Video: Elliott's first two months

I finally finished putting all of these clips of Elliott's first two months together. I can't believe how much he has grown already.

hop on pop

Another sibling comparison! Oliver is 11 weeks here and Elliott is 9 weeks today.

sibling time

Oliver and Elliott hanging out in bed this morning. Oliver helps Elliott with his exercises and more!

2 months

Our not-so-little Elliott is 2 months old today! His checkup isn't until next Tuesday, but I know that he weighs in around 13 lbs! That's almost double his birth weight of 7lbs 6 oz, and about 1 1/2 pounds heavier than Oliver was at this age. He is doing well :) He's quite strong and started rolling over at just 7 weeks and now enjoys bearing weight on his legs when held in an upright position. He coos, smiles and giggles. The elimination control is going amazingly well! For the past few days we've had just 2-3 wet diapers per day, at just two months old! And that includes outings as well. We'll be cancelling the diaper service at the end of this month - Awesome! I do get a lot of questions about the little red potty bucket that I carry everywhere with me.

Big brother Oliver just loves to hold Elliott. Every morning he says to me "hold baby, hold baby" Oliver things its fun now that Elliott is starting to interact with him, even if it is only a hair pull or kick and Elliott loves to watch his big brother when he is nearby. Elliott also happens to be a big spitter, much like his brother, and Oliver thinks it's hilarious when Elliott spits up on mommy :)

Here are a few pictures of our sweet little guy. He's happy and mellow just like his older brother was. I'm so thankful that we ended up with two beautiful, happy and healthy boys.

just chillin

Morning in bed with my boys! Oliver asked me to take this picture and I really should keep the nicer camera in the bedroom. The cell phone quality just doesn't cut it sometimes.

And this morning Oliver wanted a naked boys picture!

look how big Elliott looks when Oliver is holding him!

hanging with daddy

kiss from big brother

Sunday morning

Nick and Oliver were out at coffee and then off to the zoo this morning. That left time for Elliott and I to play before getting out of bed! He's getting big, 13 lbs and almost two months old!

smiley baby

And here's a happy baby smiling away at his mommy!

Penny hung out with us too

and wanted her picture taken

so much playing that he fell asleep doing tummy time on the floor while I was making breakfast

video: Christmas morning 2011

I'm trying to catch up on all of my video footage for the past two months. Here are some clips from our Christmas morning.

siblings

Our original playgroup met today for the first time since all the babies were born! Oliver has been playing with Tessa and Rachel for about two years now and it was fun, and crazy, to get all the siblings together. The toddlers were born within nine days of each other and the little brothers were all born within about three months of each other. Not bad planning :)

Rachel, Oliver and Tessa with their little brothers

And the little brothers, Lucas (Nov 28), Aquila (Sept 3) and Elliott (Dec 7).

wheelbarrow

Jim took Oliver to the park today while I was at the dentist. I went outside when I heard they were walking back and this is what I saw! Apparently Jim pushed him all the way to the park and back in the wheelbarrow. He explained to the other people at the park that it was useless to waste money on a stroller and that Oliver wouldn't ride in them anyway. I'd like to see how Jim manages to fold up the wheelbarrow and stick it in my trunk.

stove

Oliver loves, loves to cook and play in the kitchen. Since we don't have room in our house for a toy kitchen, this was my solution to making him his own stove that wouldn't take up any more space. I used electrical tape for the burners and had Nick screw in extra knobs that actually turn. He loves it!

rolling

Guess who decided to start rolling over at just 7 1/2 weeks old? Yep, that's our little Elliott. Of course now I have to be more careful about leaving him on our bed. And despite my best efforts to catch it on video, I still haven't managed to do that yet. I'm finding it much harder to take pictures and video with two kids. This morning when he rolled over I was in the middle of cracking eggs for Oliver's breakfast and couldn't quite make it to the camera in time.

working on the roll

tummy time is always more fun when big brother Oliver is on the ground!loving his morning hair!

more wine!

What a way to start off a Sunday morning! Here is how Oliver's wine drinking has progressed in the last 9 months, thanks mostly to what he has learned from Jim Baer. Oliver was a little too excited when Jim dropped off a case of different wines yesterday with just a taste in each bottle for Nick to try.

And here he is last April:

Saturday morning

Cuddling in bed with Elliott and Penny while the older boys were at family coffee this morning.

Elliott's maple tree

Oliver received a Japanese Maple tree when he was born, so we saved a place in our front yard for a similar tree for Elliott. Since we have them planted in the front of our house, Nick wanted to get the same type of tree. So I thought, no problem, Oliver's is a Japanese Maple, we'll just go pick up another one. After calling the nursery, it turns out there are many, many variety of Japanese Maple trees and the only way to tell them apart is by their leaves, of which Oliver's tree has none since it dropped them all for the winter. I was disappointed and thought we were going to have to wait until spring to get Elliott his tree. A few days later, while scrolling through some of Oliver's baby pictures, I happened to find this picture of Oliver's maple tree when we first received it, and by zooming in, I was able to clearly read the variety, Hogyoku Japanese Maple.

What a lucky find! I called the nursery back, and it turned out they had just one left since they don't stock them in the winter. Thank you to grandma who went up there and picked it up for us! Because it was the only one left, we didn't get to select the size, and it turns out the tree is much more mature than Oliver's tree is, standing a good foot or two taller. Hopefully Oliver's will catch up soon :) Here is the family with Elliott's tree below and I'll take an annual picture of Elliott and his tree like I do with Oliver.

Elliott's tree, and Oliver's behind it, in the snow and decorated for the winter

preschool

Today was Oliver's first day of preschool! We lucked out and got in off of the wait list when another family dropped out mid-year. From now until June, I'll go with Oliver every Thursday for two hours. The neat thing about this coop preschool is that infants are allowed into the classroom for 6 months, which means Elliott will also be joining us. Next year when he's older. there is an on-site sibling room where he can stay while I'm with Oliver in class.

Oliver was so excited for class and got ready very quickly this morning. He was also excited that it was pajama day, which meant he didn't have to change his clothes and he got to bring a flashlight with him. His friend Tessa was already in the preschool and having her there helped him feel more comfortable in the beginning when he was feeling shy. By the end of the day, he didn't want to leave.

on the floor

Oliver loves to keep Elliott company while he's practicing his tummy time on the floor. Today he helped entertain him while I cooked dinner.

60

Jim Baer turned 60 last weekend and celebrated with parties all weekend long. Bapa and uncle Evan even flew in for the occasion. On Saturday Cynthia threw him a huge surprise party at a nice restaurant. On Sunday, his actual birthday, she had a small group of us over for more delicious food. I hear there was also a wine tasting event the following night. Here are some pictures Evan took at the gathering at their house:

There were enough people to entertain Oliver and Elliott that at times I found myself child-free and actually able to participate in an adult conversation.

birthday boy holding Elliott

Oliver will play iPad with anyone who owns one. I never thought my two year old would be into Angry Birds.

Nick enjoying a nice glass of wine

Bapa's shoulder must taste good!

being goofy

as always!

a rare photo of the two of us

Cynthia's mixer is one of Oliver's favorite things to play with at their house

lots of concentration to cut the birthday cake!

Oliver even brought his own candle to blow out!

snow day #2

The rain didn't come like it was supposed to today and instead we got more snow! I got a chance to play with Oliver today and we made snow angels, ate ice and went sledding in a clothes basket down our street.

And here are some pictures of my littlest snow bear enjoying (briefly) his first big snow. Elliott is 6 weeks now.

snow day

Seattle got it's once-a-year snow storm today, bringing us a wonderful 5 inches of snow. Nick worked from home, Oliver played outside as much as we would let him, and I mostly stayed indoors taking care of Elliott. I did make it out for a walk later in the afternoon and it was just gorgeous. Too bad rain is coming tomorrow, boo!

Nick took the kiddos, Oliver and Penny out to the park

bundled up! Oliver has never worn so many layers before

walking in our backyard

Penny loves the snow!

building a snowman, Nick's first!

the snow was really dense, so it wasn't easy to do

best buds!

Penny played catch with snowballs in the backyard

and tried to eat the blueberry eyes!

all decked out in Oliver's safari hat and Nick's Boeing scarf

our Christmas lights under the snow, how cool!