Spring Might Just Have Arrived

The weather has been wonderful here for a week and I hope its hear to stay. As a result of the gorgeous weather we spent lots of time outdoors this weekend. Holden and I met some friends at the farmers market first thing Saturday morning. Not a lot of goodies yet, but one more month and the market will be back in full swing, I can't wait. Afterward we went home and Jeremy and I got Holden's new room almost finished. One more big push this weekend and it will be ready for the big reveal.

Sporting our Kyle Busch hat from Grandma Hassler on the way out to the market

Saturday afternoon, we met up with Stacey and her family at the Nature Museum in Charlotte. The museum wasn't worth the money, but the kids loved it and we walked this little nature trail butting up to a great park in Charlotte. The kids ran and ran, took a few tumbles and spontaneously held hands (none of the parents were fast enough with their cameras). It was awesome. Cameron and Holden had a great time.

Sharing a snack on the nature trail (photo courtesy of Stacey)

Saying "cheese" for the camera (again thanks Stacey)

Sunday, we had a bunch of folks over to kick of Nascar with the Daytona 500. Cameron and Holden again had a great time. Just a couple time outs for not sharing, but all in all I think they are becoming fast friends. Its pretty awesome to see the two of them play together, for 2 years Stacey and I have been waiting for them to play together and not just next to each other. They interact and share most of the time. Cameron loved sharing her snack with Holden, and Holden stole a kiss from Cameron as they said goodbye. Too cute to handle.

Stacey got stuck reading stories for quite awhile Sunday afternoon. Disregard the finger sucking problem we are having with Holden (we are at a loss at how to stop it)

Holden and Cameron hanging out in his new room, the big boy bed is a big hit

Outdoor Fun

Holden turned 14 months old today. Time is flying. We had a great weekend, great weather and got a lot accomplished and enjoyed some outdoor play time. Saturday we went to our friends Stacey and Cameron's for a lunchtime play date. Cameron has a very cool sand and water table that Holden enjoyed immensely. He was covered in sand and water by the time we left.

Sunday we had gorgeous weather so we decided to pull Holden's water table out for him to play with. He had a great time, I think we have a water baby on our hands. He was soaking wet by the time he was done.

The farmer's market is in full swing now, I got a little carried away Saturday morning. There are buckets and buckets of strawberries now and the first crop of sweet corn. It was very tasty for dinner tonight.
Lastly everyone was tuckered out from a big weekend.

So Much to Do, So Little Time

We have had so many visitors and weekends away from home in the last month, the house has started to feel neglected. So, as the master of making lists, we had a long one this weekend. Somehow, the majority of the list still seemed to be all things Holden. Holden has outgrown all of his 3 month outfits and the dresser was a mess of clothes that didn't fit and clothes that did. So I got all of his too small outfits packed away, and we have already filled 2 large tupperware of baby clothes, diapers and gear and he is only 5 months old! We also had a marathon of baby food making on Saturday. Holden is going to have a smorgasbord of scrumptious fruits and veggies to try in the next month and beyond. We cooked and pureed the following goodies and froze them in either baby cubes or ice cube trays for individual servings:

1. Acorn Squash
2. Butternut Squash
3. Sweet Potato
4. Carrots
5. Avocado
6. Peaches
7. Banana

We still have some papaya and nectarines that are ripening. It isn't that hard of a project either you basically let the food processor do all of the work. I think we will be able to have him on homemade food for the majority of his meals and just jarred food when we are out and about, which is great.

We did manage to fit some play time into our weekend. Holden hosted a play date and I got a chance to catch up with the other moms. Its been awhile since we have all gotten together so it was nice to catch up. Two of Holden's friends have gotten their bottom 2 teeth already, and he got to hang out with his buddy Cameron before she went on vacation for 2 weeks.

We will be headed on our second camping trip for the summer next weekend so hopefully I remember to take pictures since I didn't get any from the beach trip last weekend.

Host with the Most

Holden hosted his first party today, a playdate of 7 week olds through 4 months. Fun times were had by all. Obviously this is more for us mommies than for our babies at this point, but when they get older it will be for both of us. Its been great to get together twice a month, already we can tell how much the babies have grown since the last play date, and swap stories on what they are doing that's new, i.e. smiling, kicking, standing up.

2 Months in the life of Holden

Some of you might not know, but Holden was born 4 weeks early and spent a week in the NICU when he was born. The doctors weren't sure if he was going to have to be admitted to the NICU, but when I was in the hospital with preterm labor I was told that little white boys are the wimpiest. So, when we found out we had a boy, we weren't too surprised that he had to go to the NICU for a few days. At least it wasn't a few weeks like we had prepared ourselves back when I went into preterm labor at 32 weeks.

So, even though he is 10 weeks old on Monday, his gestational age is 6 weeks. But, he is catching up developmentally very quickly. He has basically doubled his birth weight, 10 lb 5 oz at his 2 month check-up. He is smiling now, has found his thumb to suck on (I'm not sure if I like that but it is sure cute right now), recognizes mom and dad and is looking around all the time. He can hold his head up quite a bit and is starting to push up with his legs.

Playing at 3 weeks

Playing at 8 weeks

Holden was christened in the Nazarene church this month, we joined a mommy group which has been great, and started daycare (more on that later). Holden met his grandmothers and his papa also.

Grandma Hassler's Visit

Grandma and Papa Farrell's VisitBaptism-April 24th, 2009

We now have a regular play group and there are more working moms in our group so we are meeting on Saturday mornings which is great because most of the playgroups are during the week when I'm at work. I have already made some good friends through the mommy group and its nice to have other new moms to swap stories with. This way I don't bore all of my non-parent friends with mommy things.

Playgroup

In honor of earth day, we switched Holden to cloth wipes and diapers. There are so many more options out there than when I was a baby. Jeremy isn't 100% on board yet but I'm sure he will come around (when the disposables run out). I have a childhood friend that has a 4 month old son and she was a big help in deciphering the options, how to properly wash them, etc. We are also lucky because my mother-in-law is awesome with a sewing machine and is going to make us a bunch of wipes and a handful of fitted diapers for daycare. I use my washing machine a lot more but figure we will be saving a ton of money by the time he is potty trained, saving 6000 disposable diapers from the landfill and they look so dare cute!
I think that is it for a recap of our last 2 months in a nut shell. Now enjoy some video.

Tummy Time

Hanging out with Mom