Catching Up on the Boys.

Owen is now 7 weeks weighing in at 12.1 pounds and Carter turned 18 months.

The past two weeks with Owen has been full of ups and downs. Last week my post would have been titled "the honeymoon is over" and this week we're on the "up and up." He's not at all like Carter I'm learning and hates being in his car seat and doesn't care for the binkie. When I go out instead of being in the stroller I'm now using the baby bjorn to carry him. Good and bad things about this, it frees up space in the shopping cart, but makes it difficult to bend down to pick up things and the extra ten pounds recs havoc on my back. But I'm grateful that he likes to be held and snuggled and I really do enjoy the moments when he snuggles on my chest and coos.

Some nights he'll sleep 7-8 hours and other nights he only goes 3-4 hours. Just when I think we're in a routine he'll throw me a curve ball and mix things up. I'm still working on the EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep and You time) schedule from Baby Wise, or maybe it's from the Baby Whisperer, I can't really remember, and it seems to be working out just fine. Each night Owen gets a bath and I think he actually enjoys them now and it's helping to establish a bedtime routine and let him distinguish between day and night. Still no smile from Owen, I keep waiting for it, but I have to remember he was four weeks early so he might take longer to do things. He's more content these past few days in the swing and by himself. Which is a relief. Last week he wanted to be held all day long, so I'm relieved that I can finally put him in the crib to watch the mobile, or in the swing so I can shower. All in all, he's a pretty content little guy that prefers to be snuggled. Owen makes the cutest "Mike" face. Where he crinkes his forehead and it looks just like Mike's Dille bumps. I actually think Owen looks more like Mike than me.

Just a few accomplishments and moments to share from Carter this past week.

1. Using his lion scooter as a stool to launch himself into the portacrib where Owen was sleeping. Lucky for us he landed next to Owen, rather than on top of him.
2. Pushing the kitchen chair across the kitchen up against the wall, then climbing the chair to reach the light switch to turn the lights on and off.
3. Sharing. When Owen cries Carter runs to his room and brings out two binkies, one in his mouth and then tries to "share" his other binkie with Owen.
4. Grandma Dille bought Carter a farm book where you press the animal and it makes their farm noise. Carter never seems to press it hard enough so he grabs your finger and pushes it with my finger. Now he's decided that every book should make a noise and insists to use your finger to point at everything.
5. Climbing into the bath tub by himself. I turned on the bath water, then turned around to get something to then look back and find Carter with all of his clothes on sitting in the bathtub playing in the water as it came out of the faucet.
6. Carter has figured out how to climb onto our bed, a large accomplishment for a little guy considering our bed is a log bed Mike made in college and it is abnormally tall. Not only did he make his was onto our bed, he then crawled to the end of the bed threw his arms up like an gymnast as if to say, "ta-dah."
7. Wiggles. Yes, the Wiggles, we are now big fans of the Wiggles in our home. Today Carter watched about 20 minutes and even managed to get up and dance. Thank you crazy Australian man group for entertaining Carter and allowing this mommy 20 minutes alone.
8. My favorite moment this week... I was nursing Owen and Carter climbed onto the couch next to me to give me a kiss and some love, then waved goodbye, got off the couch and off he went. I believe Carter has accepted Owen and the time I spend nursing. Thank you little man, I love you too.
9. A lot of holiday shopping with grandma and mommy. He was a trooper for the most part and was happy just to be in his stroller. He loves the stroller so much he even climbs in himself and then kicks his feet and claps his hands to let you know he's ready to go.
10. Conquered nursery at church. He ran in and never looked back... ah... freedom at church.

We put up Christmas decorations this week and Carter is a big fan on the Christmas lights.

Photo Shoot.

Last Saturday one of my friends, Amber (check out her studio here http://www.studioceleste.net/) , came and took some newborn photos of Owen and a couple family pictures. She did an amazing job and we're really happy with the pictures she took. Having her come to the house was a blessing, it was hard enough getting both boys to cooperate here I can only imagine the craziness we would have encountered had we attempted a studio. Carter was very shy and only made it into a few shots. I was hoping we could get some with just him and Owen, but when we tried, he signed "done" walked over to the door, waved and blew us a kiss and shut the door behind him on his way out. Here a few of the pictures.

Ears and Nose.

My Boys.

Last week was my first week all alone with the boys while Mike worked. I"m happy to say we all survived and I even manged to make dinner four times during the week. My mom finally headed off to San Antonio to work and it was sad to see her go. She was selfless and provided much needed love, support and service to our family. I know Carter misses her dearly and her morning pancakes, waffles and french toast. I miss her as well and was so grateful to have an extra set of hands to help around the house. Mike also appreciated her help, she made sure we had dinner on the table each night for Mike, and Mike was able to work not worrying or feeling guilty about keeping such long hours and being away from his family.

All in all, not much happened during the week. We did venture out one day to go grocery shopping. It's pretty tricky having Carter in the grocery cart seat, and then Owen in his car seat in the basket. Tricky in that there doesn't leave much room for actual groceries and I have to keep an eye on Carter to make sure he doesn't steal Owens pacifier. Carter is also learning to take advantage of the times with I am nursing Owen. He knows that I can't get up and chase him so he comes and steals whatever is around me and runs away with it, whether it is the TV remote, the phone, a burp cloth or even the pillow I am using to prop Owen up. This I can put up with more, it's the times he comes and throws things at us while I am nursing that I'm having a harder time being patient with. Needless to say, Carter is beginning to understand a little more what time out is, and I'm also making more of an effort to be proactive and keep him distracted with something else while I feed Owen.

We finally took Owen to church on Sunday. We only stayed for sacrament and sat in the back. I'm not even going to attempt staying for all three hours until Carter is 18 months old and can go into nursery, which is early December. Until then, I am one and done.

Here is our week in pictures.

Our boys dressed for church on Sunday. This was the best we could get and poor Owen is all slumped over. Owen in his church outfit, getting big so fast. Too funny! This is Carter telling us he is done holding Owen... And here Carter is pushing Owen off his lap, like I said, he told us he was done. :) Those are my hands catching Owen.

Carter smiling after climbing into his high chair all by himself. Owen in the bath tub. Carter sitting in a chair reading the Sunday newspaper ads.

Four Weeks.

Owen is four weeks today. I can't believe that he is here and I can't believe how quickly the last four weeks have gone. It seems to have been a whirlwind of unexpected obstacles, full of tears of joy and sorrow, lots of sleepless nights and heart felt prayers, lots of hugs and kisses, and now lots of juggling between our little toddler, Carter and our new baby, Owen. It hit me today, now that my mom is gone and Mike was at church all afternoon, I was home alone with both babies for an extended period of time... oh my gosh... I have two babies. When did that happen? It seems like just yesterday we were going through the fertility process and thought we'd never have children. Now, four years later we've been blessed with two boys and we couldn't be any happier.

Carter is adjusting, not very quickly, but each day he realizes more and more that Owen is here to stay and that he has to share his mommy with this new baby. But then he has moments where he is so attentive and interested in Owen and I think that maybe this transition won't be so hard. Carter loves to hold Owen, supervised :), and when we pick Owen up from his lap he cries. It's adorable. I just hope they will become good friends as they grow up and we make it through the rough housing that I know will come. If they will be anything like Mike and his brother Bryan, I know I am in for a challenge. :)

Owen is doing great being home. Last week I took him back into the pediatrician and he now weighs 8 lbs 15 ozs and is over 21 inches long. He's finally kicked the jaundice and is starting to look more Caucasian than orange. His hair is starting to lighten a little as well. Owen rarely cries and loves to be swaddled. I really think he picked that up from the NICU.

He's already so different from Carter. He actually sleeps, which Carter didn't until month four. He's also a quite sleeper. He's in our room in a crib on the other side of the room and I barely hear him, whereas Carter we heard all night making little baby noises and such. Last week, Owen slept two nights in a row for over 7 hours. For the most part since he's been home he'll sleep for about 5 hours straight and then nurse and sleep for another 3 or 4. He likes to be up later in the evening, which is fine by me, with Carter asleep it's nice to have one on one awake time with Owen, and this way Mike can spend time with him awake as well. So I've been giving him a bath each night at about 8 or nine and then we put him down for the night at midnight and he sleeps until the morning, between 5am-7am. I'm still trying to figure out how to get him down for the night earlier and make his schedule work and not have to wake up between 1 and 4am. For some reason getting up at 5 is much easier.

Here are a few pictures of our boys from this past week .

Carter at the park. The poor guy was going nuts trapped in the house for three weeks. So on a beautiful day we ventured out and he loved it!

Owen at the park, he didn't even make it out of the car seat. Owen relaxing.

Carter loves to eat pudding thanks to the Dille grandparents. :) Only he insists on feeding himself and feeding daddy as well.

Trick or Treating.

Mike came home and took Carter out trick or treating. We weren't very adventerous and just made it over to our good friends house, the Ashe family. They have four boys and Carter is totally in love with them all. Stacie is one of his favorite people and when we get to their house he usually runs for the door to get in and cries when we have to leave. Here are a few pictures from our outing. He did receive plenty of comments from the neighbors about his cute costume. I still laugh everytime I see him in the pictures. You can't help but smile when you see him walking around in it laughing himself. I love this age. We had a great night and enjoyed having Mike home for the night.