Christian's Birthday

The weekend before last was filled with much celebrating. Brian and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Oct. 9th (I know, I can't believe it either). And Christian turned 3 the following day. Grandma and Grandpa Pabst were wonderful enough to come stay with all 3 of the boys on Friday night, the night of our anniversary, so that we could go out to dinner. Then they stayed over and helped us celebrate Christian's birthday on Saturday. I had planned to have a party at the park, then it was supposed to be quite cold, so we moved it to our house. When the morning of his party arrived, the sun was shining, and it felt pretty nice, so we moved the party back to the park. Somehow it felt much colder when we actually got to the park! We ended up crammed around a little bitty picnic table and trying to keep the babies out of the wind and cold. Everyone is probably a little annoyed with me for asking them to endure the cold, but I know that Christian had fun...and that's what matters (I'm pretty sure "Uncle Eric" had fun, too.) Unfortunately, I was holding Justin most of the time, trying to keep him warm - so I did not get to take any pictures. I'll have to get a picture of Christian on his Hot Wheels motorcycle. He loves that bike.
We still haven't pinned down Christian's personality. He is an enigma, and has been since he was born. One thing we know for certain - he is much smarter than he lets on. He is a whiz at puzzles and sorting/matching things. He still loves to listen to music (particularly Baby Einstein), paint, and do any kind of art work. He is super independent, but he can be very whiny and needy at times, too. He can count to 20 and is very close to being able to read. He can name all of the planets in the solar system, and he has memorized a repertoire of at least 10 books, most of which are either Sandra Boynton or Mo Willems...his favorite authors. His sense of humor is downright weird. He is small for his age, but moves very, very fast (just ask Grandma about the corn maze!). His favorite thing to do in the morning when he first wakes up is to snuggle on the couch under a blanket with Mommy or Daddy while watching a Baby Einstein movie. I wish I had time for more of these moments. He is still our little "Dimple Britches".

Here are some recent pics of the boys. Justin is growing fast. He is so much bigger than either Grant or Christian were at this age. He will be five months on Nov. 1st, but he already fits comfortably into many 6-9 month clothes. He is over 15 pounds, and over two feet long. (I don't have exact stats because his 4-month checkup got postponed because his doctor had a sick child the day of his appointment).
He slept through the night for the first time last night, and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning. Way to go, Justin! Keep it up! He is a great baby - very smiley and giggly.
~Andi


Go Mizzou! Beat Nebraska! Well, at least we beat them for 3 out of 4 quarters. We can blame Brian for the loss since he chose to be obnoxious and wear his Cornhuskers sweatshirt that day.

Justin loves to play peek-a-boo with his burp cloth. Here he is playing his favorite game.

Grant and Christian enjoy Justin's floor gym as much as he does!

The 3-Month Old

Not much time...just a few pictures and updates.
Justin is now 3 months! He is a happy and healthy baby. He loves to smile, talk, play, take baths, be outside, and (of course) eat. He sleeps pretty well now, too. He will go 4 or 5 hours at a time at night. I couldn't ask for a better baby. My one complaint is pretty small: although he sleeps fine in his bed at night, he does not like to nap there. If we can get him to take a nap in his crib, it is usually very short. On the other hand, he loves to nap in his swing. He will take 2 or 3 hour naps in that swing, even with chaos going on all around him. Here he is fast asleep in his favorite napping spot.

For the first month of his life, Justin hated bathtime. Now he really seems to like it. He has even figured out how to splash, which he thinks is a lot of fun.


Justin was wearing this baseball outfit one day, and Grant (the baseball fan) had to take some pictures of Justin. So these were taken by Grant:

Here is a picture of Justin smiling. This is what he looks like much of the time, even though the pictures do not reflect it. For some reason, when the camera comes out, his smile goes away. I don't think he likes the flash.

More about Justin

I thought I'd add a little to what Andi posted; there's much more to the story of this little boy.

In the past couple weeks Justin has began to show some personality. He's becoming interested in things like kicking his bouncer to get the bubbles going. He's beginning to respond to being played with. But most notably he is turning into a TERRIBLE little flirt. He is learning that Mommy responds very positively to big smiles and lots of soft, sweet, adorable baby talk. He goos and coos at her while trying out his many different smiles. He is learning to work eyebrow movements into his expressions for added emphasis and expression; and Andi is absolutely eating it up. I'm sure most of you think Andi is far too practical to be affected by such silly things as flirting, but, take it from a man who knows, that could not be further from the truth. If this keeps up that little boy is gonna get away with murder when Daddy's not around....

2 Months Gone in a Flash

It seems every time I think I have enough time to sit down and add to our blog, a baby or a child wakes up and needs to be changed or fed or played with or snuggled. But somewhere in the midst of changing, feeding, burping, and rocking Justin, he turned into a really fun (and really cute) 2-month old. Yesterday he had his 2-month well check and immunizations. He was such a good boy for the doctor, and he is as healthy as he can be. He checked in at 23.5 inches long and 12 pounds, 12 ounces...up 3 inches and 5 pounds since his birth. He seems so big that I was surprised to hear that his weight is only 50th percentile. He is already outgrowing many of his 0-3 month clothes, but he also seems to have outgrown his colicky phase (fingers crossed that it's not just temporary). He is a much happier baby these last couple weeks. He's still not sleeping great at night, but 3 to 4 hours at a time sure beats the 1 or 2 hour stretches he was sleeping.

Justin's starting to stir. It will soon be feeding time once again. I'd better wrap this up and make sure it will save to our blog. I attempted to publish this same blog yesterday, but got an error message and couldn't even save what I had written. So frustrating because I just don't feel like I have any time to waste right now...and that was time wasted. I'll close with some pictures of Justin from the last 2 to 3 weeks.
Andi

Exorcising Demons......

I PASSED!!!!!!! I GOT MY C!!!!!!!!! PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTYYYYYYYYY TIME!!!!!!!

Another session down....

Tonight was the final of my college algebra class. I think I did ok. I needed a C in the class to continue having a prayer of being able to graduate in December. At this point I don't know any more if I will or not. I feel like it's out of my hands. The right four classes must be offered at the right times, and a couple other things must happen as well. Most colleges are known for completely screwing their seniors however they can to milk that one extra semester (or two) out of them, and I have no reason to believe this school is any different. In fact, quite the contrary.

Things at home are moving along. Justin's in a race to see who can grow out of Christian's clothes first- him or Christian. He's starting to coo and smile and interact with those around him a little when he's in the right mood. He's also learning that he can do simple things like kick at his fish on his bouncer.

Christian is rapidly developing and refining his language skills. He's becoming easier to understand, and you can see his brain racing beyond the limits of his speech. Unfortunately he is also mimicking facial expressions and verbal behaviors, and he's sadly learning an awfully lot from his Daddy. If any of you ever think looking into a mirror is cruel, have a child; you'll see a reflection of yourself in many new ways.

Grant's continuing to enjoy being the oldest son. He feels useful and empowered. He knows that he's a leader and he revels in it, although sometimes he goes too far and gets taken down a peg. He is HIGHLY competitive- something his parents never take advantage of....of course not...that wouldn't be right..................

Andi's unthinkably amazing. There's not much else I can say. She carries on day after day, despite sleeping in bursts and having a motor that rarely winds down. And the most wonderous part is that through it all she still puts up with me...

And here we have our first video post. If this works out well, there will be MANY more to come; both new videos and even some old ones I have stored away, if they come with a good story to tell.

This video was taken this past week. I think it speaks for itself.