Joel at 7 weeks

I can't believe that it's been more than 7 weeks since this precious little boy joined our family. He is really such a happy, content little guy. He feeds like a pro and sleep really well (for the most part). He loves watching his big brother and is very generous with his smiles. He is incredibly chatty and will talk to you and smile at you for ages. He still loves his bath at night. We're really all enjoying him tremendously.
Here are some photos I managed to snap on the bed a few days ago. I even got a bit of a smile captured. He was very funny, he would be smiling until I lifted the camera up to my face. Then I would get this cute little frown, a kind of "hey, where did you go" look.

Our family of 4 and other bits and bobs

We had our first family of 4 photoshoot done on the 29th December. It was fun. Jared was on form and we got some lovely photos. She managed to capture Jared's personality really well I think. Here is a selection of a few of my favorites.

We've had a week or so of really nice weather so the other day I decided to go for a walk with Jared and Joel. I thought that it would be a good idea to take Jared for a haircut while we were out. Let me just say that haircuts are not a pleasant task. For some reason he is petrified and so he cries and shakes throughout the whole thing. I have to have him sitting on my lap, it's actually awful and I don't know why he is so afraid. I'm sure like all these little things though he will outgrow it. Anyway, I bribed him with ice-cream this time thinking that might make a difference but it never did, he still cried. After the lady was done she offered him a mohawk and a choice of colour for his mohawk. He chose purple and thought it was very cool. In his words, "my mocork is very very smart". Thankfully it was a temporary style that washed out that night in the bath. Maybe next time the mocork will be motivation enough not to have him scared *crossing fingers*.

A little update on our newest family member. Joel is doing really well. We had his 6 week check-up yesterday and he now weighs 4.9kgs. The biggest shock was his length. He is now 60cms long. He has grown 7cms in 6 weeks!!! I wondered why he is almost too long for the 0-3 month babygros and now I know. He is an angel baby though. He sleeps really well. He goes for 6-8 hrs at night, in fact last night he slept for 8 1/2 hours. This is even more astounding since he is an exclusively breastfed baby. (that feels so good to say!!!) He is a really happy baby and loves to smile already and is very generous with his smiles. It is so interesting to see how different and also how similar he and Jared are at the same stage. Joel like Jared won't take a dummy anymore. He took one for a few weeks and has now decided he no longer likes them. He has started to rediscover his fingers though so I recon he'll have his thumb in his mouth before long. He loves to be held. His favorite place to sleep is on my chest. Jared wasn't that much of a cuddly baby. He seems to be a real mommy's boy and often won't settle until I take him. Jared would go to pretty much anyone.

Jared is loving his baby brother. He calls him baby Joel or baby brother. He really is very sweet with him. I often find him just chatting to Joel and he gets very excited if Joel smiles at him. We have had no jealousy issues so far and no issues of him being too rough. He really seems to have gotten the whole baby thing very easily. He doesn't seem to mind if people hold him in the house but I have had him politely ask 2 people to please give his baby brother back to his mommy when we were out!! Thankfully he did it in his usual polite way though.

Hannes, Jared and now Joel all bath together at night. Jared likes to help to wash Joel. We've had to tell him a few times that Joel doesn't like to have water put on his head but other than that there have been no issues. Thankfully Joel seems to take after his brother and he loves the water. He really enjoys his bath and I started massaging him a few weeks ago and he loves that too.

Here are a couple of photos of Joel taken on Wednesday on his 6 week birthday. I need to work a bit harder on getting a shot of his smile.




'Till next time xxx

Catching up...

Part of the midwives service is that they come to the house and visit for as long as you need them to help you with breastfeeding and just generally to make sure that you are both doing ok. They are also still available 24/7 on the pager while you are under their care for 6 weeks.


Luba made one of the house calls that required Joel to be weighed just to make sure that he was gaining weight since we were trying to get breastfeeding established. The babies get weighed in a fish scale on their home visits and we thought it was just too cute not to take photos of. Joel left his mark on the sling though hee hee!!

Sunette arrived on the 17th December for a 3 week visit. Jared was so happy to see her. It was amazing that he remembered her immediately even though he hadn't seen her since July.

Our first outing with Joel and Jared together was to the Southcentre Mall to have their annual Santa pics done. We of course had to stop in at Mrs Clause's kitchen again this year so that Jared could decorate his gingerbread cookie again. (Here is the link to last years pics http://markussefamily.blogspot.com/2007/12/run-run-as-fast-as-you-can.html ) He had loads of fun again this year and spent a lot of the time eating the icing and the sprinkles.

The finished product

And it tastes as good as it looks!

The set where the Santa photos were taken

Our tree went up a little bit late this year with all the excitement of the new baby in the house. Here are some photos of our special ornaments. Last year we started the tradition of a new ornament every year for Jared and so this year for Joel too. We also got a really cute family one. (I never realised the photos were out of focus until it was too late, sorry!!)

Both of these for the boys say "baby's first Christmas".

Christmas Eve was met with loads of excitement. Hannes, Jared and Sunette went off the see the Zoo Lights. Joel and I stayed in for a night of pizza and movies hee hee!! When they got home we put out milk and cookies for Santa and Santa's elves had delivered new PJ's again together with a letter. He brought Jared and Joel matching PJ's which was very cute and Jared thought just great.

Some photos of the Zoo Lights. It is an annual Christmas event and very popular.

The tree after Santa had been and left all the presents. He ate the cookies and drank the milk.

Our beautiful boys on Christmas morning in their matching PJ's

Joel in his special "My First Christmas" babygro. Isn't he gorgeous!

Joel in his swing watching all the paper ripping excitement.

Christmas was loads of fun this year again. Jared really understood this year and he loved opening all his presents.

Here are a few photos of Joel taken over the first few days of his life.

'till next time xxx