Momma's army

This child absolutely loves his brother. It is unreal to me that a person who is all of 2 years old can grasp the concept of how lucky he is to have a brother. If Jack cries he is the first on the scene. He is the paci police always near to place back in his mouth :: and take it off his hands if spits it back out:: He wants to "hold" and "carry"" Jack all the time. And insists on pushing with Momma's help his stroller. He is already protecting and loving him with such wild abandonment I can't help but be anything less than proud.

It's no secret I was on Team Pink at the beginning of this pregnancy. Honestly, my entire life I had wanted 3 or 4 kids until this past pregnancy. Once I entered into my third week of all day sickness with an 18 month old, I changed my tune. By the time I was admitted to the hospital with an acute kidney infection from severe dehydration as a result of all the throwing up I was all but begging God to bless us with pink so that I could send Craig straight to the urologist. I was so done with this making and baking a baby thing. But as usual God had other plans and as usual I was pissed... at first.

But, now I look at both my baby boys and think I not only can I not imagine not having at least one more. I am so thankful that these two boys have each other. At 25 months apart they will have many similar interests and it is my hope that they will grow up not just fighting but also loving each other. They have a built-in best friend. So in the words of a wise older women when I confessed that we were having another boy... "right now I am building my army" and eventually we will have princess for Daddy.

And it is really such an honor to be these little boys' Momma. 

What we have been up to...

There has been lots of sleeping from this little guy

And lots of eating

Some home improvements
New paint, new furniture arrangement

Does this pose look familiar? Must be genetic... my kids, they like to chill.

This little no BIG boy has been hilarious.
Please note the cap and stool... the rest of us were in seats. He claimed it and drug it over.

More home improvements. See ya later ugly wallpaper.
HELLO red walls underneath. It takes 2 coats of primer to cover that mess.

They love each other already. Best Friends in the making.

The hilarity of potty training

Potty Training is an interesting parental right of passage. As an adult you have condition yourself to not speak of the things that occur in the bathroom as it is consider in poor taste. Potty mouth is a common referral for someone who uses bad language so it becomes quite a change of pace to eat, sleep and breathe pee and poop.

EJ has always been a bit ahead of the curve. He is the typical first born with quite the independent streak that has spent the majority of his life in cloth diapers. I am pretty sure the cloth not only helped greatly with rash issues but also taught him early on what it felt like to be wet. Needless to say we hit 18 months and he started show interest in the potty. After some research I decided that for a boy he was most likely a bit young to head down that road but I went ahead and got a potty and basically just let it hang out in the bathroom.

When he wanted we let him sit on it we let him and thus began the constant dialogue of bathroom talk. Around 23 months he went full force into training. I totally let him take the lead and we were there for pee almost immediately. I knew that if I just pulled the pull-ups and left him big boy under ware we get there in a few days. My kid is smart and would ask for a pull-up to poop. But, with Jack arriving in less than a month I decided to wait. The likelihood of a regression was high and who needs that stress with a newborn, not me that is for sure.  

He did just as I expected and totally regressed about a week before Jack entered the world and I just left it. I have enough to deal with, we will revisit this fall. Well EJ had other plans and woke up one day this week and refused his pull-ups only wants his Cars under ware which he wears BACKWARDS so he can see the car. So here I am in the throws of potty training with a newborn. God sure does have a sense of humor. 

And this my friends was the result of timeout in his room for acting out while I was nursing Jack... 

You guessed it... that is poop everywhere. Thank goodness for hard wood floors. If that I had been carpet I might have had a meltdown.

He was pretty happy with the result, a mid-day bath. Its a good thing this kid is so darn cute.
Wish us luck... Potty or Bust!

He's here

On July 28, 2011 at 12:36pm after the easiest delivery in the world. 

Yes, this confirmed our plans that we in fact are not done making and baking babies.

Jackson Robert Holman joined our family. 

Weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and 22 inches long we were told that he was "large for his gestational age".
I wonder what another week of baking would have done to our already big man. It's good thing we decided it was in everyone's best interest to evict at 39 weeks and 1 day.

This child is a true joy and such an easy baby. Life for me is so much better this time. I think back to the struggles and baby blues of EJ's birth and thank God that I am not in that place this time.

We are rocking and rolling with the breast feeding. I already have tons of milk stashed and he is gaining weight like a rockstar. Pretty much everything is better this time around and I could not be more thankful.

More to come later. But I will leave you with this doll face. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?