Guess how big the boys are!

It's time for everyone's favorite game of Guess How Big the Boys Are!

Both Tamlin and Jude were taken to the doctor on Friday, escorted by daddy. Tamlin was in for his 3 year appointment and flu-nasal spray. Jude was in for his 6month appointment and a cornocopia of vaccinations.


We don't take measurements of them at home so its been awhile since Tam's weight and height had been recorded. I noticed that he had put on a growth spurt since August since his pants were all a little shorter. Guesses for a little man?



My guess: 37" tall and 37 lbs.



Now Jude was in 2 months ago, but has been undergoing cell division at a rapid pace. He's a solid guy and doesn't show any sides of slowing down anytime soon. He was 25" and nearly 18lbs at 4 months. Now I know that he has grown longer in length becaus his feet are busting out of any of the 6month footed sleepers. Ditto for any shirts fitting around his chubby little baby gut.
Any guesses for his current size?

My guess: 27"long and 20lbs.

Talk amongst yourselves today and I'll fill you all in tomorrow with the correct data :-)

Quite a day...

Yestaurday was quite the day here...
We are all gearing up for the weekend and Tamlin celebrating his 3rd birthday. This means we have all been cleaning and wrapping gifts and getting generally excited in our household. This is the first time Tam has a clue that birthdays are cool (hence the excitement).

Around the time spent getting birthday ready, I've been working on staying ahead in my classes for school. Its rough some days when I'm working late into the wee hours of the morning grading, writing exams, or finishing lectures. It has been even more rough on those nights when Jude's awake due to reflux problems or wanting to eat. He has been settling into the pattern of waking at 11ish, 2ish and 4ish of late...with the 11ish really only an awakening to get the binky back into his mouth. Have you ever tried holding the baby while trying to type on the computer? It certainly takes coordination.

Well, because of the chaos, I pulled a late night on Wednesday with computer work (getting a test written) and sewing (for a b-day gift). This was ok, because Thursday I knew I was spending the day at the botanical garden with my botany class and didn't have to be overly coherent. Then, Thursday went fine...until the end of the day. I reached into my jeans pocket, and no jump drive. No jump drive in the coat either. This would be the jump drive that had my exam on it that I had written the previous evening/morning. Couldn't find it...still can't find it. Have chalked it up as a loss. Good thing I backed the stick up in August.

However, this meant that last night I was up all night re-writing the thing to give the kiddos this morning. Ugh. Tired. I crawled into bed in the wee hour of the morning, around 5am.

The good...Jude was sleeping the entire evening!

BUT

Jude woke up, I kid you not, at 5:05am. He wanted snuggled and fed. Ugh.

In the end: Yeah = Jude nearly slept through the night and we are hoping that this is the start of a new trend. Boo = Lost stick and data.

Chocolate Pomegranate cookies

I made chocolate pomegranate cookies this week. I LOVE pomegranates...very, very, much love that tart-juicy fruit. When one of the mom-blogs (MADE) I follow posted this awesome recipe, I knew I just had to try it. It probably help that she posted amazing mouth-watering photos too.

Well, I may not be the best foodie photographer, but the cookies turned out yummy anyways.

I enlisted Tam's help with making the cookies while Jude was taking his first morning nap. Tam really enjoys helping in the kitchen whenever Brian or I let him. He pulled his little chair right over to the mixer and helped with emptying every ingredient into the machine. He is also a pro at mixing dry ingredients by hand...with only a little spillage of chocolate powder over the sides of the bowl.

This was Tam's first taste of pomegranates. He wasn't sure about them with the first bite. But after helping to make the cookies, and seeing them getting mixed into the chocolate, he very quickly polished off the remaining seeds. (Exclaiming that he loved them all the while).

The cookies turned out pretty darn good. I loved the double chocolate base (cocoa powder AND chocolate chips, both were dark chocolate flavor) and I loved the little bursts of tartness from the pomegranate seeds. If I had any critique of the recipe, it would be that the cookies were a bit cakey for me...and it makes me wonder how these little fleshy seeds would be in an oatmeal-based cookie.

Tamlin and Brian thought the cookies were great. I'm surprised that any of the 3 dozen cookies lasted more than 3 days!

Wordless Wednesday - Brotherly Love

Watching Big Brother's antics...

Jude's new tricks

Hard to believe my littlest one is nearly...Nearly!...6 months old! I hold him in my arms and have already forgotten how small he once was. My heart still mellows out while I hold him close to me. I treasure the small moments of the day when I can just hold him, and love him, and just be his mom...Don't grow up too fast, my little Jude :-)

Awww...

What has the little Jude been up to?

• He's still in the screeching phase of communicating.
• He Loves being naked and squeals and giggles with delight when being changed into jammies at night.
• He has graduated to taking baths in the big tub, but either laying on his back or sitting in the baby bath seat. Often times, these baths are taken in tandem with big brother Tamlin.
• He has discovered his feet, and that they fit into his mouth. This has come about during his fun naked times :-)
• He has begun sitting up on his own for longer stretches...'round 20seconds at a time. I think he could sit longer, but he gets distracted by sounds, TV, or Tam and this tips him over.
• He has become really good a mini-push ups...but has NO desire to roll over in either direction.
• His reflux is still with him. We've just upped his dosage and he still has gurgling issues at night especially.
• He has begun to eat a bit more solids...at least one feeding a day, and more often two servings.
  
• He's chewing on EVERYTHING, and of course drooling like a mad man. This just means lots of wet shirts and keeping the binky attached at all times.
• He has discovered Tam's trucks, and that they fit in his little hands and into his mouth. Tam is not happy with this.

What a busy little guy!

New seat for Jude

Jude got to try out a new prospective on the world this past weekend. He's finally sitting up well enough to go into our larger back-back hiking carrier.

I LOVED using this carrier with Tamlin, because it puts all the little one's weight on the hips rather than pulling down on the shoulders. I knew that it would be great way to carry Jude and have our hands free to play with Tamlin.

I just really hoped that Jude liked the high view as much as Tam did at that age.

Oh. Yeah.

Jude loved it if the squeals were any indication. I placed him in the seat on the floor for a few photos before we all headed out the door on a quick walk to the nearby playground.

At first, Jude had to check out all the straps around him...and taste them out for flavor. He kicked his feet around a bit. Then twisted around to try to see everything...

Then, on our actual walk, Jude did great up there...only pulled my hair once and never got fussy :-) Tamlin loved that I was able to climb over the playground and not have to stay on the ground near Jude in the stroller (like usual).

Of course I had to dig out a photo of Tam in the carrier from way back when. Here he is at 5.5 months in late April 2009.