Weekly Recap

It was a busy week at the Holden House.  Dad started his regular travel to Nashville this week where he is working on a new hotel, conference center, and expansion of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Fortunately mom was able to get some help from Grandmommy since both boys had a case of the "crankies" this week!  It was also mom's last week of maternity leave so she wanted to spend as much time with the boys as possible.

Parker (2 months)
Parker's crankiness this week seems to be due to a growth spurt.  He spent a several days eating/sleeping all day long.  According to our unofficial scale, he is right at 10lbs and he definitely seems longer.  He has gotten too long for his Newborn clothes so they have been replaced by 0-3 and 3 month clothes.  They are a bit baggie but the length is good.

The cure to fixing Parker's crankiness was feed him, hold him upright or let him sleep in mommy's lap.  He definitely a bit high maintenance but he's pretty easy to sooth by trying one of those three things.

Here are a few pictures from this week...

Enjoying a GT Basketball game.  A 'W' and club seats... that's how Parker rolls!

Post Game.  It was tough being so cute!

Smiling at dad!

Carter (21 months)
It seems that growing was in the water this week because Carter also moved up a size.  We packed up all his 18 month clothes (except pants) and started using his 24mth/2t things.  Dad says Carter has a swimmer's body.  His torso is a bit long, he has a skinny waist and short legs.  So the 18mth shorts show his belly but the 24mth/2t pants won't stay up and he trips over them.

We also let Carter "sleep in" for several mornings and had mom take him to school and it seemed to help his crankiness.  We're not sure what changed over the past week but he seems to want an extra half hour in bed in the morning (don't we all!).   Carter is like a whole other child when he gets a good night sleep and a 2-3 hour nap.  When he wakes up early or only sleeps for an hour... watch out!  We have also been giving him a bit more time to play in his room in the morning.  All of a sudden he wants to play in his crib when he wakes up but he doesn't want to play alone.  He will ask for the baby, Madie, cat or Brie-Brie to join him.  Poor Parker is usually the one to oblige.  Carter likes to wrap him in a blanket and pet his head.

Here are a few Carter tid-bits from this week...
Favorite Word:  Carter's favorite new word is "Bo-Bo".  We have no idea where this came from but he started calling his paci and loveis "Bo-Bo".

Favorite Activity:  It's a toss up.  (1) Carter is still obsessed with driving the car.  If you let him walk to the car, he will either crawl in the front seat or climb in the back and over the center console to get to the front.  He has figured out how to honk the horn, open the garage doors and open the car doors/trunk.  He pitches a fit when you try to put him back in his seat.  (2) Carter has developed a love of the broom. He will carry the outdoor broom all over the yard and try to push around the leaves.

He also enjoys pulling the normal broom around the house.  No idea where this came from but we appreciate the extra help (even if it might be viewed as child labor!).

New Quirk: Okay there are two but they are both related to eating habits.  Carter will only eat in a regular chair (no more high chair or booster seat) and eat off regular plate (no kid sized plates).  He also prefers to use mom/dad's fork but we haven't given in 100% to that one yet.  He also insists on spoon feeding himself his morning oatmeal and yogurt and is doing a really good job.  When he gets to the last few bites and can't manage anymore, he will hand you the spoon and say "help"

Funny Moment: Carter brings home art projects weekly from school.  We usually hang the fun ones on the fridge for a while or display them in Carter's room.  This week he brought home a paper collage that was made to look like a pizza.  We asked Carter if he wanted to hang it on the fridge.  He shook his head, walked us to the laundry room, pointed to the trash can and told us to open in.  He then smiled when we put his artwork inside and said "Bye-Bye".  Guess he wasn't too proud of his effort on this one ;)

Here are a few Carter pictures from this week.

Practicing his "Rain Dance" while splashing in a puddle.  He loves the rain!

Fun with a Paci

He wanted Maddie to ride on the coaster with him

Waving "Bye-Bye" to the ball at the playground

Rolling in style to the playground

Night bike riding with dad

Brothers

Carter has been asking to play and hold with the baby this week.  Parker is a bit more solid these days so we have been obliging (with CLOSE parental supervision of course).  He usually looks at Parker, laughs, says "Hi" and then wants us to take the baby back after a few minutes.  It's cute and the pictures are just precious!

That's all from the Holden's this week.  Hope you all had a wonderful week as well!