Catch Up

It's probably pretty obvious that life with two kids has thrown me for a loop. My blogging goal before Marshall was one post a week and now I just hope for one post per month. I'll try to do better. Here's a few pictures of the kids between Christmas and Marshall's 2-month birthday and a few stories as well.

Because he's my brother:

Jack still really loves his baby brother, sometimes a little too much. Every time Marshall wakes up, Jack comes to get me and says "Marshall's awake, Mommy, his eyes are open!" If Marshall wakes up crying, Jack runs to him saying "I'll go get him!" and then when he gets to him he consoles him with "It's otay, Marshall, it's otay!" Here lately, Jack has been sharing his binkies with Marshall and he'll say "My binkies make him feel better!" Most of the time when I'm about to put Jack down for bed or a nap, he'll request that Marshall comes along to read books with us. No doubt he has jealousy issues because what older sibbling doesn't at first, but he wants Marshall with us at all times. Anytime someone jokes about taking Marshall home with them Jack will say "No, he has to stay at my home with me." All that being said, we have had a few episodes. The other night Marshall was sitting in my lap and Jack threw a ball at him. I gave him my usual lecture about how he could really hurt Marshall if he isn't careful and then asked if he wanted to hurt Marshall to which he answered yes. When I asked him why, he replied "Because he's my brother." Fair enough. A couple of weeks ago, Jack sat on Marshall's head and I spent the next 48 hours watching him for head trauma evaluating every nap, every look, EVERYTHING. Boy do I have a long road ahead of me. Here are a few pictures of the boys together. I know the first two will make my mom cringe. The first one is so common - Jack "loving" on Marshall, which is actually Jack putting as much weight as possible on Marshall until he screams. He honestly isn't trying to hurt him. It's his way of demonstrating tough love ;). As for the second one, yes, Mom, I was close enough to catch Marshall if/when Jack dropped him ;).

This one is my absolute favorites for obvious reasons.

Baby Dude:

For those of you who know my dad, you know he has a nickname for just about everyone. The majority of my life, I was "Junior". Jack is a number of things, but most of the time he's "Big Dude". When Marshall came along, he became "Baby Dude". Even Jack calls him Baby Dude sometimes. Anyways, Baby Dude is doing much better I'm glad to report. When I say much better, I guess I mean that I no longer constantly feel the need to diagnose him with one thing or another to explain his continuous crying because the continuous crying has pretty much stopped. My friend, Liz, introduced me to the Miracle Blanket when her youngest was a baby and then she passed along hers to me for Marshall. I didn't pull it out until here recently and had I known what a miracle it would work I would have used it from the start. I quit swaddling Jack at an early age because honestly, I didn't think he liked it. He fought it and I took that to mean I shouldn't swaddle him. Jack was not a good napper and now I wonder if swaddling would have made a difference in that. It sure has for Marshall. We had gotten to the point of leaving both arms out and only swaddling him from the waist down. He was taking 20-30 minute naps and always waking up screaming. A few days of the miracle blanket (straight jacket as my family calls it) and those naps stretched to 1-3 hours and produced a much happier baby. Who knows if that's what it is or if it's just a coincedence, but I'm currently looking for a toddler-size miracle blanket for Jack. Marshall is still battling reflux. He's had a couple of episodes of projectile spit-up, but mostly it's the grunting and choking that has me bothered. His Zantac has been increased and now we're just waiting to see if it works. He's getting to be so much fun. He smiles when you smile at him, coos and even laughs out loud. He absolutely adores watching Jack and still looks just like Jack did as a baby to me.Jack had a bear ears coat that he completely wore out, so I was thrilled to find one for Marshall. I don't know that there is a sweeter picture than a baby sleeping.

Oh Jack:

I've started making a list of Jack stories to tell because I'm so scared I'll forget them. Do you watch American Idol or if not, do you at least know the song "Pants on the Ground"? Well, Jack does. We're not even watching AI this year, but when Brett Favre did the song and dance after one of his big wins, Travis saw it on ESPN and looked it up on YouTube to show me then looked up the original from AI on YouTube as well. Jack watched it with us 3 times tops and later that week when we were at my parents house, he was dancing around and all of a sudden busted out with "Pants on the ground! Pants on the ground! Looking like a fool! Gold in yo' mouth! Hat to the side!" Just today I was singing "Wheels on the Bus" to Jack and he said "Mommy, no sing that song. It's goofy." While we were in Paris, my dad bought Jack some long underwear and he loves it! He sleeps in it every night and calls it his "unger handles". Dad called it long handles and I called it long underwear, so Jack mixed the two. Earlier today he was in his unger handles playing with some foam numbers calling them money. He said to me "Mommy, this is my money. I have to put it in my pocket." and started stuffing it in the peep hole (for lack of a better term) in his crotch. On a bittersweet note, he's continuing to have Mommy and sleep issues. We put the child in bed by 9 and it's 11 before he falls asleep. The next morning he'll be up again by 7:30. It beats anything I've ever seen. Same thing with naps. It takes him an hour to fall asleep, but then he sleeps for 2 or more hours. Anyways, one night a few weeks ago he was yelling for me in bed. I went to him and he said "Mommy, I call for you and you no come. I was worried about you, Mommy. I miss you!" How sweet and sad! Last night he was crying and I went to him and asked him which one of his stuffed animals would make him feel better and he replied "Nuffin (nothing). Mommy, er (you) make me happy!" Again, how sweet and sad!