Netta Wins This Time

So we took Netta in for her 4 month check up. She has been feeling heavier and heavier and I had no doubt that she was a chunk, but I didn't think any bigger than EZ was at the same age. Well she got weighed in and she wins the fat contest. EZ weighed in at 17 lbs 3oz and Netta at 17 lbs 14 oz! To make it worse for the poor girl she is actually almost an inch shorter than EZ was at this point and her head is smaller, which makes her even rollier. As you can see in the following pictures Netta is definitely winning in the arm rolls department and I think the cheeks as well.



EZ at about 4 months

Netta at about 4 months

Our First Visitors

About a week an a half ago my sister Katie and her husband Brad came to visit. They were our first out of town visitors and they even beat my parents here, who are coming next week. Very impressive. We wanted to show them a taste of Austin, which means we went out to eat a lot. There is a reason Texas is one of the fattest states. Who can resist the BBQ and greasy Mexican food. We also went downtown to see the ginormous colony of bats that lives under one of the bridges. They take flight every night and there are millions of them. It's cool and gross at the same time. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the bats because of course as soon as we got there someone had to eat. So here is a picture of us after watching the bats. Try to ignore how mad EZ is and the fact that I am breastfeeding. I do that a lot so I am surprised there aren't more pictures of me doing it.

We took EZ to one of those places with all the inflatable toys. I wondered how he would react because he isn't much of a daredevil. Infact some may call him a pansy. Luckily, with the help of Uncle Brad he worked up the courage to try some of the slides.

Eventually though, he ended up playing in the little kid area with some foam cubes and he would have stayed there all day. I guess I just have to remind myself that even though he is taller than most kids a year older than him he is still only 2. I was looking for a picture of him and Katie playing with the cubes and to my astonishment there was a picture with my nursing in the background. So basically while Brad and Katie were here I spent the whole time breastfeeding.

We were so glad they were able to come and we can't wait for more visitors, so come on down. Once they left we got back to our routine of EZ pretending to play the guitar all day. Oh wait, he did that while they were here also. Basically all day he runs around asking for dance songs and saying "You rock!". His favorite dance song is "Slow Ride" by Foghat, which he refers to as "So High," which they probably were while they wrote the song. So whenever he gets to rock out he likes to take whatever he can find that is somewhat guitar like and pretend he is playing it. He recently took it to a whole new level by playing in the nude.

When he isn't running around playing the quitar and decides to put some clothes on he is quite the fasionista. Here is a shot of him wearing my shoes and doing his best vogue pose. (Ok this is driving me crazy. This stupid blogger will not let me left justify this line like all the others. What is up with this thing.)

And last but not least we can't leave out Netta. So here is a picture of her and her daddy showing off her great legs.

Poop Stains

As most babies do, Netta has blow outs on a daily basis, which means I have to scrub sometimes as many as 3 dirty outfits a day. Unfortunately, life does not always let me get to the stains right away, which means they could sit with poop on them for quite some time. Luckily John accidentally discovered Arm & Hammer with Oxi Clean. This stuff is frickin unbelievable. It gets out everything no matter how long it has been sitting there. Now, I am not one for product placement, but this stuff really is awesome. While we were in Utah Netta had a blow out that we had to wash at John's dad's house without my trusty detergent and of course it didn't come out, but we were headed home that day so we had to hurry and dry it. I was so sad because she happened to be wearing one of her cutest outfits. Well, just yesterday I washed it again at the house (I'll admit I let her wear it again with the poop stains, because it is just so cute) and voila the stain had come out! So to all those out there with really dirty laundry I highly recommend Arm & Hammer with Oxi Clean. It rocks!

Good Times Were Had By All

I mentioned earlier that we went to Utah on vacation a couple of weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting some of the marker free highlights. We started out with a family reunion for all of John's siblings. In my family when the siblings and their families get together it amounts to 18 people. In John's family it amounts to 57. We stayed at this mansion in Provo that actually fit all of us and we even managed to get a family picture with every single person including all 34 grand kids. No small feat. This place was pretty sweet. It had its own movie theater and swimming pool. EZ had a blast.

After the reunion, just the Brown siblings and dad went to a cabin to hang out. It was the first time in the history of the Brown kids that all the siblings were together without any significant others. When Debbie, the oldest, came home to meet Lexi, the youngest, for the first time her fiancee was with her. Crazy. While they were away the kids and I got to see my sisters who are out at BYU. We decided to take EZ bowling on campus. He loves playing it on the Wii so we figure he would love it even more for real. The first game went really well. They have these ramps, which I have never seen before for little kids and EZ did great.

He had so much fun that I decided to let him play again. While the second time around he decided he didn't like the ramp. He didn't want to be like everyone else though and actually throw the ball. Oh no he wanted to kick it. He pitched such a fit that we finally gave in and allowed him to kick the ball which meant it took 5 minutes for the ball to make its way down the lane. Oh two year olds.

After the time apart with our siblings we got back together as a family at John's dad's house and watched a lot of the Olympics. Here is a picture of Netta hanging out with dad on the couch. In case you were worried, the girl gets plenty to eat.

The trip was so much fun that by the time we got home we needed another vacation to help recoup from this one. I went upstairs to do some stuff only to come downstairs and find the rest of my family passed out in the living room at 5pm.

Here is a close up of Netta and John asleep. Yes I know it's another picture of her chub, but I just can't help myself. She is so dang cute.

EZ Loves Markers

EZ absolutely loves markers and coloring allover himself with them. Hence we have very few in the house and the few we have are well hidden. Unfortunately, we have to leave the house from time to time and that's when he gets into trouble.

Exhibit A:

We stayed with my parents in Pittsburgh for about a month between John graduating and us all moving to Austin. My father has a thing for sharpies and my brother has a thing for leaving bedroom doors that are supposed to be closed at all times open and when those two things combine with EZ you've got trouble.

When my sister found EZ he had obviously colored all over himself but had also found the time to color his sheets and my parents brand new sheets. What an artist. Oh and in case you were wondering hairspray doesn't take out sharpie.

Exhibit B:

We recently made the trip to Utah mainly to visit all of John's family, but I was also able to see my sisters in Provo and we spent a night at my sister Sarah's new place. Now Sarah just moved into this place and hasn't quite set everything up quite yet and we unknowingly left EZ in his pack in play within reach of a bin of markers and a stack of cd's. He kept making noises while he was supposed to be napping but I wanted him to fall asleep so I just ignored him. Well eventually he did fall asleep and this is how we found him:

The damage was extensive to both himself and my sister's new pillow.

So I write this post to apologize again to my family and give fair warning to anyone who might have us over.

P.S. Sorry about the weird spacing but when I publish the post it goes all crazy.

Happy Birthday Rachel

Just wanted to give shout out to my sister Rachel on her birthday. For those of you who don't know Rachel, she is my older sister her lives in Ohio with her husband Robert and her five crazy girls Sharon, Carol, Sarah, Ellie, and Grace. Rachel is a skilled shopper who has supplied about half of Netta's wardrobe through the steals she finds. I finally had to her ask her to hold off for a little while because Netta's closet is overflowing right now thanks to Rachel's generosity. She was also played an important role in EZ's birth. It was thanks to her suggestion of castor oil that EZ made his debut into the world when he did and not 11 days later on my due date. I will be eternally grateful for that. So thank for your help with my kids Rach and Happy Birthday.

Rachel's girls when they came up to visit over Easter. We had all this fun planned outside but of course in Michigan it had to snow so we had to cram all of us in our two bedroom Duplex for the weekend. Not an easy thing to do.

Rachel and three of her girls who drove up from Dayton to come to EZ's baby blessing. It was great to have family come into town since we didn't have any in Michigan.

Dirty Looks

So I found these pictures of EZ and Netta giving their grandparents dirty/weird looks. In the first one EZ is giving John's dad Phil a crazy look and in the second on Netta is giving my mom Sharon a crazy look. Don't you just love what you can accidently capture on camera. (The picture of Netta isn't big enough to really get a good look at her. To see a better picture click here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3515149&id=505190047 )