Yes We Did!

What an amazing day!  

For the first time in my history as a voter I woke up the day after election day and my candidate was the winner!  There is much celebrating to be done!  My sisters have both been working hard for the Democratic Party of Arizona, my parents did phone banking, and my mom "donated" a few Obama stickers to people in need.  Even some of our favorite Republican relatives were supporting Obama!  

In Minnesota news, Tim Walz was re-elected, but Al Franken lost by about 700 votes.  Unfortunately, Michele Bachmann was also re-elected (she's the crazy lady that called democratic congressmen anti-american).  Not only is she a little nutty, but  I think Jon Stewart would have had a lot of fun if her opponent, Elwin Tinklenberg, had been elected!

Two Months Old

Collin at one month

Collin at two months

It is amazing how much our little guy has grown in the last two months!  He has gained almost 4 lbs and grown almost 4 inches!  Collin is working hard to catch up to his big brother.  Collin is 6oz heavier and 3/4 of an inch longer than Will was at two months, which is interesting since Will was almost 2 lbs heavier and inch longer at birth!  What is even more interesting to me is their percentiles.  Both boys went in on Friday for their check-ups (2 month for Collin and 5 year for Will).  Will is in the 67th percentile for height, 92% for weight and his head is always off the charts, while Collin is in the 76th percentile for height, 64% for weight and 36% for head circumference.  I guess there is only room for one Big Head Fred in this family!  

Happy Halloween!

Luke Skywalker and Yoda

Star Wars has been a huge interest of Will's for the past year.  Before Collin was born Will wanted to name him Yodi, which is where we got the inspiration for this year's costumes.  We found Collin's costume at the Science Museum this summer.  We bought it big since Will was such a big baby with such a big head.  Turns out Collin isn't so big (at his 2 month check up his head was only in the 36th percentile! ) and his costume is huge, but he is still the cutest little Yoda ever.  Will's costume wasn't as easy.  I decided to sew again this year-something I swore I'd never do again after last year's Harry Potter.  It actually wasn't that bad.  The only major cursing occurred when I sewed the pants so that one leg was right side out and the other leg was inside out! 

Here we are on Halloween making Ghosts on a Broomstick (a pretzel stick with a fringed fruit roll-up and a glob of white chocolate with milk chocolate chip eyes.)  Since I'm really not about pumpkin carving (what a mess!) we made these instead!

We were running late to our neighborhood pizza party/trick-or-treating so Will ate his pizza on the run!  

We stopped mid-trick-or-treating for a costume adjustment.  Master Yoda is riding in the sling! 

Pancakes with Al and Tim

This morning the boys and I went with a few of our neighbors to a pancake breakfast with Al Franken and Tim Walz.

 Will and I in front of Al's bus

Al encourages the group to volunteer as much as possible in the next five days

Will and Tim seemed to only be there for the pancakes!  

Tim Walz represents Minnesota's 1st district

Al signs his 'baseball' card for Will

Will's new bed

Slow and steady wins the race, and after many late nights in the shop Will's bed is done! People always hassle me about my projects taking forever, but I remind them that you can't rush perfection...

I am definitely my worst critic, but overall I'm pleased with how this one came together. The finger joints on the drawer fronts/sides alone added at LEAST 10 hours to my total time investment. I think they make a huge visual difference, though.

It's subtle, but the curves on the headboard and footboard match a changing table I made 5 years ago when Will was a baby.

Those in turn mimic the sleigh style crib we bought.

Will isn't quite big enough to climb directly into the bed yet. So instead he uses a drawer pull as a foothold. The other night one of the drawers wasn't closed all the way, and he just stepped on the drawer itself and hopped up. I panicked at first, then thought through how sturdy those drawers are. They're decorative joints yes, but also very strong ones!

The Hair

For some reason, the genetic combination of Mike and I leads to some pretty crazy hair!  

Here are both boys at about 6 weeks old.  Collin has a lot less hair than Will did (maybe because his head was almost an inch smaller than Will's at birth-AMEN!) and it doesn't normally stick up like this.  I was combing it after his bath to try to loosen some of the cradle cap and it dried sticking straight up.  

When  I tried to comb it back down, he ended up looking like Donald Trump.  He later tried to fire Will.  Just kidding. 

Brothers

While I don't think Will and Collin look exactly alike, here are a few similiar shots:

Here both boys are about 2 weeks old. 

In the first picture Will is about 4 weeks old and in the second picture Collin is 6 weeks old.

Collin is a very good baby, but isn't quite as laid back as his big brother was.  While he sleeps fine on his own at night, he prefers to be held for naps during the day.  I'm so thankful for my sling. If I lay Collin down for a nap he normally sleeps for about 15 minutes, but if I wear him in the sling he'll sleep for 2 hours or more!  He is snoozing in it right now as I type! 

I thought we had turned a corner today. This morning he slept in his swing for about an hour and this afternoon he slept in his bed in our room for over an hour.  Once I felt confident he was asleep, I went downstairs to do some laundry only to hear him start crying.  I came upstairs to find his big brother at the side of his bed trying to give him a pacifier.  As soon as I walked in the conversation went something like this:

Will:  I didn't wake him up!

Me: What are you doing?

W: Giving him his pacie.  I'm helping!

M: Was he asleep when you came in here?

long pause....

W: Yes. 

M: Did you touch him?

long pause...

W:No.  But he didn't have his pacie, so I gave him his pacie.

And so ends my victorious nap day.  Collin is back in the sling! 

I do have to say that Will is always loving toward his little brother.  While some of his helping isn't always so helpful, and he probably gets corrected more than he should for his "helpfulness,"  we are thankful that he loves him and hasn't asked to send him back!