..i mustache you a question..

dear boys,

neither of you were really fans of the fake mustaches you got for christmas.....

but dad and i had fun watchin', even though it was at your expense!

haha love ya!

love,
mom

..sam is three months old..

dear sammy boy,

three months have already passed us by, in the blink of an eye it seems! with the holidays, your blessing, and having visitors in town this past month, i feel like we were constantly on the go, trying to get things all ready! you have changed so much in such a short amount of time, and it makes me a little sad. i wish i could keep you my little baby forever.

some things about you at three months:

-you are no longer nursing. i struggled with feelings of guilt for a few weeks before finally just quitting altogether, but the fact of the matter is, you were never getting enough with just nursing. we started supplementing with formula early on, and i think it's just a downward spiral from there. i'm trying to look at the positive side of things though....formula has come such a long way in the past few years (or so they say), so hopefully you will be just as healthy as you'd be if i'd nursed longer. and i must say, it is so convenient to just whip up a bottle, rather than nursing first, then getting a bottle ready, etc etc. you drink about 6 oz every 4 hours.
-as stated above, you eat approximately every 4 hours, stay awake for an hour or so, then go back down. i love the time when you are awake....we sit and play and laugh and smile together. i sure do appreciate and love those moments.
-until very recently your were only sleeping 6 or 7 hours a night. i was getting really antsy to get you on more of a schedule, hoping that would help you sleep longer at night, and as luck would have it, it did! we've only been doing it for a couple days, but you've been sleeping like a rock star! 10 or 11 hours at night! woot woot!
-we started putting you to sleep in a sleep sack, and you do a little better in that, because it is more difficult for you to kick your way out of!
-you are so close to giggling. i think you kind of do giggle, it's just not like a really belly laugh, ya know? you have this high-pitched squeal, and it so so cute. :)
-you still smile all day long! dad and i are always commenting on how much we love that you smile. your big bro was not like this - he made us work for smiles. you, however, give them out freely, and it couldn't make us any happier!
-you've just started to notice the dogs and you watch them with a little smirk on your face. you do the same thing with finn. i'm pretty sure you think he is hilarious, which, let's be honest, he is!

i'm sure there are many more things i'm forgetting, but for now this will have to do. sammy boy, your daddy and i love you more than you'll ever know. you bring so much love and happiness to our family. my love for you grows each and every day and there are so many times throughout the day that i am just overcome with such overwhelming love for you. i know that it was heavenly father's will for you to come down to us, and even though we can sometimes be crazy, i hope that you'll grow to love being a powell.

love,
mom

..finn @ 21 months..

dear baby finn,

man alive, are you turning into the cutest little toddler ever? i know i'm biased, but i think so! seriously, you just crack me up and keep me rolling on the ground all day long. when i'm not laughing at all the silly things you do, i'm either in tears at how fast you're growing up, in awe over all the sweet things you do all day, mostly to your brother, and how smart you are becoming, or wanting to pull my hair out because of all the crazy toddler temper tantrums you so frequently throw. okay okay, you aren't that bad, and i know that i should probably thank my lucky stars that you are as good of a kid as you are, but for real dude, some days you do make me want to pull my hair out. ;)

some things i want to remember about you at 21 months.....
-you love to throw sam's diapers away. for a while there, you would scrunch up clean diapers and throw them in the diaper genie! haha
-you are starting to say more and more words all the time, and sometimes you can even ask for things you want, such as "wa-wa?" (water) or "nahk?" (fruit snacks).
-you like to help clean up your toys, then dump them all out again. that doesn't get annoying at all. ;)
-you are finally drinking milk out of a sippy cup instead of a bottle! hallefreakinlujah! the transition was actually tons easier than i was anticipating. i just found some sippy cups that kind of look like bottles (they are most clear) and as luck would have it they are the same kind of sippy you are already used to. so one day, in a really excited voice, i said, "finn, look at this new baba i got for you!!!! are you soooo excited?!!!" and you drank from it like a champ! now you will drink milk from all sippy cups. :)
-you are learning to feed yourself. i haven't been very good about giving you opportunities to try, thanks to the neat freak in me. :( i guess i've just been worried about the messes you'd make. but i realized that it feeding yourself is probably an important thing for you to know how to do, so one day i let you have at it and you really surprised me with how well you did. you are getting better at it every day.
-you love to color and draw. the first thing you do every morning, after drinking your milk and watching sesame street, is go into your room and color on the easel grandma cindy gave you for christmas.
-you are transitioning toward only taking one nap a day. i'm a little sad about this, but really surprised how long you went taking two naps a day. bless your little heart!!

i know i probably sometimes sound like a broken record, but i just can't explain in words how much i love you, and how proud i am to be your mom. even on the toughest of days, when i realllly see the two-year-old coming out in you, there are so many moments when my heart just swells with pride, and i come close to tears just at the thought of what being your mommy means to me. you and your little brother are my whole world, and i'm so beyond thankful you are mine!

love you dear boy!

love,
mom

..not off to a good start..

happy  new year!! it is officially 2013, and we started our year off at instacare. :( boo to sick babies, it is no fun at all.

finn started developing a cold a couple days before new years, but it wasn't too bad. by new years eve, it had turned into a hacking, mucus-y cough. i was slightly concerned, because it just sounded so awful, but he was still in great spirits so i didn't think too much of it. i bought some cough medicine and figured we'd be good to go. we had plans to go to dinner and then to zoo lights with grandma cindy and nanny goat for new years eve, but after grandma cindy heard his cough, she decided we better not go. so we just went to dinner instead - market street broiler - then came home and enjoyed a pretty quiet new year's eve in our pj's. :) finn was starting to look a little more miserable as the night wore on, and i had bad feeling our new year wouldn't start out so great.

sure enough, finn was up bright and early new years day with the worst cough i've ever heard. he was also having a very difficult time breathing, so that is when we knew we better get to instacare. sammy boy started to cough a little too, so we figured we better bring him, just to be sure. i hate instacare, because i feel like 9 times out of 10 you leave sicker than when you came, but with sam being so little i didn't want to take any chances of either of them having rsv.

we were there by about 7:30, but because it was new year's they didn't open until 9, so we turned around and went home. after eating breakfast and playing for a while, we headed back, and it's a good thing because there was already a line of people in front of us! only 6 people, but still.... while we were waiting to get called back, finn entertained himself by going up and down the elevator, over and over and over. i'm pretty sure he did it at least 30 times haha. i guess that's the benefit of it being on a holiday - the rest of the building was closed so no one really needed the elevator.

when it was our turn, the nurse weighed both boys, listened to their hearts, checked their ears and throats, then did some breathing test on both of them. they both had to score above 94, otherwise they'd have to go on breathing treatments. thank goodness both were above 94. when we saw the dr, she asked us some questions about the type of cough, and diagnosed them with croup. i wasn't familiar with it, but it's just a really barky, viral cough that affects only little kids. she gave finn a steroid to help open up his lungs, but because sam is still so little, he couldn't have one. she told us that basically all we could do to help was exposing them to steam (from the shower, dishwasher, a humidifier, etc). that helps open their lungs, making it easier to breath.

when we left instacare, there were - no joke - at least 30 people waiting to be seen!! the nurse told us that this year they expect record-breaking numbers of illnesses, between strep, rsv, and the flu. ick!!!

finn was pretty miserable for three or four days. it was so sad! this is definitely the most sick that either baby has been, and it just broke my heart. their cough's just sounded so awful, i can't imagine the pain they must have been experiencing. sammy boy was still happy and smiley, so i didn't feel as bad for him as i did for finn. i did worry about him more though, since he is only 3 months old! no baby should get sick this early on. :(

in retrospect, i'm so glad it was only croup. i have a huge fear of rsv, whooping cough, pneumonia, etc. i know that croup is still serious, and nothing to be taken lightly, but i have heard such horror stories in the past couple weeks of kids who have nearly died from those other viruses. it is so scary. i can't wait for this winter to be over, and pray that we will stay somewhat healthy for its duration.

here's to hoping the rest of our year doesn't follow the lead of the first week!

happy 2013!!