The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

ZZ the Zebra

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you no doubt know about Maxwell’s beloved NeNe –  his monkey pacimal that is now his best lovie.  Second only to NeNe is NaNo, his cow pacimal.  I originally talked about them here as a Friday Favorite.  NeNe was originally named Nanner and NaNo was Mr. Moo.  But, Maxwell renamed them once he could (sort of) talk and the rest is history.

*You can read more about my love for Pacimals and how I think it helped us easily get rid of the paci here.

Since Maxwell loved them so much, I got two more Pacimals for Spencer – a dog and a zebra.  I pulled them out yesterday and Maxwell definitely thought we should see if Spencer would like them.

At first Maxwell thought the puppy was the one to go with…

But he ultimately decided that the zebra was the better choice.

I asked Maxwell what we should name the zebra and he said “ZZ”…pretty original, huh?  and not surprising considering he named his monkey “NeNe!”

Spencer isn’t quite so sure about ZZ yet but I have no doubt the love will grow!

One other funny picture- it’s been pretty cold here so I tried on this little coat I got for Spencer. Clearly way too big but look how funny he is all bundled up!  like a little eskimo!

Given the look on his face, I’m not sure Spencer is finding the humor in it!  🙂

See you tomorrow!  TGIalmostF!

2.5 weeks and 26 months

Spencer at 2.5 weeks old…

Yea, he’s pretty awesome.

Maxwell at 26 months…

Yea, he’s pretty awesome too.

What a weekend and doc update

Wow…the past few days have almost done me in.  Not because of my newborn either, but because of my sweet, big boy 2 year old.  Since Thursday we’ve dealt with teething, the croup, 2 doctor visits, a terrible cough, puking and tantrums.  Throw daylight savings in there and we are one tired household!

The adventure began on a good note with Spencer’s 2 week doctor visit on Thursday.  He’s still doing great and is up to 8 lbs, 5 oz (75th%)!  He’s a good eater for sure!  He grew 1/4 of an inch and is now 21.25 inches long (95th%).  He’s tall!  I believe it when I look at his long feet, toes and fingers!  His head circumference is 14 inches (75th%).  For comparison, here is the info from Maxwell’s 2 week appointment.  Dr. Walley did tell me that this 2 to 3 week mark is when a baby’s personality will shift if it’s going to.  So, if Spencer is still pretty laid back after this week, chances are he’ll stay that way.  Fingers crossed for a good week!!  Love this sweet baby…

Thursday night started out normal and Spencer actually slept GREAT that night even going for a 6 hour stretch.  Unfortunately, Maxwell woke up about 11:30 with the croup.  Barking, wheezing, scary!  Poor guy.  We were up with him all night and I was back at the doctor’s office Friday to get him checked out.  We got a 3 day dose of steroids and were on our way.

Nap on Friday obviously didn’t go well but we made it.  Maxwell did sleep pretty good Friday night though and had no more croup so we were hoping the worst was behind us.  Ha!

Saturday morning Maxwell had a bday party to go to.  He wasn’t contagious and seemed to be feeling much better so we decided to go enjoy the nice (and hot!) weather.  My little buddy walking into the playground where the party was…

After only 10 minutes playing on the playground, Maxwell wanted nothing more to do with it and only wanted me to hold him.  I stupidly told him that there was a cookie cake which cheered him up…but the next 30 minutes until the cookie cake came out were pretty miserable.  He would. not. stop. asking for a cookie.  Meanwhile, he didn’t want to color, he didn’t want to make a pirate hat with the other kids, he didn’t want to do anything except have me hold him.  When the cookie cake came out, he didn’t like the piece he got and melted down.  Full on tantrum.  We left immediately.  Good times.

After a nap spent mostly on me in the rocking chair, it was just a whiny, whiny afternoon around here and Maxwell had the worst dry cough ever.  Pitiful.

That night he did eat some dinner but puked all of that up 10 minutes later.  Man.  The good times continued.  I could tell he felt much better after that though and he slept all night.  He did wake up about an hour earlier than usual though – daylight savings and kids don’t mix!

Sunday actually went ok and he seems to be feeling close to back to normal.  Napping is still a challenge which is frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it. Hopefully we’re over the croup, over the cough, and close to over the teething and on with feeling good!  We need an easier week around here!

I did snap a bunch of these on Sunday with my iphone and they make me smile.  Maxwell looooves to poke on sweet Spencer!  Luckily, Spencer seems pretty affable…so far!

These pictures crack me up – patting him on the head, poking him in the ear, sitting on him…lots of brotherly love!

On a final good note, Roll Tide Roll!!  What a game!!

ps – to my good friend, Lynds – so sorry to cancel our plans.  Rescheduling asap!!

Halloween!!

Time for a little Halloween recap! If you’ll remember, we had a really fun time on Halloween in 2011 and 2010. While this Halloween didn’t turn out exactly like I’d hoped, we still had a great time with beautiful fall weather. I knew things were going to be tough as Maxwell just hasn’t been himself the past few days. He’s cutting his 2 year molars and it’s just giving him “a bad case of the all overs!” Still, we tried to be festive so he went to school on Wednesday ready to fight back any ghosts in his Ghostbusters t-shirt…

Remember that tshirt from last year? Still adorable! When I picked him up that afternoon, even his teacher said he just wasn’t his usual happy self. I got him home and attempted to get him down for a nap. After a lot of rocking (and ignoring the other crying baby in the den), I finally got him to sleep for an hour. When he got up, I somehow convinced him to put on his red overalls but he wasn’t exactly happy…about anything. At that point, I had two crying babies…

I had to take a picture. It was one of those situations where you just have to laugh so you don’t cry! Thank goodness for strong arms!

Then I had to feed Spencer and this is what Maxwell was melting down to…

Oh man. Then I heard from Robert and he was stuck at work and not able to get home in time for the parade. Oh man again. I was on the verge of tears but, luckily, I had decided to be SuperMom for Halloween so I put on my invisible cape and got these boys packed up and out the door. I even got Maxwell to sort of smile for a few pictures…

He did think his official name badge that I made for him was pretty cool!

With Spencer all snuggled up in the sling and Maxwell in the stroller, we got down to the parade just in time to see all the floats…and get pelted with candy and mardi gras beads! Thanks so much to Sherry for helping us find a space right up front!

Maxwell’s favorite part of the parade? The fire truck at the end of course!!

He was so in awe that he covered his open mouth the whole time it drove by! I think he just looooved seeing such a giant fire truck in action!

After the parade we were making our way over to a friend’s house and stopped to run around the football field for a bit where Maxwell entertained a farmer and a cheerleader…

and we then took a slight detour to the playground for just a bit.

Spencer was enjoying it all just snug as a bug tiger in the sling!

We eventually got to our friend’s house where they had a great set-up to hang out before trick-or-treating. Maxwell played with this awesome water-squirting fire truck pretty much the entire time and was in heaven!

We did make an attempt for a dinner break (and you’ll see here that Robert was finally able to join us!) but all Maxwell was interested in eating was his cookie! No surprise there!

We did head out for a little trick-or-treating but, by this point, Spencer was needing to go home and eat and it was getting pretty cold. We went to the house of one of Robert’s former co-workers to trick-or-treat and let him meet Spencer. He snapped this pic of us – Maxwell was definitely not in any mood to have his picture taken at this point!

After that we made our way home through the super crowded and super festive streets of Crestline! While not the perfect Halloween, I think my little Fireman ended up having a great time! After all, he got to see a firetruck, play with a firetruck and eat a cookie! It doesn’t get much better than that for him! As for me, I learned that a 2 year old cutting his molars is WAY scarier than any ghost or goblin!! 🙂

Hope you all had a happy Halloween and have a great weekend!

Zzzzzz

We had a great Halloween!  Despite some incoming 2 year molars that tried to spoil our fun, my brave fireman and my roaring tiger loved the parade and excitement. We even managed to do a little trick-or-treating (like one house little but still!).  Lots of pictures to share but today we’re coming down from our candy coma and are tired….

Spencer is a sleepy little newborn and luckily seems to like to snooze in the sling as much as his big brother did…

That’s where he hung out during all of the Halloween festivities too!  Snug and warm!!

Finally, just for fun, check out these two pictures…

Maxwell at 18 days old…

and Spencer at 5 days old…

I definitely see some similarities.  Maxwell’s winning in the cheek department in these pictures but he’s also got 2 weeks on Spencer in the timing.  I’m sure Spencer will round on out like his big brother!  Can’t wait to see how much these little guys look alike…or not!

Hope you had a happy Halloween!