It's here!

Our Instagram collage canvas came today! We LOVE it! And yes, I Instagramed a photo of it.

He's Big

Paxton is big. At least when compared to his siblings at his age. At Paxton's two month check up (he's over 3 months old now), he was already 14lbs 1oz (between the 75th and 90th percentiles) and the twins were only 10lbs (Vivi) and 10lbs 7oz (Gavin) at that age. He's also really tall for his age, falling in the 75th percentile during his 2 month check up. This is big for us since Gavin and Vivian have never really passed the 60th percentile in anything, ever.

When people ask us how old he is and we respond with "3 months," the general response is, "Wow, he's big for three months." And I agree. Sometimes I look at him and think the same thing; especially when we're around other babies who are a few months older than him. 

I'm interested to see how his 4 month check-up plays out...

The Coolest Nursery Art Around

Since I started "designing" Paxton's nursery, I've been on the lookout for owl-, woods-, or outdoor-themed artwork for the walls. Then, as Wes was cleaning out my dad's old toolbox (that my mom brought down after she moved), he found a sketchbook- that was dated November, 1960! He showed it to me and I quickly realized that it was a collection of my Great Aunt Virginia's (one of my fav relatives) old charcoal/chalk drawings. SO FREAKING COOL.

And luckily for us, most of the drawings were of outdoor scenes. I immediately fell IN LOVE with them. I picked up a few frames from Walmart, matted the artwork, and hung them on the walls in Paxton's nursery.

The room is a bit of an odd shape; it's like an uppercase "L." Here's a diagram (that's totally NOT to scale) of his nursery:

I choose 4 drawings to frame and hang on the wall. Two went on the wall in between the closet and one of the windows and two went on the wall on the opposite side of the room. I absolutely LOVE it!

Here are the two on the wall in between the closet and one of the windows:

And here are the other two:

The best part is that there are even more drawings for my mom and sister to hang in their homes. It's pretty awesome that we can all have a little piece of Aunt Virginia hanging on our walls.

Click HERE to read even more about his Woodsy Owl nursery transformation. 

Cold Turkey

Wes and I have been putting off potty training the twins. Yes, I'm admitting it. We. Are. Lazy. Whoever said that having a potty-trained toddler is easier than having a diaper-wearing toddler was crazy. Diapers are so much easier. Yes, they're a lot more expensive, but much easier. For one, you don't have to jump up every 30 minutes to make your kid take a potty break. Second, you don't have to immediately stop whatever it is that you're doing to run to the bathroom when your kid claims that he or she is "about to pee!" And third, you don't have to worry about your kid peeing all over the floor in a public place. In many ways, I wish they could wear diapers until kindergarten.

Anywho, for a while, Gavin and Vivi actually weren't ready; so we didn't push it on them. Then Vivian was ready, but Gavin wasn't; so we put it off. Then, they both were ready, but I was on bed rest and we were about to have another baby, so we put it off some more.

Well four days ago, we went cold turkey. That's right we went from wearing diapers full-time and only using the potty here and there (literally here and there; I think they each had only peed in the potty a handful of times prior to this past weekend) to wearing panties and peeing in the potty full-time. We just told them, "we're going to wear panties now and you can't pee in your panties or you'll be all wet." They said "okay" and off we went! And for the most part, it's actually working! Gavin has only had three accidents in four days and Vivi has had two. I will say that they're still wearing diapers at night and at nap time, but all day long, they've been in Dora and Thomas the Train undies! It's kinda cool.

They're very excited about their new undies; talking about them several times a day to one another and to each other. And they were even more excited this morning when we told them that they got to wear their new undies to school (today was their first day at school sans diapers). This shit (pun intended) might actually work!

Now if we could just get them to quit those damn pacis cold turkey...

"He my Bruddy!"

Tummy Time

His Owl Mobile

I'm calling the theme of Paxton's nursery "Colorful Mod Woodsy Owls" or "Colorful Owls in the Woods" or "Sticks and Owls and Some Other Shit" or something like that.  The main colors are shades of blue and teal with pops of green, orange, and brown. As I wrote the other day, I've gone a bit owl-crazy and the mobile was the first big thing to be completely done. 

I got the idea for this mobile from Pinterest. Someone had pinned a picture of a light gray and yellow nursery with a "sweet woodland" theme (see photo to the left) and they had a large stick hanging from the ceiling as the mobile (you can see the full article about that nursery HERE). I took this idea and modified it a bit for Paxton's nursery.

First, Gavin, Vivian, and I went searching for a big tree branch in the back yard. Then, we cut it off the tree and picked off all of the leaves. We let it dry out on the front porch for a day or two and then I spray painted it Ivory.

I searched and searched for little owls that would look cute to hang from the tree branch and finally found an Etsy store that I LOOOVED! Fong Studio makes these incredibly colorful, ridiculously adorable stuffed owls. I ordered six mini owls in 12 fabrics that I picked out.

When they arrived in the mail earlier this week, I was in love. And I couldn't wait any longer to put it all together. Wes and Gavin hung the tree branch (we have plaster walls from the 1930s that require a significant amount elbow grease to puncture). And then Vivian and I picked where each owl would hang.

(And in case you were wondering: why does Paxton's nursery looks a lot like G and V's bedroom? It's because it is G and V's bedroom. Or at least it WAS their bedroom. I switched the twins into the spare room- which was slated to be the nursery- and put Pax in the twins' old bedroom. More on that switch in another post.)

Pre-Owls

Post-Owls

Pre-Owls

Post-Owls

I just love the way it turned out!

 

Click HERE to read even more about his Woodsy Owl nursery transformation.

Watching Cars on the Front Porch

Owl-Crazy

I've gone a little owl-crazy in Paxton's nursery. I know what some of you are thinking... "I thought you weren't going to really decorate the new baby's nursery?" You're right. I totally said that.

And then we had Paxton and I felt bad that the twins had a beautifully designed nursery (not to toot my own horn or anything, but "toot-toot"!) and Paxton had a nursery with a crib, hand-me-down bedding, a bookshelf with all of my overflow shit on it, and an old couch.

So I went a little crazy; owl-crazy. The full post about Paxton's nursery will come soon enough, but for now I thought I'd tease you with a pic of these AH-dorable owls that I ordered on Etsy which came in the mail today.

 I'm totally in love.

Just Goofing Around

Smith Mountain Lake ~ Part Four

Friday

Friday morning, we went to Smith Mountain Lake State Park to enjoy a bit of a "hike" through the woods (Okay, we call it a hike, but it's really a very short walk. Once we got to the water, we played there for a while and then just walked back to the car. There wasn't really any real "hiking" involved.). We did this last year and it was so much fun, so we did it again this year. This is also where we had Paxton's 11.5 week photo shoot (I knew the light would be perfect).

The first pic below is from last year and the second one is from this year. What a difference a year makes!

2011

2012

Love that clear water!

 

Gavin loved this stick. And throwing it.

 

Even though we told them several times that they were going to have to take their clothes off if they got wet (which we knew they would do), Vivian was still ridiculously unhappy when the inevitable actually happened (she whined about it the entire way home).

Then, the usual lunch and nap occurred. After nap, we went out to our dock to eat ice cream and swim for the last time. Tear.

 

Gavin got in the water first.

Wes and Vivian joined us while Pax lounged on the dock. We swam for a while before heading back inside for our last dinner at the lake.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we woke up, packed the car, and were on our way by 9:45. We had planned to go blueberry picking while we were at the lake, but the weather kept making it unmanageable (it rained the last three mornings we were there and the ground was too muddy). Saturday morning was our last chance and unfortunately, it rained all night long and into the morning. So we decided not to go. Maybe next year! 

It was a great vacation that we will definitely be doing again next year!