Carter Helps Matt Hang the TV

Medical Stats

Carter's 2 Year:

Height: 36 1/4" (95%)
Weight: 33lb (95%)
Head Circumference: 19" (45%)

What I learned? Toddler visits to the doctor are MUCH harder than infant visits. With a toddler there are no shots (if you have been up to date with them, that is), but they kind of object to being poked and prodded. A lot.


Nolen's 4 Month Check up:

Height: 26 1/2" (95%)
Weight: 19lb 13oz(85%)
Head Circumference: 17 1/2" (95%)
to compare...Carter at 4 months was:
Height: 27" (97%)
Weight: 17lb 5oz (90%)
Head Circumference: 16 3/4" (50%)

*What is confusing is how Nolen is in the 85th percentile for being heavier than Carter was only 2 years earlier. I didn't think they changed the charts that frequently...so maybe it was bad math?

Nolen did great at his doctor's visit. She said that he is very advanced in holding his head up, and pulling things to his mouth. She also commented that he visually tracks very well for a baby his age. Our little pleaser. Such a youngest child.

Sleeping Through the Night, 2.0

To all my peeps out there who have had babies who cry, and cry, and cry all through the night. To everyone I know who has had kids with day/night confusion. For all my pals who have had kids who don't go more then a 2 hour stretch for months on end. My hats off to you. Seriously. I don't know how you do it. I still don't. I think you just make it through-and you don't really question it. Yet, I am here to say, "You are the most amazing people on earth." Yes, parenting is a 24 hour job, and you are always responsible for your children, no matter what-but honestly, we all need a break from each other, even if it is to stare at our eye lids, and no one but our neurons will benefit from the break.

You childless readers here, people do this sleepless night thing for months on end. Some do it for years. It is fatigue like you can't imagine. A friend of mine was commiserating with me that this must be like what insomnia is like. It isn't. I have had insomnia, so I can compare. The feeling of sleeplessness is the same. The big difference is that YOU WANT TO SLEEP. YOU CAN SLEEP. A little tiny person you love more than anything else in the world (other than other tiny people, and your true love) is the one thing between you and mind numbing sleep. Not only can fatigue begin to get the better of you, but you become less of a personable person. You are not the party animal you once were-sleeping by 7:00, only to be awakened by 9:00. And, if you are anything like me, you begin sleep walking. This has been less fun for the others in our household.

All this preamble, Nolen has started sleeping through the night. Not every night, but it is getting better and better. He is gaining the skill of putting himself to sleep, and I am beginning to remember what sleeping for more then 3 hours feels like.

And, to those of you out there who have never experienced this before (because we had not until we had Nolen!) This-my friend-this is actually a short period of time to be living with a baby who doesn't sleep. Many->most people I know live through this for a very long time. Who knows...I could be posting another post in a few days or weeks telling you he is off the wagon. Let's hope not.

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NOTE: last night Nolen woke up and was awake on and off for approximately 90 minutes on and off. However, this time, he wasn't screaming. Kind of a nice change!

Christmas Stories

I know we are late in posting this...but there are some funny stories from Christmas time that I have not posted. Yes, it is almost Groundhog Day, but it has been a short, and VERY long month!

It turns out Carter is quite a fan of Christmas...actually, Carter is really just a fan of Christmas decorations. He loves the lights outside-fascinated by them, really. Every time we would drive down our street he would exclaim, "Ya-ya on? Ya-ya!" For the record, he USED to know how to say light. I have no idea how light switched from LIGHT to Ya-ya. In fact, we are still trying to break him of his Ya ya habit.

Carter loves all Christmas decorations, nic nacs and garland. Our tree-he loved it. The decorations were so amazing to him, and he was very good at keeping them on the tree-although you could tell he wanted to rip every single one of them off. Every morning he wanted the lights turned on. He would wake up requesting it. The tree served quite a lot of importance and significance, and even ranked well above "baby" for quite some time. The day we took the tree down was a very, very sad day in this house. Carter was heartbroken. If it wasn't such a pain to put back up, we may have considered it.

Boots, or stalkings were also quite the amazing thing for Carter. Even now, he will point to where the boots hung and say, "Boots, aah gone."

Over Christmas, we also experienced Nolen's second "sleeping for a 5 hour stretch, and waking up at 7:00". WOW. When you are exhausted from running around at the holidays, extra time to sleep in, is a gift you can't scoff at. Who knew that getting 5 hours of solid sleep would be something to write on your blog about. Let me tell you, a week ago, I would have given my right ovary and fallopian tube for 3 hours of sleep in a row! (more on that in another post).

All in all, we had an awesome trip. Ant Jennette made her house into the Hokes emporium, and were were coming out of every crevice. Matt spend most nights with Carter in the storage closet (which sounds scary, but was actually pretty homey, and nice and dark too!) Nolen and I chilled in Jennette's office, and kept her neighbours happy at all hours of the night with our cries-actually, it was just Nolen, I had no reason to cry, really.

As for driving. The kids were great. We had a long and yucky drive back-with sleet and just general slipperyness. Nolen cried for the last hour. Carter yelled over Nolen telling him to "Stop." Luckily this was only the last hour, but it is times like that that make you think, "This is what it must be like to have two kids under 2." I have had many of those moments-but they are paired with Carter kissing Nolen's head, and Nolen grinning so wide at Carter that those trying moments get kind of fuzzy and I can't remember the details as well.

OK, OK. I will post the Christmas photos. Geeze!

Krazy, huh? I can't believe we got all that stuff in our car. The Mazda 5 rocks.




"Yum, even MORE birthday cake. This is NOT a bad deal, people. Tank to."


Carter, eating with the big kids, Talia and Erik. It is so cool to be 2.


Auntie Morrie and Nolen...you know you're special when you get to hold newest grandson BEFORE his grandma's do. They both flanked Morrie and watched Nolen until Morrie was done :)


What a rag, tag bunch



Alison and Carter are having a blast. Hard to believe it can be fun to be a toddler style rickshaw. Who is having the fun here? The pusher, or the pushee?



Hamming it up for the camera.







Carter loved playing with Erik in his tent. What a cool, cool tent.

And, speaking of tents:



Grandma and Nolen, chillin' at the Heinrichs crib

new pic of the boyz hanging out

We have a lot of xmas and birthday pics to upload yet, but I have a new one of the boys that I just had to post.
My new fave picture - this has even captured the coveted background picture spot on Dad's work laptop.