Paxton's Six Month Check Up

Yesterday, Paxton had his six month check up.

He's still big.

And super cute.

Weight: 20lbs 14oz (95th percentile)

Length: 28 inches (95th percentile)

Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house in Harrisonburg again this year. The attendees included: my mom, Linda (Wes' mom), Ted (Wes' dad), Philip (Wes' brother), Courtney (Wes' brother's girlfriend), Renee (my second mom), Dave (my second dad), Sarah (my littlest fake sister), Geno (Sarah's boyfriend), and all five of us.

We played outside for a bit (the weather was unseasonably nice).

And we played some holiday games (just like last year). The first game was called "Get-the-cookie-from-your-forehead-to-your-mouth-first-without-using-your-hands-game." And it was incredible. Definitely the best Thanksgiving game we've done to date.

Linda, Ted, Geno, and Renee won the cookie game matches (we grouped three people together each time). Each winner got to pick a prize from the prize bin.

We also played "Thanksgiving Catchphrase," which was really fun as well. Renee and Dave won that one. Gavin and Vivian liked eating the cookies and running around like maniacs.

Dinner was great and the rest of the afternoon and evening were spent playing with the twins, eating dessert, taking pictures, and chatting. It was great.

 See you all again next year! 

The Air and Space Museum

The Air and Space Museum in D.C. has always been Wes' favorite. He went several times as a kid and for a summer when we lived in MD, we had a job where we were gum distributers (long story) outside of the museum for an entire summer. We lived in Indiana in 2007, but were married in Maryland and the day after our wedding, we went to the D.C. Mall to do some touristy things. A visit to the Air and Space Museum was at the top of our list of things to do. Anyways, Wes has always had an affinity for this D.C. museum and last weekend, while I took Vivian to Aunt Stephie's Girl Party (i.e. her baby shower), Wes got to take Gavin downtown with his mom, brother, and brother's girlfriend.

Wes was super-pumped. And so was Gav.

They got to ride the Metro.

And see all kinds of airplanes and spaceships.

And they got to eat lollipops.

Gavin was in love with it all. And completely exhausted. He fell asleep on the drive over to my mom's that night. More about last weekend to come...

Their Dad is Rad

And so are they.

They Play Together

 

  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Paxton is 6 Months Old

Today, our little Paxton Marshall is SIX months old. Where has the time gone? I distinctly remember this milestone with the twins. And I remember writing something like, "who ever said that time flies, never had twins." Because the first six months with Gavin and Vivian seemed to DRAG-THE-F-ON (and on and on and on). It took FOR-EV-ER to get through those first six. But with Pax, the time has FLOWN the hell by. Where did it go? I don't know. And that makes me sad. Tear.

Paxton is still a very happy baby (And yes, my fingers were crossed when I wrote that). He has a relatively consistent routine, he's easily soothed, he eats well, and he's happily entertained by Gavin and Vivian.

His favorite things these days are his doorway jumper, his elephant rattle, his brother and sister (but mostly Gavin for some reason), nursing, and eating his feet. He also loves tummy-time and he's even trying to get up on all fours already (just like Gavin). He's very good at spinning on his belly and rolling over (sometimes over and over and over again) to reach something that he wants. He's not sitting up on his own quite yet, but he loves to try! He likes to be naked (also like Gavin) and usually gets a little burst of energy when you change his diaper (he all like, "Oh! I'm naked! And I like it!"). He's also very smiley and giggly and squealy. He's quiet a lot of the time, but when he wants to make noise, he makes it. And it is LOUD.

 

While he's still nursing (we made it to SIX months!), we started introducing him to solids the last 3 or 4 weeks. His favorites so far are green beans, bananas, and oatmeal with bananas and raspberries. Here's a video of the very first time he ate something other than breast milk:

Happy 6 Month Birthday, Pax! 

We love you to pieces!

Aunt Stephie's Girl Party

We went to MD this past weekend. We did A LOT! One of the events on Saturday was Stephanie's baby shower. I had been telling Vivian for weeks that when we went to Maryland, she and I were going to go to a "girl party" while Wes and Gavin hung out with Grandma and Paxton hung out with GG. Vivi was ecstatic from the get-go. She talked about it frequently and was very excited any time I brought it up.

A couple of days before we went, I made the mistake of calling the party a baby shower. This threw Vivian into a fit about not wanting to wash her hair at the party. It took a lot of explaining for her to believe that there was not going to be a tub or any water at the party.

We left Harrisonburg very early Saturday morning, I dropped off Wes and Gavin at Grandma's house (post about their festivities to come), dropped off Paxton at GG's house, and headed over to the shower. Of course I got lost on the way there and was late, which sucked because I was one of the hosts! Everything was already set up and most of the guests had already arrived by the time I got there (about 30 minutes late), but all was good in the world when I saw Steph glowing in her beautifully beautiful pregnantness.

The shower was nicely decorated in grey, white, navy, and green (which are the colors of baby's nursery), with a candy bar, a milk and cookies bar, and framed artwork and little trinkets for Steph to put in her nursery after the party. Oh yeah, and she got a shit-ton of gifts.

Vivian was an angel. She didn't whine, cry, sass, or talk back once during the entire 4-hour party. And that's not all. Not only did she not misbehave, but she was actually on her absolute best behavior the entire time, being comfortable in a room full of strangers about 5 minutes after we arrived (for the first 20 minutes or so, she only knew me and Stephanie, then she still only knew the two of us, Brandy and April), greeting guests with Steph as they arrived at the front door, helping Steph by bringing her gifts to open, sitting quietly when asked, eating healthy food without being bugged about it, being comfortable with me walking around without her or even leaving the room, talking to people when they spoke to her (i.e. not being shy at all), and generally just charming the pants off everyone at the party. She was incredible. And mature. And not a brat. Did I mention that she did all of this with no nap? Well, she did. I was so proud of her.

Here are a few shots of Vivian being the present helper:

She took this job VERY seriously.

Of course, I made Steph take a photo with every single one of her guests. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

It was an excellent party for an incredible mama-to-be!

And here are a few photos of Vivian I stole from another hostess at the party: