3 Months

Am I really 3 months old?!

At 3 months Ezekiel has fallen into a nice routine of naps/feeding/playing throughout the day and is mostly sleeping great for his age.  There have been a few times he's only woken up once to eat in a 10 hour period and we were overjoyed by this surprise. Zeke is a very happy boy and is content observing his surroundings, focusing on his hands, or looking at bright toys/books.  He loves being looked at, sung to/talked to and will coo & try to giggle back. Zeke continues to be notorious for reflux, but has earned the term "happy spitter" since it doesn't upset him too much--usually some light fussing at moat.  He likes to sit in his bouncy chair or swing and shove 1-2 hands in his mouth and has started to suck on his index fingers too. He is still a champ at bottles and will occassionally take a pacifier.

Our baby is almost always happy! His smile brightens our days. He has started to smile a lot at Garrick when he talks to him. Garrick continues to dote on Zeke; he expresses concern and love for him all hours of the day and it is truly heartwarming. Garrick will pat his little brother's back, kiss his head & cheeks, mimic his little baby sounds, and laugh uncontrollably when Zeke happens to reach out and touch him.

Of course, toddlers aren't always made of gumdrops. Some less-than-desireable interactions include when Garrick "bops" him on the head for a reaction from adults, refuses to let me rock/nurse Zeke without a loud meltdown, & other random "too rough" moments.  There is also a little occasional jealousy as illustrated by big brother wearing the 3 month sticker above.

2 Months && 23 Months

Christmas happened this month!

Garrick loved helping decorate the tree..."pretty tree!"

Opening presents at home Christmas morning

Christmas gift from Dad: Mater from Cars. The kitty is the toy he chose from Toys R Us

Zeke changes so much every day

Highlights from Zeke's 2nd Month:

• Found his hands and loves staring at them, trying to bring them to his face
• Staring at toys-especially likes to stare at the toy bar on his rocker/bouncer
• Weighs 13lbs5oz and has grown over 2 inches
• Started to smile :) 

Started napping in his crib this month!

Highlights from Garrick's 23rd Month:

• New phrases in rotation: "what happened?," "what't that?" "come on!" "Zekie puked." "Roscoe/Remmie come!" 
• Garrick has become super interested in nursery rhymes and will usually request either "wheels on the bus," "twinkle, twinkle," or "1, 2, buckle my shoe.." I am amazed by him every day... by what he remembers and is able to communicate. He has some parts of his books memorized as well. We love how interested he is in books!
• He has become very particular with clothes.. and prefers not to wear any. We have a hard time getting him to wear pants of any kind! He usually does not want his diaper changed or to wear a diaper in general. We are still a long ways away from potty training though I think.
• He knows "1, 2, 3!" and has a habit of assigning numbers to things..for a while it was always "two"..."two puppies, two cars, etc." lately it has been "six....six mommies, six spoons"
• Garrick is occasionally very possessive and demanding. He has an aversion to the rocking chair and does not like for Mom to sit in it alone, with Zeke, or with Garrick. He will say "No, rock! Couch!" 
• Garrick's language is progressing but we usually still have to translate most of what he says. Some words include "Memmie"-->"Remmie"..."Bock"-->"Rock"..."Sax"-->"Fruit snacks"..."Bopper"-->"Diaper"

One Month && 22 Months

Our first month with Zeke was a whirl-whind as I'm sure it is for all parents of newborns. Today marks Z's 8th week earthside, and I am only just recently able to breathe and consider things like the blog and the outside world in general.

Some highlights of Zeke's first month:

• While Easy-E maintained a relatively calm demeanor, he did develop some pretty intense acid reflux, which I could assume by his screaming and thrashing, caused him some pain. 
• Additionally, he became quite congested and therefore had difficulty sleeping considering his laborious breathing.  I was informed that acid reflux can cause chronic congestion but there was also the possibility of a respiratory infection causing the drainage.. begging the question, what came first, the reflux or the congestion?
• Despite the reflux/throwing up copious amounts of milk, Z was gaining weight well.  Thus his practitioner determined he was what is called a "happy spitter" leading me to stare at her blankly. My poor baby didn't seem happy when he was screaming from tummy pain.
• I finally got in to see the Dr who gave Z a round of antibiotics.  After a few days, his congestion started clearing immensely.
• Aside from the congestion and reflux, Z did pretty stinking good his first month. He slept a lot during the day which helped me recover and spend some time wrangling an active toddler. 

Garrick's first month as an older brother went fairly well! I was pretty nervous that G would have lots of negative emotions/behaviors when we introduced him to Zeke but it was love at first sight.  During the first few weeks of Z's life, older brother, G, seemed to finally comprehend what Mom & Dad meant by "nice," "gentle," "soft," that we'd been coaching him for months without progress. 

Current highlights in the world of Garrick at 22 months:

• Garrick continues to prefer the floor in his bedroom over his bed, causing me some distress.
• Seemingly overnight, G turned into quite the chatterbox!! After Zeke was born, Garrick had a lot of daddy time spent reading books and talking. They would spend hours alone together. I would wake up from a nap and could barely believe my ears as I heard Garrick naming new animals & things around the room.  
• Our new chatterbox has troubles with the letter "R" and to my dismay calls "Remmie" "Mommie." This has been pretty confusing at times and got even more annoying when he shortened "Remmie" to "Rem" aka  "Mommie" to "Mom."
• Garrick has started getting into "coloring" more than ever and enjoys short periods of time with crayons, markers, stickers or stamps. We think this has lots to do with time spent with his older cousins at Grandma's house!
• The haircut: G has the fastest growing hair ever! What was supposed to be a cute stylish haircut turned into a disastrous and uneven buzz cut when we sat down this 22 month old and he threw one of his biggest tantrums to date.
• Garrick got to really play in the snow for the first time! We got a huge snowfall in November and G liked following Alex around as he shoveled, falling in the snow and rolling around, and eating snow chunks. 

Introducing Ezekiel James

Baby Boy Ezekiel James Guggenmos was born on Thursday, November 12th 2015 at 1:48am.

Huge Thank you to Emily and Lou for the newborn photos of Ezekiel. I can't stop obsessing over each and every one

Our first impressions:

• He's so tiny!! Probably due to lugging around a 25b toddler around, but our 8lb4oz, 20" bundle seemed so miniature to us. 
• He is BLONDE!? This was almost as shocking to me as Garrick coming out having tons of dark hair. Zeke has the most velvety soft blonde peach fuzz-thus making him look like his brother right away.
• He's amazing. Ten fingers, ten toes. Perfect as can be.
• What a good baby! Unlike Garrick who came out screaming and rarely stopped, Zeke was incredibly calm for the entirety of his first couple weeks.  I was amazed as I looked at my minutes-old baby calmly observing his surroundings and eventually sleeping soundly in 4-hour stretches for the first couple days. 

Garrick's first impressions:

• Baby? Brother? Requests to "hug," "hold," & "kiss" then began and haven't stopped 
• Garrick immediately liked Zeke but gave me the cold shoulder for weeks after Zeke was born. He didn't want me to hold him and wouldn't even say "mom." When asked "do you love mom?" he'd say "no." Lots of daddy time ensued to his delight!

Pumpkin Patch 2015

We took Garrick to Scarecrow Farms outside of Sioux City a few weeks ago and had the blessing of Grandma and Papa joining along. It was a gorgeous fall day.   

G was hesitant of the corn pit at first but quickly warmed up to the idea after watching how the other kids "played"

If you know Garrick you have observed how he tends to look PRETTY SERIOUS even when he is thoroughly enjoying himself. We could barely tear him away from the Tricycles!! He loves his Ybike and forgets he isn't big enough for other bikes like these

Garrick loves animals :) The petting zoo was pretty small--it seriously lacked baby goats!! 

19 Months Old && 8 Months Pregnant

Happy first day of Autumn, Everyone!! As the days grow shorter and the leaves start to fall, we are struck with the realization that our family will be encountering The Big Change before we know it!

Alex and I have been working like mad and collaborating with family members to make home improvements (that's another post entirely!) before the new baby and winter come. This week we are finishing up Garrick's new room (another post as well!) so we can get him switched over, he can become accustomed to his big boy digs, and we can round up tiny baby gear at last in the nursery. Alex and I are both so excited that we have another boy joining us! It will also make it easier to prepare as we have mostly all we need for #2! We have a small registry on Amazon under Alex Guggenmos for anyone wondering what else we might be lacking. Less than 2 months until Due Date!


























Our main man Garrick continues to grow and change as well..it is hard to believe that he will be 2 in less than 1/2 a year!

Some stats about our 19 month old:

• Weighing in at 25.5 pounds, Garrick is in the 50th %ile for weight. For height he is below 25% but we can definitely tell he's shot up since turning one!
• Garrick is very spunky and always full of energy. He is almost always happy & inquisitive.  

• We have a fairly good eater on our hands. He can use a spoon/fork & small cup on his own. He certainly goes through phases of "favorite" foods where he will eat only that food for a period of time and then won't touch it again for weeks or months.  Right now his favorite food is raspberries, steak, and mac and cheese! 
• At 19 months he is suddenly able to get into EVERYTHING. As I mentioned, he is super inquisitive and one of his favorite things to do is open/close things, take stuff apart/put back together. He has figured out how to open doors, ice maker/water dispenser on fridge, bottles, lids on containers of all kinds, windows, and trying to work locks on doors too. 

opened hair gel put lots in hair

• It seems like he is learning a new word every week.  As of the last month he has started to excel verbally and is really trying to say new words daily. This week he started stringing together phrases "bye dad" "hi dad" "mama no no no" "it's a ball" "it's a car" 
• Which brings us to some favorites--balls!! and cars!!! He is very interested in mama cooking and daddy working with tools. He loves animals especially dogs and cats and is constantly giving Remmie big hugs and kisses. He loves baths too
• Favorite playtimes/New Adventures:  
• Garrick got the opportunity to swim at Grandma and Papa Guggenmos's house a few times this summer and absolutely loved it. He would swim and go down the slide for hours. We did go to the "big pool" a handful of times too but had a tendency to be a little timid.
• Going to the park is always a favorite. We have been to practically every park in Morningside and he loves to explore them, swing, and go down the slide. He has lost almost all fear of slides. This summer he has definitely advanced his abilities of climbing, running, etc, he can even climb up a rope ladder on his own to my amazement. 
• He loves to be outdoors and play in the dirt/rocks or gather sticks & leaves.  We have started taking walks down to Cedar St where he recently discovered crunchy fall leaves for the first time. He and I enjoyed kicking them around running through them. 
• He attended his first carnival at Calf Show Days in Schleswig and every ride was a hit!! He enjoyed the carousel, car ride, and monkey maze.   

Finally..Do your kids ever do weird things? I suppose the answer to that question is a resounding "yes;" but sometimes you wonder!! Even as I sit here typing, Garrick is eating peanut butter toast. Suddenly he starts to throw a fit because he's realized his hands are covered in PB and doesn't relax until I get him a napkin to wipe his hands periodically as he eats.  Odd, indeed...made moreso by the fact that this is the 4th time in a week he's done this while eating. So I google "does my one year old have OCD"...oh boy. Any of your kiddos act strangely at this age?

New Blog Website

I made another blog in which to incorporate a bit more of our life in a more share-able manner as opposed to a family-only photo share blog. Check out the first post at:

https://messykitchenmamablog.wordpress.com

You also may have noticed we re-named this blog page. "The life of a [singular] (baby) G" is no longer really applicable as that baby is growing up and another one is entering the picture shortly...So our blog has been renamed GuggenMinnies as a tribute to our two Miniature Guggenmos boys.