Playing At The Park And Other Adventures

A certain grandma has been hounding me to update the blog, so here it is. Here are some pictures of the boys at the park and video at the Bean Museum. Enjoy!

Updates and Pictures

Hey, remember how we had those two cute little boys? Turns out they're still roaming around.

Aaron has been talking a lot more; some of his latest catch phrases include "Whoa, Baby Sean, Whoa!" and "No no kitty." He is also becoming a great big brother; he likes to give Sean hugs and kisses and soft pats (that is, when he's not trying to kick him or steal his toys).

Sean is crawling and pulling up on everything. He also loves to climb; sometimes he makes it half way up the stairs before we can catch him (or at least get over to him to make sure he doesn't fall). He also loves to bang his head on the floor and on doors...

And that concludes the update portion of tonight's post. Now on to the pictures!

Aaron and Sean playing "Hats."

(I know it's sideways, but I was too lazy to rotate it. Just turn your head. Or pretend like it's artistic or something.)

Sean "helping" with the dishes.

(Sean was not helping with the dishes.)

The Mark of Sean

New sunglasses! Thanks Grandma Elaine!

Playing outside in the grass, sampling delicious dirt clods from when the lawn was aerated.

Long Time No See

Here are some pictures and videos to placate anxious grandmas until we ever actually blog again.

Aaron's secret hiding place

(He likes to sit in the fridge. Sometimes he pulls the hamper over to make a fridge fort. And yes, those are Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Pavlov's Dog magnets. We also have Albert Einstein, Schroedinger's Cat, and Aaron's favorite, Marie Curie. Because we're awesome like that.)

At the pumpkin patch.

Lounging on Daddy.

Big Boy Bed!

Snow! All that snow fell in 2 days.

Sean can sit up (for a little while, anyway).

Aaron's Christmas Story. He looks ill at the beginning because, well, he was.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Sunday was Aaron's 2nd birthday!

He got lots of fun new toys. I think his favorite present, though, was having everyone's undivided attention while Sean slept in the other room.

Now if you ask him how old he is, he'll sometimes say "Ooo" and try holding up two fingers (he ends up just crossing his pinky and ring fingers; it's really cute).

Birthday! With swollen-face Mommy!

The first of many years of two birthday cakes

Tricycle!

Broom!

Baby Sean!

Alex already posted the stats on little Sean, so here are some more pictures and a little more about the birth.

First of all, this labor was WAY easier and shorter than Aaron's 27 hour labor. Here's a timeline:

8:00 pm: Had first contraction. They came about every 10 minutes or so if I was walking around, less frequently if I was sitting down.

10:30 pm: Watched some TV with Alex. Only had one contraction the whole time.

11:00 pm: Tried to get some sleep. Darn contractions kept me up though; roughly every 10 minutes or so.

12:00 am: Suddenly they're about 5 minutes apart, soon even less.

1:00 am: Called the nurse midwife. I didn't feel like anything was imminent, but I was ready for some pain relief (on a side note, I had no pain at all in between contractions, which was totally different than the first time, when I was in constant pain). She said I sounded admitable, and that they'd watch me for about an hour to make sure I was in active labor. Meanwhile, I was getting shaky and crying, and somewhere in the back of my mind thinking, Isn't this what happens during transition? But there's no way I'm in transition... So we left for the hospital.

2:00 am: Checked in to the hospital. Contractions were coming fast now. They took me to the triage room and checked me, and the nurse just said, "Quick, let's get her back in the wheel chair!" So I asked her how dilated I was. 9 cm. What?? How did that happen?? I mean, it was painful, sure, but I thought there was no way I was at 9 cm already! I wasn't even in as much pain as I had been with Aaron at like 5 cm.

So they raced me to the Labor and Delivery room, got an IV in me (it was rushed, so the nurse kind of made a mess of my arm...), and barely had time for a spinal block (it was too late for an epidural). A few minutes of pushing later and...

2:35 am: Sean is born!

Yes, 30 minutes from hospital check-in to baby. I still can't believe it. I'm just glad we got there in time for the spinal; pushing a 10 pounder out without it wouldn't have been very fun!

So far Sean is a great baby. He loves to nurse and he loves to cuddle.

Mommy, Sean, and Aaron (Daddy is behind the camera)

Just chillin' in the swing at home

Aaron is adjusting slowly but surely. When we first brought Sean home he was a little panicked, but I think he's realizing that Sean is part of the family now and that Mommy and Daddy still have plenty of love and time to play and cuddle with Aaron too. He's still pretty freaked out by the nursing though; I hope he'll get used to it soon.

Aaron brought a teddy bear for Sean in the hospital; here he is giving him kisses with the bear.

Sean

We have a new baby!! His name is Sean Sorensen Hart. He was born at 2:35 am on 7-9-10. He weighes 10 pounds and 5 ounces and is 21 inches long. He's a big boy.

More to come later.

Aaron's Top Ten Favorite Things

(in no particular order)

1. Snow (but not his snow suit)

This is the one and only time we actually got him in his snow suit. He liked playing in the snow, but it certainly wasn't worth the tears, screaming, and fighting to get him into it. Not again, anyway.

The snowsuit notwithstanding, Aaron still loved to pat the snow and stomp around in it with his boots on while I held his hands.

2. Bottles and Jugs

Pretty much his favorite toys ever.

3. The Play Corner

We set up this play area a couple months ago so that he'd have a nice place to practice standing up (we put his toys on the shelves), and so we'd have a place to put all his toys. As you can see, he was very excited about the mat. He now likes to take off the purple borders, pull out the letters and numbers, and chomp on the little inside pieces. Apparently the mat has a delicious texture no baby can resist--every baby and toddler that has been here has chomped on that mat. Ha ha.

4. Kitties

He loves to meow at them. And grab at them. And he especially likes these kitty videos.

5. Mommy and Daddy

6. Cookies

7. His red and blue hat

It's now been put away since it isn't that cold anymore, but he loved wearing his hat, inside, outside, wherever. Sometimes that's all he wore!

8. Pushing his toy shopping cart

We call it "doing his laps" because he goes in a big circle around the house.

9. Whining

10. Bath time!

Aaron Catch-Up

Aaron has been busy the last two months! He:

Chased kitties (this is Black Kitty at Grandpa Cliff's; he also loves to chase our kitty Leia),

Played with cousins,

Said goodbye to Great Grandpa Shaw,

Started pulling up and cruising around the furniture,

Helped wash dishes (he loves to hand you the silverware to put away),

Dressed up as a monkey and went trick-or-treating with Vampire Mommy,

Played in the leaves,

And made a big tissue mess (we were sitting on the couch and didn't notice that he had discovered the box of tissues until it was too late...).

He's also learned lots of new tricks, like fist-bumping Mommy, pointing to body parts (hair, nose, mouth, eyes, belly), making animal sounds (meow, arf arf, buzz, moo), and saying words (hi, ball, bear, plop, apple). And, of course, he still excels at being so cute.

Monster Mash!

Hee hee.

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Aaron Loves Music

The title says it all. Aaron loves music. In the family room there is a CD player and he is always in a happier mood when its playing. Sometimes we use it to our advantage and turn it on when he is being cranky. The music we play varies a bit, from classical to jazz and more recently the Beatles.

There are, of course, more photos and videos to share. The photo is a nice cheesy grin with some headphones on (no music is playing).

And the video is of Aaron reading his peek-a-boo book with his glow worm playing a song in the background. Turn up the volume and watch Aaron turn the music back on when it stops.

He is such a precious boy.

Aaron's New Game

Recently Aaron has become much more mobile. He's begun crawling up on his hands (or, more often, forearms) and knees, and is really getting quick.

He has his rounds he likes to make around the living room; he starts over by the computers, where we plop him down. He heads over to the cedar chest to play with the drawer and pull out all of its contents; then it's off to the scratching post to, well, scratch at it and play with the little springy ball on top. Then he heads down to the air vent, sometimes squealing if the air happens to be going. Then he hits the CDs. That's his new favorite place to play.

For a while, he would just pull every single CD he could reach off the shelf and drop it on the floor, then get frustrated that he was sitting in a pile of CDs and start kicking his legs.

So I taught him a new, much tidier trick--pull the CDs out just a little, then push them back in. He loves doing that now, and is very proud of himself each time he does it (though he'll occasionally pull one all the way out and drop it on the floor to get my attention).

Ahh, much better. Now to teach him to put is laundry away...

1st Birthday

Aaron had his first birthday on the 11th. It's been a long year but it's hard to believe that Aaron is already 1 year old. He's grown and changed a lot.

Anyway, I just wanted to share two cute videos of Aaron.

You might need to turn up the volume but Aaron is saying his Mum mum ma's.

Today, Aaron caught hold of a kitchen stool and had a blast. We didn't get the camera out in time to catch him laughing but you can tell he's having fun.

Our new prediction for Aaron's favorite sport: rowing.

The Fourth

This weekend we went up to see my grandparents. It was nice to be there and spent some time with them. It was the first time that they had seen Aaron and they seemed pretty pleased to meet him and play. We took a picture with four generations of Hart boys: My son, me, my father and my grandfather.

My folks were also up here for the weekend. They came to help my sister with wedding plans and play with Aaron. Grandma was playing peek-a-boo with Aaron and got him to play along:

Then this last video was actually taken about a month ago. It was just some fun time with Aaron while his is playing with his magazine.

As you can see, we are already subjecting him the pressures and expectations of popular, materialistic society... or he likes to rip paper and old magazines are good ripping toys. Either way, he's still pretty funny.

Speaking of Weddings...

My mom recently cleaned out her freezer and found our wedding cake! I knew it was in there somewhere! Most couples will try their frozen wedding cake on their first anniversary, but most couples are WIMPS! We instead tried ours on our (nearly) fifth anniversary. Because we're awesome.

Wedding cake then...

   

...wedding cake now.  

       

Cutting the cake then...

...cutting the cake now.

Slice of cake then...

...slice of cake now.

Eating the cake then...

...eating the cake now.

If you're curious about what it tasted like, imagine tasting a five-year-old piece of cake. Yup, that's pretty much it.

California!

Last week we went to California for Alex's brother Curtis' wedding (which, by the way, was absolutely beautiful). It was a fun trip, though a bit busy and tiring. Here are some of the hi-lights: 

Aaron went swimming for the first time. He loved it! He wasn't sure about it at first, but once we started going he was laughing and having a great time--until he swallowed some of the water, which was really nasty. Then he was done.

Swimming, woohoo!

For the wedding, we found a little tuxedo for Aaron. It was the most adorable thing in the world. We even got little black shoes for him, which lasted about ten minutes. Ha. 

At the church, before the wedding started.

At the hotel, sans shoes.

Matching Best Man and Best Baby.

Aaron dancing with Mommy at the reception.

At the reception, all the groomsmen "Night at the Roxbury"-ed Curtis. As you can see, it was pretty silly.

Alex's face is priceless.

So there you have it. We're so glad we could go. And of course....congratulations Curtis and Christine!!