Sunday, February 5, 2012

X Games

Alex in action -

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Our Boys

Here is what the boys of the Postma household have been up to lately -

Alex Jon -
*
Alex is doing great sleeping in his big boy bed. He will occasionally climb out right after we put him in and open his door, but if he does this he will go right back down without a problem.

*The biggest growth in Alex the past month is his ability to play for longer periods of time by himself and he is doing a lot more imaginative play. He will often re-enact scenes from books or tv/movies or do things involving characters from these. The other day I heard him calling Woody from Toy Story on the phone, asking him to come over and play and then he went to the front door to let him come in and play :).

*Alex is still an outside boy and thanks to this mild winter we are able to spend hours outside each day. Lately he is into playing soccer and football. For football he puts on his bike helmet and we basically have to chase and tackle him. He loves to drive his monster truck on the ramps Eric uses to jack up the car and then also jumps and does tricks off the ramps.

This weekend Eric took him to the construction site to check things out - not sure this is legal :) -


*Alex is still a wonderful Big Brother. He loves to play with Brodie and still imitates what he sees me do with Brodie. I only wish he would imitate my gentleness as Brodie may get a broken arm when Alex does "So Big" with him ;).


*Alex is a sweet boy with a big dose of being a two year old thrown in ;). He is pretty easy going, but loves to test. The biggest area we have a problem with is Alex not listening right away and testing the limit. If I say "Alex use your golf club to hit the golf ball, not the bush" - he will most likely hit the bush one more time just to see what we will do. It is definitely a full time job staying consistent and following through with him.

*Alex cracks me up daily and my goal over the next couple of weeks is to write down some things he says so we don't forget.

*Here are some pictures of Alex playing with "snow". I used a recipe I found on-line - I pretty much thought it was glorified play dough - but Alex thought it was very fun.

Here is a flashback - a few pictures of Alex at 2 months -



Brodie Jon -

*Brodie is a sweet and happy baby with a feisty streak mixed in. He is very content most of the day and takes some nice long naps - although I really need to work on him sleeping in his crib or bassinet soon for naps. We are just outside and at playgrounds or on walks, etc. so much that he is sleeping in the carseat or bjorn a lot. Brodie gets very upset after his bath when I remove the towel to put on his onesie and will SCREAM until he is fully dressed. He also cries when hungry and when he gets tired he will fight it sometimes and need help settling. Thankfully at night he goes down really easy after eating.

*Brodie is pretty consistently sleeping 6-7 hours for the first stretch of the night, then another 4 after his middle of the night feeding. This is making for a much more rested momma! He takes his nightly bottle like a champ now.

*Brodie is smiling and talking a lot when he is awake. He loves the lights on his play mat. He loves to look at books and likes his toys that play music. And he loves Alex!


Overall we are adjusting well to our life as a family of four. It is definitely busy! The hardest part is that someone always needs us, so Eric and I have very little time for ourselves or each other. However I do need to mention that my wonderful husband coordinated with my friend's husband and the two of them sent us to the spa last weekend - and they watched the kids. We got hour long massages and pedicures and manicures. It was definitely relaxing and rejuvenating. Thank you to my amazing husband!


Sunday, January 22, 2012

Big Boy Bed




Alex made the transition to his big boy room/bed this weekend. So far it has been a seamless transition. He goes right down without a peep.

The first nap he got up by himself without saying a word and came tiptoeing down the stairs with a big cheesy grin on his face - so cute!

I checked on him several times last night and he was all over the bed, but managed not to fall out - I swear I need to get a safety rail for the foot of the bed too :).

Grammy's Visit

Eric's mom spent the week with us last week. It was wonderful to have her here and to have an extra pair of hands and I was able to get appointments and errands done- child free!

Grammy spent hours and hours outside with Alex. His favorite thing to do with Grammy was to look for worms after the rain. Alex learned all about how wiggly worms go in the grass and how we don't touch the squished worms ;). He loved to play tackle football with Grammy too :).

Alex dressing himself for outside -


Alex had to share Grammy's lunch with her every day. She had a turkey sandwich with mustard and Alex would help put on the mustard and then would eat half of the sandwich. In the past when Alex sees mustard in the fridge he would say, "I no like mustard". So I was thinking that after trying it again he liked it. Well, the day after Grammy left I asked if he wanted mustard on his sandwich and he said "No, I don't like mustard" - so I swear he ate it just so he could share lunch with Grammy.

They also cooked together -


Racing cars in Brodie's bath tub -


Grammy loved on Brodie and spent hours cuddling and rocking him.

Of course I was horrible with the camera and sadly have very few pictures of the week.

Thank You Grammy - we loved having you visit and miss you!!

6 Weeks

Brodie Jon is 6 weeks old!

Here is what our sweet little boy is up to these days -

*Brodie is HUGE! When he stretches his 3 month sleepers are getting too tight - so I tried on some 6 month ones - yup they fit!


*He got his tongue clipped last week as he was "tongue tied". It seems to be easier for him to take a bottle and keep a pacifier in now.

*He has a nice case of baby acne ;).

*Brodie loves to rock in the glider.

*He is awake and alert a lot more and he is full of smiles and attempts to "talk".


*Brodie hates tummy time and it pretty much always ends with tears.

*Brodie is still an easy baby, but he has fussy periods that seem to be due to gas and he has a definite fussy/unsettled time from about 7-8 in the evening when he is just not sure what to do with himself.


*He went through a little growth spurt and went from a steady week of 5-6 hours stretches at night back to four hour stretches. Last night he went back to 5 hours - so this momma is hoping we get back to some nice long stretches of sleep!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

1 Month

Brodie turned one month old this week. That month has definitely been a blur.

Brodie is a very sweet and content baby, but he has shown us his feisty side too. When he is hungry - he is hungry NOW! He loves to relax in his bath tub, but he hates to get out of the tub and protests through most of the dressing process.

He still has some fussy periods that appear to be due to gas or reflux or something, but thankfully they are not too bad and aren't every day.

Brodie is now smiling and "talking" to us.


He likes to watch the lights on his play mat.

Brodie loves his swing.

He is still doing well at night, but is not very consistent..he will go anywhere from 3-6 hours stretches between feedings at night. It is usually around 4- 4 1/2 hours - but it varies.

He is a very noisy sleeper and makes sounds ranging from sweet cues to loud grunts and groans. And seriously - not sure how much longer we can keep him in his bassinet...this boy is big!




Alex continues to be a fabulous big brother. Alex is finally feeling better and can love on Brodie again and that makes life easier for all of us. He loves to sing songs to him and it is so sweet to hear him imitate things I say to Brodie when he talks to him.

We still try to get Alex outside everyday and today was mud puddle fun after lots of rain...

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Newborn Appointment and Updates

Brodie has his newborn doctor's appointment on December 27. He was 2 weeks and 5 days old at the time.

Here were his stats -
Weight - 10lbs 11oz (90th percentile)
Height - 23 1/2 inches (above the 97th percentile)
Head - 39 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

So yes - he is a nice big boy!! Everything else looked great at his appointment and we are very thankful for a healthy baby. His tongue is tied like Alex's was, so we have an ENT appointment to have that evaluated later this month - but it is definitely not effecting his eating - so that is good.

Brodie continues to be a very easy baby. He has had a few gassy episodes the past couple of days where he will cry or fuss until the gas is relieved, but seriously in a 24 hour period, I swear he may only cry/fuss for 15-30 minutes total - he has been a dream. Brodie is starting to go 5-6 hour stretches between feedings at night which has been wonderful too. He is very alert and loves to watch us talk or sing to him - he especially loves to watch Alex. I swear he has been smiling the past few days, but it is still a little fleeting and inconsistent. Brodie loves his swing and is doing well taking a bottle once a day.

Brodie's umbilical cord finally fell off last week, so he has been able to enjoy bath time. He is very mellow during his bath and seems to enjoy it - here are some pics of his first bath...


He really enjoys his play mat as well....


Alex loves to do "Tummy Time" with Brodie and "teach him" how to hold his head up...


We have had some cold mornings here, so I have been using my teaching past to come up with some new activities for Alex - the latest is our own version of a rice table - hours of fun! And lots of vacuuming!
We continue to do well adjusting to life as a family of four. Eric and Alex have been sick over the weekend with coughs/colds/fevers, so that has added some extra stress/craziness to the mix. We just pray that we can keep Brodie healthy as keeping Alex away from Brodie has been a full time job!