Toothless Times Two!

Although alot of my posts lately have been centered around Tate, other exciting things are happening for our family. One of those things was Zach losing more teeth. Yes, notice I said "teeth." He lost two of his bottom front teeth quite a while ago and we've been wondering when the top ones were going to go. Well, after what seemed like forever, he finally lost one of the top ones - the one on the left when looking at him.


After that one dropped out, the other one began to become very loose and got to the point where it was hanging on by just one side - giving him a sort of hillbilly look with only 1 tooth in front that had dropped down quite a bit. We went 3 days with it looking like that and I just couldn't stand it anymore. So I talked him into pulling it out - it must have been hanging on by just a thread of gum because after only two tries, (one of which was so light, I wouldn't even call it a pull) Zach pulled it out. Now he looks like he needs to sing the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth)."


So now we have an extremely "toothless" boy around our house and every once in a while you can hear him slurring the letter "s" in some of his words - too cute.

Probably the best part about this whole thing is that the Tooth Fairy came to visit Zach 2 times in less than a week - how do you think he feels about that?


That's right, he's ecstatic - two dollars in a week - not bad. Hailey has decided that she wants in on that action and has run around the last few days telling us that she has loose teeth that are about to fall out any minute. We try to tell her that she has a few years still, but she's determined it will be much sooner. I decided to keep an eye on her in case she decides to take matters into her own hands and get rid of some teeth before they're ready. So far so good, but you never know with her!

Three Kids

You always hear people say that the hardest part in parenting is going from two kids to three and that if you can do three kids, you can do anything. I've always wondered about that saying until I actually had three kids. Although I'm sure that most of it has to do with the fact that we're still adjusting to our new little member of the family, I can see that three is going to be drastically different than two. Most of that realization comes when I'm somewhere other than home - like the store or the doctor's office and just getting across the parking lot is a chore with only 2 hands and 3 people to manage (other than myself). But although I can forsee a lot of "fun" down the road when Tate gets older, I have to admit that I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't imagine how we ever got along without Tate in our family. He's brought all of us so much joy and happiness! So here's to three kids - may they bring us much more joy in the future! (Remind me that I said this when I'm tearing my hair out in a couple of years will you???)

Newborn Pictures

I'm realizing that I left out a post in between the last couple I did. One very important one was to post some newborn pictures that my very talented sister-in-law Holli took back in June. She is quite the photographer, she had so many fun backdrops and props to use and it was really fun seeing all of her cute ideas. I'm SO happy with the pictures she took. This is quite the feat considering that Tate pretty much screamed the whole time. She was extremely patient and even did 2 different sessions in the same day in order to try and get pictures of Tate when he was in a better mood. We weren't very successful in getting his mood just right, but the pictures turned out darling anyway.

Here are some of my favorites:

I love this one because he's almost smiling - that's about as close as we got during the photo session.


I love this little metal basket - he looked so cute all tucked up inside of it.


This is probably my favorite of the whole session because it's close up and with the backgroud, you can really see his beautiful dark blue eyes.


Holli also had this cute little brown knit hat and it looked so darling on Tate. We were able to snap a few pics of him in it while asleep - look at that chubby face!



Yes, I have a darling little baby and I love all the fun pictures we got of him. Much thanks to my gifted sister-in-law Holli and all the time and effort she put into getting these precious pictures!

Two Week Dr. Appt

Two posts in one day - it's a miracle!

I didn't want to forget to post about Tate's first doctor appointment. Most especially, I wanted to make mention of how much he'd grown in just two weeks.

At birth:
Weight = 9 lbs, 9 ounces
Length = 19 inches



Two days later when we left the hospital:
Weight = 8 lbs, 12 ounces
Length = 19 inches



Two week dr appt:
Weight = 9 lbs, 15 ounces (75th percentile)
Also, at 4 weeks he was up to 11 lbs, 8 ounces!
Length = 22 inches (90th percentile)



So in two weeks he got back to his birth weight + some (which is great according to the doctor!) and grew 3 inches. Yes, we have a big boy on our hands. My arms are getting quite the workout holding and carrying him around. He's so chubby, but we love it! He's my handsome little man Tate!

Brothers

It has been amazing to see how much Tate looks like Zach when he was younger. We have some photos of Zach up in his room and when I compared them to Tate, it was amazing at the similarities. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would guess it was two pictures of the same baby. Here are some pics so you can see for yourself:

Zach at 2 months



Tate at 1 month



No doubt that they are brothers, so chubby and cute! I love my boys!

What do you think?

So FAR Behind!

Life with a newborn sure it different than before! I find that my time is VERY limited and a lot of "unnecessary" stuff sometimes falls off my list of accomplishments for the day.

But as I've been thinking about the blogs I check and how excited I get when I see that they have a new post, I've caught myself in a bit of a double standard since I haven't updated my blog in who knows how long?!?

So in an effort to get caught up, I'm doing one huge post with a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks. Pardon me for all the pictures and the length of this post, I promise I'll try to be better in the future!

Our little angel still sleeps most of the time, although he's started being awake more during the day, much to the delight of his big brother and sister who take every opportunity to talk to him.


He has the cutest little expressions - lately he's been smiling in his sleep all the time - not sure why, but it's darling!


He sleeps a lot in his car seat lately due to some acid reflux issues that he's having and all the milk he's been spitting up. I wouldn't say that he loves the car seat, but he doesn't hate it - so I guess that's the best we can hope for. Even though he's a big boy, he still looks so little in his car seat!


As with almost all babies, he absolutely LOVES his bath! You can almost hear him say "AAAAHHHH" when you put him in.


We've bathed him in both the sink and the tub. He's also had 2 baths with the kids, which they absolutely love! They think it's the neatest to bath with the baby.


He still gets held by his sister as least 10 times a day.


As well as being kissed even more times.


His brother holds him almost as much as his sister does.


Last week, the cousins came down for a play day and they each took a turn holding him. It brought tears to my eyes realizing that they aren't having this same experience with their little sister Jaycee, who passed away back in February. Hailey tells me that although we're all sad, we're going to share our baby with Ashton and Branson (and Aunt Shell) so that they won't be too sad.

Here's his cousin Ashton holding him.


And his cousin Branson.


Although we've had a few setbacks since Tate was born, he is doing great! He loves to lay on the floor and kick his legs.


And I had to include this one - how often does the camera happen to capture something that you couldn't ever repeat even if you tried? Yep, while taking these pictures, I happened to catch Tate spitting up - not the prettiest of pictures, but still cute because he's the cutest baby ever!


Yes, although our lives have turned upside down, it's all in a good way and I can't imagine how we ever got along without our little Tate.

Life At Home With Tate

After a crazy 2 days in the hospital, Jeremiah, Tate, and I were more than ready to come home. After some thorough checking, the doctors pronounced us fit and healthy and signed our release papers, so we headed out with much anticipation.

When we pulled into the driveway, we were surprised with a huge sign posted in the window.


Life since having Tate has been very fun and a little hectic, but that's to be expected with a new little baby in the house. Tate still spends most of his time sleeping, although we do get a peek of him with his eyes open every once in a while. Most of the time he sleeps and the kids are always checking to see if he's awake because they don't want to miss any time of being able to talk to him.


When he does wake up, they are always asking to do one thing and that's hold him. Here are a few pics of the kids holding their favorite little brother.







As you can see, little Tate loves them to hold him just as much as they love to do it. In fact, these pictures are repeated many times a day as they just can't get enough of holding little Tate. And he loves to be around them. If he's crying, all it takes is for one of them to talk to him and he quiets right down and starts looking around for one of them. I think he's just as excited to have them as a big brother and sister as they are to have him.

I've taken a bunch of pictures the last little while, but I'll only include a couple here to show his little personality. Here he is sucking on his finger - he was so darling just sucking away on it one afternoon. Our little chubby baby is always hungry and wants to eat, so he sucks on anything available!


This was his first time in his baby swing. He didn't hate it, so that's good. Both of our other kids would always scream when we put them in the swing - ironic since they now both love to swing on the swingset outside!


And this is one of my favorites. Like I mentioned earlier, he still sleeps a lot, so it's hard to catch him with his eyes open. But I did happen to get this picture one day when Jeremiah was holding him. Isn't he a handsome little man?


Yes, life with Tate has been a bit of an adjustment, but we are all doing well. The kids tell me all the time how much they love their little brother and how special he is. We love you little Tate and are so glad you are a part of our family!