He's so old!

As I was browsing my recent pictures I had to stop at this one I took 2 days ago. He looks so OLD to me. When did that happen?!?!

Emmett is already 1 month!

Emmett is now 1 month old and yesterday he had his 1 month appointment. He's growing fabulously! He's added more than 2 inches and in the last 2 weeks he gained 2 pounds!

Now that I know at least the grandparents have received their announcements in the mail, I'll post it here. I took these pictures when he was 5 days old

Apples from Angels

Some around here may be shocked to hear we've never had honeycrisp apples before (I don't think they're shipped to the Northwest?), but the sad negligence to our palette is over, and they really are the best! I've heard their praises sung many times, and would have loved to go pick them at Barthel Fruit Farm (where we've gotten strawberries and pumpkins before) but with Emmett's arrival that's just not a task I could handle with all three boys.
So, after the rotten start to the day we had today (see previous post), the visit I received was perfect! A friend paid us an impromptu visit, bearing a bag of freshly picked honeycrisps, and it was seriously an answer to the stress of the morning. She may laugh, wondering how her girls playing with Avery and Carson and the inevitable mess and noise that goes along with happy kids could leave me de-stressed, but I tell you their visit was just what I needed! Thank you so much!

Dissonance

This morning started off very badly. Travis had left for school, Avery was up watching TV, Carson was still asleep and I was laying in bed half conscious because I could hear Emmett beginning to stir and I was resisting the notion that 15 more minutes in bed may be wishful thinking...
All of a sudden Avery is screaming bloody murder in the living room, completely hysterical because he want Daddy to get him his morning drink. I charge out there (I don't want him to wake Carson or Emmett and I'm obviously annoyed that I had to be so rudely expelled from my nice warm bed) and frankly, I didn't handle it the best way (I suppose only 4 hours of sleep didn't help me any). Clearly, if your child is in hysterics, yelling at them is NOT the way to calm them down. And Avery was so irrational that I simply would not do for getting him a drink; he actually wanted me to call Daddy and tell him to come back and get it for him! (By the way, Travis HAD gotten Avery his drink but Avery had already downed it and couldn't recall that in his morning and TV induced fog)
So it took a while to get a handle on Avery, meanwhile Carson could clearly be heard impatiently waiting to be retrieved from his crib and he certainly didn't appreciate the rude awakening either. Also, Emmett is now awake and naturally crying to be fed. 3 cranky/crying kids wasn't actually the worst of it - after all, Avery eventually let me get him juice and Carson and Emmett were easy fixes - the worst was my being upset at myself having reacted badly to Avery and setting the whole day off poorly.

This next bit both contributes and relieves the bad morning... Later that morning, after everything was put to right, I "enjoyed" Avery and Carson playing very happily together and I did try to laugh at them. Unfortunately for Emmett and my ears, their playing included a guaranteed headache. Here are two pictures...
...and just so you can appreciate on a small level what those photos show, here's a video of two clips I put together:



Carson is generally the instigator in this type of play, as may be seen when he changes the tone and Avery follows him. Really, that second tone wasn't so bad, but the first tone was most of it, and it lasted a LONG time. In fact, they like to bring it back frequently like it's their favorite song...

A New Style

Carson has been demonstrating an interesting new style lately...

I particularly like the shirt-skirt. (On a side note, I love how Carson stands with his hands behind his back and just watches, a stance he takes often)
A new jacket:
Um... leg warmer/slippers?
As you can see, it's generally a pajama conversion, those are most effective I suppose.
Although, sometimes after getting dressed, Carson likes to accessorize:
Carson loves to put on Avery's shoes (easy to put on but close enough to his size to make walking easy) but it's way more fun when he walks in his Daddy's size 16 boats...
Every one of those pictures came from a different incident, and obviously there's a lot more than I ever get pictures of!

Jumper

Carson used to like to throw all the pillows off the chair so he could jump onto them, which I posted a video of here. But NO MORE! Pillows apparently are no longer necessary.
Here are just a few of the occasions from last month when my Mom was here:
And, as you can see in the next one, a single jump and its ensuing hard landing does not dissuade, he just keeps going...
And, of course, what Carson does Avery must:

Last Day with Grandma Hunsaker

Yesterday was our last day with Grandma Hunsaker. Here are some pictures we took:

Avery would NOT smile until the last shot, Carson was perfectly happy and smiling, and Emmett was obviously in a less annoying place...
Finally, that smile from Avery, but by then Carson was done sitting - at least he was still happy!
Thank you so much for coming Grandma Hunsaker! I'm glad you brought your camera, it was nice having that extra set of picture to go thru! Thank you for all your help, it was invaluable!

We will miss you!

Early Education

Today Avery decided to give Emmett an early Hunsaker style education...

"This is my pop gun, Emmett"

"This is where you hold it, Emmett"

And then I just like this speculative shot with his gun propped up next to him. "Hmm, I wonder if he's listening to me..?" Avery must have decided it was worth more effort because this was followed by more trying to get Emmett to hold it.

Ready to roll his eyes?

I like this look that Grandma Hunsaker caught with her camera today. Avery was spending more time with Emmett again, and I think this shot looks like Emmett is looking to Grandma saying "What's with all the scrutiny? Avery's always in my face and there you are with the camera. Sheesh!" It looks like he's ready to roll his eyes at all us weirdos always watching him and fawning over him.

Emmett and his Bros

There's a couple things about this video that I enjoy.

First, how Emmett's brothers clearly love him, but the way they show their love can sometimes be a little hazardous. 3 kisses from Carson are potential head bonks, Emmett almost gets a blanket thrown on him, and of course all the hands in his face.

The other part I enjoy stemmed here from Avery's funny need to have Monkey (his stuffed best bud) any time he's holding Emmett. Carson has a select vocabulary, but his vocal interaction is a little on the light side so his "No" towards the end of this video was pretty humorous.

Outside with Grandma again

I really haven't been up to sitting on the concrete porch a ton, so I know the boys definitely appreciate Grandma Hunsaker sitting out there with them so they can both play. Here are some pictures she took today...

Avery is apparently chasing Carson and I don't know why but for some reason I think Carson's face or maybe his expression just looks different here and I think maybe that's why I like this picture...
This is always entertaining to watch, and Carson really enjoys it! I guess he gets enough padding from his diaper..?
And I guess the trike isn't the only thing they'll happily share since they tried this later in the day:

Halloween Decorations

Well, it's October first, that means it's time to decorate for Halloween! (Although Autumn is my absolute favorite season here in Wisconsin, Halloween still implies cold and I simply can't deal with it in September - that's my month for slowly accepting the end of summer and the impending Wisconsin winter)

We don't have a ton of decorations, so it didn't take long, but I know Avery enjoyed actually having some time with his Mommy anyway. I'll also say here that although I did crop this picture, I still want to thank Grandma Hunsaker for not including my rear in the original shot either! :)
And while Avery and I decorated, Grandma caught this moment:
Carson, you're just such a sweet boy! I love you!

Sugar cookies!

Avery and Grandma Hunsaker made sugar cookies - but not just any sugar cookies - HALLOWEEN sugar cookies! Avery loved using the fun cookie cutters again (he used them for the donuts first), but loved decorating the cookies even more!

Napping

Look who I caught napping today!
Of course, the habit is nothing new. Here he is with Carson:
And here's two with Avery! This first one was in the first week home with Avery when he was still in his crying instead of sleeping all night stage. Travis fell asleep rocking Avery, it was so sweet.
Alright, fine. He's not the only one caught napping... (that's baby Carson):

Homemade Donuts!

When Travis gets an idea, often he can't let it go. Lucky for us, his latest idea was a tasty one! Yesterday Travis decided to make donuts! He chose a buttermilk donut recipe and a Krispy Kreme copycat recipe.
Grandma Hunsaker snapped these pictures...
Avery rolling the dough:
Avery excited about the Krispy Kreme cutouts rising, and you can see some of the finished glazed buttermilk ones in the foreground:
And this is Carson saying "Mmmm"
Seriously, these rocked. Mom, I'm sorry you had already left and missed out, but don't worry, I ate one (or many more?) in your honor... :)