Graham is 2 years and 3 months old

Graham is now 2 years and 3 months old!  He has grown about 1/2" taller (to 33 1/2" tall) since his last birthday and gained about 2.5lbs (to 27.5lbs).  He is definitely chunkier and heavier!... although probably still the smallest kid in the playground for his age group.

So far, he has been quite a good big brother.  He would share toys with Charlie and even put his blankie into Charlie's crib to share too!

Graham continues to practice his chopsticks skills for future trips to Asia...

And also continues to love playing with nothing but a stick.

Graham has added a few new dance moves to his repertoire...

And also continues to practice his ABCs.

He obviously still needs to work on his L, M, N, O, Ps!

By the way, it seems that Graham has quit sucking on his thumb during nap/sleep time.  We're not exactly sure when he stopped since we've been closing the door behind us when we put him down for his nap or when he goes to bed at night. That's one less thing to worry about.  Now, if he will only start using the big potty more!

Charlie's first walk

We decided to take Graham AND Charlie out for a walk yesterday evening.  Technically, Charlie and Mommy are still under our 1-month "confinement", but since it was such a nice night we figured we would bend the rules a little :-)

It started out quite well.  Graham was really curious about the new double tandem stroller. We got him to stand on the stroller while Charlie laid in his carseat in the front.

Unfortunately, we barely got pass the garage and Graham went to get his new tractor!  Grandma and Pop-pop had brought it all the way from NJ the last time they were here.  He really loves it!

Once we did finally convince Graham to come along, we had to constantly wait up for him as he would stop to pick up (and throw!) rocks on the road.

We didn't make it to the end of the street and eventually had to just drag/carry Graham all the way home. I bet the entire neighborhood heard him wailing!... as Charlie continued on in his slumber.

Brotherly love

I finally convinced Graham to hold Charlie! And even managed to have him hang on so I can get the camera to take some pictures.  The easy part of having Graham give Charlie kisses. He loves giving his little brother kisses (for now :-)

And I put Charlie in the swing for the first time today.  He fell asleep to the rocking of the swing!  This will definitely come in very handy.  Graham was being very helpful - helping Mommy turn on the swing and rocking Charlie.  And of course, more pictures with Charlie.  Say "cheeeeeeese"...!

Graham has taken advantage of some alone time around the house while I've been breastfeeding Charlie.  I walked into the kitchen the other day and found that he had cut up the instruction book to Charlie's new carseat.  After taping up the booklet, I had left the tape on the kitchen table.  And sure enough, later that afternoon. Graham decided to use the tape - a lot of it when I wasn't watching!

By the way, Graham's favorite line these days...

"Charlie crying! Time to feed Charlie AGAIN!"

Charlie's first bath

After peeing on himself and getting poop on his feet while Mommy was trying to change his diaper early this morning, Charlie finally got his first bath today.

I also found a collection of milk under his armpit.  YUCK!  Perhaps he was saving it for later.

Ahhh... all nice and clean!

So far, Charlie has been waking and feeding every 2-3 hours at night. It's been quite tiring.  Thankfully Daddy has been quite helpful over the weekend - keeping Graham occupied.  Today, they went to the zoo together:

We love our John Deere wagon:

Graham was so excited when he came home - telling me that he saw the elephants and the zebras and that he was on the train - the REAL one... for the first time!

Looks like Graham had a lot of fun and Mommy got to sleep in (well, kinda sorta). Looks like I'll have to wait till next weekend to sleep in again!

Charlie - 2-week old update

Charlie had a quick doctor's appointment yesterday for a 2-week old weigh-in.  He gained almost a whole lb - from 7lbs 6oz to 8lbs 5oz in just 6 days!  I'm not exactly sure what the average weight gain is for a newborn but 15oz must have been a lot because even the nurse was shocked! So needless to say, Charlie is doing really well.

In the meantime, big brother Graham has graduated to a booster chair at home during mealtimes.

And yes, we are teaching him the flags of the world so he too can be a world traveler like his mommy and daddy :-)

We are still struggling to have Graham take a picture with Charlie.  Not exactly sure why he just won't do it! But he does ask to give kisses to Charlie before bedtime so I suppose that's better than picture-taking.

Graham has also been playing with the tablet a lot more lately. And somehow he's managed to purchase more items!  This email popped up while I was on my laptop this morning and Graham was sitting right in front of me playing with the tablet...

We were going to purchase more songs for this one App that he enjoys playing with/listening to, but looks like he beat us to it!

Graham laughing with Pierre the Parrot

After playing with the talking Tom Cat app for a few weeks, we decided to download Pierre - the talking Parrot.  And Graham just gets such a good laugh out of it!  Too cute!

Charlie's first week at home

So far, it's been quite stress-free this past week.  Probably because my in-laws are here to help out!  Pop-pop has been very helpful keeping Graham occupied and Charlie just seem to melt in Grandma's arms and fall asleep peacefully.

Here's Charlie at 1 week old...

We had Graham pick out a new toy for Charlie at the store and he came back with a sock monkey :-)

And Graham of course, came back with a toy for himself too!

It's amazing though how many diapers we are going through just in the first week.  Seems that it's quite normal for breast-fed babies to have runny poopy diapers.  And according to the lactation nurse, it will last about 6 weeks.  6 weeks!!! I couldn't believe it when she said that!
In any case, I think Charlie is going to end up bigger than his big brother Graham. He's been drinking so much more milk and check out the size of his feet!

I thought they looked bigger than Graham's at birth and I was right!  Charlie's foot prints are the ones on top:

Hopefully things will continue to go well once Grandma and Pop-pop leave. It's tough to be mad at a little thing like this one!

Welcome Charles Lee-An Pridgen!

Well, let's just say the doctor was right!  Baby Charles decided to come into this world early - on July 31, 2012 - at 38 1/2 weeks into my pregnancy.  My water didn't break this time like it did when I had Graham but after noticing some spotting early Tuesday morning and feeling contractions not long after that, we decided to pack everyone up in the car.  We dropped off Graham at a friend's house by 6am and made our way to the hospital.  By the time we arrived, I was already 6cm dilated and the nurse said that we weren't going anywhere!

We made sure to get the paperwork completed quickly for the epidural.  So glad we made it in time because here is me before the epidural - there was no way I was smiling for the camera!

And here's me after the epidural... all smiles as my lower half of my body starts to get numb:

By about 10:20am, the doctor broke my water (and almost made a mess!) and by 10:48am... Charles arrived into the world at 7lbs 14oz and 20" long:

And here's the happy daddy of now 2 little boys:

And oh, the doc said I had "halloween" socks on! I had to take a pic of that too :-)

 Happy parents!

The nurse had fun cleaning up Charles, especially washing his hair. Everyone comments on how much hair he has, just like when we had Graham.

All clean and fast asleep.  His Chinese name "An" actually means peace, so Charlie is definitely living up to his name when he was at the hospital. I would have to say otherwise when I put him in his crib on the first night at home!

In the meantime, big brother Graham had a great time visiting Mommy and Charlie (or Cha-e as Graham would pronounce it).  There were lots to eat! We start with jello...

Then, pecan pie...

And topping it off with a fortune cookie.

 The happy Lee-Pridgen family of 4! Say "cheese"!

Graham with his "I'm the Big Brother" sticker.

Here's Bobby holding both boys at the same time, for the first time:

Oh... more food for Graham!

Graham loved helping Daddy bring Charlie back to the nursery.  What a great little helper!

Daddy spoiled Mommy with non-hospital food - 2 days in a row!

The boys got dressed up to have professional pictures taken but this was as far as we got.  Oh well!

 Happy Mommy and new baby Charlie

The fun now continues with 2 boys! :-)