Night(s) at the Roxbury

Our brief vacation to the Catskills with our good friends the Hammonds and Withams was great! While there was not much to do there, it was exactly what we needed. We enjoyed our company, went on a few hikes, and relaxed around the fire pit at night.

The Roxbury Motel was quite a treat with its amazing room decor (each room had a different theme), huge lawn and Bed & Breakfast feel. We stayed in George's Spacepad, based on the Jetsons, and enjoyed it's glowing red tub and sink!

More chatter...

Mason has gotten even more vocal these last couple of weeks!

And he wasn't finished...

An Eventful Visit to Mom-mom's

We had an awesome visit to Ocean City and, given that our trip overlapped Father's Day and Felicia's birthday, it was quite an eventful visit. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with our plans so we were unable to get to Assateague Beach during our stay, but we did go to the Salisbury Zoo and Felicia also took Hunter to the pool one day, which he LOVED! Hunter also surprised us by eating a ton of steamed crab claws during Felicia's birthday dinner - making his mama proud, she was worried that he might get his father's non-seafood eating gene!

Here are some pictures and videos of our trip. (As usual Mom-mom spoiled Hunter with some new toys which will explain the crazy masks and light sabers we are wearing in a few of the photos!)

The sweetest birthday serenade I received:

Fun in the pool:

A bit of chatter...

Mason is growing by leaps and bounds. We have always thought him a very noisy baby (he makes all kinds of loud noises when he eats and sleeps, including snorts, grunts, snores, gasps, etc.) but lately he has been cooing up a storm. He is also giving us the biggest smiles, which are so precious. He is just the sweetest baby!

While he doesn't seems to enjoy tummy time for long periods of time, he can raise his head up quiet high and is getting very strong. He can even roll over from front to back on occasion.

Here are some videos of him doing his thing!

P.S. I love the way he raises one eyebrow in this first video...so cute!

The Cake Ball Fiasco

Hunter loves to help out in the kitchen, so I thought it would be fun to have him help me make cake balls for Uncle Scott's birthday. He started out trying to roll them in to balls, but I think the temptation became too great and eventually the cake balls he had disappeared. Once he tasted them, there was no more helping...just eating. He very much looks like the cat who ate the canary!

Ryan was able to video us at the very end...

Brotherly Love!

Hunter just loves to give Mason kisses and asks to hold him often. It is the cutest thing; we are so blessed to have such sweet children!

Here are some pics dating back to Mason's first week home.

I recently asked Hunter who his best buddy was, thinking he'd name another child at Day Care or one of the neighborhood kids, to my surprise this is what he said:

1 Month Old!

Yes...Already! How the time flies! Mason is really thriving, at a recent doctor's appt he had already gained about 3 lbs since birth, weighing in at a hefty 11 lbs. 4 ozs. and has grown an additional 1.5 inches in length.

We were having some concerns about his eating, mainly because he seems to have extreme abdominal pain after feedings. We suspected it may be acid reflux and he was prescribed some medication, which seems to be working. Otherwise, he is a healthy and happy boy.

Mason started lifting up his head a little bit, smiling and cooing to us at 2 weeks old and it's just improving with time. Now he is really able to lift his head up high for longer periods of time when on his belly, he is batting at his toys, smiling much more, and has recently found his voice and begun "talking" to us a bit more.

Life with two children is definitely a bit more hectic. It takes a bit of juggling, but it is 100% wonderful. Mason is reminding us of all the fun infant moments that we were starting to forget given all the fun toddler moments. It is great to see and enjoy them all simultaneously now! Gosh - we are so in love with our boys, words just cannot describe it!

Here are some of our favorite photos from this first month!

Alphabet

Hunter has been repeating the alphabet for some time now and can even identify some letters by sight alone. He can also count to 3 reliably all by himself, and some days up to 5 without help!

We finally got him saying the alphabet on video, though he had already gone through it once for us before we thought to grab the video, so he was becoming quite bored with it, hence the silliness, and definitely had better things to do when it was over!

Memorial Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend and we spent most of our time outdoors. Hunter enjoyed playing with Jack the Cat and the other neighborhood children in our backyard. We took a trip to Carroll County and had a nice visit with Nanny, Aunt Faye, Uncle Jerry, Pop-pop, JoAnn, and Aunt Kathy. Hunter was beyond thrilled to ride the tractor with Pop-pop. So much, in fact, that once they were finished he dragged Ryan and JoAnn back out to the barn separately to show them the tractor again. Mason slept through all the excitement!

Aunt Laurie, Uncle Scotty, Abbey and Jim stopped by for a visit and got to meet Mason for the first time, and last but not least we went out to a farm in Elkton to pick some strawberries (8.5 lbs to be exact!) haha!

And the tractor ride...

Milk Coma Flashback!

Here is a picture of Mason right after eating at 19 days old:

And here is a similar picture of Hunter when he was 18 days old: