Roary and Andrew - 2 months

Sweet little "Ah-yoo" (as Alex calls him) turned two months old yesterday.

Andrew - 2 months

What do you think, do he and Alex favor?

Alex - 2 months

I love this stage - the smiles and coos are finally coming! Just when the sleep deprivation is catching up to me, the smiles and coos begin to surface. It's like a carrot dangling in front of my nose to keep me going. =)

This is the closest I've come to capturing a photo of one of the smiles. Plus you get the bonus of seeing how diligently he works that tiny little tongue of his.

Our Littlest Man is such a content baby. He is happy much of the time. He especially likes his bath time where he just lies there and enjoys getting himself cleaned up and smelling good.

We've continued to fight diaper rashes. I tell you what, his poor little bottom is red more often than not it seems. And I've tried everything short of cloth diapers. We'll get it all healed up, and then we're back at it again. We're going through Triple Paste like there's no tomorrow, and that stuff isn't cheap. But it seems to work the best, so Triple Paste it is. We're moving on from the tube to the tub – at least we'll get some economies of scale!

We moved Andrew into his crib around week 5, so he's no longer sleeping in our room. Overall, he's done great. Our only struggle is that he has a rough time getting settled in when we first put him down in the evenings. We can get him to sleep in our arms and transfer him to bed ok, but about five or ten minutes in, he wakes up. It takes us a few tries to get him to actually drift off for good. His bedtime is around 9 p.m., and he is still waking up every three to four hours. Occasionally he'll go for a longer stretch of time, but it's inconsistent. He also gets quite restless somewhere between 5 and 6 a.m. It always seems like he's working so hard to fill his diaper but just can't quite make a go of it. Once he does, he settles back down for more sleep.

He's a great little napper, too. I often put him in his car seat for naps. He seems to like the warmth and coziness of it all. Plus it allows for some portability if a certain Little Man is loud during the Littlest Man's nap times – I can move him upstairs easily or to another room as necessary.

Speaking of the Little Man, he seems to be transitioning better these days. I try very hard to make one-on-one play time with him while Andrew is sleeping. That seems to help a lot. If he hasn't gotten the attention he needs, he becomes very disobedient. And I become very frustrated. I have to quote this scripture to myself repeatedly these days, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." (Ephesians 4:2)

The two Little Men seem to enjoy playing together, especially on the play mat. Alex LOVES to show Andrew his cars, too. See the upside down car next to Andrew in the photo below? That was lovingly placed there by Alex, who tried to share his pretzels and water with Andrew the other day, too.

Andrew also seems to be picking up a thumb-sucking habit from his older brother. I've noticed that the paci is starting to take a back seat to the hand/thumb. Usually the left hand/thumb like his brother, too. Two thumb-suckers. Oh how I dread when the time comes to break this habit...

Yesterday we gave Andrew his first bottle. He wasn't all that interested. He didn't get frustrated; he simply didn't drink it. I'd put the bottle in his mouth, and he just kind of played with it. He only drank about one ounce and that was over the period of an hour or so. We'll try again, but so far, he seems to prefer nursing.

That's about it from the home-front for now. Time to go see about a nap. =)