9 Weeks Old

Nathaniel is 9 weeks old today and what a big boy he is becoming so quickly! He is going to the pediatrician on Friday for his check-up so we'll find out for sure, but it certainly seems that since "de-newborning" himself (i.e. stretching out his arms and legs instead of scrunching them up), he takes after his big brother in stature. He is in many 3-6 month clothes as of last week and seems to be another tall Martin boy ("where do they come from?" asks 5'7" Andrew!)

Here are a few photos of Nate chilling out in his room this afternoon. I gave him his new baby blanket for the first time today and he liked grasping it.

He also has such a strong neck and limbs that I decided to try him in the BebePOD chair for the first time today. Ben was in it at around this age so I figured Nate could probably handle it too. Well, he did great and barely slumped in it at all! He actually was content sitting in it watching me for about 5 minutes straight while I did some things around his room. Can you believe that little Nate is "sitting up" already?

Bedhead Strikes Again!

See what happens when you have two boys with wild unruly hair. No gel can tame these, especially post-nap!

Benjamin Bigfoot

We have the book Benjamin Bigfoot by Mary Serfozo, which is about a little boy named Benjamin who loves wearing his dad's shoes around the house. Well, our Benjamin loves to put our shoes on lately and stomp around the house in them as well. Here he is below in "bigfoot" mode. Of course the poor guy is wearing my pink Crocs in this one, not Andrew's sneakers, which he usually puts on, since Andrew was wearing his shoes when I snapped this photo!

In the Swing

Nate has started to notice himself in the mirrored dome under the mobile of his swing lately and like other mirrors, he loves to look at himself in this one as well! Ben always loved to sit there in the swing staring at himself when he was younger too. Here are a few cute photos...

Too much stimulation...time for a nap!

Aww...cute little mini sport socks sticking out the bottom of the blankie...

Mike and Chang's Engagement Party

Last weekend was my brother Mike and his fiancee Chang's engagement party at my parents' house in New Jersey. We had family visiting from Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia and it was so nice to see everyone. Here are a few photos from the day. Congratulations, Mike and Chang!

The engaged couple.

My parents and Chang's mom, Anna, with Mike and Chang.

The beautiful cake from our long-loved Italian bakery, Sorrento's.

Aunt Marge and little Nate.

Mike and Chang cutting the cake!

Blue-Eyed Andrew

There is much debate out there as to who Nathaniel looks like. My thoughts are that while he does look a bit more like me than Ben does (who looks nothing like me at all!), he is looking more and more like his dad as he becomes older. He seems like he may keep his blue eyes since they are a very clear blue color, so basically we have a 2-year old, brown-eyed Andrew clone at our house and an 8-week-old, blue-eyed Andrew look-alike as well!

You can't tell me that this expression doesn't look exactly like Andrew!

These ones as well...

OK, maybe this one looks a little less like Andrew and more like me, though...

Baking

Today is horrible, rainy weather near us so we stayed inside all day. While Nate was napping this morning, Ben and I had some special mommy-son time and played cars, read books and baked some cookies. Baking is one of Ben's favorite activities since I always give him his own bowl of goodies to "mix up." He even gets the actual mixer bowl, beater and spoons to play with once I am finished with them. Today's creation involved oatmeal, strawberry jam and brown sugar so Ben had a sampling of each to play with and taste.

Here's our little baker at work, making sure our ingredients are up to par.

Spring Walk

Today was perfect weather so when Nate got fussy and Ben got whiny after choosing to watch the service men working in our development instead of napping today, I decided to get the stroller out and go for a L-O-N-G walk with the boys later this afternoon. It certainly did the job of calming them both down and my new "tank" of a stroller gave me a major workout pushing it around for over an hour!

Here are both boys ready to go. Nate's such a big boy now that he can go in the strollers without his infant seat. As long as I'm not trying to transfer him while he is sleeping, he seems to enjoy riding this way and looks around at everything.

Checking out the world.

Here's Ben at the duck pond in our development. There are newly hatched ducklings swimming around with their mama so this was a big hit with our animal lover. The pond also has tons of carp swimming in it and loads of frogs ribbit-ing. Ben asked to go to the gazebo in front of the pond three times while we were out today!

Playing

Just some random photos of Ben and Nate playing at home this morning:

So alert at almost eight weeks old!

Big smiles!

Big brother and little brother. Ben loves to interact with Nate and Nate will always start kicking his legs faster and coo whenever Ben comes over to him to play, kiss him or just say hello.

"Cheese!" Ben playing hard, as usual. He is such a good player and will often make up his own games that keep him occupied for a very long time. Here, he is cooking up some Matchbox cars in his kitchen. Boys!

Sink Bath

Nate had his first sink bath this weekend while we were visiting Nana and Pop in New Jersey for my brother's engagement party. Even in the sink, he loves his bath!