Our Little Man

01.06.2010

Andrew is a real sweetheart. He's always been a big daddy's boy but he has recently found a great love for his mommy - yay! And he has a very special love for his baby sister. They roll around in the floor and play all the time. They giggle, they pull on each other, he sings to her, she drools on him - they really enjoy each other.

Andrew's favorite toys are his trains. He loves to play trains with his many Thomas and Friends sets, he loves to watch Thomas cartoons, he has a Thomas potty, his room is decorated in Thomas - he's a real Thomas boy!

And like most any other parents would, we think Andrew is a little genius. He's a quick study and loves to be quizzed on his colors, numbers, letter and shapes.

Andrew still hates to have his hair washed but if we play the "can you find me a..." game with his bathtub toys it distracts him and he doesn't really even notice I'm washing his hair. It's funny how a swimming pool or even the ocean doesn't bother him but the bathtub he could do without.

Andrew loves books. Right now he's enjoying a book his Nenna gave him for Christmas. It's an "I Spy" type book. He's also just recently found a love of Play-doh.

Andrew is a wonderful big brother. He loves to give Megan toys and wants so badly to pull her around the room. There favorite game right now is for them to lie beside each other in the floor and have one of us toss a blanket over them. The kick their feet up and down and giggle together. It's very cute!

We love Andrew will all our hearts. He's a lot of fun to be around. We very much enjoy talking about the things we're going to explore with him when the weather turns warm (which can not happen soon enough!). And I guess the greatest joy for me right now is when he looks at me and tells me he loves me. It melts my heart.

Here are a few random pictures of Andrew and a couple of videos too:

Six Months Old

01.07.2010

It's unbelievable to me that Megan is 6 months old. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. I guess all mom's say that. They grow up way too fast.

Megan weighs 16 pounds and 8 ounces, measures 24 3/4 inches and has a head circumference of 16 3/4 inches. On the charts, she's at the 50th percentile for all measurements which means she's the "ideal" size for a baby girl her age.

At 6 months, Megan...

• is learning to love baby food - bananas seem to be her favorite (the little monkey!)
• only cries when she's hungry, sleepy or needs a diaper change - she's very low maintenance
• smiles A LOT
• laughs at Andrew often and from time to time gives a little giggle for Mommy and Daddy
• is trying to sit up
• rolls over and over from one side of the room to the other
• has great hand-eye coordination
• holds her bottle by herself
• puts everything she can in her mouth
• is on a very regular eating and sleeping schedule, which I love!
• loves to look at herself in a mirror
• loves her big brother!
• kicks her legs like crazy when she's happy - just like her brother
• coos and gurgles when she's happy
• turns when she hears her name
• enjoys sitting in the highchair, swinging in the swing and playing in the exersaucer
• SAYS MAMA
• is a real joy!

Let's go to the movies!

01.09.2010

Anyone who knows Andrew knows he's crazy about Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends. He can name each of them - something I'll probably never be able to do! William often goes the the Thomas and Friends website and he and Andrew watch short video clips and play games. On one of their many visits, William noticed a link mentioning that a new Thomas movie may soon be "at a theatre near you." Well, the movie wasn't coming to a theater here in Asheville, but it was coming to Shelby and Spartanburg so we planned to take Andrew to his first trip to the movies!

We went to the theatre in Shelby and had a WONDERFUL time. Andrew was beyond excited. He couldn't sit still in his seat!

It was a great day. We had been wanting to have a day that was all about Andrew. He's handled having a baby in the house great but we wanted to make sure that he knows how very special he is to us. I think he knows. When the movie first came on he reached over and took hold of my hand and then reached of and took hold of Daddy's. It was the sweetest thing EVER.

Mama

01.06.2010

Megan said her first word yesterday and I am VERY proud that her first word was Mama. She actually said it twice, several hours apart. William said I'm probably just hearing things because I'm so exhausted, but I don't think so. She's Mama's girl!

I haven't been able to get Megan's first word on video yet, but I'll keep trying. In the meantime, enjoy this picture.

(PS - William has heard Megan say Mama a lot now, so he knows I'm not crazy!)

Yum!

01.12.2010

With much hesitation, we've started feeding Megan baby food. I guess we were trying to hold on to our baby as long as possible. Plus, since she didn't come with an owner's manual, we weren't sure when to start spoon feeding her. I don't know that we know now, but we feel the right thing to do is what's best for Megan and have chosen not to stress too much about the time frame other baby's follow. (But as an aside, Andrew started eating baby food at 7 months. Megan is now 6 months.)

So, when Megan decided to stop following her feeding schedule, we introduced baby food and for the most part, it's put her back on schedule. We started with rice cereal but that didn't seem too appealing to her. She loves it in her bottle but not so much on a spoon. So we moved on to green beans and she loves them! We still can't get Andrew to eat green beans so I wanted to start with them rather than something sweet. So far, so good! Soon we'll be moving on to sweet potatoes, applesauce and butternut squash. (We have now tried most everything available in stage 1 baby food, minus prunes and Megan's seems to like everything. I hope that continues. Andrew's not a picky eater except for the fact that he won't eat anything green!)

If I've never said it before, please know our camera drives me CRAZY. And even though most of the time when we take a video it's our own fault we forget to switch it back to still photograph, it still irritates me. So, you'll probably be able to tell this video of Megan's first food was unintentional but worth sharing. :)

Happy New Year!

01.01.2010

William and I usually enjoy a quiet New Year's Eve at home. When we were dating we tried to celebrate with friends and/or family but since we've been married, we're more low-key. We usually go somewhere for a nice dinner and then ring in the New Year watching one of the many countdowns on TV, but this year the weather changed our plans (much like it changed our plans to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary back on December 18).

Papaw came for a visit early in the evening but as the end of 2009 neared, Andrew was fast asleep in bed and Megan was enjoying a late night feeding. William and I were comfortable on the couch and rang in the new year just as we had hoped.

So what are our resolutions this year? As always, we plan to enjoy every minute we can with our precious children and try not to take a minute of their childhood for granted. Sure we'd like to loose weight, maybe give up a couple of bad habits, save money and even travel more - but if we can stay happy and healthy, that's all that will matter. We trust God will provide, as he always does. We are blessed beyond measure and very thankful for it.

And one of our latest blessings is Miss Caroline Rose Hoffart, born New Year's Eve to William's brother Richard and his wife, Julie. Congratulations to Richard, Julie and Big Sister Ella!

Christmas Party

12.06.2009

This post is out of order, and I imagine there's some way to change the order of posts but it's February and I'm still working on my Christmas posts so I'll figure that out later (probably not...).
Wilson Art, where William works, hosted it's annual Candy Party for the kids and included such fun things as bouncy houses, an obstacle course, an inflatable slide (Andrew's favorite!), candy, cookies, and of course, a visit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Andrew had a GREAT time and Megan just enjoyed being cute. :)

Christmas Day

12.25.2009

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Santa was very good to the kids this year. Andrew is enjoying his new Thomas and Friends train track, trampoline, books, etc. And Megan loves her new toys too.

After a short morning at home we headed to Rutherfordton. This year we celebrated Christmas a Pop and Nanny's house. It's hard for Pop to travel anywhere and this way he was able to enjoy time with the family too. After we left Pop and Nanny's we had a couple more stops to make and finally made it home just in time to put the kids in bed. I've said it before, but that's the hard thing about holidays. There just seems to be too much to do all in one day.


Even so, we still enjoyed our holiday. Andrew loved the gift giving but we spent a lot of time talking to him about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday. We even sang the "happy birthday" song most every day through the holiday season.

Christmas Eve

12.24.2009


For the last few years we've celebrated Christmas with the Hoffart family on Christmas Eve. With Richard and Julie's baby ready to make an appearance at any time, we decided to host the holiday at our house so they wouldn't have so far to travel. We feasted on finger foods, exchanged gifts and enjoyed some time together as a family.

One of our household Christmas traditions is the open one gift on Christmas Eve and that gift is new pajamas. This year's pajamas for Andrew and Megan matched and were super cute.

Christmas Preparations

12.20.2009


Andrew really enjoyed Christmas this year. He loved the tree and other decorations we put up around the house. He said they were "prettiful." He also loved seeing Christmas lights in the surrounding neighborhoods. "I see Christmas!," he would say. In fact, he was so amazed by the Christmas lights William decided to do a little more decorating outside this year. He had decided he wasn't going to put the lights on the roof but he made Andrew very happy when he changed his mind.

Let it Snow!

12.17.2009

Megan's first snow fell on the eve of December 17, a day short of when William and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. We were planning to go out to dinner but the weather had other things in mind. What can you expect when you choose to be married in December?

A total of 10.5 inches fell and my biggest fear was that we'd loose power. But we didn't - thank goodness - and instead enjoyed several days at home as a family. We chose not to venture out in the snow very much as it was much nicer inside but we did go out long enough to snap a few pictures. As you can tell, Megan is as enthused with the snow as I am!