the stats

This baby is growing! Christopher & I had both remarked that baby Jacob had really begun to chunk up. We found out just how much this morning at his 2-month appointment.

weight: 13 lbs. 2.59 oz
height: 23.62 inches

both of these put him slightly over the 75th percentile.

2-months-old

Yesterday was Jacob's 2-month birthday. He spent the morning at church and the evening at a baseball game. We sat in the Verizon Wireless box with friends and Jacob was loved on by all the other moms and their kids. We go to see the pediatrician tomorrow so I can give you all of his official stats then but I can tell you that he is definitely growing! He loves to smile although he still gives us his serious look a lot of the time. He coos/talks to us and still rarely cries. He consistently sleeps 6-8 hours at night. I experimented without his swaddle one night without the same results so we will continue to swaddle. I'm in the market for a lighter-weight version. As evidenced in the picture, he's a champ at holding up his head. He puts up with being kissed, poked, hugged, pulled-on and otherwise smothered by his big brother. One day he'll be able to do all those things back to Joseph.

take me out to the ballgame

it's very hard to see Joseph in this video considering I was using my phone. He looks like such a tiny thing out there. He ran the bases all by himself at the Arkansas Travelers game last night. You may be able to pick him out closer to the end of the video when he's almost to home plate and gets passed up by a big crowd of kids.

now that we have a backyard . . .

. . .we don't have to set-up this tent in the living room anymore.(and it seriously is a total coincidence that Joseph is wearing his Happy Camper shirt today.)

smiling

On the menu

I've decided to take a cue from a couple of my friends and start listing some of our weekly menus. I usually make our menu on Monday along with a grocery list and organize the appropriate coupons. Then Tuesday (while Joseph is at school) I go to the store. A couple of my current favorite websites for menu ideas are: Budget Bytes and A Year of Slow Cooking.

This week's menu:

Tuesday:
Hot Dogs
Baked Beans
Tater Tots
Broccoli
(we brought back some leftover beans from Christopher's parents and I had hot dogs, buns and broccoli in the freezer. The only thing that had to be purchased was the tots!)

Wednesday:
Enchiladas
(Christopher's boss was scheduled for surgery yesterday and I was planning on making a pan of enchiladas to take to his family. I made enough for us to have some for dinner as well.)

Thursday:
Red Beans & Rice
(this is a Budget Bytes recipe.)

Friday:
Indian Spiced Lentils with Chicken
(a Year of Slow Cooking recipe.)

Saturday:
lunch - leftovers
dinner - homemade pizza (growing up we had pizza every Saturday evening for dinner. we have continued that tradition)

Sunday:
lunch - Peppercini Pot Roast Sandwhiches
dinner - leftovers
(the peppercini pot roast is so easy to make. just put a roast in the crock pot with a jar of peppercini rings including the juice. pull it apart with a fork and put it on buns. top that with provolone slices and stick under the broiler. so delicious!)

Monday:
lunch - BLTs
dinner - Pasta Salad with Chicken
(my pasta salad varies from one making to the next as I don't really have a recipe. in addition to the pasta I usually add a cucumber, grape tomatoes, onion and greek salad dressing. the chicken I will bake first with some Zeus seasoning.)

Santi's

We were able to go back to our favorite restaurant twice while we were in Charleston. It was great seeing our friends at Santi's and Joseph loved being back on familiar turf. Oh - and the food was as fabulous as always.

vacation

We rented a house on Folly Beach with 3 other couples for the week. It was so much fun to hang out with our friends at the house, worship with our Redeemer family and just soak up Charleston. We have missed everything about it and were glad to have a week there.

Our house-mates:Tom & AmyKenne & AmandaKen & SarraJacob with Uncle StevenJoseph enjoying the surfand the sand . . . our house from the beachthe beach from the house
Joseph loved his vacation and it tuckered him out!

graduation

We were excited for a reason to go back to Charleston last week. Although Christopher technically graduated from MUSC last August, he went through the pomp and circumstance last weekend. The hooding took place on Thursday evening and the graduation ceremony on Friday morning. We were also glad that Christopher's parents and grandmother were able to be there.

vacation

the Swearingen family has been on vacation for the past week. now we are home with our laundry, sandy beach toys and tired boys. the boys were both amazing travelers! pictures and stories to come.