Jonquil Festival

Smyrna had a festival this weekend which happened to be right outside where Carter's gym class is.  So after class the whole family hit up the Jonquil festival (Smyrna's official flower).  After grabbing a balloon, Carter was immediately drawn to the fire truck.  He checked out all the equipment.

Parker focused on looking cute and chewing on his carrier.

Carter thought the truck was lots of fun (that's a smile!).

All the truck playing was exhausting so he decided to take a load off for a while.

Parker was also exhausted so he caught some zzzz's in his carrier.

After checking out all the activities, we grabbed some lunch and Carter was ready to go.  So we headed to the train playground where Carter had a blast.

It was a nice Saturday morning before it got too hot to be outside.  Good thing it was time for the boys' naps!

Weekly Recap

Parker (5 months)
We added lunch to Parker's eating routine this week.  He started the week eating 1/2 a jar for lunch and 1/2 a jar for dinner and by Sunday was up to 3/4 jar for lunch and a full jar for dinner.  Parker is definitely growing.  The best way I can tell is that we are moving him up to his 6 month clothes and he actually has some rolls on his thighs now.  Even Parker was surprised about his progress!

Overall. Parker was happy and easy going this week.  He loves to dole out smiles to anyone how gives him attention.

We made a brief attempt to break him from his swaddle this week but he did this for about 20 minutes with his eyes closed.  So we figured we'll worry about getting him to sleep through the night first.

The biggest news this week was Parker is starting to sit up.  He can go for a few seconds straight up but then he will generally make a tripod with his hands and hang out for a while. 

Unfortunately his efforts have often big thwarted by congratulatory licks from his big sister.

Carter (23 months)
Carter started out the week under the weather.  He came home from daycare with a stomach bug Monday and spend the next two days taking it easy with lots of sleep and snuggles.

Thankfully, he seemed to be back to normal by Thursday.  Carter continues to expand his vocabulary and develop more of an understanding of sentence structure.  He has a few complete sentences and is using more and more verbs.  His favorite word this week was "Carter".  He loves to talk about what Carter is going to do and what belongs to Carter ("mine" was probably his favorite word from the previous week).

Brothers
Parker was really excited to show his big brother his progress on sitting this week.

He had a lot of tumbles early in the week...

So Carter spent some time modeling how it was done!

Here are a few cute pictures of the boys from this week:

Showing solidarity to get Carter well!

All the Holden Men

Grandma and Grandpa Make a Visit

Last week, we had some visitor's from Wisconsin, Grandma and Grandpa Holden came to visit.  As soon as they arrived at our house, Carter started saying "No Dada, No Mama" and would push Mom and Dad away as he escorted  his Grandparents to his play room.  Then it was off to watch Grandma work on her iPad skills. Carter and Parker both tried their best to help Grandma.

We had a nice dinner and put the boys to bed.  The next morning, Carter had surprise visitors at daycare, Grandma and Grandpa came to take him to the Botanical Gardens!

Immediately Carter and Grandma found two of the greatest things in the world, water and bubbles.  Carter would try his best to pop the bubbles in the fountain and had a great time.

Their afternoon included some impromptu archaeology.

Soon it was time to head home.  Carter needed to get his rest for another big day to come.  On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa came over and Carter was up early from his nap.  Parker continued to sleep with Mom, so Carter took over and got everyone involved in coloring.

This was a minor diversionary activity, cause once Mom and Parker were up we celebrated Carter's 2-year birthday a bit early, as Grandma and Grandpa will be unable to be here for his party in two weeks.  While Dad thought Carter had gotten over his previously documented fear of cakes, Carter quickly proved him wrong.

But after some talking and a tight grip on his lion lovey, he was able to sport a big smile.

Then onto the fun, presents.  Carter has finally mastered the skill of tearing off the wrapping and got right into it.

One of the big hits was a giant bubble wand, which Carter immediately opened up and had a blast with.

But we had to cut the fun short as we were off to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival to watch some Frisbee dogs, Carnival fun, and run through the many playgrounds of Piedmont Park.  Although it was an exhausting day, Carter still had the energy to serve some cupcakes and practice blowing out the candles.  Hopefully we can get him comfortable to do the real thing at his upcoming party.

It was a great visit by Grandma and Grandpa and we will miss them and look forward to seeing them real soon!

Something Exciting in the Mail

Something exciting came in the mail today...

It wasn't just the pretty stamps.  It was Parker's first wedding invitation.  He was so excited!

It was extra special because it was for Aunt Bailie.  We can't wait until June!

Weekly Recap

Parker (5 months)
Parker is a sweet little guy.  He loves attention and will dole out smiles when you give it to him.

He is starting to look like a middle aged man in the back.  He has little bald spot on the lower back of his head.  

Parker generally had a great week.  He is a trooper following big brother's schedule.  He sleeps in the baby bjorn with no problem.

We are still struggling a bit with his nighttime schedule.  He takes several short naps during the day and varies between a 4 hour and 9 hour stretch at night.  Hopefully he gets on a more regular schedule soon.  

Carter (23 months)
Carter is just a crazy, energetic toddler.  He has very specific wants and has no problem telling you what they were.  This week he has been really into singing.  When he gets in the car we will make song requests and mom has to oblige.  He has lots of favorite but lately he has been into Old McDonald's farm.  Did you know that McDonald had monkeys, owls and bears on his farm?  Well according to Carter he did!

In an effort to run out some of that toddler energy, we have been getting Carter outside quite a bit at night.  He loads up his wagon with all his supplies (bubbles, chalk, balls, etc.) and we tour the neighborhood.

Carter gets really excited when the "big kids" are out.  He gets shy around them sometimes but he loves to follow the older kids and copy what they do.  This week he went to his first "big kid" birthday party.  He took a while to get going but once he did, he had a blast hanging with the big boys!

Brothers

Carter has been a bit more into being a toddler this week than a brother.  He gets very concerned about the baby and making sure he is ok.

But once he knows baby is safe, he wants all the attention!  Such a toddler!

Parker's First "Haircut"

Parker's hair has been a big shaggy every since he was born.  We have been putting off cutting it but we finally realized it had covered his ears so we had to take care of it.

Dad took charge of the cutting...

Parker wasn't too sure about it.  He had grown accustomed to his shaggy locks.  But unfortunately mom and dad put their foot down and said they had to go!

Dad gave a few quick snips and he was done.  Not bad for his first hair cutting attempt.

Parker wasn't quite the fan.  

It could just be that he could all of sudden hear all the crazy noises his brother was making now that his ears weren't covered up ;)

Now if only we could take those clippings and apply them to his bald spot on the back!

Water Table Fun

It was such a nice day out and Carter has been obsessed with playing with water so we decided to dust off the water table and see what he thought.  Carter took off his shirt (he wanted to keep on his PJ bottoms - Pajama Sunday!) and was ready to go.  We filled it up and he wasted no time diving in.

We got out the bubble machine to entertain Parker and dad while they watched.

Parker was a bit more mesmerized by his crazy big brother than the bubble though!

Carter sure is funny!

Hey... if you watched him do this for 45 minutes, you would laugh too!

Mom tried to play too but she spent most of her time avoiding water spray.

Carter got himself absolutely soaked...

And returned the favor by wetting down everything else on the deck too.

Soon the water table was empty and our munchkin was soaked so we headed inside for dinner and a towel (not necessarily in that order!).  We have a little water bug on our hands.  We'll see how he does when the pool opens in a few weeks!

5 Months Old

It's had to believe but behind that pillow...

is a 5 month old!

Our little Parker is growing up quick.  He unofficially weighs 14lbs and has developed a few new skills in the last month.  He can roll from belly to back, he is reaching for objects, he has random talking outbreaks and he loves to hang out with mom and dad at night!  But we can't be too upset when we look at this face!

 Seriously, he is just too cute!  Parker is doing great and is such a wonderful addition to our family.