Giggles, Gagas and Ele-foos

The boys are growing so quickly. This has been a really fun summer so far, and it's only mid-June! Tomorrow is Father's Day and the boys and I have some fun surprises for Nick (brunch, presents and ice cream)!

Luke saw his favorite animal, the "ele-foo" (elephant) at the St. Louis Zoo while we were in Missouri over Memorial Day weekend for a family reunion. If they weren't his absolute favorite animal before, they are now! I think that was likely the best day of his life so far. He was so in love and happy. It was a really fun experience for the whole family. Luke also loved the train and carousel. I've since found two elephant t-shirts and Luke loves wearing them.

Luke has started saying a few new words, too! Besides "ele-foo", he also says his version of  thank you (which pleases me!) and "gaga" (giraffe). It's fun to see him start expressing himself more, though it would be nice if he could explain why he is frustrated or how he gets hurt. I know those things will happen in time, but often I feel helpless because I don't know what he's trying to say.

Luke's favorite movie is Frozen and we watch it (as well as The Lion King and The Jungle Book) often. He's started singing "Let It Go" and doing motions intentionally. It's really fun to see, but I'm still trying to capture the full effect on video. Luke isn't the most cooperative when I'm trying to take pictures...

Kellen is growing like a weed! He'll be 3 months old next week already! Wow. My baby is growing up. Savor the moments. This morning, Kellen started laughing! My happy boy (always smiling) is really developing. He's already in 9 month clothing. He no longer fits into Luke's old clothes, so I'm doing emergency shopping for Baby K. I had only bought a few new special things, since I planned that the boys would match up well in the seasons and sizes. Boy was I wrong! Kellen is a different body shape and is growing much quicker. It's fun to see!

Kellen has also started getting into a better sleep routine... finally! He eats dinner at 6 pm and goes to bed around 6:30. He then sleeps until 3-4:30, eats, and then goes back to sleep until 6:30 or 7 am. During the day, he eats, plays and then about an hour or so after that goes down for a nap. Usually we have 3-4 good 45 minutes-1 hour naps during the day.

This summer has been a blast. We play outside everyday (our yard is more shaded in the afternoon, so Kellen hangs out in his bouncer while Luke swings and plays on the slide), have gone to the splash pad and zoo, and have been hanging out with friends a lot! I can't wait to see what other adventures we go on this year!

Luke's Birthday

A little more backpedaling, but I really wanted to do a quick update on Luke.

We were so blessed to have family come into town in February to celebrate Luke's birthday. We had many friends over too. I had a blast planning Luke's first friends-included birthday party. We went all out with a vintage airplane theme this year. Nick was amazing on the day of the party with helping me set up (and he also helped me clean the week prior, since I was 8 months pregnant and exhausted all the time). Here are my favorite pictures from the day.

Some other updates on Luke:

• His new favorite is Curious George. We watch a lot of it. He laughs. I roll my eyes a lot. But it keeps him happy and busy while I'm nursing Kellen. 
• We also watch a lot of Frozen. Perhaps this is my influence. I love that Disney. I love princesses. I'll never have little girls. So we watch Frozen and talk a lot about Olaf, the snowman. I mean, there is a huge snow monster in the movie. How much more boy-ish can it get?! 
• Luke has started singing along to songs (or at least trying). He doesn't say the correct words, but he sings along just the same. I love that. He's so proud of himself! 
• I just sent in our deposit for Luke's preschool program, starting in September. He's going to love it and will learn so much. How is it possible that I'm preparing him for school already?
• Luke has started to pay more and more with cars, trucks, tractors... basically anything on two wheels. He is having a blast. It's been so interesting to me to see Luke go from playing as a kid to playing as a boy. 
• I now let my biggest little go outside by himself. We have a fenced in yard, and he plays outside on his own everyday for hours. He loves collecting leaves, playing with sidewalk chalk, on the slide, on the swing, with his shovel. I'm glad he enjoys playing on his own for a while. It's fun to see him find different things to do. I can only imagine what's going on through his mind.

Introducing... Kellen James!

Months and months have gone by since my last post. The last trimester of my pregnancy was the toughest on me. I was so drained, simply trying to keep up with Luke. Any spare moment I had (read: naptime) was spent in bed resting. We got the nursery accomplished just weeks (or rather a week) before baby boy arrived. I planned a major birthday party for Luke, which was perhaps not my best decision, but we had tons of fun. Finally... I feel energized (though still getting very little sleep) and have my feet under me again.

My sweet Kellen arrived on a Saturday night, March 22. I was so ready by the last weeks of my pregnancy. Fortunately I wasn't diagnosed with Cholestasis again, but having prepared myself for it, I was ready for Kellen at 37 weeks, since that's when I would have been induced. After learning I wouldn't be induced (unless I went past my due date), I started having a lot of anxiety. How could we plan to go to the hospital? What-if we couldn't find someone to watch Luke? When should I pack my hospital bag? The list of questions went on and on.

But I did go into labor. Saturday I woke up and just felt crummy. Luke and I laid around and watched a lot of Elmo that day. I was feeling super emotional. Is it happening? Should Mom come up? Should Nick come home from work?! I finally made the decision to go to the hospital, fully expecting to be sent home. I was contracting every 2 minutes when we walked through the hospital doors. Perfect timing!

My sweet Kellen arrived at 10:10 that evening. He was perfect. Big! And an awesome eater. Nick and I knew what we were doing. It was all still a tiring experience, but we felt so comfortable with our new little bundle.

Kellen continues to be an amazing baby. He goes with the flow, but I suppose any second child has to adjust to napping on the go. He's an amazing eater and has turned into a little chunk! Luke was always skinny, so it's been really fun to see Kellen thrive on breastmilk and grow so rapidly.

My littlest little enjoys eating so much, he's still not much of a sleeper. I'm attempting to get him on a schedule in the evenings and at night. We just moved him to his own bedroom (two nights down!) and that seems to be helping. Perhaps he just outgrew the bassinet attachment on our Pack N Play. Fortunately, Luke still naps 3 hours most days and I can often get Kellen down for some of that time and sneak in a short nap too.

Our biggest milestone so far is that Kellen rolled over for the first time (tummy to back) just shy of a month old on April 21. He has a very strong neck and we've been practicing a lot of tummy time and standing.

Luke adores his little brother and loves laying on the floor with Kellen. Often he goes looking for the baby when he wakes up in the morning and from nap. I've been so impressed with my biggest little. Luke has made this transition very easy for me. And Curious George has also helped. Luke keeps pretty happy while I nurse!

I'm so glad to be a mommy to the sweetest little boys. I'm trying to treasure every moment (and capture the moments with my iPhone as often as possible) since we're planning to parent just two littles. Kellen will be our last baby (unless something major changes in the future). My soul rejoices that he is growing so fast, but my heart aches to see my newborn growing up.

Kellen just 12 hours old. My dear friend Laura (a brilliant photographer) came to the hospital to meet Kellen and capture the first hours of his life. I'm so glad she came and was able to capture some beautiful images.

Holding Hands

It's almost impossible for me to believe that my sweet firstborn baby will be TWO next month! And shortly after his birthday, we will be greeting his new little brother, Kellen James. We are so excited about the many changes in the Moser Household. Here are just a few of our family updates:

This week, we began our Basement Finishing Project. (And by "we", I mean our amazing contractor and his crew. Nick and I have been making lots of decisions, but have not actively been swinging a hammer.) Within 15 working days, we will have a brand-new guest bedroom, full bathroom and a family room downstairs in our basement. We are so excited because we love having family come to visit us in Madison and we felt it was essential we have a dedicated guest bedroom if at all possible. I'm especially excited because we'll be transforming the basement family room into our main playroom space! Toys, begone (at least from my living room)!

I've also caught the "nesting bug" that goes around to every mommy before a new baby arrives. This week we decided to take better advantage of our mudroom space. Currently it serves as a room between our house and garage. It houses our washer and dryer, hangers, hanging clothes that I am procrastinating on taking upstairs to our closets, and buckets of shoes. It does not have a convenient place for coats, hats, gloves, bags and a more organized system for shoes. I persuaded Nick into getting me an early birthday and Mother's Day gift. We decided to add cubbies and a bench to that room for easier storage and quicker transitions in and out of the house. I'm so excited for our new furniture to arrive this week! I'm hoping Nick will assemble next weekend so we can start enjoying our transformed space. Pictures to come!

Another January task has been looking into preschool programs for Luke for this fall. He'll be just 2.5 at the end of August, but I thought it would be so beneficial for his verbal development and social skills to join a classroom where he's asked to follow directions from a teacher and interact with other kids his age. I'm excited for him to have this special experience, especially since his world is going to change this spring when his baby brother arrives. Looking into preschools has proven to be overwhelming. Nick and I have had to decide between a Christian preschool experience or a highly academic preschool experience. We had to consider the affordability for our family. Most importantly though, I want to choose the best environment for Luke to learn through exploration. The competitiveness has been the most overwhelming to me; we're feeling the pressure to get our applications in promptly, else we risk the program filling up too quickly and Luke missing out. Because it can be so easy to fall into the competitive spirit, I've decided to let God take the lead and show us the best program for Luke. If a school is full by the time we make the decision to apply, we have our answer.

Finally, a few updates on my sweet nearly-two-year-old! Luke has been holding my hands frequently lately. I've treasured these moments, as I look down at his tiny hand clutching mine. I've been teaching him to walk in parking lots (holding my hand!) since I have a feeling I'll have my arms full with Kellen very soon. Even on sidewalks, Luke is frustrated if I don't offer my hand. It's going to be so hard when he decides he's big enough to get by without holding my hand.

Luke's been talking so much more, still primarily one word at a time (not two word phrases). Some of his new words are "boon" (balloon), "biaper" (diaper), dog, up and down. I know he says lots more, but those are the ones that come to my mind! He's also started calling his milk "no no"... but I think I may be at fault for this one, since I'm always saying "no, no, we can't thrown our milk". Oops. Lesson learned...

We've started gently introducing the idea of going potty on the toilet. Just before Christmas we got a small potty for Luke's bathroom and would talk about the potty. Since we've been back from Indiana, he's gone potty on his new potty twice. We cheered him on the whole time! I know that potty training is a hard task, but I'm trying to introduce it in a gently and without pressure. I'm sure more updates will come on the potty in the coming months (or years...?).

This month is flying by, as will our entire winter and early spring. I've started planning Luke's birthday party and we can't wait to have friends over to enjoy our new playroom when it's finished in a few weeks!

It's A(nother) Boy!

Last week we had our 20-week Ultrasound and had a chance to see sweet Moser Baby #2 kicking around like crazy. It's no wonder I've felt this sweet miracle moving so much earlier than I felt Luke. My mom and sister came to Madison for the Ultrasound and were with us when we found out we were having another BOY! We are so excited and cannot wait to greet this new family member in early Spring 2014. We've already selected a name and plan to share with our family next week at Thanksgiving.

When I was pregnant with Luke, I had a sort of "mommy guilt" for not feeling super bonded to my unborn baby boy. I think this was partially because I was overwhelmed with the thought of having a boy (coming from a family of girls, I knew very little about boys, and especially about teeny boys). We hadn't finalized a name until just a few weeks before Luke was born, and I was still nervous about being a mommy. This time, however, I feel such an instant bond with Baby #2. We're already calling him by his name and I'm excited, rather than excited-nervous, to meet him when the time comes.

Here are two (terrible quality) pictures from our 20-week Ultrasound. (I took pictures with my iPhone of the pictures they printed for us.)

 Sweet profile picture of our second little boy.

Baby toes. I've been feeling these kicking around a lot!

Mommy's Little Helper

Luke's favorite thing is to follow me around the house and "help" me. While sometimes it's not always safe to have a helper under my feet (like when I'm cooking and he wants to check out the hot stove), I actually love having his help. Yes, we're going through so much more soap, paper towel, napkins and wipes, and the washing machine starts when the door is still open and there isn't any laundry loaded, but he's learning to have a servant's heart.

Yesterday, Luke found a small piece of something on the floor in the living room. He picked it up (I still don't know what it was...), took it to the kitchen, opened the drawer to the trash can, threw it away, and closed the door. I was amazed he did all this on his own without prompting.

Daily he wants to help me wipe the table, feed the dog, let the dog outside, etc. Putting away toys is still a challenge, but we're getting there.

I can't help but brag. He is sweet, thoughtful and helpful. I am so privileged to help foster these qualities in our son.

Luke's Words

Luke has been quite the talker his entire life. He's loved making noises! But it wasn't until recently that we started actually understanding a little bit of Luke's babbling. Here is a small list of words we've heard out of him (as of 8/24/13):

Hi
Thank you
Here you go
Iggs (translation = Briggs, our dog. This was certainly his first word.)
Hello
Go
Mom
Dada
Yellow
Cow
Woof, woof (barking like a dog)
Yum
Whoa
Yeah
More
Mon (translation = c'mon)
Hi guys
Elmo