leaving my two little men behind.

One more fun thing Will is doing (other than repeating EVERY word we say)…the other day when Michael Jackson came on the radio I asked Will who it was and he said, “MJ.”  Now that’s I am proud of, way to go buddy!  I promise I only made him listen to MJ 2-3 times at home, and he picked up on it…my William likes MJ, he knows good music when he hears it!!  He also knows Lady Gaga, and a few other tunes and artists from Andrew’s phone.  What a silly guy!

I promise, when I get a little more time I will post some great pics my sister-in-law took for E’s 1 month and some fun holiday pics too.  The boys were spoiled by all their grandma’s, grandpa’s, aunties and uncles.  Everything from clothes, books to toys that Will can’t put down and E will have trouble putting down when he can hold things longer than a few seconds.  Thank you to everyone, it was a wonderful holiday spending time with family and eating all the sweets and delicious food.  Now I have to go work out (again, again and again).

Same day, Will just HAS to get his picture taken too.  He was throwing a fit when I was taking pics of E (our new nickname for him) so I plopped him on the bed and made him hold his brother.  Actually, he was happy to hold him, I didn’t have to do any coaxing.  He has been a great big brother, no extra tantrums or fits, just his normal attitude when he is over tired or hungry, otherwise he’s a very well-behaved little man.

Will’s vocab is increasing by the day even by the minute…he repeats nearly everything and is easily saying short phrases and several syllable words, like applesauce.  I read somewhere that they learn up to 10 new words each day, I believe it when I hear him talk…he just blabs away now, I can’t get him to stop!