Big Boy Milestones

All sorts of unassisted sitting, big boy restaurant high chairs, and eating solids have been going on around here!  Nathan's first meal was homemade sweet potatoes and although he still has his tongue thrust reflex and mostly just pushed them back out of his mouth, he was a great sport and smiled through it!  

Nathan - five months

Family Photoshoot

Here is a pretty sweet collage that the photographer put together from our family photoshoot taken in mid-October.  Gwen is 2yrs 9mo and Nathan, almost 4 months.  We'll be using some of the pics for our holiday card this year but here's a peak!

All photos were taken by Sarah Pratt Photography

Happy Halloween!

This year we've spent pretty much all of our October weekends at my parents' place in Salem.  It's always a lot of fun because the town gets really into it and Halloween ends up being a month long celebration.  There's always something fun to do!

Annie Annie and Amber came to visit the weekend before Halloween and we had so much fun with them!  Gwen was especially excited to see them and I'm so glad that she gets to see her Vegas Aunt as often as she does.

Gwen has had a pretty long-lasting obsession with the movie Monsters, Inc.  So we decided that she and Nathan would dress as Sulley and Mike from the movie.  I was half expecting her to lose interest in the movie by this point and no longer be into wearing the costume, but any time anyone asked her who she was going to be for Halloween, she was excited to tell them and she ended up wearing the costume VERY proudly!  She got to wear her Sulley costume on 2 different days, and each time she stepped into it she shrieked with excitement!  I'm pretty sure if I don't hide it on her, she'll ask to wear it out on any given day.

Halloween fell on a Thursday and it was a little rainy this year, but that didn't dampen the party!  Both sets of Grandparents and Justin's brother's family were all with us.  We walked around town for a bit in the rain and by the time trick-or-treating started, it had cleared up.  We all had a blast, and Gwen and Nathan's costumes were a total hit!

 

Fall Activities

Just a little photo update of our lovely Fall

Topsfield Fair

Apple Picking

Yoga

Playgroups

Nathan - four months

Our sweet pea is 4 months old!  This is one seriously smiley baby and we are totally eating it up!  Just about any time we address him in any way, he smiles and [a newer development] laughs!  I could just listen to his silly baby laughs all day long.

Earlier this month (10/6) Nathan started rolling over from belly to back.  I'm pretty sure he'll be quite the mover once he really gets going.  He's also grabbing at and holding on to items and a couple of times he successfully got his pacifier into his mouth by himself!  However, it's quite possible he'll be a thumb sucker.  Even though we're trying to discourage it because he's the product of two embarrassingly long thumb suckers, it's hard because there's nothing more adorable than a baby finding and learning to awkwardly suck his little thumb <3 

He still spits up a lot, but recently turned on the drooling as well - big time.  So I took the opportunity to buy some super cute bandana style bibs on Etsy.  Seriously, how adorable is this? And they're very absorbent too with bamboo fleece on the back so his clothes haven't been getting wet underneath.

I remember getting to a point with Gwen where it was clear to me that she knew I was her mom and I would find her just staring at me with a big smile on her face.  Nathan's there now, and I had almost forgotten how amazing it is.  There's no way to really describe what it feels like when someone is so dependant on you and looks at you like you're their whole world.  I've been so lucky to experience these tiny little moments with both Gwen and Nathan and I know I'll always hold on to them.

So I just looked back at Gwen's 4 month post and it's the one I wrote about her watching me eat a string cheese and smiling haha!  I still actually think about that and I love that I'm seeing Nathan do the same now.

Here are the stats from his 4 month checkup:

At birth, Nathan was 7lbs 10oz, 21in and today she is 14lbs 2oz (48th %), and 25.5in (71 %)