pumpkin picking!

Last Friday we had such a fun family outing! We headed down to south Charlotte and went to Hunter Farms - they had an awesome (45 minute!) wagon ride that stopped at a little barn with a petting zoo. They handed out food for the kids to feed the animals. Caleigh was SO brave, she actually stuck out her hand and fed the goats and the sheep (a huge change from our trip to the zoo in July) - we were so proud of her. After the hay ride we went and picked out pumpkins (each of the kids got a free pumpkin - 5 pounds or less) and took some pictures. We had a blast and hope to make it a yearly tradition. Enjoy the plethora of pictures!

a little more lovin'

Just the day to day sibling love...

andrew is 4 months!

Here is a video of our little man laughing it up right around when he turned 4 months old (2 weeks ago!).

Andrew's 4 month stats:

• 15 lb 1 oz (55th%)
• 26 inches (86th%)
• head circumference: 16 1/4 inch (26th%)

We were on a good schedule until the week that he turned 4 months old. Since then we have been in the midst of an intense growth spurt - sometimes eating every 2 hours (up to 7 times a day), which is completely exhausting and frustrating because he is so unpredictable. Thankfully his nights have still been great and after waking him for a dreamfeed at 9ish he will sleep through the night until 8 am. We tried solids because of his frequent desire to eat but he really isn't ready - he doesn't open his mouth and when he does and we manage to get some cereal in there he spits it right back out with a disgusted look on his face. I am still nursing him and am still dairy-free due to his milk protein allergy. I have tried being a little less strict about my diet and sometimes he will do totally fine with it and sometimes he will have a really fussy day. The hard thing is that now that I know a potential cause to his fussiness I will always feel guilty whenever he has a bad day - with Caleigh she would have bad or off days too just like any baby would - with Andrew I feel hyper-aware of them. He really is such a social baby - that is the best word I can think of to describe our adorable little guy at this stage. He will stare a hole into you until you look at him and then as soon as he sees your eyes he will give this huge open mouthed drooly grin - I love it. A funny thing about his 4 month check-up - our pediatrician, Dr. Ball (who we love!) was holding the light in front of his eyes to make sure he could track it from side to side... she tried it with the light on in the room and with the light off in the room but Andrew wouldn't look away from her eyes. Finally she resorted to moving her own head back and forth and he followed that with no problems. I really can't imagine life without our little guy - we love him so much and it feels like he has always been a part of our family.

is it already time for this?

The title of this post describes the general feeling I have about the stages that each of my kids are at - I can't believe I have pictures here of Caleigh on the potty and Andrew is already loving the Exersaucer. Caleigh has been talking all about the potty so one day last week we bought her a potty of her own. Here she is trying it out...

And here is her saying, "I did it." To be clear she didn't actually 'do' anything besides sit on the potty and talk about it a whole lot. To be honest I am so glad that she still hasn't done anything in it yet because I am totally not ready to potty train her yet - we are leaning towards waiting until the spring to attempt that fete. Somehow potty training a kid seems like the hardest thing I will have to tackle in my parenting years to date. And our little A is a big boy - already spending time in the Exersaucer and absolutely loving it. I just CAN'T believe he is 4 months old. Where has the time gone? Caleigh also thinks the Exersaucer is one of the best things she has seen in a while and she enjoys entertaining Andrew while he is in it. Wow time is flying by. And there are 34 degree lows in Charlotte this week. I think fall just totally passed me by.

2 girls, 2 dolls

caleigh loved her playtime last week with milla!

sweet boy

Love this picture of my little guy! I think I caught him mid-laugh. He has really been laughing a lot lately - especially when you gently tickle his chin - it is absolutely adorable.

And mid-roll... And talking... loudly... We really love this sweet little guy so much! We had a hard transition with him and a hard several months adjusting and sacrificing, but praise the Lord - things are SO much better now. I am really really enjoying both Caleigh and Andrew's ages right now and all the time I am able to spend with them. We are definitely now in the midst of the 'stuck at home phase' as Andrew is taking 3 naps a day and won't sleep in his carseat at all. In the midst of it I really am so thankful for my sweet little family!

Caleigh's new favorite pasttime

Caleigh has recently rediscovered all the baby toys since we pulled them out for Andrew. Her favorite at the moment is the gym - she like to crawl under it and lay in it with Andrew.

sibling love...

This is how Caleigh thinks you pick up babies (since of course this is how you pick up baby dolls, therefore this is how you pick up human babies... not quite) - apparently Andrew thinks its funny - and he only thinks it is funny now because Caleigh isn't strong enough to actually lift him up like this (thank goodness)...

Ok mom, I'll be nice and kneel here next to Andrew so you can snap a picture... but the second you turn your back I'm going to stick my finger down his throat and gag him...

dyers/dirks playdate

The boys played together...

And the girls played together (though it looks like Maggie is trying to make a quick getaway)... And fun was had and a mess was made and picked up. Andrew enjoyed his first real playdate.

Andrew's baptism

On Sunday, October 4th Andrew was baptized! At Uptown Church it is customary for the father to perform a blessing on the child being baptized. Here is Adam reading the blessing:

Andrew's blessing: Andrew Curtis Dyer - you have brought us so much joy in the short 3 months you have been with us. In the Bible, Andrew was one of the first disciples that Jesus called. John 1:40-42 says, "Andrew, Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah (that is the Christ).' And he brought him to Jesus." Our prayer for you, Andrew, is first that you will believe in and follow Jesus as Andrew the disciple did and secondly that you would be quick to tell others about Christ. In Greek the name Andrew means strong, warrior, courageous. Your middle name Curtis is after your paternal great grandfather Curtis Carroll Jack Kemmer. He is a strong and hardworking farmer who served his country in World War 2 and loves God and his family - he just celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary! We pray that you would be like your great grandfather as well - strong and hardworking - that you would persevere through adversity - leaning on Christ as your strength. And on this note we have chosen Isaiah 58:11 as your life verse, which says, "The Lord will guide you always; he sill satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Andrew's baptism was especially special to us because he was baptized by our sweet friend and pastor, Rev. Dave Kulp. And, Dave wore a Carolina blue bowtie to mark the occasion... Andrew and Caleigh both did great! Andrew started to whimper a little when he felt the water on his head but otherwise he took it like a man. We always thank God for you, little guy.

bojangles + friends + park = great way to spend gorgeous fall evening

And our kiddos monopolized the swings (Maggie, Sam, Henry, and Caleigh) - unfortunately Andrew and Foard had to miss out on the swinging fun for now.

Caleigh's new bows...

The other day Caleigh got some new bows (the next size up - I would have never known before I had a girl that bows come in different sizes) and this is the scene I found on my camera after returning from work.

our little loud mouth

Andrew really is a loud-mouth. When he 'talks' it is loud and adorable. When he cries, it is extremely loud - piercing, even and not quite so adorable (though that, the crying, is lessening these days). My favorite thing about him (and his loudness) is that he seems so social - he loves to 'talk' as in the video below. It is adorable. He definitely seems to be the more outgoing and social one of our children.

I absolutely adore having a little boy!

big boy in bumbo with big blue eyes

I couldn't choose a favorite so here are some pictures of our big baby boy in the bumbo.

I think it is hilarious when he opens his eyes super-wide like this.

playing dress up...

in daddy's favorite shirt

sweet little thumb-sucker

I can't believe I just uploaded all these pictures. Andrew is a thumb-sucker - just like his big sister. He started sucking it consistently (I think) on the day he turned 3 months old. He is not great at getting his thumb into his mouth unless he is laying down. That thumb is a miracle worker - he will take such long naps (after an hour to an hour and a half of wake time) that I have to wake him to eat and he sleeps until 8 am with the thumb.

In the pic you can see he is sucking his left thumb - he does suck both but mostly prefers his left. Caleigh has always chosen her right and it seems that she is right-handed now (always sucking that thumb, writing with that hand, eating with that hand). So we wonder if Andrew might be a leftie - Adam says that is good if he wants to get a baseball scholarship. Who knows. But each of us have a parent that is left handed which means we had a 25% chance of having a left handed child. Maybe Andrew is our 25% chance.

caleigh is 22 months!

Caleigh is 22 months and it feels like we have a 2 year old on our hands. She is very independent and always knows exactly what she wants, though she doesn't have the words to say it yet. Some thing about our sweet little girl:

• -She is a climber! As in this shot below I have found her perched on the coffee table, on the kitchen table, on the potty (with the lid closed pulling items off of the sink), on our bed, and on the rocking ottoman. Usually when I discover her in one of these places she will either say, "I did it!" because she is so proud of herself or she will be eerily quiet (when you know something is wrong) - and upon being discovered (for example, on top of the potty opening toothpaste all over her hands) she will say "uh-oh." She has also been trying to climb out of her crib lately - putting her feet on the flat side of the rails and walking them up. It might be time for a 'big girl bed' soon.

• -She is very into mimicking whatever you do. For example, when she sees me nursing Andrew she will go and get her baby and lift up her shirt and try to nurse the baby doll. A funny story about mimicking - my pump was set up on the kitchen table with the bottles and everything attached and ready to go - I walk out of the room for a little bit and when I come back in Caleigh is sitting at the kitchen table in a chair with the pump on and the shields/bottles held up under her shirt. Upon me discovering her she said, "I did it!" She was very proud of herself - it was hilarious.
• -She is very concerned about what she is wearing and others are wearing. She loves to say, "Dada wear dat?" and point to various things. She is pretty adamant about what shoes we where too. She seems like a 2 year old in the battle of clothing - sometimes we will get out clothes and start to put them on and she will dissolve in tears because she doesn't want to wear that.
• -She is scared of ant/bugs. This is her 2nd fear - the first one being the 7 foot cow at Chick-Fil-A. The other day we were reading a book and it had a line of ants in them and she freaked out and started saying "no, no, no" and waving her hands about because she thought the line of ants was marching right onto her lap. This also means
• -She always recognizes when something is out of place and then will say "uh-oh" because she doesn't know how to verbalize what is wrong yet. Example 1: When my hair falls in my face Caleigh will say uh-oh and come push it out of my eyes. Example 2: The other day she picked up a cup that was on the end table in the family room and it was full of water - the water spilled all over the chair and the floor and then table and she came to us when the empty cup saying "uh-oh" and then proceeding to go into a long sentence that we can't understand. We thought she was just showing us a cup... and then we discovered the flood...
• -She loves 'crib-time.' We haven't graduated to room-time yet because she loves crib time so much. When we are home in the mornings she will play in her crib for about 45 minutes at a time. She actually gets excited when you say, "Are you ready to go play in your crib?" She will then go and place several toys in there that she wants to play with.
• -She has such a rapidly expanding vocabulary - she knows all the body parts and my favorite is when you say, "Caleigh, where is your elbow?" sometimes she will get confused and point to her hair and we will say, "Nope, that's your hair-bow" I can see how that could be confusing. She picks up new words every day and has recently started singing songs. Her favorites are Twinkle, Twinkle, Jesus loves me, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, well - Patty Cake too but that's not really a song. She really has the melody down.

At 22 months she is waking up at 7:30 - she then takes one nap from 1-3:30 or 4 and then she goes to bed for the night at 7 (though you can often hear her talking in there until 7:30 or 7:45 depending on how tired she is). Some of her favorite foods are cherry tomatoes (she loves picking them at Gigi and Pop-pops and eating them straight off the vine), Oreo cookies (she has a particular method for eating these and it is the same every time: take a small bite, twist open cookie, eat side with no icing, lick icing off other side, eat side with icing), pancakes, steak, and recently, eggs. We are thankful because it seems she really does love her brother. The other day for no reason at all she walked over to him and started rubbing his head and talking to him, then she just bent down and gave him a kiss - totally unprompted. We pray that this might be the beginning of a great friendship for them.

welcome foard!

I haven't blogged is a while! Sorry about that - we are in the midst of a hard and busy season. But something very exciting happened on Friday, September 18th that is very blogworthy. Jake, Melissa, and Sam Hunt welcomed Malachi Foard Hunt into the world.

He was a big boy! 10 lb 5 oz - Melissa, you are amazing. Here is a sweet pic of me, Melissa, and Carrie (holding Foard). Doesn't Foard look almost as big as Andrew? Not really... but we are hoping they will be sweet friends. Congrats y'all!

labor day weekend

On Friday morning I let Caleigh loose with paint and a paintbrush.

She decided she liked the way the paint looked on her arms and in her hair and in her mouth.  It was a surprise to see her get 'dirty' for a change.

On Saturday Caleigh got her first pedicure (from me).  She keeps looking at her feet and saying 'pretty.'  On Saturday morning Adam had to meet his study group from school at 10 and so Caleigh and I went down to Matthews and met my parents at the Matthews Alive parade.  The parade was from 10-11 and it was so fun!  It is very interactive and great for all ages.   Caleigh looked like a gypsie as she collected all of the free things that were handed out at the parade. Gigi got some sweet time with little A at the parade too.  After the parade was over we walked around the festival - the lines for the rides were too long (there were thousands of people there!) but we did eat some awesome fair food for lunch.  I had a corndog which was so good (I brought Caleigh's lunch) and then we had shaved ice - Caleigh had grape flavor and LOVED it.  We loved the Labor Day festivities on Saturday and hope to make it a yearly tradition.  When we got home we discovered Caleigh's sunglasses and those along with her necklace make for quite an interesting picture...

Happy Labor Day!