The monkeys

As the days are getting warmer, the boys are spending lots of time in the backyard. Chuck will try to get some work done, Theo snoozes in his bouncy seat or just looks around at the trees and birds, and Nate chases Wylie or soaks himself with the hose. The kid goes through at least three outfits a day, and inevitably is covered in mud and grass. It amazes me how he can be completely covered in dirt and be totally fine with it, but if he accidentally spills one drop of milk, he points at it and says, "Uh oh" over and over again.

Theo is holding his head up really well now. We've put him in Nate's old Bebe Pod (a baby seat with a tray) and he loves it! He's also starting to study his hands and grasp at things, so we can put a rattle and other baby toys on the tray for him to play with. His coordination still needs some work -- I think he's only accidentally picking things up or moving them around -- but he gets better every day. Last night when I put him to bed, he kept pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and would start crying. I suppose it'll be a while before he can start putting it back in.

Now that Nate's 2 and has adjusted to having a new little brother, we realize it's time to start potty training. I feel like every transition that we've had with Nate -- crying it out, going from bottle to sippy cup, moving to a toddler bed -- has been really easy. But potty training is a whole different ball game. They say we're supposed to start when he can pull his pants up and down, when he has the language to talk about it, and when he feels uncomfortable with a dirty diaper. Just in the past couple weeks, Nate has started talking about "goap" (poop). Sometimes it's to tell us that he just pooped; other times it's to tell us that he's about to poop. And you can tell that he's getting very uncomfortable with a poopy or just pee-soaked diaper: yesterday morning, he walked into our bedroom with his legs spread wide announcing "goap, goap, goap!" It's a start.

I think I put in the last post that Nate hasn't put two words together yet. Just in the past week, that's changed. But of course, the words that he's putting together involve "more" and "gimme," as in "More. Cereal." "Gimme. Milk." He says them like two separate words. Another phrase I heard at least 50 times this morning was "Dada. Y." (wants dad to take him to the YMCA).

We're gearing up for our LOOOOOOOOOONG road trip to Minnesota -- just over a week away!

Road trip

The Daleys were ambitious last weekend and took our first road trip as a foursome to a wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly five hours away. We've taken Nate to Charleston before, but that's only a three-hour drive. Mommy and Daddy were a little concerned that there would be a lot of screaming, but we coordinated both drives with their afternoon naps and it worked out perfectly! Of course, there were a couple meltdowns when Theo wanted to look at someone rather than the car seat and when Nate declared that he was "DONE! DONE! DONE!" with the road trip, but then Mommy would climb in between their car seats and entertain them with gooing, singing, counting, and kisses. Nate had lots of fun at the wedding chasing other kids around and even discovered a kids room that had crayons and Play-doh! And at night, he got to sleep with his daddy, who said he didn't sleep as well because of Nate's "razor toes."

Sleeping peacefully on the hotel bed.

Still sleepy (and a little grumpy) after his nap.

Chuck uses his adorable baby to promote his newest release. 

"Nose. Nose. Nose. Nose."

So happy!

No, we don't put product in his hair. He was born with incredible volume.

Do you see modeling in Theo's future?

My baby can read!

Not really, but he acts like he can. And the only word he seems to be able to read -- in everything -- is "Nate." For instance, I took his sidewalk chalk and wrote "Wylie." So Nate points at each letter and says, "W-Y-L-I-E: Nate!" And he found one of Chuck's boxes from the post office and spelled out "P-O-S-T-A-L-S-E-R-V-I-C-E: Nate!" And when I wrote out the names from our family, he spelled out "D-A-D-A-M-A-M-A-T-H-E-O-N-A-T-E: Nate! Nate! Nate! Nate!" Between this and him telling us that everything is "mine," I'm wondering if we have an egomaniac on our hands. That, or just a perfectly normal 2-year-old.

Tomorrow, Theo turns 12 weeks old, which means he's no longer a newborn. Now, he's officially an "infant." He's been such a good baby for so long that I feel like the newborn phase has been over for a long time -- he only cries when he's hungry/tired/gassy and he sleeps like a champ. All I have to do is put him down in the crib between 8 and 8:30 with a pacifier and he goes right to sleep. Nate was pretty good at this too; he just woke up a lot more during the night because he was perpetually hungry. Theo is still getting up around 4am for a feeding, but goes right back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Of course, this does me no good because Nate is still waking up at 6am. But then Nate and I get our special time with just us two, when he helps me unload the dishwasher and we eat "ceeweeal" together.