Truman 2 Months

So I just looked up FINs 2 month stats and whoa Truman, you blew your brother out of the water. If this was a contest, you just gave your brother a swirly.
Head 75%
Height 23" - 50%
Weight 14.3 lb - 90/95%
He had to get shots, and just to make Truman feel better, FIN cried with him.

Family of boys

This summer has gone by way too fast. Truman is now 6 weeks old, and FIN has gone through an entire summer camp, and starts his pre-school program in a couple weeks.
Truman had his 1 month checkup on his 6 week b-day. So the stats aren't totally fair, but here they are:
Weight 12.3 lb - 90th percentile
Height 23" - 50th percentile
Head: 50th percentile
FIN - you breezed through the JCYS summer camp like a champ. You met some new friends, your communication skills have come along so great! Its hard to recount everything that has gone on this summer, but most important is I look fabulous - oh I mean, we are all healthy and just happy enjoying each other!
Here is a picture of Truman at 6 weeks; a picture of Truman and FIN under the baby Einstein mobile (Truman 6 weeks; FIN 2 yr, 9 mos); and Truman and daddy.

The Newest Nunez: Truman Richard Nunez

Dear FIN & Truman,
This monthly note is going to get interesting... I now have 2 boys with birthdays on the 26th. I also need to get better about doing this every month (or more often than that). So without further ado, I introduce to you, Truman. The baby of the family, the younger brother, the newest love of all my loves, and lastly, the final drops of testosterone in this house (because 2 boys and fixed dog weren't enough).
On June 26th, Truman came to us at 1:45PM, weighing in at 7lb 15oz and 19.75 long. It was truly a beautiful entrance. At about 1:30AM, I woke up with some contractions. Nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't think anything of it, but then your daddy reminded me, that if it wakes you out of a sleep, its probably the real thing. I called Grandma/Grandpa Nunez & Dahlke to have someone triage me and reassure that this is the real thing, especially since the contractions were 5 - 6 minutes apart. Grandma/Grandpa Nunez made it to the house in no time flat to watch the big brother FIN while I went to the hospital. I was admitted by 5AM, managed to get to 5cm before getting an epidural, and by 1:30PM I started to push. They put Truman on my chest - where I managed the ugly cry face, just out of the pure joy of being a mommy to another gorgeous, beautiful boy.
FIN as the big brother you are doing really well! You may have moments of the terrible twos, but you are as gentle as we could expect you to be. You love to hug and kiss Truman, and pat his head. You seemed scared when you visited me at the hospital. But Truman didn't disappoint. He gave you a baby Curious George that plays music. And when he came home, he made sure to have a play kitchen with food and utensils waiting for you. The neighbors, friends, and family have been diligent to bring you gifts as you warm up to your baby brother.
All I can say is, I'm in sweet love with my boys!
love,
mama

Hi Son,

The chick is about to hatch... It will be only about three weeks (if our calculations are right) before we have a new member in our family. As I lay here in bed next to your mother, your brother is already giving her a hard time by kicking her repeatedly in the ribs. I am sure you will get him back later on your mother's behalf with the repeated beatings that big brothers tend to dish out.

Speaking of dishing out a beating, we need to discuss how you act towards your cousin William. For some reason, he has become your punching bag and there is nothing we are able to do at this point to stop it. We can only hope you are nicer to your brother. In the meantime, sorry Will.

Beatings aside, I do think you are going to be a wonderful big brother. I am sure there are going to be times when it's rough for you, since you are accustomed to being the center of our world. I promise each one of us will make time for just you, and that there is no possibility of us changing how we feel about you.

You are growing up so fast, and you will only seem more grown up when your baby brother is here with us. I still don't think you are quite ready for us to allow you to go and park the car in the street on your own, though...

Love,

Your Old Man

31 months - 2 yrs & 7 months

Dear FIN,
Happy 31 month birthday! I know I've neglected your story blog, but I do have a good reason. We had a very successful move to the new home. I've spent a lot of time making the house our home in as short of period of time as possible so you know and recognize this house as your home. I wanted this transition to be seemless, as you have a few other transitions coming up as well.
As you can see here, you are no longer in a crib. You are now officially in a big boy bed!!! Grammy Pammy made you a guitar blanket for your guitar themed room. You love it! I love it. You sit on the bed trying to strum the guitar strings of the embroidered guitars.

A week after we moved into the house, we went on a vacation with Grammy Pammy, Grampa's Garage, and Aunt Sara/Uncle Henry/Cousin Maddy to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We got to go to the rain forest and let you run around on the thin trail that if you slipped would send you into a deep ravine... luckily that didn't happen. We also played at the beach, and just spent a lot of time as a family. Here is a picture that I'll treasure forever. You and Maddy on Grammy's lap. She hated this ;-)

You will be started summer school in June, and 3 day a week pre-school in September. Just another transition... you also have a brother due in early summer. Potty training too. So many things up and coming, I have a hard time keeping my finger on all the new stuff you have learned as of late. Your language is forever progressing. I wish your eating habits were too, but you still like the basics of child food, mac n' cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and guacamole. I call them your 4 food groups. I'd add pudding too, but then that would be 5 and it would just be too much.

As usual, your daddy and I love you crazy. You like to drive us crazy occasionally, but that comes with the territory of you being 2. I'm excited for all these transitions, but I will always stop to take in the moment of you now.
love,
mama

Moving Yet Again

Hey Boy,

This is your old man. I have to apologize for making this year so crazy for you. We started out by living in Whitefish Bay, WI. Next, we moved to Prairie Crossing (from here on referred to as Stinkytown). Then, it was a series of two temporary assignments, one in Massachusetts and the other in North Carolina. After 9 months on the road, we are back in Stinkytown, at the cusp of moving yet again to our new home in Highwood/Ft Sheridan, Illinois. The difference is that the house that we are moving to is hopefully going to be the last move for you until you are done with high school (lets hope so anyway).

Last weekend, you and I had a "man weekend." We spent the entire weekend with just you, me and the dog. We really had a blast. I can't talk about all of the fun that we had because your mother will eventually read this, but, let's just say it was one hell of a party. One of my favorite moments was when you snuck into the pantry, opened a container of powdered gatorade, and started drinking the powder with the scoop. I quickly took it from you, used the powder to make you a Gatorade with water, and put the Gatorade powder away. When I held the glass up to you and ask if you wanted some of "this" you quickly went into the pantry, pointed at the Gatorade powder and said, "That 'this'." You are definitely becoming more proficient at communicating.

Your mother and I are so excited for your brother to come. We hope that you and he can become great friends, although, we know that as a big brother, you will feel obligated to give him the occasional swirly and/or beat-down. That is what big brothers are for. We know you will be a good one.

I love you, son.

Month 28, and then some...

Dear FIN,

As usual, you keep us so busy that I don't even get in the time to write you about your 2 yr and 4 month mark. And again, I find myself trying to wrap my head around the detailed changes we see in you this past month. Clearly your language is becoming refined, your phrasing is right on as usual. This past month you looked and pointed at something, and in an exclamatory tone you said, "Holy balls!", (thanks a lot for that one daddy).

Since we are still in the Outer Banks, NC, there aren't a whole bunch of different places to go here. We drive on 2 roads, the beach road, or the parallel Croatan HWY. As you sit in the back seat when we are driving on one of these 2 roads, you distinctly remind me of (now this is a stretch, and a movie lesson) Debra Winger's father in the movie "Forget Paris". He would sit in the back seat too, and name off all the places they drove by in the movie. You point out to us where you play basketball, where daddy gets his coffee, where the chicken/french-fry place is, where you played that car driving game at the movie theatre, where the pizza place is... WE GET IT, you're observant.

Not only are you observant, you are picking up words to music. You don't just sing the last word in a song anymore, you sing entire phrases. Now normally I wouldn't mind this, but since I spend every waking moment with you, this slightly stings... You pick up things better when you are with your daddy. I have gone over counting, and the alphabet with you repeatedly. You sit down with your dad for 20 minutes, and you can identify letters and numbers. You can also sing the alphabet song clearly. This makes me equally as proud when you sing the song at the top of your lungs going through a store, as your proficiency with using my iPhone and all its subsequent applications. People don't just stop and stare, they marvel, and then ask, "How old is he?!". I'm all, "OH I KNOW! I hire him out for birthday parties and to program TVs too".

Here is a picture of you at a co-worker of your dad's, on Teddy the paint horse. You LOVED this!

Love, Mama

A new friend

This past weekend, we all traveled to Portland to visit the Ewald family, to for the first time, introduce FIN to Anders Vergenz Ewald - 10 months. FIN took to his new friend right away, though we as the parents will tell you, he took to Anders much yet unused toys. They were an interesting pair, Anders who just crawls, and FIN, the tazmanian devil, would be interested in each other, one watching the other, hugs, kisses, but the second I would come near Anders, FIN would go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. I fear what will happen when FIN's sibling arrives.
Due to a tragic event that cut our visit with our much loved Ewald family short, there was a moment when the adults were comforting and planning. While we were around the pair of new friends, but not actively interacting with them, I caught a glimpse of FIN feeding Anders Fish crackers and telling him "good boy!". After that, I just paused to watch them, and FIN was patting his new friends back, soothing him when the adults were not. I love to think that they will be friends for life.
We are so very sorry for the loss of Ander's uncle John Vergenz. He will be missed, and our love and thoughts go out to the Vergenz family.

Month 27 - 2 yrs & 3 months for the rest of ya

Dear FIN,
This month we spent a couple of weeks in OBX - Nags Head, NC while daddy worked. It was a cooler month to be there. We didn't spend a lot of time outside, but I did try to get you out to the beach a couple of times - you hated it both times. Mostly because it was cold and windy. We came back to IL - a lovely winter wonderland. I got you to say Christmas tree very intelligibly. You love lights on a tree, and every tree with lights you made the point of pointing and saying "Christmas tree". Your language is still progressing at an alarming rate. This morning, you asked me "wheres the garage opener?". Why did you ask that specific question... well for Christmas this year you got a 3 button garage opener from Grampa's garage (aka. Grandpa Dahlke). It is your FAVORITE toy every time you go to their house. They just happened to have the real working one and not the decoy that he wrapped up for your present.
Christmas was not the craziness that people describe of their children... I think that will be next year. I know this because you cried when we took you to see Santa - we had to have daddy intervene (see photo). But for Christmas, you got a couple of neato things, your new FIN sized guitar, garage opener, plasma bike, FIN size chair. In other words, you are spoiled.
My favorite things about this month have been your need to sleep with things. Not just the same Toy Story character figures (not dolls), but with a Christmas card with picture of your cousins, random stuffed animals, a cooking spoon, dog leash, etc. The best part for you, was time with your cousin Maddy earlier in December, and spending time with the Cripe cousins. You have a very big heart FIN. It shows with how much you love your cousins mainly by identifying them and stealing their toys. I know it goes much deeper than that.
Love you FIN,
mommy

25th & 26th months... A few stories, and an update

Dear FIN,

I should almost cram month 27 in here as well, seeing that it will be the day after Christmas, and I'm most likely to forget that specific day as well... Its not that I want to, but you are adamant about not letting me get any computer time unless it involves Elmo and that rather annoying Potty Time game... its not even a game, its just Elmo sitting there talking to his friends saying "if you got the feeling, you should go!" I'm really not making fun, its great to see you want to play learning games. There is so much to share from these last few months, but I'll stick to a couple of my favorite moments and an update.

HIGH FIVE

Recently, we were at G&G Dahlke's house... or as you now refer to them, Grampa's garage (Rich), and Geepy (Pam). We attempted to get you to take a nap... little did I know that your daddy put you down in the crib without your pants on - thinking the jeans looked uncomfortable. About a half hour of crying, singing, and straight out yelling for me, I asked Grampa to look in on you. I saw him buckle in half laughing, telling me to go over by him. There you were, just your shirt on, poopy diaper ripped off and tossed on the floor, you holding onto the sides of the crib jumping like a bucking bronco. Grampa finally approached you when I was by his side, and with a great big smile on your face, you held your hand up to Grampa and said "High Five!" Grampa was left buckled over laughing again while I had to grab you in all your poopiness, and put you in a tub.

NUMBER FOUR

I believe on the same visit if not one right before that visit to the same grandparents house you learned a word that you have said in the past, but I managed to banish it from your vocabulary without much trying... But Grandma dropped the phrase "Oh F*&K". You have since dropped that same phrase with appropriate timing. Trying to get you to forget this phrase has not been an easy task. I've tried to get you to say "Oh Fork", fudge was too close, but you have settled on saying "Number Four". What has ensued from this ridiculous phrase has been your attention to numbers. You could count to about 12 before this incident, but since this new phrase, and spending time in OBX, NC and having to use an elevator daily, we say "Number Four" with gusto, and always following "Number Three", and going up to the number twenty. A prime example of turning that rotten lemon into a fantastic vodka lemonade for mommy...

OK, YOU BET

Today you have been a parrot. You have also acquired a little cold. I have been asking you a lot if your are ok... you never answer, but its my way of soothing you nonetheless. We get into the car to go to the YMCA pool and gym, and you say to me, "Mommy, are you ok?", Me: "Yes, FIN. Are you OK?", FIN: "You bet".

UPDATES

Well FIN, I feel like this is more mommy outing myself than your update, but we learned a while ago that you are going to be a big brother! You can say big brother, but I don't think you embrace that we are bringing in your new sibling (your nemesis, the one that steals your toys, the one that will steal all your attention... and maybe one day, your best friend).

We have also been going between our place in Grayslake and Outerbanks, NC (Nags Head). We have been living ON THE WATER... I know I'm taking every day for granted when I just have to roll over in bed, and there straight out the glass door in the bedroom is the gorgeous view of the OBX Sound. Soon we'll be back in IL full time.
We will be buying a house soon in IL *gasp*, in a place that will offer schools that we feel good about sending you. All this for you baby boy.

I love you FIN!

-mama