The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Spring Fling

What a BEAUTIFUL weekend we had!  It was a little flirt with spring!  I don’t know if these nice temps are here to stay but, man, I’m going to enjoy them while they’re here!  On top of the nice weather, we had GJ and Daddo in town!  Can’t beat that!!

The weekend started off Saturday morning with some snuggles in bed…

and then we met up with GJ for a trip to Home Depot to get more “yellow dirt” for Maxwell’s sand table.

Home Depot always provides entertainment.  Who knew a guy using a saw could be so exciting?!

We then got home and put together a little project.  Maxwell was a big help…

Our completed masterpiece!!  Tada!

Al fresco dining now available at the Brown house!  🙂

This next picture just makes me laugh…

I have no idea what they’re all looking at on the ipad but even Spencer is into it and they crack me up all sitting on that little bench together!

Maxwell was outside just about all weekend long playing, playing, playing…

Spencer got plenty of fresh air too…

and some good snugs from Daddo!

That night, GJ and Daddo nicely stayed at the house while Robert and I went out to eat.  Spencer, who is always dead asleep by 8:00 and never wakes up until much later in the night, decided he didn’t want to go to sleep that night.  I finally put him in his bed still awake when we left for dinner at 8:15 and when we came home at 10:15, he was still awake!  GJ said he was just as wide awake and wiggly as could be!  I guess he knew that his only chance to play with GJ was when Maxwell was asleep so he wanted to take full advantage!  I was finally able to get him settled down and snoozing at about 10:30…

Unfortunately, he didn’t sleep great.  He keeps rolling onto his belly and then wakes up crying because he can’t flip himself back over.  We’ve stopped going in to roll him back though because he will eventually either flip back over or go to sleep on his belly.  I think he woke up 3 different times between 5:00 and 8:00 am on Sunday morning.  Not fun.  But, it was nice that everyone slept until 8:00 with daylight savings time!

On Sunday, Maxwell and Robert went to church…

My handsome boys!

The rest of the afternoon was spent outside enjoying the longer daylight and blowing bubbles!

Maxwell even thought baby brother needed some bubbles on him!

What a great weekend all around!!  I’m officially ready for spring!

Visitors!

We’ve had some fun visitors this past week.

Last weekend, the boys got to hang out with LuLu and Granddad all morning…

and then Spencer got to meet his cousin Mary Ellen for the first time!  fun!

Then GJ and Daddo stopped by for a couple of days on their way to Arkansas.  Someone was really excited to see GJ…

and really excited to get some M&Ms from Daddo!  🙂

GJ and Daddo couldn’t wait to squeeze on Spencer…

I then had fun showing off Spencer’s squeezable physique!  🙂

The next night, GJ and Daddo got to hang out some more and read some books…

and blow it up before bedtime!

We loved having everyone here and wish we could see them all every week!

Have a great weekend!  Don’t forget to spring forward on Sunday!

Stripes

We had another pretty good day of sleeping yesterday!  Spencer slept all night – he tried to wake up at 4am and cried for a few minutes but then went back to sleep!  yay!  Unfortunately, he still woke up at 6:00am.  I need to teach him not to be quite such a morning person!  I also swaddled him with his arms out all night – making that transition to the sleep sack one step at a time.

We let him nap in his crib for his morning nap yesterday and he only cried for about 5 minutes.  He woke up after about 45 minutes and cried for a bit but then went back to sleep!  yay!  Total nap was around 1.5 hours…not the best but we’ll take it!  He was also in his sleep sack, not swaddled, so that’s great.

Today, just some pics of my baby boy in a cute striped outfit.  As evidenced by the large number of striped shirts in my closet, I’m a fan of this look!  🙂

My stripey little happy guy!

Happy and kicking!

Have a great day!

a Birthday! and Updates

First, happy birthday to Maxwell’s Great Granddaddy and namesake today!  89!

Granddaddy and Maxwell – 2010

We love you Granddaddy!

Second, Spencer slept pretty good last night!  He woke up and cried for a few minutes around 1:00 am but then went back to sleep until 5:50 am.  A little early wake-up but that’s ok, we’ll work through it.  Is it better to have to get up and start your day at 6:00?  or have to get up around 3:00 and then go back to sleep for a few more hours?  Hmm…

Spencer also took a nap in his crib yesterday!  We put him in there for his morning nap and it went ok.  He usually sleeps about 2 to 3 hours in the morning in his swing and he only slept about 45 minutes in his crib.  Not great but it’s a process and we’ll get there.

Maxwell continues to be a great sleeper and loves his crib.  I’m thinking of switching things up though.  For a variety of reasons I think I’m going to switch the boys’ rooms.  So, if I put Maxwell into Spencer’s room do I go on and move him into a big (twin size) bed?  or move his crib in there and keep him in the crib longer?  On one hand, I don’t want to mess things up because he’s SUCH a good sleeper but, on the other hand, he’s got to move at some point and he seems to act like he wants to sleep in the big bed.  Decisions, decisions!  We’ll see.

Both boys are just on cute highs these days.  Spencer is my chubby wubby little snuggle bug (doesn’t get cuter than that description, does it!?) and the things that Maxwell says every day are just beyond adorable.  His latest?  Always yelling ” Yippie Yi Yo Kayah!” from Toy Story and then always giving us “two thumbs up!”

A few pics for you…

Two thumbs up!

Chewing on everything these days…

Mr. Hollywood…

Love these sweet babies!

See you tomorrow!

 

Mr. Sandman

Mr. Sandman, bring Spencer some sleep!

bum, bum, bum, bum

Make him the sleepiest that I’ve ever seen.

bum, bum, bum, bum

Give him a night, with no crying or whining,

and tell this mama that the longest nights are over!

Yes, I know ‘whining’ and ‘over’ don’t rhyme but I’m too tired to come up with something better!  🙂

So, here’s the deal, Spencer is a big boy and definitely doesn’t need to eat during the night…but I don’t think he’s gotten that message yet!  He’s slept through the night (meaning 8pm to 6:30am) two times but isn’t doing it consistently.  Most nights he’s still waking up once around 3 or 4ish.  I’ve tried to let him cry it out but he won’t go back to sleep and I’m always afraid the crying is going to wake Maxwell up so I just go in there and feed him.  After he eats, he’ll conk back out until 6:30 or 7:00…but I just want him to sleep on through until 6:30 or 7:00!  I know he can do it and it’ll just take time.  We’re getting there…one night and one tired day at at time!

ps – we’re also working on getting rid of the swaddle.  I still swaddle him every night but he manages to get both arms out at some point in the night so I know he’s ready to make that transition.

pps – these pictures were taken during naptime.  He sleeps at night in his crib obviously.  We’re going to start working on transitioning him to taking his naps in his crib now too.  Given the history of “Operation Crib Nap” with Maxwell I’m not optimistic but we’ll see how it goes!