Four Months Old!

Henry can't believe it, and neither can we! Our Hendog is four-months-old today! He is such an amazing baby. He loves his big brother, Cohen, and his Mama and Dada. Henry smiles all the time, likes playing in his jumperoo, watching Yo Gabba Gabba with Cohen, going on walks in the Baby Bjorn and eating rice cereal. Henry isn't too fond of tummy time (I think it's because his head is so big), but he's getting better by the day. Life is exciting for this little four-month-old! He now weighs in at a whopping 16 lbs 12 oz (85th percentile) and is 26 1/4" (90th percentile). Love, love, love our Hendog!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We celebrated the holidays in Charlotte this year. We missed seeing a lot of our family, and it was sad to be apart. But we had a wonderful time celebrating with our boys and some of our family and friends at home. Aunt Laura joined us for the Christmas Eve service at church. As always, our church is very family friendly, but Cohen takes that to a whole other level. After jumping up and down on the pews, running down the aisles trying to get other children to play with him and running his cars all over the seats, we decided to duck out a little early.

Christmas morning was truly magical. David and I had the most fun watching the excitement in Cohen's eyes as he discovered Santa had visited our house!

Henry was a little unaware of what was happening, but he liked being part of the excitement!

Cohen playing with his Yo Gabba Gabba bath squirters

My boys in their matching Christmas pajamas

Cohen and Henry were also spoiled by all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Our house is packed with toys...including a new slide, trike, race cars...

Sweetest baby...

Christmas baths...

After the boys went to bed, it snowed! We had way too much fun goofing off (me in my pj's in the freezing cold).

The next morning, Cohen built his first snowman!

GG and Papa drove up to Charlotte the day after Christmas, then Nana flew up to celebrate the New Year with us. We had so much fun relaxing and playing in the snow!

Although you can't tell by his face (he just woke up), Cohen is in love with his new desk! Thank you, Mama, for sending this to him! This desk has been in the Gainer family for years - I remember all of the cousins fighting over who got to eat dinner in it (Robbie usually won). Cohen likes to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at his desk!

Hendog is apparently a FSU and UVA fan. Congrats to my Seminoles for dominating the SEC East Division Champs, the South Carolina Gamecocks, in the Chick-fil-A Bowl! It was fun playing good ole' Steve Spurrier again. What a game!

Cohen's new "thing" is to play on our bed after his bath. He immediately says, "Mama, bed" as soon as I wrap him in the towel. He likes to jump around and then snuggle under the covers.

I swear, Cohen has such a fun personality. I laugh at him all day long.

Sweet dreams in 2011!

Sweet Henry

Look at our little butterball! Thank you, Aunt Courtney, for this amazing picture of our boy.

Jolly!

This holiday season is so amazing. We are bursting with spirit! David and I took the boys to see Santa this morning. Cohen has been talking about Santa for a week, and he was so excited to see the big man (he keeps saying, "Santa, Santa!"). We waited more than an hour for our turn, and as we got closer, Cohen was able to see the screams and tears of the other children sitting on Santa's lap. At that point, Cohen quickly clung to me saying, "Mama," and I knew that we could be in trouble. I quickly promised lots of rides on the escalators, a milkshake, etc. if he sat on Santa's lap. Cohen has always been fascinated with men in beard (a pediatrician we recently saw, Pop, etc). We told Cohen that he had to tell Santa hi, feel his beard and tell him that he wanted lots of trucks. So, as our turn approached, Cohen was very fearful, but he did just that. We plopped him on Santa's lap, Cohen tugged at his beard and said, "HIIIIEEY!" and then cried to leave. Poor buddy. Henry, on the other hand, was very nonchalant about the experience. He looked at the big guy, then back at me as I snapped pictures. The only way we could get pictures of both boys was if Cohen sat on Dad's lap.

We, as always, are so thankful for our sweet boys. But when I think it's not possible, I feel even more love around this holiday season. Having children definitely makes Christmas much more fun. Tuesday morning, Henry woke up early (6:30 am), so as he drifted back to sleep for a nap around 8:15, my other boy, Cohen, woke up. What an amazing way to start the day...I was able to devote my full attention to each boy during my favorite part of the day. Cohen woke up and wanted to watch Finding Nemo ("Meemo")...as he held on to his stuffed Nemo fish. As soon as he finished his milk, we were in the back room watching "Cars" and playing with all of his trucks and cars.

And this sweet Henry. I honestly can't even put into words the love I feel for this boy. He is my little angel. I can't imagine a better baby (besides our Cohen). Henry lives to be held and lights up at the sound of my voice. His smiles are to die for and I could kiss those chubby cheeks all day long (and I do).

Tonight, we moved Henry to the crib in his room. Up until this point, he has been sleeping right by my side in the pack-n-play bassinet. I have loved every moment of it. When I walked into our room around 9 pm, I broke down when I saw the empty bassinet. I bawled for over an hour. I miss him. I should be so happy our amazing baby made the transition, but I can't help but be sad that he isn't a foot away from me. Time is going by way too quickly. I need to remember to slow down and soak up each and every moment with these boys. My babies.

What a Weekend!

Cohen and Henry both celebrated this weekend! Cohen's big birthday bash was Saturday morning, and Henry was baptized Sunday morning. All six grandparents made the drive up, and Uncle Gardner came down for the big weekend. Cohen had so much fun playing with everyone. He loves to say all of the grandparent's names. We thought he'd never get all the names straight, but he knows everyone - GG, Papa, Nana, Pop, Nona and Granddad.

Here is Cohen in his new favorite pj's - the night before everyone arrived.

Sweet Henry relaxing in his favorite chair.

Cohen loved seeing his big brother, Grady, this weekend! He walked around the house saying his name over and over.

Grady got lots of pats, hugs and even a kiss or two from Cohen.

Cohen loved having story time with his grandparents. It was such a treat! He cried when Papa left that night.

Saturday was the BIG BIRTHDAY celebration for our boy! We had balloons, pizza, cake and even a bounce house for everyone!

As you can see, Cohen really enjoyed himself.

We decided to do a Cars theme because it's Cohen's favorite movie.

Cohen liked the cake, but he wasn't completely satisfied until he got the Lighting McQueen car and Mater truck off the top.

After all that excitement, we still had more to celebrate Sunday morning with Henry's baptism. Pastor Mike did a wonderful job, and we couldn't be more proud. Henry did so well during the baptism and only cried a little bit at the end. Cohen was very concerned for his little brother and kept saying, "Enwy, Enwy."

The Godparents, Aunt Laura and Uncle Mike (Henry was very tired and hungry after church.)

The fam (minus Nona, Granddad, Gardner and Mike)

It was a memorable and fun weekend. Thanks to all of our family and friends for making it so special!

"Ceek!"

Someone enjoyed his cupcake tonight! We've sung "Happy Birthday" at least five times, and Cohen is loving life as a two-year-old so far.

Wahoo! Cohen is Two!

Wow, it still hasn't hit me that our Cohen is two. I feel like I blinked and he has gone from a baby to a little boy over night. Cohen is so much fun - I could hang out with him and laugh all day long. He is my little buddy! Cohen talks up a storm, and I love hearing what's on his mind. His voice is so cute and I love the way he says, "pwease!" Cohen likes to dance, do the itsy bitsy spider, play patty cake (he laughs so hard!), jump up and down (he is really good at it!), help rake leaves outside, vacuum and dust buster the house, play at the park, read books, count, play hide & seek, play with his trucks and "choo-choos," and talk to his little brother "Enwy." Cohen's favorite foods at the moment are smoothies, cheese, cantaloupe, apples, peanut butter, cottage cheese, waffles, oatmeal ("moat mel"), french fries ("fwench fwies"), mac & cheese and ranch dressing. We're still working on vegetables!

Cohen had a pre-birthday celebration with one of his best buddies, Brady, at Mellow Mushroom Saturday night. Brady's birthday is on the 10th. The boys had so much fun eating pizza and cake (Cohen can't stop talking about "ceek") and playing on the bus. It was a wild dinner! I remember when these two little guys were crawling around ImaginOn together. Now they are partners-in-crime, running everywhere they go! We're looking forward to Cohen's big birthday bash on Saturday!

Here they are in the 3-D theater at Discovery Place.

Henry had fun at dinner too - he'll be running around with Cohen before we know it!

Happy Birthday Stinka' Man!