The Final Countdown

This is my last week at home with Baby Drew before I go back to work, and so I've been doing my best to make every last minute count. It's truly amazing how fast the time has gone by, especially now that we're starting to really figure each other out and have a lot of fun. It is incredible to look back at how far we've come in just 12 short weeks! Drew is over 12 pounds now, sleeps through the night, and has the most amazing baby smile (it's just like his Daddy's in case you can't tell!). Of course it will be hard to go back next week, but we'll make the most of it and keep this crazy family circus going!

Painting Project Complete!

Thanks to Brian and his dad, our biggest fall project is now behind us! They put a fresh coat (make that 2 coats!) of paint around the entire house, and it looks great! It was a lot of hard work, and we could never have done it without Tom's help and Cheryl's help with the kids. Thanks again!!

Almost...Almost...Got It!!!

Baby Drew has been on a mission this past week to find his thumb, and I think he is finally starting to figure it out. He made the loudest 'smacking' noises I've ever heard from a baby this week as he was trying out all his fingers until he could find one that fit just right. So today, with Chloe (aka. the "Thumb Master") cheering him on, we watched Baby Drew finally find his thumb! And for those of you familar with Chloe's attachment to her Buddy (her burp cloth), you'll notice that Drew has a firm hold on his the whole time he is working on his thumb. I honestly don't know if it's because he sees Chloe doing it or if it really is genetic, but it is amazing to me how they both have the same mannerisms already!

Chloe's FIRST Haircut

Chloe went to the salon with me today for her first haircut...ever. I have been a nervous-nelly when it comes to getting her hair cut because I have always loved her curls and I was so afraid that cutting them off would mean they would be gone for good! Brian even teased that Chloe would end up looking like one of those ladies with hair down to the floor and 25 cats! But all turned out well, besides Chloe being a little nervous about the cape (because she couldn't see where her hands went!) and I think her hair looks even better now--here are some before, during, and after pictures. She even got a cute braid in her hair (along with several suckers!) before we left, so she was as happy as could be!

Nana visit

Nana came to visit for the day to help me out while Brian was out of town, and we had a great time! We went to the park, McDonald's for lunch, and Chloe got her nails painted in the afternoon by Nana. Chloe even got new pj's before the visit was over, so she was in heaven! And I was so thrilled to have the kids bathed and ready for bed with the kitchen already cleaned up after dinner! Thanks for my sanity, Nana!

9 to 5!!

I am so happy to report that Baby Drew (as his big sister has affectionately named him) slept from 9pm to 5am last night, by far the best solid stretch of sleep he has had so far! Actually, he slept longer than that one night during the blackout, but we had left him in his carseat because he fell asleep there instead of his crib, so we aren't counting that. It's been somewhat of a challenge for us to get Drew to fall asleep (and stay asleep) in his crib, so I think we are finally making some progress. And another trick we learned during the blackout--Drew actually prefers the dark....the darker the better...so no more nightlight! And we won't tell him this when he's older, but we've been using Chloe's pink wearable blanket at night since he likes to be so warm. It makes Brian cringe, but it works!!

The lights are back on!

After almost 54 hours of darkness, the lights came back on at our house last night. We could hear the kids next door screaming with excitement, and we were certainly relieved to have the blackout behind us. We were really lucky not to have any storm damage and it definitely could have been a lot of worse. But I'm so happy that we don't have to give the kids their baths in the dark and try to potty train Chloe in a dark bathroom (YIKES!!) anymore!

5 Years Already??

Brian and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday night (before the lights went out!!) with a wonderful "date night". Thanks to Tom & Cheryl, who were willing to take over the circus for us for the night, we had a great dinner and night out just the 2 of us. We even worked in the yard together in the afternoon, something that is quite rare in our "divide and conquer" lifestyle. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years already...but we've been very blessed to have so many great memories already. And, just for the day, it was so nice to just be a couple again.

Mommy's Helper

Chloe helped me do some fall planting tonight, and this is a picture of her showing off her gloves "just like Mommy's". Ok, so I didn't have any kid-sized gardening gloves, so I had to improvise!

WHO-DEY!

Today was the official beginning to what could be quite a long season for Bengals fans, and even the littlest fans had trouble getting excited about the game today in the Harves household! Unfortunately this is the best expression I could get out of Drew in his Bengals outfit--and in case you can't quite tell, that is spit-up all down the front of his shirt! I guess he was as disgusted with the game as his Daddy was!

Sand is icky!

This morning I took Chloe & Drew to the park near our house while Brian worked on the latest home improvement project. We actually planned ahead for once and brought the sand toys to play with. Chloe certainly loves playing in the sand...that is, for the first 5 seconds until it gets in her shoes! She had her crocs on today with no socks which made it even worse--she spent the whole time she was in the sand trying to get it out of her shoes, which was a no-win situation since it got in her shoes each time she took a step! It reminded me of the family vacation we took to Myrtle Beach when I was a kid and Julie kept washing her feet off in the ocean to get rid of the sand, only to get back to the towel covered in sand again! Maybe it's genetic....

This Thumb Doesn't Taste Good....

Chloe has sucked her thumb since she was 10 weeks old, but she didn't develop a preference for a specific thumb until somewhat recently. Now, she exclusively sucks her left thumb and holds her "buddy" (i.e. a burp cloth) in her right hand, with the tag up close to her nose. That creates a problem when she is coming down the stairs and has to hold the railing with her left hand. I told her today to just suck her other thumb instead, so she tried it and then made an icky face and said "This thumb doesn't taste any good!"

Tummy Time!

Ok, it's really hard (make that impossible!) to not compare your kids to one another, and we are just as guilty as everyone else. So when I took this picture of Drew doing his tummy time, which he hates just as much as Chloe used to hate it, I couldn't believe how much it looked like a picture we took of Chloe when she was the same age!

Last Trip to the Pool

We took Chloe & Drew to the pool at the Y for one last time before it was closed for the summer. We were hoping that Chloe would continue her progress with swimming from when we were at the lake, but we realized quickly that she would rather tentatively wade in the baby pool than swim around with Daddy in the big pool!

Double Trouble!

Chloe & Drew's first bath together was a bit of a circus, with all the running around to get all the stuff together in one place and trying to juggle both kids at the same time, but such is our life these days! Chloe had a lot of fun pouring water on Drew and playing with him, and we think that Drew actually enjoyed this bath better than the one Mom & Dad used to give him alone!

Chloe's Potty Training Begins!

We actually bought this potty for Chloe months ago and starting putting her on it whenever she showed some interest. But eventually she started telling us "no" every time we asked if she wanted to sit on it. After a week on vacation and changing "real person" sized diapers all week, we decided that we needed to try harder with her. So, we started sitting her on the potty every 15 minutes last Saturday morning and telling her that she could have a chocolate chip if shee peed. To our surprise she actually started peeing in it! (And she makes sure she collects her prize!) We bought her some "big girl panties" that she wears around the house now, and pull-ups for Nancy's house. She is doing a really good job of peeing whenever we put her on the potty, and we have stretched out the every 15-minute potty break time as well. We haven't yet tackled pooping on the potty or getting her to actually tell us when she needs to go, but we're happy with her progress so far. And she thinks it's pretty cool that she can read on the potty just like Daddy!

Drew is 6 weeks old!

Drew is now 6 weeks old and is already looking more like a baby to us than a newborn. We can even see his personality starting to come out, especially in his beautiful smile! He's staying awake a lot more during the day now, although unfortunately I can't say that has translated into a whole lot more sleep for us at night, but we're working on it. For now we're enjoying just how little he is since we know it won't last!

Chloe's new shoes!

After realizing that Chloe's gym shoes that she wears to our babysitter's house (i.e. her "Nancy shoes") were getting way too small, we found these "big girl" gym shoes for her, and they were a huge hit! It's hard to say who was more excited about them--Chloe, because they are something new and fun, or Brian, because they are "real" gym shoes and not the uber-girly versions that she had before!