A trip to the Fire Station

We were playing at the play ground on Friday and since Graham and his two other buddies were starting to lose interest, I suggested that we visit the Fire Station not too far from the playground.  When we arrived, there was not a soul in sight!  So we just stood and looked at the fire engines from the back of the station and then, walked around the building to see the vehicles from the front of the station.  The boys were all holding hands while walking. It was too cute!

We then decided it was time to go, when I noticed a fire engine pulling into the station!  So we all unbuckled the kids out of their carseats and hurried back to the station.  We were finally able to get someones attention and the captain of the station gave us a quick tour of Fire Engine #6.  The boys were so excited!

Well, that was the excitement on Friday.  And today, Graham invented his own "popsicle" as he called it.  It's a graham cracker treat filled with peanut butter - which he put in between a bag clip.  Quite clever actually!

 CHOMP!

And in the meantime, little brother Charlie is learning to roll over. I'm pretty sure he just got lucky this time.  The crib does actually slant a little to one side.

He is definitely smiling a lot more. I love that smile!

 And... he's already picking up his head at 2 months old!

New Gutters!

We finally decided that it was time to put gutters on the house.  It was installed a couple of days ago and we're still trying to get used to a couple of eye-sores.  Here's one for example:

I've already purchased  a decorative splash block online and hopefully with some better landscaping, the spout will just blend in a little more. I'm hoping at least!

And today, with some heavy rain, we were able to see the gutters in action!  We walked around the house looking at all that water come down from the downspouts.  I was especially excited about my rain barrel and funny enough, there was no water coming down the spout!  They had installed gutters off the roof on the 2nd floor and was redirecting the water onto the side of the house. Ops!

So looks like they will have to come back and fix that! And that will actually fix our second eye-sore and also help since I know Bobby is going to just run that spout over with the mower! *Honey... you know I'm right! :-P

Charlie's 2-month Doc Appt

Charlie had his 2-month doctor's appointment today.  Everything went really well.  He's now 12lbs (50th percentile) and 22" long (25th percentile).  He did get his first 2 shots today - both in the left thigh.  He was not very happy about that!

It was all fine and dandy before that though.  Here's a photo op with Daddy:

And a photo op with Mommy:

Charlie looks so chubby there!

Charlie still does not like sitting in his carseat.

He would cry almost all the time when he's in the car.  And almost all the time when we drop Graham off at daycare.  He has been sleeping more at night, so I guess all the crying during the day really just tires him out!
Charlie has also been smiling more often now. Just so cute! I'm still working on getting a good video of it, but this is all I have so far:

Big brother Graham on the other hand, continues to work on his scissor-cutting skills.  I find it so funny how he would open and close his mouth and he cuts:

By the way, we had new gutters installed on the house today.  Yay!

Graham's new haircut

Instead of spending $15 for Graham's haircut, we decided to just do it at home this past Sunday.  I used to cut Bobby's hair when we lived in Houston, but when we moved to Tulsa and it got too hot outside, we just somehow quit doing it.

So here we go... !

There was something wrong with the clippers but we managed (thankfully!) to finish the job.  Here are some pics:  Graham standing on his stool with a garbage bag wrapped up around him.

 Bzzzzz....

"Are we done yet?"

 Almost done!

All done! Not too bad if I should say so myself  :-)

Looks like Charlie might need one too!  He's got some crazy hair!

Nice and quiet

We were on our way home from a playdate today and both boys fell asleep in the car!  

It was so cute to see that I just had to take a picture of it.  Graham did not take a nap at school/daycare today and guess he was just exhausted by 4:30pm!

More independence

We decided to buy Graham a new double step-stool.  He's constantly wanting to see what's going on in the kitchen when I'm cooking.  And well, this time he actually got a cookie!  Actually, he managed to reach the cookie without the step-stool:

And then, he wanted to eat the cookie while sitting on the step-stool. It works out quite nicely actually because there's a spot for his milk too:

And then, on the step-stool to get more!

Graham is also getting very good at raiding the pantry for more snacks now that he can get to the higher shelves.  I wonder what it's going to be like once little Charlie grows up.  Graham will probably have Charlie up on his shoulders to get to the higher shelves!  I better not give them any ideas :-)

Speaking of Charlie... can you tell which one is Charlie and which one is Graham?

 Charlie or Graham???

By the way, Graham is back at his other daycare this past week... and he didn't cry when I dropped him off!  He actually walked into his classroom, turned around, waved goodbye to me and even told me to "have a nice day, Mommy!". His previous daycare made a little something for him on his last day.  Too nice!

And another thing that happened this past week - 126F in the sun!  YIKES!

So did you guess yet? Charlie or Graham?  Well, the top one is Charlie and the bottom one is Graham.  They both sure look alike!

Charlie is 1 month old!

Charlie just turned 1 month old this past Friday.  And how do we celebrate?  Cupcakes, of course!

We did the same thing with Graham when he turned 1 month old.  And I think he's obviously enjoying them more now.

Here he is asking for seconds!

Turning 1 month old also meant the end of our confinement (according to the Chinese tradition).  We went out as a family of 4 for the first time for dinner.  Thankfully, everything went quite smoothly!

Here's daddy and his 2 boys:

I then decided to move Charlie so he could get a better view of Mommy :-)

... which was probably a good thing because not long after that, I had to give Charlie his binky to stop him from crying!
After dinner, it was a trip to Sam's club. I love those big carts where you can put Graham and Charlie/the carseat next to each other.

All in all, it was a great day.  My boys are growing up so quickly!

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!