The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

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!

Girls schmirls

Who needs girls when I’m surrounded by all these pretty princess boys!! 🙂

Happy Friday!

ps – we finally cut off that mop of hair on Maxwell’s head yesterday! He looks like such a big boy now!

pps – Spencer slept the whole night through last night and didn’t wake up until 6:30!! Hooray!!

Weekend goodness

We had all kinds of weekend goodness around here!

1. We got all of our Christmas decorations up inside and out!

2. Spencer slept in his own room for the first time and slept great!

3. AL beat GA to be the SEC Champs!  Roll Tide!

One of these things made me really happy, one of these things made Robert really happy, and one of these things made us all really happy!  Can you guess which is which?

What made me really happy?  Spencer sleeping in his own bed!  It was so nice to sleep in my bed for the first time in 6 weeks without a baby either laying on me or right beside me.  He slept ok on Friday night but Saturday night he slept GREAT!  He ate around 7:30 and then after a bath and some rocking, I put him in his bed at 10:00 and he didn’t wake up until 1:30.  I got to bed at 10:00 so that was 3.5 solid hours of sleep for me!  hooray!  I fed him and then rocked him for just a bit and he went right back to sleep in his bed until 5:00.  That meant another 3 solid hours of sleep for me!  hooray x 2!!  I fed him, rocked him and put him back in his bed asleep where he stayed for about another hour and then Robert got up and held him and let me sleep until 8:00.  hooray x 3!  I feel like a new person!  I’m so glad that Spencer did well with ZERO crying except when he wanted to eat. This kid is proving to be a pretty easy baby!

The monitor view of him all snuggled up like a burrito in his swaddle blanket in his bed…

and happy in his bed on Sunday!

What made Robert really happy?  Roll Tide of course!  It was QUITE a game against GA and I wasn’t sure Robert was going to make it through at some points but the Tide pulled it out and we had quite the celebration around here!  The celebrations continued the next day when Maxwell wore his cute new State Traditions shirt and “butt-ball” hat!

What made us all really happy?  Christmas decorations!  Everything is up inside including our tree!  We also got all the new decorations up outside on Saturday.  Unfortunately, some of my lighted garland didn’t light up when I plugged it in on Saturday so I need to replace that.  I also need to add one more wreath so will share pictures when it’s all complete.  In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak of our mail box all done up by Susan!  It’s holly jolly festive around here!!  I love Christmastime!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

 

We love fall!

What a BEAUTIFUL fall weekend we had here!  It was sunny and just warm enough to play outside…but just chilly enough to make you believe it’s FALL! Robert worked on Saturday at the never ending job of picking up leaves and Maxwell had a blast playing in the leaf piles…

Just look at my handsome little guy looking so grown up!

What a smile!

In other news, we had some highs and lows on sleeping this weekend.  Friday night was ROUGH – I think Maxwell woke up 5 times that night?!  But Saturday night was GREAT.  He only woke up once and went back to sleep after only a few minutes!  Naps are still a struggle but we’ll get back to normal, I just know it.  Thank you SO much to all those that reached out with encouragement.  It honestly helps to know there are others that have gone through this.

Spencer slept GREAT Friday night going for a 5 hour and a 4 hour stretch.  Saturday night he was up every 3 hours on the dot!  Now I just need to get them both sleeping good on the same night!  🙂

Here’s to a fantastic week ahead!!