One Month

Today is Rigley's 1 month birthday. He is such a good baby, even in spite of his cluster-feeding habits! He likes to eat TONS from about 9pm-11pm and then again from about 6:30am-10am. The good thing is he goes to sleep about 11pm, wakes around 3am to eat, and then not again until 6:30am. He giggles and smiles in his sleep. He has also started tracking things with his eyes. He is so very strong and has been pushing away from you when you hold him and holding his head up to look around since the hospital!
On his one month b-day, Rigley went to his second minor league baseball game. We went back to Hammons Field tonight for another Cardinal's game.
He fell asleep before we got home.

First minor league game

We took the boys to their first minor league baseball game last night (8/25). We went with EU Softball to a Springfield Cardinals game. We attempted to take Brighton to a game last season, but they kept delaying the start due to weather and then finally just called it. So, he had been to the park, but no baseball was played. So, this was his first minor league game, he went to a Royals game last season.
Here is Brighton eating his incredibly nutritious dinner of cheesy bread! Domino's will deliver to your seat at the stadium, so we called in an order.

As we were walking to the car, Brighton told us, "I did have much fun at the go-ball game today." He's so funny!

Four Weeks

Rigley turned four weeks old on Sunday (08/24).
Here he is at 1:14pm (time of birth). He was in the sling; we were at an EU softball pizza party. Look at the cute outfit Aaron, Dana, and Kaden got him!
Rigley wasn't too happy about taking a picture with his big brother.
He's much more calm here, maybe he just doesn't like to share his photo ops!

Brighton is 2!!!!!

Today is Brighton's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe it has been two years already, it has gone by so fast. He is such an amazing little boy and we are so blessed that he is ours. He talks like an adult, we are constantly getting comments from strangers who are amazed at how well he talks. One lady told us that he enunciates better than she does! :) His vocabulary is huge and I am so grateful that he comprehends things so well. I rarely have to explain words to him, he hears them used and then can use them in the correct context himself. He's getting pretty good at counting, but for some reason always skips 3 when he's counting in English. He usually will count, "1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11", and then it gets a bit random - sometimes 19 and 20 come next to be followed by 12 and 13! He will count to 3 in Chinese and the other day counted to 5 in Spanish.
Right now Brighton's favorite things are reading books, playing in the fountains and balls at Silver Dollar City and his sprinkler at home, and watching Handy Manny. He is an absolutely wonderful big brother to Rigley. He gets right in Rigley's face and smiles and says, "He likes me!" Sometimes he makes it all through the night in his big boy bed, but most often we hear a little pitter patter across the floor in the middle of the night and he is at our bedside. We pick him up and put him in between us and he's back to sleep. He has still never had a hair cut, though his curls are starting to get a bit wild and we might have to get them trimmed before long.

Here he is waking up on his birthday Mimi sent a balloon bouquet with a Handy Manny and tools action figure
Celebrating at home (picture taken at 5:39pm - the time he was born)
Blowing out his candle

Opening his presents from Daddy, Mommy, and Rigley
Riding his new Diego bike down the hallwaySince it looked like it could rain anytime, we scrapped our plans for the zoo and headed to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and fun at the indoor playgroundBrighton had gotten a gift card from Toys'R'Us , so we went there after dinner and he picked out a new soccer ball.

Pictures, email, and cupcakes

We got the boys pictures taken today at Picture People. They did relatively well. Brighton had a few minor meltdowns, but then they started blowing bubbles for him and he did much better. The photographer kept asking me if Rigley was really only 3 weeks old because she has never seen a baby that age hold his head and upper body up like he does! He was pushing up on his forearms and looking around!
Brighton says the funniest things! I really wish we had cameras rolling 24-7 to catch it all. Today I came back into the family room to find him in my chair, up on his knees at the computer. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm checking my email." Apparently I need to set him up with his own account!
Tomorrow is Brighton's 2nd birthday. He and I baked cupcakes for the occasion.
(He's got a kind of crazy look on his face in this first picture.)

I made it!

Monday was my first whole day alone with both boys, as Donovan went back to work. I am proud to say that I made it! Now for those of you who have more than one child, this won't seem very impressive, but I am quite happy with myself! Not only did I make it through the day with no actual catastrophes, but I also finished the invitations for Brighton's birthday and Rigley's dedication, did the dishes, got all of us in clean clothes, caught up on some blogging, and prepped for dinner. My major accomplishment, though, was getting them both down for naps. They were both tired and cranky at the same time and wanting held and rocked. So, I rocked both of them and managed to get up and lay them both down without waking or dropping either one! :) Here are pictures of them sleeping after my "amazing" feat!



When Donovan got home from work, he took Brighton outside with him to fix the gate and then they played while I got dinner ready. While eating, Brighton started giving me a narrative of their time outside. Here it is:

3 Weeks

Rigley was three weeks old yesterday (08/17). He took his first trip to the park.

Brighton didn't want to leave.

Brighton's First Ride

Saturday (8/16) we went to Silver Dollar City, again. Donovan starts back to work this week, so we thought we would do something fun with the boys for his last totally free weekend.
Brighton took his first ride on this visit. We rode the caterpillar ride. He did really well and even pushed the button to make us go up in the air.

We even ran into some of my family at Silver Dollar City - my Uncle Neil; Aunt Luise; their daughter Kim and her kids - Jessica, Jack, and Johanna; their son Joshua, his wife Stephanie, and their kids - Benjamin, Julia, Nathaniel, and Ava; and their grandson Lane. It was really nice to see them. What is funny is that a few years back, we ran into Josh & Stephanie when we were all in St. Louis, too! Weird, huh?

First Real Bath

On Thursday (08/14), Rigley got his first real bath. Up until then, he had just had sponge baths because he had a tiny bit of his umbilical cord that was stubborn and wouldn't fall off.
He did so well - just a few screams, but mostly he just relaxed. It might be because I made sure the water was nice and warm - when Brighton watched the video of his first bath, where he is screaming his head off, he told me he was screaming because the water was too cold!

Silver Dollar City with the Caswells

On Tuesday (August 12), Rigley took his first trip to Silver Dollar City. I think he really enjoyed it! Kevin, Ramona, Morgan, Jake, and Mimi came to visit and went to SDC with us, too. It was lots of fun and we really wished they could have stayed longer.

First trip to church

Rigley is two weeks old today! It's going by so quickly already.
Today was his first time at church. He did really well - he slept through the whole thing! I wore him in the sling and that seemed to be best. Thank goodness for the 11:30 service, though, or his first trip would have had to wait until next week. Before Rigley joined us, we went to the 8:30 service. I hope to get back to that one, but we'll just take it week by week.

Here are a few pictures from today.

(I couldn't catch Rigley with his eyes open.)

Nine years ago

Today is our ninth anniversary. With an eleven day old baby, we didn't make too many plans. We did, however, decide it was time for our first family outing with Rigley. We ate an early dinner at a local Italian restaurant. The food was great and service was outstanding - if you're ever in Springfield, I highly recommend J. Parrino's. Rigley slept in his carseat through the entire dinner and Brighton was very well behaved. We even got a serving of tiramisu for the three of us to share. Thankfully, Brighton only wanted the whipped cream, so there was more for Donovan & I!
After dinner, we went to the mall. I used my Peanut Shell sling and wore Rigley for the first time. It worked really well. Brighton got to play for a while in the play area, so he was happy.
Not quite a romantic getaway, but it was a very nice evening with our newly expanded family.

Weight check

Rigley had his first dr's appointment today; it was basically just a weight check. He had lost down to 9 lbs 3 oz when we were discharged from the hospital, but he is back up to 9 lbs 11 oz. Everything is looking good and we don't have to go back until he's 2 mos.

Shocker started barking like crazy tonight and would not stop, so Donovan went into the backyard to check out the situation. There was an armadillo in our yard! He took Brighton out to see it and when they came back in, Brighton was very excited to tell me about the "arpillow"!
It was too dark to get any pictures of it, but I might have more chances - Shocker has started barking again. Donovan used a hockey stick to guide it out, but we're thinking the stupid thing might have found its way back. Ugh!

One Week

Today is Rigley's one week birthday.

Here he is partying like a rock star at the exact time he was born one week ago - 1:14 pm
Here is a pic with his eyes open. Though his brow is furrowed, I don't think he was upset at the time.

Rigley getting a bath

I'm continually amazed at how well Brighton is adjusting. He'll go up to Rigley and say, "He's just a tiny, little baby" or "Awww, poor baby." It's very cute. However, I did turn my back for a second this evening and Brighton started giggling. I asked him what was funny and he told me, "I touch baby like this." He went to the swing and stuck his finger in Rigley's face. We had to revisit the issue of being gentle with the baby!

Random pic of Brighton eating his watermelon - no story, just thought it was cute!

2 out of 3 ain't bad

I think Meatloaf was right, two out of three isn't too bad. We just had our third night at home with Rigley and it went well, as did the first night. Our second night did not go well, though! He's really a good baby.
Here are some random pics from the past day or two.


Brighton is doing really well with the new addition to the family. However, he calls Rigley his "big brother." I guess at 9 lbs. 10 oz., he is pretty big!
Okay, so looking at the pictures it looks like we never hold Rigley. He really doesn't spend all of his time in the bouncer and swing. We're just exposing him to them so he'll like them better than his brother did!