Dear Grayson (2 months)

Little Grayson,

Two months has flown by and we are loving every minute of it! You are such a strong little man and are so aware of your surroundings. You are tracking us with your eyes and you also started smiling! You still really love looking up at the fan but are most happy when you can stand up and check out the world like the rest of us.

Trying to capture your blue eyes! Also, you have a sweet little birthmark on your back - you can see on  the picture above.

Happy little man!

What did we do this past month?
- First visit to State Fair of Texas
- 2nd Family photo session
- Went on your first walk/run (without carseat)
- Your baptism
- Trick-or-treating - well you kinda just slept in the baby bjorn
- Lots of dining out with friends
- First pumpkin carving party
- Trip to Houston - You did so well in the car! You slept 3 hours, ate then went back to sleep! So easy!
- Stayed in childcare during MOPs. I am basically a room over and I come back to nurse you when it is time. You are the youngest one in there and they love love love taking care of you. They say that you like to try and do what the older babies are doing! So cute!

You aren't exactly on a set schedule as it is still pretty early and I am just trying to take notice of what you want to do naturally. I won't force you on a schedule but I am pretty sure you will settle into your own here in a month or so. You still nap between each feeding - sometimes longer than others. The longest nap being midday, which is nice because that is when Ryan goes down too.

As for your eating, I am nursing for about 4-5 hours a day which is 8 - 10 sessions (depending on how your nights and evenings go). For a while you were getting up around 12:30am, 2:30am, 4:30am, and 6:30am....that makes for a long night! About halfway through the month you dropped the 12:30am feeding - thank you. During they day you eat about every 2-3 hours up until about 5pm and then you want to eat constantly until your bedtime (this makes it very difficult for mommy to make dinner). At 8pm one of us gives you a 3 ounce bottle of breast milk (this is your last feeding). Sometimes you drink it all and sometimes you don't.

Thumbs up
-Watching your brother
-Being outside
-Baby Bjorn
-Bath time
-Swing

Your brother Ryan thinks its so funny when he hears you fill up your pants. He yells "Yucky" or "Poopy"and is always there to call out a toot...I am sure there will be many more farts in my future with you boys. Ryan also loves to rock you when you are in your car seat and is always helping you out with your pacifier. When I ask him to play with you he will (it doesn't last long, but not much does with a two year old) - he tries to put toys in your hands and sometimes he even dances for you. It's pretty darn cute! Loving you boys so much!

Look how much you have grown!

And you and your brother at two months:

No denying y'all are related! 

Love you so much and can't wait to see what the next month has in store for us!

xoxo, mommy

Two Month Stats (Grayson)

Yesterday we had Grayson's two month check-up and Grayson did great! I was really looking forward to this visit because I knew he had gained some weight and I was excited to see how much! Would we finally make it out of the 10% range??? I was hoping so!!! I know it might be silly but it is so satisfying seeing you little one grow knowing that it is all because of what you are providing for him -it's quite amazing that mommy's milk is all they need!

Weight: 11lbs 3 oz (45%)

Height: 23 inches (50%)

Head: 38cm (10%) - (I was a little shocked to realize his head was so small, it doesn't really look small!!)

So proud of my little bug (heck and myself!)! Dr. Neely came in and checked him out - everything looks great! When he put him on his stomach he said "Unfortunately for you this little guy is already starting to move". He said that he is strong and was impressed that he was already getting his hands under him to push up - go little G! 

Just for the heck of it here is where Ryan was at 2-months

Weight: 9lbs 8 oz (10%)

Height: 22 inches (25%)

Head: 37cm (5%)

Clearly all of this was before the shots...

Getting ready for the shots...his arm span looks so long!

Little G got three shots and an oral vaccine - it was no fun. His little face turned bright red with anger. Luckily I was able to calm him down and then I nursed him a little just to help him get comfy and tired. We headed home to drop some stuff off then needed to run by Whole Foods and then over to the Hales to pick up Ryan - Gigi had picked Ryan (and Audrey) up from school.

Grayson wasn't acting super tired - kinda his regular self. However, he was pretty tired around bedtime and we could only get two ounces of milk down before he decided he was done. I gave him some tylenol just in case and put him to bed. I was hoping for a nice long night of sleep....but that was not the case. At 12:45am he woke up and decided sleeping wasn't going to work for him. I knew he didn't need to be nursed at 12:45 (he had been sleeping at least until 2:30...sometimes even 4:30) but after three attempts to get him back down I gave in and nursed. And then he fell asleep while eating...so I tried to put him in his bassinet but he immediately woke up and was fussy. And that's basically how the rest of the morning went....he just wasn't happy. Kevin came in around 4:45 am to help out but I could still hear them and was unable to fall asleep. So at 6:12am I got up and nursed him again and then Ryan got up around 7am so it was game time...no going back to sleep for us!

Grayson was actually pretty content in the morning (considering he hadn't slept) but he still wasn't settling down for a good nap. He FINALLY fell asleep around 11:30 and I just got Ryan down...so I should totally be taking a nap...but here I am trying to catch up...but now I am going...to sleep!

Oh and BTW if you couldn't tell my feelings on the subject...two month shots suck!

Trick-Or-Treat (Halloween 2012)

Halloween was so much fun this year! Ryan got dressed up in his costume and headed to school - all the kiddos were so cute all dressed up! His class had a little Halloween party but sadly I missed most of it because Grayson was napping and I had to feed him. The kids decorated cookies...and Ryan licked all the icing off of his. After school we were going to head up to daddy's office since they have a Halloween party but Ryan fell asleep on the way home (he didn't nap at school) and I decided to let him nap since he was going to have a busy evening.

Ryan woke up at 4:45 (and not super happy I might add) but we got all our stuff together and headed over to the Hales house.

A few pictures before the party started. Ryan's cousins taught him how to Trick-or-treat.

Daddy as a coach and Grayson as a football

Mommy with her little football player!

My two sweet little boys!

The whole fam

Ryan's first house to trick-or-treat at. He was VERY concerned with the fog and didn't even realize she was giving him candy

Off to trick-or-treat holding Gigi's hand

Audrey and Ryan had a great time going together!

Cuteness!

We walked down to our lot and gave a tour! lol

When we got home (and Ryan was all hyped up on sugar) he was so sweet! He was holding Grayson but of course every time I tried to take a pic I was too late!

Love these little bugs!

Pumpkin Carving Party

The Sunday before Halloween we hosted our annual pumpkin carving party. I wasn't so sure about having it this year but in the end I decided I needed to stick it out or it wouldn't truly be a McDonough "annual" event...

I honestly didn't spend much time preparing for this party. I actually didn't even have ANY Halloween decorations out until the morning of but luckily everything came together and we had a blast. Everything that I used was from last year (with the exception of a few things)- which was all packed up in my Halloween boxes. It was great - like a party in a box!

Here was the table spread- recognize those runners? I used them for Ryan's 2nd birthday party...they worked perfectly for Halloween! Below are some close ups of some of the goodies!

1.) Cheese tray with scary spiders 2.) Witch Brooms (pretzel rods dipped in chocolate & Halloween sprinkles) 3.) Halloween cupcakes 4.) Carmel Apples - my first attempt. The carmel was sticking but I should have put them in the fridge to speed it up so that it wouldn't have fallen so much - oh well, they were still yummy! 5.) Pumpkin Spice cake balls (recipe from Bake at 350)

A few food ideas from Pinterest:

Jack-o-lantern fruit tray...didn't turn out as well as I anticipated but oh well

Candy corn veggie tray!

And on to the pumpkin carving...

Colin should get the award for most prepared participant...unfortunelty it didn't seem to help. The power tool that Colin brought didn't so much help with his carving as much as it did create a mess...anyone near him ended up with pumpkin guts splattered on them. 

James took his carving very seriously...Micky Mouse for his boys! So cute!

Nat & Jack supervising

Terra carved a french bulldog after their little dog Tilly.

Susanne and Mike strategizing

Karen prepping her pumpkin and Andrew & Heather cleaning theirs out

Gigi and Grayson

Pumpkin painting for the kiddos! I couldn't find smocks so we used garbage bags...

Ryan kept losing his arm hole - I will be getting smocks for next year!

Audrey's masterpiece

Hanging with Whitney & Dom

Next year these two will be all over the place!

Michael helping Lyla carve a princess pumpkin

The Haydels - love that adorable pumpkin dress!

Most people had to leave so I didn't get a picture of all the pumpkins. Next year I will have to be more organized and set a time for the pumpkin judging to begin! I think we will do awards with silly scary trophies! 

Had a great time and can't wait for next years party! So excited that we will be in our new house!

Project 366 - week 44

Sunday, October 28 - Lyla snuggling with Grayson at the pumpkin carving party

Monday, October 29 - Ryan finally took a nap at school!!! He was sleeping when I got there to pick him up - that's him (that brown thing on the floor)! So tired!

Tuesday, October 30 - Kidville Halloween party

Wednesday, October 31- Happy Halloween

Thursday, November 1 - Tummy time!

Friday, November 2 - Grayson's first trip to Houston

Saturday, November 3 - Dinner with Uncle Steve

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween! We had so much fun yesterday - lots of pics to come!