6 Months Old

I can hardly believe that our little miracle baby is now 6 months old. Was I seriously pregnant over six months ago…going into labor at 7 am and having him at 3:58 pm. We have been so blessed these past six months watching this little man grow, improve, change, and bring so much joy to so many!!! We love every ounce of his chunky legs and cannot get enough of his contagious smile!!!

• Loves to touch and grab my face with his sweet chubby fingers while feeding.
• Does not really like to be covered with a blanket while nursing…makes it harder to nurse while we are out and about that is for sure.
• Talk about a rolling machine. He can move 360° on his stomach and rolls all over.
• Can hold the “crawling” pose for quite a while, but can’t get up onto all fours by himself quite yet.
• Can sit pretty well on his own, but topples over quite easily. It must be hard to sit with such a chubby bum and being shaped kinda like a ball!
• Loves to sleep with mommy….I have become a fan of the laying down and nursing…I get more sleep and so does he. I am sure I will regret this later down the road, but for now I will enjoy our time together.
• Is so intrigued by trees. He is very wide eyed when we are outside and loves to look up at the trees.
• Adores his brother. I know he wants more attention from Andrew, but the kiddo is so busy these days, but when Andrew does pay attention to Carter he just soaks it all in!
• He has tickliest chin, feet, hands, sides, neck, bum…heck, he is just a tickly kid!
• Loves to eat his toes, especially when he has footie jammies on with cute animals on the feet.
• I believe he is getting a tooth on his bottom left…but Bry says I am mistaken. Only time will tell!

I’m so glad when Daddy comes home

I have come to really cherish the time I have with Bry. We had an exceptionally good night together with the boys and I am so grateful. I just want to remember the simple things that make me smile and bring me so much joy.

We went out to eat (rare treat with our family) and it was rather pleasant. Andrew even ate chips dipped in my salad dressing, black beans, mango, tomatoes, and a piece of chicken. Way to go Drewbie!!!! 

I love how much Andrew loves books. We went to Barnes and Noble to look around and Andrew had so much fun running up and down the isles. He especially liked the kids section and found books with tractors. He is really into diggers and such these days.

Outside there was a water fountain. It is getting cold out and it was about 7:45, but Andrew wanted to stick his hand in the water. I rolled up his sleeve and he went to town. I didn’t have a penny for him to throw in so I grabbed one from the fountain (naughty, I know) and told him to throw it in. That was all he needed….he kept fishing them out and throwing them in. He would bring me each one and say “money!” and run back and throw it in. The passers by found him quite entertaining!!! Bry got out our cell phone and took some pictures. SO CUTE!

I loved watching Bry lay on our bed tonight with both the boys.  They were only in diapers and just so cute! We were getting ready for bath and they were all in there together just enjoying having daddy home.

Bry read books with Andrew tonight before bed and even read an extra one to get him to have more pediasure. He said he would do anything to get the kid to get more calories. He is such a good daddy!!!!

I guess you could say I love my boys…Bry, Andrew, and Carter. I am so blessed and love spending time with them!!!

Gymboree Gripes

I have no gripes with the store itself, but I had a definite problem with the mom and her children I encountered today. I made a quick trip to see if I could find some cute shirts on sale for the boys for family pictures to use with my 30% coupon (thanks Christine). We were in luck – the line I really like still had some good pieces in stock! Now, Andrew LOVES the little chairs there with the little TV and is usually very well behaved, except for today. There were three kids all sitting in the chairs already. I told him it was okay and to just sit on the floor.  All was well and dandy until the kids started telling Andrew he couldn’t sit in the chairs. Andrew doesn’t do well with negative talk and telling him things he cannot do – we use positive enforcement with him. So, inevitably, he had a breakdown. **Mean kids** These weren’t just little kids either, it was a sibling group of ages 3, 5, and 8. One of the older ones would get up and leave just to have his sibling guard the chair so no one else could sit there. I even asked if Andrew could have a turn…but no. Their mom even came over and I was trying to be patient and said Andrew just wanted to sit, but she just told her son to sit back down. I mean, really…he is eight and there were lots of other little kids wanting to sit in the chairs. Have they ever heard of sharing?! I ended up leaving the store and taking Andrew outside so he would stop crying until that lovely little family left. I saw them leave and we headed back in. The little boy say Andrew and stopped in his tracks in the road…he knew Andrew was going to sit in the chair – well too bad so sad!!! Andrew was a happy camper from that point on. We now have two cute shirts and a hat for family pictures and their Christmas jammies – yay! (now I just have to tell Bry that I went to the forbidden store…..)

Blokus

Sunday night Bry asked me to play Blokus with him after the kiddos were in bed. It is not often we get time to just sit and enjoy one anothers company without any distraction. We decided this time to try and work together on getting all of our pieces on the board. He was red and green while I was yellow and blue. We were able to fit all the pieces even though it got a little tight at the end. I just enjoyed spending the last bit of the Sabbath with my honey. I am so grateful for the weekends.

We’re Going to the Zoo, zoo, zoo

It is a Raffi song…you will have it stuck in your head now if you know which song I am talking about!

We did finally get to the zoo this past weekend. We have been meaning to for a while now and finally went! We decided to invest in some zoo passes. The boys are so little and it is so expensive to go for one day for a couple hours that it will be better now we can go more often and for the short amount to time that the boys last and enjoy the time we are there.  Carter was a happy camper, as you can tell. His favorite part was the ducks. Imagine that – a zoo full of animals and the kid lights up like a firework when he sees the ducks!!!! Easy to please, my kind of kid!!! It was nice though, we sat and watched the ducks for about 20 minutes since we weren’t in a rush.

 

The flamingos were a hit as well. I have some pretty good lookin’ boys if I do say so myself. I just wish I got more of Bry’s profile in this one.

   

The monkey exhibit was Bryan’s favorite. You walk into a cage area and you can’t have anything hanging out of pockets, food, etc or else the monkeys could come and snatch it!!! You can’t really tell how close we are to the monkeys by these pictures, but it is really close. They said when it is not so busy the monkeys come right by your feet! We will be visiting that exhibit each time we go.

Shell and Rich also joined us on our Zoo trip and it was fun to have them there, as well as a couple extra hands to help with Andrew. He is a busy little man. Overall it was a fun day minus the HEAT. Yes, November 1st and it was very very hot. It will be nice when it cools down a bit more – I miss long sleeved shirts!

Happy Halloween!

Are they not the cutest little box of crayons ever!!!!!!!Thank you Julia for making these adorable costumes! You did an amazing job and we got SO many compliments.

Shelley is so in love with my baby boy – and I mean….really…who isn’t! She was holding him while we were taking pictures and wanted me to come take him so I could take pictures with him…but this one was just too cute not to share. What a good Aunt she is!!!We brought the double stroller and Lu brought her wagon. Between the two we were able to move the slower walkers quicker. Carter lasted most of the rounds before he was done in the stroller and Andrew LOVED going in the wagon.     

Andrew is quite scared of anything remotely scary…skeletons, spider webs, etc. We skipped a couple houses because he wouldn’t get too close. I really don’t know how kids know how to be afraid of certain things, but he is. (Like mother like son I suppose) It all started with a pirate skeleton my mom has at her house named “Murph”. He was on the porch one day when we went to visit and Andrew hasn’t stopped talking about him since. He calls him “guy” and then says “scared”. Poor boy! My mom had him inside facing the wall on Halloween so not to scare the kiddos. Hopefully this Halloween has not permanently scarred him! 

This was Andrew by the end of the night. We only went around a block, but he was exhausted!!!! I said he looked like a melted crayon. Overall – considering I really do not like Halloween, it was a good, fun night!

Learning to Share

 

I think the pictures speak for themselves…

Carvin’ Our Pumpkin

We carved our ever so large pumpkin for family night on the 27th. Last year Andrew gagged and would not have anything to do with it, but it seems he did better this year. He didn’t want anything to do with the touching of the innerds, but he helped draw the face and watched intently! He held the scooper outer thing like he wanted to help, but there was no way his hand was going inside that pumpkin!

Carter played nice on the floor and attempted to sit up on his own. He was very into the newspaper so he pretty much bent himself in half so he could reach it!

 

I have to say I am a fan of the bigger pumpkin! It had A LOT less slimey goo inside than the smaller ones. There were some seeds and slime, but it was more dry and stringy, which was a lot less messy! When we were all done Andrew took one look at the pumpkin and said “Sponge Bob!” I guess he thought it looked like him. Everyday when he would see it sitting on our table he would call it Sponge Bob – I guess that is our pumpkin’s name for this year.

It happened...

...and I am so glad it was not me! Bry had come over to my mom's after having quite a bit of dental work done so he was pretty numb. Anyhow - he was playing with Carter and then I see him quickly walking back into the kitchen. He was holding Carter up in the air...and you guessed it - he urped right in his mouth! Sick-oooh! Luckily he was pretty numb and I am sure didn't feel too much. He got it rinsed out, but it sure was funny (probably more so because it was not me)! Poor Bry.

*****Update****** After I posted this I was humbled. I was holding Carter at the table tonight and he was sitting up there and decided to get a firm grip on the hair on top of my head...then...he urped! Yup, right on my face, hair, etc. It did not get in my mouth, but was pretty gross nonetheless. Good thing it is still all milk and hey - it came from me anyway. Still gross though!

Fun on the Farm

Andrew, Carter and I were able to go to a little local farm this week with my sister-in-law Camille and her two kids. It was so nice to get out of the house (minus it being a bit on the hot side).  

This had to be the bumpiest tractor ride I have ever been on – not that I have been on very many. We had to make sure to hang onto them or else they would bump and bonk around. Emma wasn’t thrilled about the ride, but Andrew loves tractors and thought it was great! He is getting to be such a little boy!

Andrew adores his cousin Emma and always has so much fun with her. They

  

Carter was such a good boy – no fussing really, no griping to   eat, and he even slept on the way home!

At the end Andrew could pick out his own little pumpkin. It was so cute to see him pick which one and he was so proud to carry it all by himself. He was a little hot and red faced – but he just loves to be outside!