Peyton- 7 Months

My precious little Peyton is 7 months old! He is growing up way too fast!

 

Peyton is such a sweet natured little boy and is so laid back!  He is content to just roll around on the floor and play with toys. Although he definitely makes himself heard when he wants something! He  started army crawling this month! He isn't fast yet and grunts really hard while he tries to pull himself around with his arms. He can pretty much go wherever he wants to go, so I know crawling is not far away! He is starting to rock on his hands and knees, but hasn't figured out how to crawl on his hands and knees yet. 

 



Peyton loves to try and play with all of Patricks cars and toys. Peyton frequently gets toys taken from him because they are "Patrick's toys." Patrick is still working on sharing and does not like Peyton to touch his cars. He tells his cars to "get away boys" from Peyton. It only seems to make Peyton want the toys even more and he normally tries to army crawl over Patrick to get to the toys.

Peyton still has two teeth and I can see a top tooth that is about to poke through! Hopefully it comes through quickly!

Peyton LOVES to eat and hasn't turned down anything I have tried to feed him yet. He eats 4 to 5 meals a day and prefers eating over a bottle. He has tried bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, blueberries, pears, and peaches. He has started refusing bottles at daycare and insists on eating food at daycare instead. He still loves to nurse and wants to nurse frequently at night!

He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 every night and is pretty easy to get down! He normally doesn't sleep longer than three hours at night, but we are working on it. He has done a few 5 or 6 hours stretches and I am hoping we are trending in that direction.

Peyton you are so happy and I am just loving every minute I get to spend with you! I adore those precious little rolls you have and could kiss those chubby little cheeks all day long!

Weekend Bust

A couple of weekends ago we tried to do a few fun things with the boys and it was one of those weekends where nothing went as planned. I guess that is bound to happen every once and a while with two boys two and under!

 

My mom let me know about an event called "Touch a Truck." It's a free event where every type of truck imaginable shows up and little kids can climb on them, honk the horn, etc. I was so excited for this event because Patrick loves anything transportation related. When we showed up, Patrick was terrified. He clung to Michael and I the whole time and wouldn't touch or climb on any of the trucks. It was very noisy and a little overwhelming for Patrick. All the boys were running around, honking the horns and revving the engines of the trucks. I was a little disapointed since we drove pretty far to get there! I think Patrick will be the perfect age next year though, so maybe we will try again! It is a really cool event with so many different trucks!

 

Peyton loved it! He loved looking around and seeing all the action!

 

The next day we drove out Gentry's farm.  I thought Patrick would have a lot of fun this year and we could pick out some pumpkins to carve. The weather didn't look very promising, but I looked at the weather report and it said 20% chance of rain so we decided to go anyway. Right when we got to Genrty's Farm, it got really cold and starting raining!  We literally took 2 pictures looked at the pumpkins for 5 minutes and went home. It was a huge bust!

 

This is the only picture I got of the two boys before it started pouring! Patrick was not thrilled to be in the picture.  

 

Peyton's first trip to Gentry's Farm

 

Picking out a pumpkin, which we didn't even end up buying because it started raining too hard!

We had planned to go back out there, but time got away from us and we never made it back. Maybe next year we will have better luck!

Supermom: A Dad's Eye View

Minje always tells me that I do not contribute to the blog.  I always ask how many other husbands contribute to her friends’ blogs and she never says anything, so I assume this means no husbands contribute to blogs.  Even so, I felt it was a good time to contribute to the blog by giving some credit to the person who always contributes to the blog and everything else in our lives.

I am lucky enough to be married to Supermom.  I know that a lot of people have two kids.  I know that some people also have two kids and two full time jobs.  I would wager that there are not very many people that have two kids and hold down two Big 4 public accounting jobs.  I am not sure that we could possibly have more demanding jobs during certain times of the year.  It just so happened that Minje’s maternity leave ended, and she started back at pretty much the worst possible time of the year.  Somehow we made it to the other side.  And that somehow is Minje.  I have no idea how she does it.  The amount of patience and love that she shows our boys after working all day and being up all night is just amazing to me.  I struggle a lot with the patience part of this equation, and I think that is why Minje is even more amazing to me.  To clarify, Patrick is what most doctors would describe as “bat shit crazy”.  WebMD defines bat shit crazy children as children who will never let you change their clothes, only eat waffles, fruit snacks, or goldfish, and throw insane tantrums every 25-35 seconds.  Other than, Patrick is a joy.  We thought Peyton was going to be that chunky kid who just sat quietly in the corner thinking about when he’s going to get his next piece of cake, but oh were we wrong.  He has been watching his older brother a bit too much, and now will not sit still for anything except to eat cake.  He also eats every 30 minutes at night, which leaves Minje getting about one hour and 18 minutes of sleep per night.  I complain often about the slack of sleep we get around our house, but to be honest I have it easy.  I get a solid four hours minimum every night with Patrick giving me at least 14 inches on my side of the king bed to sleep while he sleeps horizontally across kicking me in the face and jamming his feet under my body because he refuses to use his blanket as anything but a pillow.  Minje on the other hand, has to deal with the kid who wants to eat all night and squeals with excitement just to be lying next to her.  I mean, it’s sweet, but it’s also torture.  Minje always let’s my work extracurricular activities come before hers.  Most of the time this involves me drinking copious amount of alcohol with clients or recruits while she is left dealing with batshit crazy Patrick and Peyton.  Do I feel like an ass hole 90% of the time? Of course I do.  But this makes it no easier on Minje on those nights.  I know that this is no easy task because I can only handle the boys by myself for around seven minutes before I start crying and have to call Minje to come home.  Coming home after working all day to two screaming hungry kids (someone is ALWAYS screaming) it not an ideal situation.   But having to do it on your own is an absolute nightmare.  Dinner usually consists of Minje and I inhaling food while Patrick screams that there are no womenems (M&M’s) on his plate while Peyton screams that we aren’t getting the spoon back in his mouth fast enough between bites.  When I say that Patrick won’t eat anything, I mean that he wont even TOUCH it.  The other night we held out a womenem if he would just touch a bite of sweet potato with his finger.  He screamed bloody murder and hid behind Peyton’s high chair.  So that’s an uphill battle, but I digress.

I know that Minje feels like she is not doing well at anything: employee, mom, or wife.  She couldn’t be more wrong.  I can’t really speak much to the employee thing, but I do know that after all this shit we deal with on a nightly basis, half the time she has to get back online to finish he work.  And I have worked with Minje and she’s ten times the employee I will ever be.  She is an amazing mom.  A supermom.  I know that she doesn’t see the red and yellow S on her chest (probably because Peyton's head is attached to it most the time), but it’s there.  Our two boys are beyond blessed to have a mom that loves them enough to put herself through the ringer day in and day out to provide for their futures while also giving them all the attention and love that she does.  She is an incredible wife mainly because of the way she cares for our boys.

So Minj, I know it is not said enough, but thank you for flying faster than a speeding bullet, leaping buildings in a single bound, and still having time to love Patrick, Peyton, and me as much you do.  You are supermom.

Peyton's 6 Month Pictures

We took Peyton's 6 month pictures last weekend.  Peyton wasn't feeling that great, but we had already rescheduled the pictures a few times because of the rain, so we decided to go ahead with it! Peyton isn't as smiley as he normally is in the pictures, but Patrick did great! I think these are the best pictures that we have ever gotten of Patrick! Sorry for the picture overload, but there are just too many good ones of these precious little boys!

He is just soo stinkin cute!

Giggling with daddy

Love these two precious little boys! 

Patrick loves to say "I got you baby."  So sweet!

I love this one of Peyton. He doing his little bashful giggle.

Love my big boy!

Back at Work

I have been back at work for a month and a half now and wow has it been challenging! I think I need to time my maternity leaves better so that I don't come back at the pinnacle of busy season. I promised myself I would be honest on the blog so that when I look back, I will appreciate where we are now and how difficult the early years were for us!  So here is an honest depiction of what it has been like going back to work with two boys.

I thought it would be much easier to come back to work after the second baby, but I think it might be more challenging. In some ways it is much easier because you know what to expect. On the other hand, I think it is much more difficult emotionally the second time. Mostly because there is limited amount of time with your children and you now have to split that time between two children who both want your undivided attention! Not to mention being exhausted from trying to cram as much work as possible into the time I am at the office.

Both Patrick and Peyton are doing great at school, but it definitely has it's challenges.  Patrick is so excited to go to school on Monday, but then by Thursday he is begging for mom to stay at home and play with him. It breaks my heart when he says he doesn't want to go to "Choo Choo playground" and just wants to play with Mom. I think he is definitely spoiled from the summer when I only took him a couple of hours to school each day. Peyton is also doing really well, but Margaret says he gets really cranky towards the end of the day and is always crying when I get there, which is really hard. He is also in a really cranky mood when we get home and basically just wants to eat and go to bed which is hard with a toddler screaming for attention!

Going back to work with two has been really difficult for me. I have no idea how people with more than two make it work. I could pretty easily make it work with one, but I am not sure I am successfully making it work with two. Michael and I both have very high powered, stressful jobs and it has really been a challenge to figure it out. I am supposed to only work 4 days a week (34 hours), but I have yet to only work 4 days. I can also never seem to get out of the office before 5, which means I am walking in my house at 6 after picking up the boys. If you have kids, you know that making them wait until 6:30 or 6:45 to eat is nearly impossible.

Peyton has also decided he would rather nurse all night then sleep recently. Patrick was also a big nurser, so it's no surprise but still pretty difficult. He gets up 3 times a night. Yikes! I am pretty sure I am a walking zombie at work.

Michael has also been out of town every week since I have been back at work. If he isn't out of town, he has been working late which has been very difficult for both of us. Most of the time I do dinner for the boys, bath and then bed for Peyton before Michael gets home. Michael normally does bedtime for Patrick while I make bottles, pack the boys bags, do laundry and pump for Peyton for the next day. Michael and I have every minute of the weekdays planned, with no downtime and that is extremely difficult. I know it's just as hard on Michael having to miss a lot of moments with the boys. I feel bad for him when he rushes home and has missed seeing Peyton who wants to go to bed around 7:30. I know he is working hard for our family so I am really proud of him for working so hard and know we will get through these tough early years.

I am really thankful that we live so close to my parents though! They have really been a big help these past couple of months! My dad picks up Patrick at least once a week and my mom cooks dinner for me frequently when Michael is out of town! I am pretty sure I would just eat cereal every night if Michael or my mom weren't cooking for me!

Michael and I have really been talking about how to make it work and what we can change. Hopefully we can make some changes and get to a better place soon!

I am also really grateful for the four and a half months I got to spend at home with my precious little boys. I think you appreciate the baby phase so much more the second time around. I really took every opportunity to love on him and kiss those chubby little cheeks.

So for now, we are going to cherish the time we do get with our boys and try and figure out what work/life balance situation works best for us.

Patrick- 2 1/2 years

I cannot believe Patrick is already 2 and a half years old! Where has the time gone!?!

Patrick is so talkative right now! It is so fun to watch him learn new words and try and repeat sentences, etc. He is constantly repeating everything we say! He is also really funny and says some really funny things! His current favorite phrase is "Oh Myyy," which he says about 50 times a day. He also loves to ask Peyton "Watchu talkin bout baby?"  He also still calls his school "Choo choo playground" because there is a train shaped play area on the playground.

He loves to read books right now. He gets excited about the books he picks out in his school library. He is doing really well in school and although I don't know his friends yet, he talks about Brae, Campbell and Olivia. His class only has 2 girls and 9 other boys, so I can only imagine the rowdiness in his classroom!

He also LOVES to sing and we sing all the time with him. His favorite songs are "twinkle, twinkle little star," "rocky top" (can you guess who that is from?) "Old McDonald had a Farm," "The Wheels on the Bus," "Rock-a-bye baby," and "Big's song" which is the song Big sings when he goes to Big and Allie's house. His music teacher has asked me to come see her individually a couple times to talk about Patrick's music talents. I have been surprised both times. The first time she asked if Michael and I were musicians (ha! far from it!). She said that for a two year old, Patrick is really talented musically. She said he can play back a few keys in a row on the piano after she demonstrates and can keep a beat on the drum. I think the music teacher saw the shock on my face and the wondering if she had the right parent (only kidding!) and said that she normally doesn't say this to parents. No idea where Patrick might get this ability, but glad he is enjoying music class so much!

Patrick is definitely a wild child. The teachers have told me that he has the most energy out of anyone in the class! I also signed an incident report (i.e. accident report) every day I picked him up from school last week. He runs so fast that other kids end up accidentally getting in his way and he runs smack into them and hits his head, or he tumbles over a car he is pushing too fast! Poor little guy has bruises all of his entire body, including 3 large bumps on his head right now!

 

Patrick really loves Peyton and gets so excited when Peyton laughs at him. He is still a little rough with him, but is getting much better. He has a really hard time sharing his toys with Peyton and specifically labels toys as "baby's toys" and "Pat Pat's toys." He gets really upset when Peyton rolls to one of his toys and grabs it. He normally ends up taking the toy from Peyton and running to get another toy for Peyton that is one of "baby's toys" hoping that Peyton won't cry and Michael or I won't get upset with him for not sharing.

He is still barely eating at school! He only touches his lunch when it has watermelon or corn on it. It's just recently that he has even eaten the corn or watermelon. His teachers got so excited that he actually ate something after a month of not eating lunch that they sent me a picture of him touching his plate.  He refuses to touch or eat anything else and just drinks his milk. I really thought peer pressure would kick in, but it hasn't yet. He has eaten couple of the snacks at school, but only when they have something that he really likes (i.e. vanilla wafers or goldfish). We can barely get him to eat at home as well. The only things he will even consider eating are yogurt, fruit snacks, hot dogs, peanut butter crackers, cookies, waffles, cereal, sweet potato fries and M&M's ("women m's"). If I put anything else on his plate that is not one of those foods listed, he freaks out and refuses to sit at the table. I'm thinking of locating a food therapist (I have heard they are out there for children) if it doesn't improve soon.

Patrick does not sit still long enough for me to get any pictures of him and he normally runs away each time I get the camera out. You can probably tell from the lack of pictures in this post! So for now, two pictures of him smiling while not looking at the camera will have to do!

 

Patrick is such such a sweet, caring, and loving little boy! His smile and laugh could cheer up just about anyone! Love this little boy and can't wait to see what the next 6 months will bring!

First Real Food

Peyton tried out sweet potatoes a couple weekends ago and hated his first few bites! I was so surprised because I thought he would really love it! 

Such a sad little face

We took a little break and I tried again a couple minutes later. 

After a few minutes he decided he loved it.