Wenzel: Party of 4!

Being a mom of 2 kids is NO.JOKE.  Everyone told me that, and I believed them.  And I'm here to say they were preaching TRUTH.

And that's my excuse reason that it's been over 2 months since I posted here.

The other reason?  I've been living life as a mom with 2 kids.  It's the most challenging thing I've ever done -- but it's also the BEST.

And THAT'S the truth.

Okay, on to the point of this post.  I have a friend in our Connect Group at church that is a photographer, and she just happens to live in our neighborhood, right on the road behind ours.  She was sweet enough to come by one day before Jeff went back to work to take some family photos right after Natalie was born.

Deacon is 3 years and 4 months old in these photos, and Natalie is 12 days old...

express yourself!

One of the things that folks mention about Deacon a lot is that he is so expressive.  He really is, and I think he got that from his Daddy.  His facial expressions sometimes crack me up, sometimes melt my heart -- and I love when I can capture some of the best ones in photos!

 

We were out on the porch one day after the ice cream truck had come around to our neighborhood.  We had already eaten our ice cream (and I had already cleaned Deacon up :) but decided to just hang out outside for a little bit longer.  I grabbed my camera and started snapping...

 

**disclaimer: my son's hair is pretty much uncontrollable MOST of the time.**

 

family photoshoot 2011...

We had a one-year photoshoot with the awesome photographer that took photos at Deacon's 1st birthday party and they turned out so great!  Deacon was feeling much better for these and it's evident in his happy little one-year old face!

1st Mother's Day...

Can I just brag a little bit?  Ya'll, I am SO proud of my husband and how he planned to make this mother's day -- my very first mother's day -- such a special event.  One I'll never forget.  Outstanding job, babe!

This past weekend was so nice.  Saturday we spent around the house for part of the day, getting some things checked off the to-do list.  Then after lunch, and naps all around, we headed into Wilmington to do some shopping and check off more things on the to-do list.  :)

While we were in town, Jeff (and Deacon :) took me to a local place downtown, The Front Street Brewery, for dinner as a Mother's Day dinner.  This was the 2nd time we'd been there and both times the food has been phenomenal.  LOVE it.  And the atmosphere is pretty neat-o, too.  It was loud enough that Deacon's squealing part-way through the meal didn't really disturb too many.  We were seated beside a table of 4 young girls who all thought Deacon was "the cutest thing" so I don't think we could have disturbed them anyway.  :)

Sunday was sooo special.  I went to get Deacon up to get ready for church and found a card in the corner of his crib addressed to "mommy".  There was a sticky note on the card that said "wake up daddy".  :)  Fortunately, I'd already done that before I went to get Deacon so Daddy had followed me into the nursery.  I opened my card and found 2 photos, one of which was THIS:

The other one is just.as.cute.

I had NO IDEA that Jeff was going to do this so I got pretty emotional over the photos.  Then I had to read the card from my baby boy, through my tears.  So precious.  Also inside the card was a gift card for a 1 hour massage!  Way to go, Dadd--er, I mean, Deacon!  :)

We all got ready for church and Jeff pulled out a beautiful corsage for me to wear -- what a really thoughtful thing to do.  It made me feel so special.  When we got home from church, Jeff had gotten sushi for lunch so I didn't have to cook.  Awesome!

The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and doing whatever.  We all took a nap after lunch.  We went for a walk.  We were able to skype with both my parents and Jeff's parents so that was nice.  We grilled out for dinner that night.

It was a perfect 1st Mother's Day -- my boys made my day and I love them both to pieces!

[6 mos]

6 months...

Alright, I'm a little late with this post, sorry.  I just can hardly believe that my baby boy is already 6 months old -- a HALF a year old.  Seriously...where do I turn the speed down?

Our boy is officially in size 2 diapers now.  I told you it wouldn't be long.  We're still using diapers that folks have given us which is such a blessing.  But we're to the point now that the size he happens to be wearing, whatever that is at the time, we only have maybe a box or something, so depending on how long he stays in that size, we may or may not find ourselves buying more of that size.

At this point, I think I prefer Huggies brand.  They seem to fit Deacon the best and give us the best results regarding leaks/blowouts (sorry if that's TMI).  We have tried some store brands like Costco's Kirkland brand and they're okay, too.  I have heard that Luvs is a really great brand and they're cheap, too, so when we get to a point that we need more, I think I'd like to try some Luvs to see how we do with those.

[24.5 weeks]

About midway through April, we saw Deacon roll over from his tummy to his back a couple of times.  We figured it was just lucky and we were right cuz we haven't seen him do it since.  That's not something he's rushing to do and though I'm surprised, I'm not rushing it either.  :)

He's really been playing a lot with his feet since he found them last month.  He likes to throw them in the air and then grab onto them.  He does that wherever he is, whether he's laying on the floor, in his bouncy seat, in his car seat or on the changing table, even.  As a matter of fact, I saw him stick one of his feet in his mouth on the changing table one morning.  All by himself!  :)

[25 weeks]

As you saw from my last post, Deacon had his first Easter at 6 mos old.  That was really special -- I'm glad it worked out that he turned 6 mos old right around Easter this year.  He went to his first Easter egg hunt and did really good.

The night before Deacon turned 6 months, we tried giving him some solid food to see what he would do.  We started with some warmed green beans (Gerber 1st Foods) and boy, the faces he made!  I knew he was an expressive child but holy cow, he had some faces that night!  Poor baby -- some of his faces were hilarious and pitiful at the same time.  :\  We quit with the green beans that night and moved on to some warmed bananas and I thought for sure he'd like those better.

Nope.

The faces he made with those were even worse, it seemed like.  We tried again the next night and still got the same reactions/faces, only that night he just stopped closing his mouth.  Yeah.  So the food would just fall right out.

We're still in the trying phase of solids...

When I took Deacon for his 6 month well-check at the pediatrician's office, I was really curious to know what he weighed.  That's a question I get asked a lot.  At his 4 month appt, he weighed 13 lbs 13 oz and was 24 in long.  At his 6 month appt, he weighed 16 lbs 7 oz and was 25.5 in long.

A perfectly normal healthy 6 month old.  Who is uh-dorable.

my beautiful boy...

Hi there.  :)  Don't have much news to report as of right now -- just wanted to show off my boy...

[22.5 weeks]

[ready for a walk]

[oh, look -- here's my foot!  23.5 weeks]

[my beautiful 5.5 month old]

4 months...

Truly, I don't intend to let a month get by before I post -- it just seems to take so much of my time to raise a child.  :)  So here we are at 4 months.  Whew.  We've had some exciting things happening the last month...

The biggest news was that Deacon's cousin, Bear Andersen McAfee, was born on February 2.  My brother & sister-in-law's 2nd child.  Cora Beth is now a big sister and a great one at that.  :)  Bear was born an entire month early (Brandi's due date was actually Mar 2) at 6 lbs 2 oz but he's done wonderfully with the exception of a recent case of RSV.  But he's on the upswing.  We got to meet little Bear a few weeks after he was born.  What a cutie!

[Deacon, 16.5 weeks, Bear, 3.5 weeks]

At the beginning of February, Deacon got his 2nd cold and this one was nastier than the first one he had at a month old.  He had some chest congestion and coughing with this one and oh, how I hated to hear my sweet boy coughing!  It took a good 3 weeks or so to get rid of that thing but not before me and Jeff caught it.  :(  We are all well now, though, praise the Lord! 

[14 weeks]

Also, at the beginning of February was the Super Bowl, of course.  Deacon's first Super Bowl.  He slept through the first half and was oblivious during the 2nd.  :)  He was pulling for the Steelers:

[14.5 weeks]

Deacon went to his first birthday party on February 12 (when we got the invitation in the mail, addressed to Deacon, I thought it was precious!) -- one of the sons of the lady who keeps Deacon, Brayden, was turning 3.  Deacon lasted for about an hour before I think all the commotion and noise got to him.  It was a fun time.

[Deacon w/Brayden & Bryceon, 15.5 weeks]

Deacon has really been changing and doing new things this past month.  It hurts this mommy's heart to know that he's growing up (so fast) but that is how it should be and it does excite me to see new things from him.  He's really been chewing on EVERYTHING.  If he can get it to his mouth, it's going in there.  And it's coming out with TONS of drool on it.  :)  We can't feel any tooth buds (and I'm praying it stays that way for a little longer) so we're not sure if he's teething or not.  Just chewing on everything.

[14.5 weeks]

And talking.  My LORD, this child has A LOT to say!  And it is so.stinkin.cute when he does!  I love to hear him making all kinds of noises.  Most of the time he's really happy when he's talking so he smiles a lot and kinda giggles a little bit.  He just recently started this high-pitched thing which I hope will not last too long.  It is cute and it's okay around the house, but it can get kinda loud.  I don't want to have a child that everyone is kinda like, "Oh, that's cute...okay, not so much anymore."  :)

[15 weeks]

Right around the 4 month mark, I took Deacon for his 4 month well-check at the pediatrician.  He got a couple more vaccines (one oral and one needle) and took them like a champ, just like in the past.  Such a brave little guy.  :)  He now weighs 13 lbs 13 oz and has grown almost 2 inches in the past 2 months.

Also around 4 months, we went for a walk as a family and put Deacon in the stroller without the carseat.  In the regular seat.  He sat like a big boy with no trouble.  I think he enjoyed looking around at everything. 

We also tried putting him in the "johnny jump-up" for the first time.  He's still kind of little for it, we have to prop him up in the front so he doesn't lean forward so much.  And he doesn't really know what to do in it yet, but it buys us a little bit of time, if you know what I mean.  :)

[4 mos]

I gotta tell you, Daddy is the one that put him in the jump-up and in the stroller like that.  Mommy would've put him in the carseat to take him on a walk in the stroller.  Jeff is so good about trying new things with him.  I think I just want to keep him little for as long as possible -- he's reaching new milestones entirely too fast for me.

[4 mos]

11 weeks old...

Hey, here's an interesting fact -- Deacon is 11 weeks old today, on 1/11/11.  That's pretty cool, right?  Anyways, it's so hard to believe that this much time has passed...he's growing so much and really entertaining us.  :)

He smiles on demand now -- he will almost always smile at me or Jeff when we play with him or talk to him.  He really likes it when folks talk to him and will seemingly try to talk back.  His gurgling and cooing is SO.cute.

[7 weeks]

[8 weeks]

[9 weeks]

We get to see a lot of that laughing and "talking" in the morning -- he seems the happiest then.  Typically, I try to get him up by 7am to eat, if he's not already awake.  Then he spends some time with Daddy in our bed while I get a shower, have my coffee, start laundry, etc.  He generally eats every 3 hours after that with good awake time and naps in between. 

[happy guy in his crib, 9 weeks]

He LOVES the swing that we borrowed from our good friends, the Olds'.  That is our "go-to" -- if he's fussy, we can usually put him in that and he's good to go.  :)  He falls asleep in it most of the time and will sleep really good.

We also have a bouncy seat that he'll sit in for a little while -- after some time passes, he gets tired of that.  I do try to put him on his tummy for a little bit but he usually gets tired of that real quick.  If he's gonna be on his tummy, it has to be right after he's eaten.  If we wait too long, he's starting to fade into sleepiness and then he has NO patience for being on his tummy.

[9.5 weeks]

His 2 month check up at the pediatrician's office was Dec 30.  He weighed in at 11 lbs, 13 oz!  That's in the 63rd percentile for weight so he's pretty average.  His length measured at 22 1/4 inches which puts him in the 54th percentile.  Again, average.  I'm just fine with that.  :)

He had to have a couple of vaccines at this appt. *frowny face*  He got one stick and one oral vaccine and did fine with both.  He only cried for a couple of seconds after the stick in his leg and then was just fine.  Mommy had a harder time with it than Deacon did.  :)  Yeah, he didn't have any kind of side effects or anything for the rest of the day, either.  He's my tough little guy.

[my little guy's bandaid, 9 weeks]

I went back to work last week. *extreme frowny face*  My heart's desire since I was a little girl has been to stay home with my kids, just like my mom did for us.  I desperately wanted that to work out but it just isn't our reality right now.  However, God did the next best thing for me -- He worked it out so that 1) I'm able to work from home Thursdays & Fridays and 2) a good friend, who is a wonderful mommy to her 2 young boys, is able to keep Deacon for us in her home Mon-Wed while I'm in the office.

The transition back to work went SO much better than I could've ever hoped for!  I actually have not cried once since going back to work (though, I've gotten slightly emotional just once) and Deacon has done fantastically at Krystal's house.  I was so busy while at the office last week that I didn't have time to be sad (though I thought about Deacon a lot :) and then being home with him Thursday & Friday was great.  AND I was able to get everything done for work.  Best of both worlds!

We really couldn't ask for more from Krystal -- she used to teach before she made the decision to stay home with her boys so she's wonderful with kids, no matter their age.  And she says she's already grown to love Deacon just like one of her own.  :)  She gives us a "report card" each day when I pick up Deacon so we can see what he's been up to throughout the day.  What a sweet momento if I have to be away from him!

It's really just the perfect scenario -- I know that my God worked all that out.  It helps this Mommy's heart.

[10 weeks]

[10.5 weeks]

[11 weeks]

Deacon's 1st Christmas...

We celebrated Deacon's first Christmas at my Mom & Dad's house in Lexington.  It was there that my brother, sister-in-law and niece finally got to meet him, as well as my grandparents, Deacon's great-grandparents.

Our 4-hour trip to my parents' house went well -- we stopped 2 hours in to feed the kid and change his diaper. He did good with that.  When we weren't stopped, he pretty much snoozed the whole way.

Deacon did great away from home -- my parents set up a pack-n-play in my Dad's office and he slept just fine in there at night.  For naps, he slept wherever we were.  My mom was stocked with diapers & wipes so we didn't have to bring any with us.  We packed enough clothes that we didn't have to do laundry so that was good.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do with the whole packing-for-a-baby thing but I guess it turned out okay.  :)

Even only 2 months in, Deacon seems to be a pretty laid back kid so he really just rolled with whatever came down the pike over the weekend.  So grateful for that -- he gets that from his Daddy and that's what I prayed & prayed for!  :)

It was a special weekend and the numerous photos that were taken tell the story pretty well:

[my jolly boy says, "Merry Christmas!"]

[Deacon & his Grammy, my mom]

[Deacon & his great-grandmother, my Gram]

[Deacon & his great-grandfather, my Buppa]

[Cora Beth meeting her cousin for the first time...]

[...and she loves him :) ]

[Deacon with his Aunt Brandi]

[helping Aunt Lindsay give out the presents]

[stopping to check on Deacon :) ]

[Cora Beth's fave gift -- a HANDMADE-by-my-Buppa rocking horse]

[all the kiddos]

[such a sweet little helper :) ]

[cousins]

[it was a white Christmas with 3-4 inches of snow!]

[my brother, his girl and their snowman :) ]

[2 months old]

**For more photos of our weekend, click here.**