Taking It Cheesy ... Crazy Tales of Alex & Spencer
We closed on the new house towards the end of April! We enjoyed the almost 3.5 years in our rental, but we are so happy to have our own house again!
 The boys are ready to go in the moving truck! |
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 Our new home-sweet-home! |
 This yard looks so different now (I’m writing this in October!) We’ve cut down the cedar trees, encouraged the grass, built a tree house, and improved the deck. |
 We have the same fun boys, though! |
Today was Spencer’s 2 year well check. My baby is getting old! This was the first time I didn’t take the stroller into the doctor’s office, so that’s a big milestone in itself! Both boys walked on their own to the exam room, read the books and magazines by their chairs, then colored with the little books I brought for them. I was a proud mommy! When Dr. Webb came in, he asked Alex to be his helper. Spencer smiled and let him check him out. I smiled when he said there were no shots this visit. Woo hoo!
So … here are Spencer’s 2 Year Stats! Once again, he and Alex are so close!
Height: 35 inches … 75 %ile (grew 1.5 in since Jan) Alex was 35 inches, too!
Weight: 32 lbs, 3 oz … 90 %ile (gained 32 lbs since Jan) Alex was only 27 lbs
Head: 51 cm … 95 %ile (grew 1.5 cm since Jan) no measurements on Alex at 2
 My good boy! |
 My other good boy! |
 Alex, 2 years old. |  Spencer, 2 years old. |
Alex’s last official day of preschool was Thursday. Where did this year go? It went by so quickly!! We go back to school on Tuesday for a quick show and party. Alex had a great year and has learned so much! Just some of the academic skills he’s mastered: counting 1-14, recognizes all upper-case letters and knows most of the sounds, writes his name … and so much more! Even his 2 days of preschool a week have matured him in amazing ways. He has developed some leadership qualities at school, tries to help his friends stay on track/out of trouble, loves to help/”do jobs”, spends much more time concentrating on crafts and projects, and asks so many complicated questions!! I can’t even imagine how much he’ll learn in 4K!
Alex will go to 3 summer camps this year. Two will be through his school … 1 week he’ll learn about the ocean and the next he’ll get to do some cooking. He’ll also do a mini farm camp with a friend on nearby Latta Plantation. I’m working on swim lessons for both boys, we have swim play dates already planned for the summer, and the moms in our play group are getting together soon to plan other fun play dates. So, we will definitely keep busy this summer!
 1st day of 3K! Sept 2, 2014 |  Last day of 3K! May 21, 2015 |
 My super cool dude! |
 First day of summer vacation starts with a picnic breakfast and cartoons. |
 Next, we set up the sprinkler and pool and enjoyed some water play (even though it was kind of chilly) |
 We played on the see-saw, too! |
Stay tuned for pictures (and hopefully a video) from Alex’s party!
Well, he’s almost 19 months now … but I was putting off this post until we went to his well-check last week. I was afraid Spencer would not be excited about being back at the doctor’s office after our sick visit and flu checks the week before, but he was fine. He talked and smiled with Dr. Webb and barely even made a sound when he got his shots.
Here are Spencer’s 18 month stats. It’s amazing how close to Alex he is in size!
Height: 33.5 inches … 80 %ile (grew 1 inch since Oct) Alex was 33.5 inches, too!
Weight: 27 lbs, 6 oz … 85 %ile (gained 2 lbs since Oct) Alex was 26 lbs, 6 oz
Head: 49.5 cm … 94 %ile (grew about 1 cm since OCt) Alex was 50 cm
Spencer has become quite the chatterbox! He surprises us everyday with a new word and has even started putting words together. Today, he kept hiding a fork under his truck, then saying, “Oh no! Where doh?” Pretty good for an almost 19 month old, right? He also LOVES to sing. You can actually tell he’s singing Old MacDonald or Twinkle Twinkle from the tune. He loves for you to count and tries to say one, two, three, go! all day long. This is really cute, until you try to count to twenty while he’s sitting in time-out (usually for hitting Alex). He just sits there and grins because he loves to hear us count!
Spencer is also an evil genius. He is so inquisitive about everything and uses his Daddy’s engineering mind to figure everything out. He knows how to open all our kitchen cabinets and drawers (even though they have child-locks), he can turn doorknobs, but isn’t quite tall enough to open the door yet, he’s figured out the touchscreens and can start and stop the tv at will. I definitely run, run, run to keep up with him, but he keeps me laughing while I’m running. Alex has even gotten to the point where he finds Spencer’s antics funny, has stopped getting mad when Spencer hits him, and loves to just shake his head at me when Spencer is being crazy. They are so much fun together!
And now, my favorite part of this blog post … comparing Alex and Spencer! (While browsing old pictures, I couldn’t decide on just 1)
 Alex, 18 months old |  Spencer, 18 months old |
 Alex, 18 months |  Spencer, 18 months |
Today was Alex’s 4 year well-child appointment. I had been dreading this appointment for a few months because I knew Alex would need at least one vaccination. There are no shots at the 3 year visit, and I’ve heard that 4 year shots are hard because they are old enough to be scared and big enough to fight. Why was I assuming Alex would be like everyone else? His biggest fears … he didn’t want a band-aid and he didn’t want to be “sick”. He was pumped about getting a shot! He did great! No tears … actually, I don’t think he even believes he got a shot. Then he asked for the band-aid to go on top of his clothes. Whatever works, right?
Here are the stats!
Height: 40.5 inches … 56th %ile (he’s grown 3 inches since last year)
Weight: 36.6 pounds … 56th %ile (he’s gained about 3 pounds since last year)
Alex has really come into his own. He enjoys picking out his own clothes and getting dressed. He brushes his teeth and uses the bathroom by himself. We love listening to his always expanding vocabulary and creative stories/songs. His mind is always running! School is still is favorite thing to do and he loves his teachers and Ethan. Alex is the best big brother … always looking out for Spencer, (mostly) sharing with and playing with him. We couldn’t be prouder of our amazing 4-year-old!
My how time flies:
 1st Birthday |  2nd Birthday Well-Check |
 3rd Birthday Well-Check |  4th Birthday Well-Check |
Time has gotten away from us … how is Alex 4 years old already? What a crazy, sweet, energetic BIG boy we have on our hands now! We had a great fire truck themed party over the weekend. The weather did not cooperate, so it was good I had already planned chili and chicken nuggets and a few inside games. We invited 3 friends from preschool (1 couldn’t make it), 4 friends from our playgroup (1 couldn’t make it), and our two friends from Spartanburg. After adding in parents, we definitely had a full house! Here are some pictures of our fun
If you want to go back in time to Alex’s other birthdays, here are the links:
1st Birthday … 2nd Birthday … 3rd Birthday
 This is the invitation we sent out. |
 Fireman hats and stickers for decorating as our icebreaker. |
 Alex spent a lot of time on this end of the food table! |
 We made a giant cookie cake and cookie cake cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Delicious! Tim did an amazing job with the fire truck, don’t you think? |
 Alex is ready to party with his party hat and his new shirt from my parents. |
 The boys decided to serenade us. |
 We played “Pin the Tail on the Dalmation”. The boys were surprisingly interested and willing to play! |
 After a picnic dinner, we opened presents and played for a while. This was the calm before the storm … after cake, the boys were chasing each other in a circle around our house. Pandemonium! |
 Blowing out his candles! |
 Our 4 year old! |
 Alex and his BFF, Ethan. |
Late is better than never, right? Spencer’s 15 month well child check was last week. It was so nice to take him in while Alex was in preschool! It always seems like one of the boys ends up sick after a well child check, so it helpful to just have one child to keep an eye on! Spencer did very well and only had to get 2 shots. He was so NOT happy about those shots, though. Ugh!
Spencer is a very rambunctious toddler! He thrives on negative attention and knows when he’s doing something naughty, but does it anyway. It definitely seems like we have to keep more of an eye on him, but maybe that’s because this house is much larger and has so much more stuff than the house in Wilmington. While he is a handful, he also loves to be helpful. He always helps me pick up, stopping every few minutes to clap for himself. He is also very chatty! He says, “dog, dada, mama, ball, truck, more, door, thank you, please, shoe, ish (goldfish)” and probably a few more I can think of right now. Our nonverbal communication is going really well, too! He points to what he wants, or tries to pull or push me in the direction he needs me to go. Definitely gets his points across! He still holds his own with Alex – and they are fast becoming best friends.
Here are Spencer’s 15 month stats!
Height: 32.5 inches … 90 %ile (grew 2.5 inches since July) Alex was 31 inches
Weight: 25 lbs, 6 oz … 83 %ile (gained almost 2 lbs) Alex was 25 lb, 8 oz
Head: 48.3 cm … 86 %ile (stayed about the same) Alex was 49.25 cm
Here are Alex and Spencer at 15 months:
 Alex, 15 months |  Spencer, 15 months |
It’s so amazing how different they look!
I haven’t posted much about Spencer lately because I’ve been waiting to make the big “he’s walking” announcement. Man that boy is stubborn and only wants to do things on his own terms! We thought he’d be running around months ago! I guess having a big brother that likes to “help” you walk, which really involves crashing you at some point, probably helped Spencer decide crawling was safer. Well, he’s finally walking about 90% of the time, and that has only happened in the past week.
Spencer is also quite the talker. He loves to chat and be a part of the conversation. He sings along whenever there is music or if Alex and I are singing. He even starts singing and “asks” Tim to sing along at night when he’s putting Spencer to bed. He loves books and loves to read. I got lucky and got a video of him reading one of his truck books the other day.
We are having so much fun watching Spencer develop his own personality. He is definitely more mischievous than Alex was, but he’s so darn cute about it! He knows he’s not supposed to do something and will look at us to see if we’re watching … and do it anyway! He is in to everything and keeps me on my toes.. Thank goodness Alex helps me watch out for him. Alex loves that he and Spencer can really play together and even told Spencer the other day, “I love playing with you.” How lucky am I to see these moments first hand every day?
 Resting in the shade on a park adventure. |
 Crazy boy watching Alex’s last gym class. |
 Using Kovu as a boost to get into Daddy’s stuff. |
 Spencer is such a Daddy’s boy! We finally got to the point where we could just lay him in the crib, so he starts cuddling up to Daddy and falling asleep on him. Daddy can’t say no to that! |
 Monkey see, monkey do … Spencer thinks all of Alex’s ideas are the best ideas. |
A quick video of Spencer reading, bouncing, and walking! |
I took Alex to his first dentist appointment on Thursday. First, just let me say, Alex is such an awesome big boy! We decided to have Alex go to the same practice Tim and I go to, rather than a pediatric dentist, and I’m really glad we made that decision! They treated him like a little man, giving him the confidence he needed to have his teeth cleaned. Our hygenist was amazing. She moved slowly, explained everything before she did it, and spoke with a really calming voice. The goal was to do as much cleaning as she could, before he got too wiggly or tired of it. He was perfect! Then the dentist came in and asked if he could check his teeth … and promised him 2 prizes from their treasure chest if he did a good job. Man, Alex was so excited! When we were leaving with his prizes, he told me he didn’t like, but I think he was happy to have his prizes.
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Alex went to summer camp at his new preschool July 28-31 for 3 hours a day. I won’t lie – I was really nervous about this day coming! I even called his teacher, unsure about whether it was a good idea to send him to summer camp (4 days straight, 3 hours a day) when he hadn’t even officially started preschool. Miss Barrie gave me a “mommy pep-talk” and assured me he would be fine … and she was right! I think it helped that Miss Barrie ran straight to him when I brought him to the playground and gave him a huge hug, telling him, “Alex, I am so glad you are here! Let me show you the water table.” He didn’t even look back at me! Good thing, because I barely made it back to my car before busting into tears. Spencer and I drove across the street to Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee and yogurt after I collected myself.
I’m so proud of my big boy! He woke up each morning, anxious to go to school and excited to see his teachers. He learned all about water in camp – he seemed to enjoy the books and experiments the most. It was kind of hard asking a 3.5 year old all the details of his day, so we love that all the teachers at his school send emails to tell about the day. We are all so excited for him to start preschool in September (he will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings).
 My backpack is heavy! |
 On the way to school the first day, Alex asked where I would be. I told him I would be shopping across the street. His response – “Ok, I just need to know where you are because I love you.” I LOVE that boy. |
 Showing me his boat (they learned they had to wrap it in foil for it to float). |
 Reading his new “congrats for finishing your first week of school” book. |
We had a ton of fun celebrating Spencer’s first birthday! Alex was so excited and helped a lot with the planning, buying presents, and baking the cake. I think he was most excited to “help” Spencer open presents – but I do think he understood it was a special day for Spencer.
We chose an airplane theme for the party because Spencer loves playing with airplanes. He actually flies them in the sky and makes airplane and rocket noises, just like Alex does. It’s so fun to watch!
I’ll let the photos do most of the talking. Thank you to everyone who attended! Sorry the house got so hot! I guess the AC couldn’t keep up with 20 some people in the house on such a hot, hot day!
 It didn’t take long for Spencer to figure out how to rip the wrapping paper off! |
 Spencer showing off his new fire truck to our friend, Liam. |
 Alex, choosing the next gift. |
 Tissue paper! |
 I think this is our best cake so far! Tim modeled the plane on the computer and cut out all the pieces, Alex chose the green color, and I spent forever icing it! |
 Blowing out the candles. |
 Hmm … this whole piece is for me? |
 Now what do I do? (He actually really liked it – and got SO MAD at me the next day when I tried giving him a bite off a fork. I guess he wanted to get it all over again!) |
 4 generations of Watzins! Great-Grandma, Grandma (my mom), Amber & Beth (sister), and the boys! |
 Reading Spencer’s 1st birthday book. Grandma used the lullabye she sings to Spencer and turned it into a book! What a great way to look back at all my pictures! |
