South Carolina 2012

May 16, 2012 by kelly

Last week, we had the pleasure of spending time with our family in South Carolina. While the travel there makes for a long day, it was sure worth it to see everyone for a few days!

This was our first time purchasing a seat for Beatrice on the plane. She did a great job despite having to wake her at 4:30 in the morning to make it to the airport and having a long flight during which we were not able to get up out of our seats much.

On our way!

Needless to say, Grandma Barbara and Gregory were a much welcomed sight upon arrival to the airport! We got the luggage and made it to the car. First stop: Chik-fil-A! YESSSS!

First Chik-fil-A as a family of four

We made it back before it was too late that night, but clearly misjudged the impact our travel would have on our children. Grandma had set everything up perfectly for us! She had special toys and books for Beatrice and our room was so nice. We figured we’d let everyone settle in for a bit and then we’d put them down to sleep and we could hang out and chat. While Beatrice was up early and didn’t nap much all day, she was not ready for bed! She was ready for fun! Yikes. This pattern continued most of our visit. Needless to say, we spent much longer getting everyone to sleep for naps or bed time than we expected. While this diminished our ability to get out and sight see during the day, we were able to spend some good time with family. And that’s what our visit was all about!

Sam hanging out with Grandma

It was nice and warm, so we were able to play outside an awful lot:

Beatrice on the trail with Grandpa

 

Sidewalk Chalk

 

Walking with Grandma at the Garden

 

Of course, there was also lots of reading:

Reading with Aunt N

 

Reading with Aunt H

 

Sam got his fair share of snuggles and fun time as well:

Samuel with Uncle Eli and Jessica

 

Playing with Daddy

 

Samuel and Uncle Gregory

 

Jonathan and I were even able to get out for a couple of dates during out trip! What fun!

All in all, Beatrice and Samuel did a great job traveling. I continue to be thankful for their sweet, adventuresome natures and for Jonathan who is an amazing husband and dad! We had a great time visiting family and only wish we could see them more often!

1 Comment / Posted in Beatrice, family, fun, Samuel, travel

Samuel is Three Months Old!

April 27, 2012 by kelly

Three Months Old

Wow, these last three months have really gone by quickly!

Samuel, you are an absolute joy! You have the biggest grin and you smile often. It is such a blessing to have you! At three months of age, you are sleeping pretty consistently. You have two good naps each day and often snooze a bit in the bouncy seat in the afternoon. I think you’d sleep more, but you’re so darn happy to be around your sister, that you won’t close your eyes for more than a few minutes once her nap is over.

Your Daddy’s nickname as a baby was “Super Pooper” and you are following right in his footsteps! Since Super Pooper is already taken, I call you the King of Crap or the Prince of Poop. Seriously. It’s amazing.  I had an adorable outfit for you on Easter Sunday and you wore it for about 90 minutes. Most of this time was spent in the car on the way to church. Not long after our arrival, it was evident you needed a freshy and not only did you need a diaper, you needed a new everything. *Sigh* Between your blow-out and your sister tripping in her new shoes and bloodying her face, we were  not really the picture-perfect Easter family I’d imagined. We still had a great day! You spent most of the day snoozing. In fact, you spent quite a bit of the afternoon sleeping on your Papa:

Snoozing with Papa

 

You’ve officially moved into the 3-6 month size clothing and I look at some of the little things you wear and your Daddy and I talk about how amazingly fast you’ve grown! You are a good eater and that makes me really happy!

You had your first Sunday in the nursery this last week and it seems you did well. I was very nervous because you tend to enjoy time in my presence and uh, not so much being away from me. Since holding you and Beatrice is really high up on the list of things I like to do, I don’t mind in the slightest that you have a preference for my attention. I am glad, however, that you did okay and I know that those nursery workers will love having you with them each week just as they did with your sister.

We sure love you, Samuel! What a blessing you are to our family!

Big Smiles!

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How to Make the Perfect Cup of Coffee

April 21, 2012 by jonathan

One of my husbandly responsibilities is making the morning coffee on the weekends. It’s not a responsibility I take lightly. Making good coffee is an art

I remember the first time I drank really good coffee. I was working at Lockheed Martin at the time, drinking some sort of stale, ashen brew twice a week from the local coffee stand because I liked walking to the coffee stand with my co-workers. I sipped the scalding hot beverage gingerly and dumped packets of sugar and artifical creamer into it until it was vaguely palatable.

The guy who sat across from me rarely came with us. He had his own coffee pot in his office, and he brought a little baggie of ground coffee with him in the morning. One morning, he offered me a cup of his brew. What the heck, I thought. “Sure.” He poured the coffee into a ceramic mug and set it on my desk.

I didn’t have my own stash of cream and sugar. I’d have to take it straight. I tilted the mug and prepared myself for another assult of the ashen bitterness I’d associated with the beverage.

Instead, a rich, roasty flavor ensued. It was kind of nutty and not exactly sweet but certainly not bitter, strong but not overpowering. So good! Why didn’t all coffee taste like this? I was hooked.

Since that day, I’ve taken my coffee straight and made it a point to drink the good stuff when I can. Life is short! Here’s what I’ve learned about making a really good cup of coffee.

Buying Beans

Coffee may be 99% water, but most of what you’re going to taste is the beans. Buying good beans is the first step to making good coffee. Here are some things to look for when you’re buying beans:

Buy whole beans. Always remember: oxygen is the enemy of good coffee. Oxygen, while necessary for things like breathing, is very bad for your beans. Actually, it’s very bad for almost everything–it’s highly reactive, meaning lots of different chemicals react when exposed to it. The less exposure to oxygen your bean gets, the less stale the coffee is going to taste. Grinding your beans mean exposing lots more of their surface area to the air, and that means that ground beans get stale way faster than whole beans.

Don’t buy whole beans in bulk. I know, it’s tempting. They’re cheaper that way! But, again: they’re almost guaranteed to be stale. They’re just sitting there in the open air for days.

Buy beans in bags that have a one-way degassing valve. Whoa!I can hear you thinking. Where can I find one of those? That sounds too fancy for the proles to afford! Never fear; here’s the scoop: most bags of beans already have these. It’s just cleverly disguised.

See that little circle? Most bags of beans have them; look for the subtle circular indentation near the top of the bag if you can’t see it. It’s often cleverly hidden. That one-way valve lets the natural gases given off by the coffee escape without letting any air from the outside in. Bags without that valve probably aren’t airtight or contain coffee so stale it’s chemically inert. Avoid them.

Buy beans that smell good. Doesn’t sound scientific, right? Well, a surprising amount of what you perceive as taste in your mouth is actually generated by your nose. If the coffee smells amazing, it’s got a good shot at tasting delicious, too. Do what I do when no one else is in the grocery store aisle: put your nose up near that secret valve you just learned about and give that bag a little squeeze while you inhale. AHhhhh! It’s almost as good as a real cup of coffee!

Look for 100% Arabica beans. There are two main types of coffee trees: Arabica and Robusta. Predictably, one of them makes delicious, delicate coffee and is very picky about where it grows; the other one makes strong, awful coffee but basically grows like a dandelion. Arabica is the good one. Only really cheap whole bean coffee makers would dare to sneak any Robusta beans into your bag. Robusta beans are for processed food, instant coffee, and undiscerning consumers.

Store beans in a nearly airtight container. Once you’ve opened the bag, those beans are going to start getting a little stale. You can slow the process by keeping the bag shut tightly or putting the beans in something that is almost airtight. It’s totally unnecessary to freeze them.

Buy fair-trade organic coffee if you can afford it. Coffee is grown in parts of the world where people still aren’t treated very well and many farmers earn less than they need to live. Fair-trade coffee is more expensive, but the small additional price you pay translates into a tremendous difference in the lives of people who are growing and harvesting the coffee. And happy farmers make good coffee.

This is the part where you expect me to tell you what roast to get. I’m not going to, because everyone likes a different kind. Try a few! I’d just recommend steering clear of the darker roasts (i.e. French Roast) because they’re a little harder to brew correctly, and they’ll taste like a cup full of ash if you get it wrong.

OK, now you’ve got a bag of delicious-smelling, whole-bean, ethically-sourced coffee. Now what?

Grinding the Beans


Getting the right grind is important. If you grind your beans too much, you will wind up with a bitter, overextracted brew. Too little and you’ll waste beans and the result will be watery.

Grind right before you brew. Remember, air is bad for your coffee! Griding exposes lots more of the bean’s surface area to the air, meaning that the coffee will get stale much faster. If you must pre-grind, at least put them in an airtight ziploc or something immediately after grinding.

Use a burr grinder if you have one. A burr grinder produces more evenly sized coffee grounds and most will let you dial in the size of grounds you want.

If you don’t have a burr grinder, grind for ~10 seconds and shake vigorously while grinding so that you don’t wind up with half the beans turning into coffee dust while the other half are still big enough to masquerade as chocolate chips at the pantry Chrismtas party. Blade grinders are all different, so you’ll have to use your best judgement. You probably used ground coffee for a while–grind until the grounds look about like the pre-ground stuff.

As a rule of thumb, you want to grind the coffee very fine for espresso, medium for drip coffee, and coarse for a French press.

Brewing!

Ah, here were go! The best part! Except for drinking. Drinking is the best part. But you have to brew before you can drink. I’m assuming you’re using a drip coffee maker here.

Use fresh, cold water. Here’s why: hot water might get you your coffee faster, but it picks up all kinds of nasty stuff in the hot water heater and hot water pipes. That water tastes terrible (and in some places might even be bad for you). Let the water run cold for thirty seconds or so and then fill the pot.

Use a permanent filter or an unbleached filter. Those snowy white filters that come in 1000 packs aren’t made from snowy white trees–they are bleached white, and some of the dioxins from the bleaching process can get into your coffee. Dioxins don’t taste good, and they’re not very good for you either. Just say no to dioxins.

Use about 2tbsp of coffee grounds per cup. This is the golden standard, but it makes pretty strong coffee. Experiment and find what works best for you. Keep in mind that what you think of as a “cup” is an American-sized mug, but your coffee maker (and probably the rest of your coffee-related items) thinks a “cup” is much smaller, about half the size of that mug of yours.

Help! I ruined it!

If your coffee tastes too bitter and acidic (this is pretty common) it usually means that you’re overextacting the flavor from the beans. Beans are like a cup of coffee with sludge on the bottom: they taste great at first but if you keep on draining them after a certain point you’ll be really sorry.

  1. Try grinding the beans slightly coarser.

  2. Try using a lighter roast.
  3. Try using slightly more beans in combination with the above two. Remember, it might be tasting terrible because you’re overusing the beans you have.
  4. Add a lot of milk and sugar.

If your coffee tastes too watery:

  1. Try grinding the beans slightly finer.

  2. Try using more beans.
  3. Try imagining that you’re just drinking hot water, and instead it tastes too much like coffee.

Milk and Sugar

My beautiful wife taught me how to gauge the perfect amount of milk to put into coffee. Start pouring it in and when you see the white plumes start appearing on the surface of the cup, stop pouring. Ta-da!

As for sugar, a rounded teaspoon full. Done.

The Delivery

As with many foods, coffee tastes much better when the presentation is correct. In our house, Beatrice and I often make the weekend coffee together. When it is presented to Kelly, the correct form of presentation is:

*Hand Momma the coffee*

Good morning, Momma! We love you!

A lousy cup of coffee presented correctly can still in fact taste delicious.

Those are all my tips. I hope you’ve learned at least one thing that will help you make a better cup of joe. Happy quaffing!

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The Good Life

April 13, 2012 by kelly

Yesterday was a real stinker in the short history of my parenting. We had a fine, fun morning and were ready to go almost on time to a playdate. I wasn’t feeling super rushed, since it’s not as if a playdate has an agenda, and both children were in a great mood. We were going over to the home of our group leader for Moms’ group and her daughter is only a few days younger than Beatrice, so I thought it would be really fun.

We arrive to the house and it’s set-up perfectly with toys of every  type. Samuel was sleeping, so I got to interact with the other moms for a bit and play with Beatrice. She generally has a difficult time when there are many toys out, but she did a great job finding some little characters to play with and was making up a story. Ten minutes or so later, I was nursing Sam….then changing him, then I noticed Beatrice over in a corner and realized she needed to be changed as well, then Sam wanted to eat again….blah blah. I basically spent most of the time changing or feeding someone. But that’s how life goes sometimes and we were all still having a good time of it. Until a little duck toy was brought out. My child was not interested in how the game was played, she wanted all of the ducks either on the pond or off of the pond and NOBODY else could play with them. She was sobbing, she was snotty, she was practically hysterical over these ducks. Damn ducks. I said it. Damn ducks. In a way that can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit’s presence, I lovingly took Beatrice over to the stairs and tried to calm her down while explaining the game. She got even more upset. She was slobbering and snotting all over this lovely home and she wouldn’t calm down. She didn’t want to be on my lap. She didn’t want me to set her down. She only wanted whatever was not happening at that time. She was so worked up that we just had to leave. It was awful. What’s even more awful is that the other child who is almost exactly Beatrice’s age not only is equally verbal, but is also doing the physical things Beatrice isn’t quite at yet, played a mini piano recital for us, AND she’s potty trained! I felt like a horrible excuse for a mother.

We make it out to the car and I’m able to get Beatrice calmed down a bit. We have a chat while still parked in the driveway and talk about how she doesn’t get ALL of the duckies in the world. The Lord created many, many duckies and they are for everyone to enjoy and anytime a toy or game stops being fun, we are going to take it away or leave. I was still stewing over the whole situation and feeling horrible as we drove home. We needed to go to the grocery store, but I knew that if we were to do that she’d ask for a cookie from the bakery and the last thing I wanted to do was give her a treat. So I did the only thing I could think to do. I drove the long way home. With the children napping in the backseat, I stopped at Jonathan’s office and asked him to come out for a minute (which he graciously did!). He took the grocery list and gave me a kiss and reassured me that our child wasn’t going to be a toddler forever. She napped for three glorious hours! The rest of the day was full of similar tantrums and hysterics….bah!

This morning, she woke up and is her usual self. We had breakfast. We sang songs while I cleaned up and I looked over at her and said, “You know Beatrice, this is the good life! If anyone asks you, this is what it looks like.” and she smiled back at me. We colored and painted while Samuel napped. I put Samuel into the sling and we tromped around outside for a bit. She cracked me up when she came into the kitchen with her froggy backpack on her head. Sam had a blow-out, so I changed his shirt and they were now matching. She agreed to photos with him! She held his hand and said she loved him. She is the daughter I’ve always wanted….

Hilarious

"We love each other!"

As I was getting Beatrice changed before her nap, I was reminded that her problems right now might seem really horrible, but I get the privilege of controlling the things to which she is exposed. Her tantrums are horrible and embarrassing and I hate them, yes. I’m worried about her treating people kindly, of course, and that will be a life-long issue, but right now I don’t worry about what’s she’s seeing on the Internet or if someone is mean to her while I’m not there or if someone’s offering her drugs or if the pressures of college are overwhelming her, or if someone is trying to take advantage of her people-pleasing attitude in the workplace. Right now, we are in toddler tantrum bliss. It really is The Good Life. But please, don’t invite us over to play.

2 Comments / Posted in Beatrice

First Braid!

April 12, 2012 by kelly

Beatrice’s hair is a bit out of control. It’s not long enough yet for her to tuck it behind her ears, so it’s just kind of wild and in her face. She looks like a child of the eighties with her side-ponytail all the time, but it’s honestly the best option for her most days. On a wild hair, I asked her if she’d like me to give her a braid. “A brain? Yes, please! Brain! Brain!” was her response. No, she is not a zombie. But she is hilarious.

Braided Hair!

She did a great job sitting still. She tried so hard to keep from moving, which is quite the feat for a toddler! The end result isn’t too bad, either. I love this girl!

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We Got a Dog!

April 10, 2012 by kelly

Meet Biscuit: he’s a sparkly orange dachshund who loves playing in a measuring cup, sitting on the ottoman, and running around in Beatrice’s hand. He is the perfect pet for us:

Kisses from Biscuit

A couple of months ago, Beatrice received some pencils from a friend. These are proper pencils which require a pencil sharpener to make them useful. Sadly for her (and us!), we were not in possession of a pencil sharpener. While we were at the store two weeks ago, I remembered to get a pencil sharpener and thought I’d splurge on the fancy one (the dog-shaped sharpener was twenty cents more than the standard one, but I thought it’d be fun to use). Beatrice was delighted to find this in the bag while she helped me put away the groceries. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to let her carry it around for a bit, so that’s just what she did. Then she asked me to take it out of the package, and now he’s pretty much officially her pet dog.

Dog lover

Since I’m paranoid about Beatrice injuring herself with the pencil sharpener portion of her new “pet”, I have covered it with tape. And no, I haven’t sharpened any pencils yet. I’d say we’ve still gotten our money’s worth out of the $1.29 I spent!

1 Comment / Posted in Beatrice, family, fun

Samuel is Two Months Old!

April 9, 2012 by kelly

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to keep up with the documentation of this nature, especially since there are some adorable photos involved!

Two Months Old!

Samuel, at two months, you weigh 11lbs, 4oz and are 22.2″ long. You are in the 25th percentile for everything, which is just right. For some reason, although you’re in the 25th percentile, you’re flying through the clothing! You’re almost too big for the 0-3 month size clothing, so I’ve been preparing the 3-6 month items for you.

You usually wake up just once at night, often around 3:30, and you nurse and then you frequently think it’s time to be up for the day! While this is frustrating for me after spending the daytime hours trying to keep you and your sister fed, clean and happy, I cannot resist talking with you and watching you smile-for an hour or so. Then I wake up your Daddy and “let” him take over.  Both you and your sister fall asleep much more quickly with him than me. I’m so glad you love us both so much! Your eyes just light up when your Daddy comes home for the day and you and Beatrice both like things best when all four of us are together. Speaking of Beatrice, you are her biggest fan! You smile at her, follow her with your eyes, and generally think she’s hilarious most of the time. I have a feeling you’ll be following her around for many years to come.

You got to meet your Aunt Rachel this month and to say it was love at first sight would probably be the perfect cliche! You really enjoyed having her hang out with us and hold you and talk with you. You laughed for the first time while she was talking and it was adorable!

Samuel and Aunt Rachel

You are the perfect addition to our family, sweet boy. We love you heaps!

Little Smile

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Beatrice’s Farm Birthday Party

March 23, 2012 by kelly

For her birthday, Beatrice and I had some “girl time” and went to the party store where she got to pick any theme she wanted. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make homemade invitations for this year’s event, but I still wanted to do what she liked and make sure it was fun. She selected a farm animal party, which was just perfect for her! We bought invitations, plates, and a few other decorative items, but most of the decorations were things we already had at home. (They were similar to these.) For her cake, I found this barn cake and animal cupcakes idea on bettycrocker.com and just modified it with what we had or what I could do. Shopping for bulk candy with a toddler and an infant just didn’t seem like a great idea and I didn’t like the look of the sheep. Overall, this was really easy to do and didn’t take as long as I expected. One of our sheep is bald because it decided to make a suicide attempt as I was putting everything into the refrigerator. Its baldness indicated which cupcake I needed to keep out of distribution!

 

For the party itself, we had a pretty simple menu of snacks and then we sat in the living room and sang a few rounds of Old MacDonald Had A Farm together. Our family dressed the part in plaid shirts, which was great! Beatrice got to wear her ducky dress and she picked a giant chick balloon to accentuate the decorations. She was delighted with the whole thing!  It was just perfect.

After her party, she took the chance to be outside and test out her new fishing pole!

Happy Birthday, Beatrice! We’re so thankful for you and excited to see what this next year will bring!

1 Comment / Posted in Beatrice, birthday

Beatrice is Two Years Old

March 18, 2012 by kelly

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Having two little ones is busy and frankly, by the end of the day I do not have the time or energy to blog about what’s been happening around here. However, we had a very special day on Thursday. Beatrice turned two!

To start the day, she awoke with a cold, which was a bit of a bummer, but things like that happen. When I asked her what she’d like for breakfast, she said, “cupcakes!” to which I responded, “Cupcakes will be after dinner, how about oatmeal?” Thankfully (for her), she agreed that oatmeal was a good idea for breakfast.  After Jonathan left for work, the morning was a bit crazy, but we managed to get ourselves together and head down to A-town for some birthday fun at my parents’ house. Meama made some of Bea’s favorites for lunch: turkey meat, carrots, cucumber slices, grapes, and cheese. When Beatrice saw that there were a few gifts wrapped for her, she said, “Oh, I’m so excited!” which was adorable. She got three new books (which fit nicely into the bookshelf Meama made her!).

After lunch, we headed home and both children napped, which afforded me the opportunity to get a few things done around the house. After her nap, Beatrice again asked for cupcakes, but I distracted her with some books and coloring until Jonathan returned home from work. We enjoyed pizza together for dinner and she finally got her cupcake!

A very happy girl!

For her birthday, we set up her “big girl” room. After watching Jonathan paint the room and hearing us talk about it, she was very excited to see everything put together. (Don’t think anything fancy here, folks. She’s two. Her room right now is a bed, dresser, bookshelf and curtains. She is delighted with it!) We were initially planning to ease her into the toddler bed, but she refused to sleep in her crib that night. Preparing for the worst, we let her try to sleep in her bed. It surely did not take her longer to fall asleep than usual and we didn’t hear a peep from her until the next morning!

Two Years Old

Beatrice, at two years old, you enjoy coloring, drawing, reading books, telling stories, singing, being outside, going to school, helping to cook, and spending time with your family. You blow us away with your ability to remember details. You can identify all the capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet and know most of the corresponding letter sounds.  You are pretty good at counting, though you tend to get carried away and just keep going when counting objects on a page. You easily identify colors and often say “Momma’s wearing a red shirt” during the day.

You are starting to ask for things more politely and it is nice to hear “Momma, may I have a cup of milk, please?” rather than, “you want some milk! You want some milk!” though you still yell the latter fairly regularly.

You are getting brave and it’s scaring the dickens out of me. I swear it is as if you woke up on your birthday with a desire to test out how strong your mother’s will to protect you really is. You started climbing on furniture, testing electrical currents, and walking backward at a brisk pace all on the same day.

You like all animals, but you are especially fond of Tug Boy, Frankie Dog, Chewie and Thelma the cat. You regularly ask to read farm books or to see photos of animals.

You love to read! This makes your mom and dad really happy! Right now, your favorites are: Frog and Toad books, Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever , Biscuit the Dog books, Search and Find books, Dr. Seuss books (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat,  and Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose are your current faves), and the Little Book of Farmyard Tales.

Reading in bed in the morning

You still love ducks. Your Meama made you a special duckie quilt for your big girl bed and I think this is part of the reason you love sleeping there so much! We often have Big Duckie, Teeny Tiny Duckie, and your duckie blanket with us as we’re running errands. It’s adorable.

You have started to realize that your brother is not going to leave. When I ask you, you will tell me that you like being a big sister and you love Baby Samuel, but you often act as if the world will end if I don’t put him down so I can pick you up. This is very tricky for me and causes my Momma heart to cry out because I feel so sad that you’re upset. As a general rule, you are a wonderful big sister. You give Samuel kisses and pat him on the head, you do tummy time with him so he knows what to do, you rock his carseat or bring him toys if he’s upset, and you like to help me swaddle him.

Tummy Time

Sweet girl, we are so thankful for you! Two years ago, I was worried about you reaching milestones and gaining weight and now I find myself praying that your heart is protected and that you grow up to be a young lady who makes decisions prayerfully, who isn’t afraid to learn or be viewed as intelligent, who sees herself as a miracle and treats others the same, and be gracious and graceful. We love you, Beatrice. Happy Birthday!

1 Comment / Posted in Beatrice, birthday, photo

Samuel is One Month Old

February 28, 2012 by kelly

The photo below cracks me up because I was desperately trying to get Samuel’s photo taken on his actual one month birthday so he wouldn’t feel like he was the forgotten second child. It was Jonathan’s first day back to work. Sam’s making a weird face. You can’t see it, but Beatrice is in the background playing with two mylar balloons because it was the crazy time of night just before supper when Momma gives in more than usual. It is the perfect photo to capture the current wonderful and busy life that is going on around here!

Samuel, it’s hard to believe that one month ago, we were still dreaming of what you might look like. You fit into our family just so perfectly and we are very thankful that the Lord continued to do His great work of creating you even when it seemed that you might not end up so perfectly perfect. And you are, sweet son, perfectly perfect. Every inch of you is perfectly made. Like your sister before you, we look at you and see how the Lord has crafted you in such a beautiful way, it makes me tear up a bit. Also, I like that you look like me. I can’t lie. I LOVE that you look like me!

At one month, you weight 9lbs, 30z and are in about the 50th percentile for everything. You’ve flown right out of those newborn clothes and are sporting some great 0-3 month options these days. Your sister prefers it when you wear clothing with ducks. She also likes that you are willing to nap in your bassinet because this means she can have one on one time with Momma during the day. We are so happy to see you growing and thriving! You are giving us some great looks lately and while we thought you wouldn’t be as verbal as your sister (everyone tells us boys aren’t as verbal!), you have some very serious conversations with us during the evening hours after Beatrice is sleeping. You have quite a bit to say!

We’re still working on mastering the art of the diaper change around here. You are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got enough laundry detergent to keep up with the demand for clean outfits!

Samuel, you and your sister are such blessings to us. Your Daddy and I love the moments when we get to gaze across the crazy room at each other and smile about the crazy, wonderful time we’re having!

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