Wesley's 10 and 11 Months

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We’re almost there, almost to the big ONE year birthday! This year went by so fast (and yet each day seemed so slow, funny how that works). The little guy just melts my heart. He’s got big smiles and belly laughs and it’s the best thing ever. I’m not going to get any more mushy…I’ll save that for my one year post.

Go to my earlier post, A Look Back: Wesley’s 9 Months, to see 0 to 9 months!

October - 10 Months Old

  • Sleep training Round 3 - Ugh, does it stop? Let’s sleep dude!

  • Cruising - He’s walking along tables & able to move from one thing and then across to another

  • Standing for like 3 seconds without any support

  • Short distances with toy walker independently

  • Loves to play with water - splish splash!

  • Tongue side to side - Funny blub sound with tongue going back and forth (so cute)

  • Climbs up to stand grabbing the back of mom’s legs

  • First Halloween! Went as Batman’s (Caleb) sidekick, Robin!

November - 11 Months Old

  • Getting down from a standing position to crawl or sit

  • Loves the freezer especially opening and closing it on his own

  • Walking around with the toy walker (but not great at navigating, yet)

  • When mom sits down, he loves to walk around her again & again

  • Bee lines to the laundry room, freezer, or front/back doors to go outside when opened

  • Wheels, wheels, wheels…all the wheels

  • Walking and pushing the stroller!

  • Climbing up the stairs

  • Started the standard crawl (still does the army crawl, too…but this crawl is faster)

  • Almost walking, so close…

  • First Tooth! (on the bottom left)

  • First Thanksgiving - didn’t really eat much of the food. A bit of a roll perhaps and then playing with the rest.

A Look Back: Wesley's 9 Months

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Have you seen the meme (this one) where the photo of the first child is all done up with cute props and then the second child just has a post-it note? LOL. I’m not quite at that level, but I didn’t get to post monthly for Wesley as I did for Caleb. I did get monthly photos, though. I also took my monthly notes on development and other things I wanted to remember. All that said, now I’m going to play a bit of catch-up and share some photos and notes of Wesley over the past nine months. Better late than never!

Look how much he’s grown. He’s now almost eleven months. Life has sure been busy! Life with one kid really changes your life, but having two is another ballpark. Free time? What’s that! And that, my friends, is why this blog has been so quiet this year. I’m sure I’ll pick it back up, but for now we’ll have a lot of “Looking Back” posts. (FYI: I also have Raising Tacoma that I’m trying to keep going, too). But I absolutely adore my kids and cannot imagine life without them. They are my heart. Can you see why?

Wesley Photos: The Past 9 Months

December - First Month

  • Born on Saturday, 12/7/18 - Read the post here

  • First Outing was to Caleb’s Preschool Christmas concert

  • Lots of sleep

  • First bath at home

  • At four weeks we saw tears (so sad), but also smiles, and opening his eyes more

  • Holding head up a few seconds

First Christmas

Wesley’s first holiday is my favorite, Christmas! We thought he’d be in time for Thanksgiving, but instead it was Christmas.

January - 1 Month Old

  • Only waking once at night (but sometimes two).

  • Lifting head high up when on his tummy

  • First cold (with a cough, so sad to hear)

  • Rolling from tummy to back at 7 weeks

  • The dreaded fussy time: 9-11pm! Ugh!

  • First time experiencing Snow (2/4/19)

February - 2 Months Old

  • Big snow storm, 8-10 inches! Crazy for Tacoma

  • He’s really lifting his head high when on tummy (higher than before)

  • Lots of smiles and coos

  • First step in his transition to his own room - taking his naps in there!

  • Loves chewing his hands

  • So wiggley

  • Crazy kid, lots of back arching making almost hard to hold him

  • Grabbing for toys and things

  • At 11 weeks we’re starting to feel a rhythm to the day…maybe we’ll survive after all

March - 3 Months Old

  • Very curious

  • Lots of coos and smiles when you talk to him

  • Grabs everything!! Everything.

  • First night in the nursery (in his bassinet next to the crib)

  • Finally down to bed in his bassinet and not doing the fussy time in the carrier (whew, our evenings might be back!)

  • Turning into his side trying to roll from his back to his tummy

  • Score! He slept 8.5 hours straight

  • Loves the Mirror

  • Laughs

April - 4 Months Old

  • Breaking out the exesaucer for some jumping & activity time

  • Distracted eating…mommy grumbles

  • Teething (we think) & everything goes in his mouth

  • Sleep Troubles…dreaded 4 month sleep regression

  • His first night in the crib in his room - room transition complete!

  • What do you know, he sat in a high chair (sorta)

  • Found his feet!

  • Laughing loud - cracking witch laugh (too cute, though)

  • Shimmy from one corner to the other on his play mat

  • Commence Rolling: He rolled over back to belly

May - 5 Months Old

  • Oh my, sleeping on his belly (He rolled over while sleeping)!

  • Grabbing for everything…including during diaper changes

  • Down to 4 naps with 1.75-2 hrs wake time

  • Sleep seems to be getting a bit better, gosh that regression was killer (2x wake up)

  • Pushing his butt up trying to wiggle & crawl

  • Wiggling enough to make movement around; he’s getting places!

  • Consecutive roll overs…wheeee

  • Start sleep training (yup, gotta do it)

  • Kicks his legs and flaps his arms when happy and excited

  • Starting to shriek

  • First Food was sweet potato then carrots and banana…he was unsure about it all

June - 6 Months Old

  • Sleep issues again. He stopped sleeping through the night and back to waking up once a night

  • Sooo close to crawling - getting up on all fours!

  • Wants our food and will grab for it…watch up!

  • More foods to try and oatmeal baby food

  • First time on a swing…loved it, yippee!

  • Babbling, Ba Ba Ba Ba Babbling

  • First trip on an airplane and down to California

  • First time experiencing the beach & ocean

July - 7 Months Old

  • Army crawling everywhere - room to room, pokes his head in and smiles (so proud)

  • First time in child care - it was at the church’s nursery and went great

  • Speed army crawling and going everywhere

  • Down to two naps a day

  • Sleep Training Part 2 - by night 3 he was sleeping through the night again

  • Now he’s sitting up for long periods independently

  • A favorite activity: the swing at the park

  • He enjoys making a clicking sound with his tongue

  • Standing up while holding onto the table independently

  • Goodbye pacifier

August - 8 Months Old

  • Said “hi” and “ma ma” (or at least I think he did)

  • Pulling himself up

  • Standing for a longer time holding onto things

  • Sleeping through the night

  • Enjoys sausage, yogurt, sweet potato, bambas

  • Diaper changes are the worst - he won’t stop moving and wiggles…help!

  • Wants to be doing everything, being everywhere, and moving

  • Starts steps with the walker toy (with assistance)

  • Brings things to you…let’s play

September - 9 Months Old

  • Dancing (head and shoulder bop) when music plays or singing

  • Flaps arms in excitement with toy in hand, pretty funny (especially the little dog toy with string arms)

  • Da da da da & Dada (we think)

  • Able to do one or two stair steps

  • Cruising along tables and furniture

  • His mom is his jungle gym - she can be the support for standing, walking, pulling, etc

  • Loves opening and closing things - again and again

  • Pushing cars/balls/toys/anything around the house

  • Loves wheels and inspecting them, testing them, seeing what they do

  • Standing - all he wants to do is stand. No sitting! And loves to stand at the little activity table.

  • Still Mr. Wiggles and won’t stop moving

  • Sometimes he’ll sleep through the night, sometimes he won’t (argh)

Now I need to get working on the last few months. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Welcome Little Wesley

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Josh, Caleb, and I are proud to introduce you to our newest addition to the family, Wesley Jackson Brown. Wesley was born on Friday, December 7th, 2018 at 3:31pm. He came into the world weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces and at 19 inches tall. We couldn’t be happier to have this new, sweet bundle of joy.

Wesley is already showing his individuality from his brother by arriving past his due date as opposed to over two weeks early like his big brother. In fact, I had to be induced! I’m going to write the whole story sometime soon, but for now I wanted to share some the moments we’ve had so far with Wesley.

The Birth

Wesley was delivered at Saint Joseph Hospital in Tacoma, WA. I was nearing 41 weeks, so he ended up having to be induced. Once things got rolling, he came quickly and naturally. More on that story later as I need to write it all up and I didn’t want to wait to get some photos out to you all because Wesley is too cute not to share immediately (or at least, that’s what his mama thinks).

Big Brother Caleb Meets Wesley

Caleb got to meet his new brother on Saturday morning, the day after his brother was born. He was super sweet with Wesley - patting his head, looking down at him. It was all very new to him, but he did a great job and made his mom and dad proud. But I think what he liked the best was when his baby brother gifted a totally rad astronaut helmet. Caleb wore that all the way out the hospital after his first visit.

Coming Home and First Outings

We came home from the hospital on Saturday, 12/8 evening. I wasn’t as scared driving in the car with an infant this time. Funny how the second time around you’re a bit more confident. We put Wesley down and Asha sniffed him, and then went to her mat to sleep. I think she is thinking, “oh man, another one!” But she’s so good with the kids. Caleb was at our friend’s house and came home and ran up to Wesley and just looked at him with a sweet smile.

Having a second baby is definitely different than your first. With your first you take weeks to get out of the house, with the second you’re out of the house the next day practically (well, maybe the second or third). Our first outing was for Caleb’s preschool Christmas Concert, which I’m so glad we got to attend because Caleb was the biggest ham and the cutest performer. (Watch his performance here).

Over the course of our first ten days home, we’ve done some small adventures out like the grocery store, the farmer’s market, the toy store, a bakery, the bookstore, and seeing Santa. Wesley is a trooper with it all and is nursing on-the-go with me. This is big for me since it was so hard for me to nurse outside the house with Caleb.

Caleb is already proving to be an awesome big brother. He loves to pat the “tiny baby” or his “baby brother” (as he says) on his head and give him kisses. He wants to help mom and dad with the baby and checks that “baby comes, too?” when we go out. He says cute things like, “baby blue eyes, Caleb blue eyes, mommy blue eyes, daddy blue eyes.” Or, “baby tiny lips, me big lips.” Then just last night he did the “kiss monster” (something mom and dad to do to him - basically it’s just showering someone with lots of kisses) to his brother. Ahh, my heart melts. Watch a video of some of Caleb and Wesley’s interactions.

One Week Old

Time is already flying by! Wesley is now over a week old, but I had to take some one week photos. He’s definitely going to move some mountains.

I hope to continue to share more about Wesley and our life as a new family of four. Also, I post a ton of photos on Instagram if you need a Wesley and Caleb fix.

Love you to you all!

Soon to be Four

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You are reading that title correctly. Soon there will be FOUR Browns in this family. Josh, Heather, Caleb, and....another little boy! Baby Boy Brown #2 is expected sometime late November or early December -- official due date is December 2nd, 2018 (we'll see!).

It seems not so long ago we were announcing my first pregnancy and birth of Caleb. Now, we're adding another to our family crew. We're all very excited and can't wait to meet this little guy. I'll try to keep you in the loop as the year progresses!