FIRECRACKER KID AND HIS LITTLE BRO

Some things never change

2012-02-15T20:31:00.000-06:00

...and 18 months later...

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T20:07:00.000-06:00

What's better than waking up to your little kids tromping up the steps each holding a white rose for you? Don't even try to answer that, because there is nothing better. Thank you boys, for a great Valentine's Day.

Nick picked out my gym shoes, love them.

I realize that Valentine's Day isn't only about me, but I forgot to take even one picture of Ethan or Alec's special day. Ethan had a little party at school, and came home with a backpack full of goodies. Alec's school doesn't celebrate holidays with parties or treats, instead they focus on the theme of the holiday and gear their learning towards that subject. But he and Ethan got a pair of Valentine's PJ's from Nick and I, and we had leftover cupcakes from Ethan's party so they were happy as could be. I tried to get a picture of them in their jammies but they had other plans.

I hope your day was filled with love, too.

Slip of the tongue

2012-02-14T20:26:00.002-06:00

Alec's vocabulary has exploded these past couple months and its been fun hearing his little voice tell us what he's thinking. He's always got an appetite so we hear "eat, eat, eat" a lot, he has also started stringing words together into one big word. "Iwannaeat" is probably his favorite, followed by "Idontwanna" and "Iwantmypillow". Kid knows what he wants.

A few days ago he kept saying "FOCK! FOCK! FOCK!", my heart skipped a few beats wondering where the heck he heard that word. Certainly not from me. Finally he shoved a sock in my face and I was instantly relieved. Whew. Now he always wants his socks off...and he lets me know. "FOCK OFF MAMA!" Anything else that starts with "s" makes me cringe a little. Ethan has recently started soccer practice, so we hear a lot of "Bruh-ber focker" and with Valentine's Day we have our fair share of suckers in the house. You get the picture...

If you can't view the video, click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfQF_1I4DIQ

Our absolute favorite thing he says is "IwannaNuggle", we'll snuggle up to that guy any time of day. You can not resist.

Mountain View

2012-02-01T22:01:00.000-06:00

Nick and I took a (kid-free) vacation last week to Colorado. I had never been there while Nick has been numerous times so there was LOTS to see and do. We visited several cities and small towns so I got a taste of "touristy" Colorado and "simple living" Colorado.

We drove there, approximately 11 hours each way. Surprisingly, the drive wasn't bad at all. That could have been because we could be completely silent for 4 hours straight if we wanted to, nor did we have to play kid DVD's, pass out snacks every 15 minutes or stop every 40 miles for a pee break. It was relaxing.

Our first stop was Frisco, CO. It's just minutes outside of Breckenridge. Frisco is a charming small town, lots of freshly fallen snow blanketed the entire city making it nice and cozy for our first night. The next day we both agreed on doing a snowmobile tour in Breckenridge. This was my favorite part of the trip. We both drove our own with a tour guide and 3 other drivers. We went up to an elevation of 11,500 feet to Georgia Pass on the Continental Divide. The view was absolutely breathtaking.

FRISCO, CO

SNOWMOBILING

ON TOP OF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE!

OUR GROUP

DOG SLEDDING

After snowmobiling, we walked briefly around Breckenridge but it was super busy and we were ready to get to our next destination. Nick has family in Salida, CO so we headed that way after a quick bite to eat. It was an hour or two of driving down into the mountains, many curves and cliffs to watch out for but gorgeous gorgeous views! I couldn't get over the fact that mountains surrounded us no matter which direction we looked.

The next day was our first attempt at skiing. I was a huge ball of nerves, anxiety and excitement! Nick had snowboarded once, 15 years ago, so we made reservations to have ski lessons. After a couple hours of maneuvering down the teeny bunny slopes with our instructor we decided to hop on the ski lift and do the green slopes. All I'm going to say is this...the wedge brake (aka Pizza) does NOT stop or even really slow an individual when going down the green slopes. And holy cow, I could not get over the number of super-young kids who were skiing! They were literally whizzing by me at a million miles an hour and looked like they'd been doing this every.single.day of their 4 years of life.

I fell approximately 174 times (including the 2 times I tried to gracefully dismount from the lift, ha!) and eventually got so disappointed that I gave up. Nick was a lot better than me, and made a couple great first-time runs down the slopes. See? He's way up top on the right, wearing the red jacket...check out that nice stop at the end. Show-off.

NICK AT MONARCH

The last day we took it easy and did some sightseeing and drove to a couple different towns just to check them out. We found this gorgeous area in Buena Vista near the river that had some really neat trails to hike or bike on. I hear the summer activities are endless here and look forward to coming back to try some of them.

BUENA VISTA, CO

We got home shortly before the boys went to bed, so it was great to see them again. We both got lots of hugs and Alec asked Nick to "nuggle" (snuggle) about 15 times that night so I think they were happy to see us too. Our moms worked together to watch the boys while we were away, so a huge thank you to them. As luck would have it, Alec got sick the day before we left and it got passed on to every single one of us about 12 hours apart. I felt horrible for our moms but they were champs throughout it all (like moms always are!).

Couldn't have said it better myself

2012-01-23T20:26:00.000-06:00

The link below is for my fellow mothers out there. I follow "The Extraordinary Ordinary" blog and love, love, looove her posts. This particular one struck a cord with me, I couldn't have said it better myself. Click HERE if you're a mom.

Two Handsome Profiles

2012-01-17T21:58:00.000-06:00

I made these fun little profile paintings of the boys the other day, got my inspiration right here. I think they turned out pretty good, despite the fact that I had to pick vinyl off for about an hour because it didn't come off as planned. Grrrr!

I love their profiles and think they were captured perfectly. Alec always has his pudgy little lips sticking out and Ethan's chin is just as adorable as it was the first time I saw it.

Mr. Wilson

2012-01-02T20:15:00.000-06:00

This guy...

...reminded me of this guy.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-01T21:52:00.002-06:00

Christmas quietly snuck up on us this year and then poof! it was gone. Usually Nick and I are ready to rip our tree down the day after Christmas but we left it up a couple days longer this time. Maybe we weren't quite ready to see it go?

The tree, after Santa left.

The boys had a super Christmas. Like I mentioned before, Ethan now completely understands the idea of Santa and Nick and I enjoyed seeing him get excited about all things Christmas. We had a blast with "Elfie" and were sad to see him leave. We also watched the movie Polar Express, it's one of Ethan's favorites. His Nana gave him the book too, so we read it several times in the last month.

Elfie's last night at our house, he even spelled his name out.

We kept it low-key for the holidays (the way we like it), just went to see Santa once and then a surprise visit from him again at Ethan's school. Our neighborhood has a horse trolley ride to look at lights so we did that too, but it was absolutely freezing so wasn't that much fun. We drove around to see the lights one time, but Alec was his usual "whine-the-whole-carride" self so it was a short tour of lights. Have I ever mentioned he's the world's worst passenger?? I'm considering ear plugs, Santa probably wished he had a pair too:

Pretty sure it was the reindeer that scared Alec!?

My mom and step-dad came up from Wichita a couple days before Christmas so we had our Christmas dinner then. The boys got some awesome (big!) John Deere trucks and a several other goodies from them. We had a fun night, the boys wouldn't let my mom or Jim sit down for longer than a few seconds before making them play. They were probably happy to get back on the road and just sit!

The boys like pushing each other around in their new trucks.

Ethan's biggest gift was his Spiderman bike from Santa. He asked for that and for a toy reacher/grabber thing and Santa pulled through with both of them. Alec would have been happy with anything resembling a ball, that's probably his second favorite word, right after "more, more, more, more, more." Santa brought him a Caterpillar truck, a toy camera, and a small stuffed Elmo. He was happy as could be. Every time he sees anything related to Christmas he belts out a "ho, ho, ho!!".

He calls it his Spiderman training wheels bike.

On Christmas day we were invited to Nick's sister's in-laws for dinner. It was nice to spend the afternoon and evening with everyone, Nick's sister and her family are moving to Colorado in the next few months so they'll be further away. The 4 cousins had a BLAST playing together. As we left that evening (past bedtime), Ethan was crying "I DON'T want to leeeeeeeave" over and over and over. We were not 2 miles away and both boys were fast asleep.

Matt, Kate, Beth and the 2 cousins came over for a gift exchange (this is the only picture I took) the next day. They were all so good, and had to of been on present over-load by this point. Kate and her kids made the boys some really neat canvas wall hangings with their initials spelled out using buttons. I will take a picture soon, they're really neat and unique. And Nana (Beth) got Ethan the Leapster hand-held game and Alec a cool airplane and latch puzzle.

The boys and their cousins, at our house exchanging gifts.

We watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation every Christmas (thanks mom and Jim for being good sports and watching too!) and only on Christmas. We love that show. I found some authentic Warner Brother Moose mugs online last Christmas but they were sold out until later that next year. If you don't know what the mugs are all about then I can't be your friend anymore. I pre-ordered them and a few months later received them then stashed them away until this Christmas as a gift for Nick. He said it was the best gift ever, and coming from him, that means a lot.

Christmas Eve, drinking eggnog and eating Santa's cookies. It

was his idea to leave whole apples

outside for the reindeer, too.

So another Christmas has come and gone, stress-free and drama-free. It was perfect, and I'm already looking forward to the next one. Happy New Year!

His Name

2011-12-21T20:34:00.000-06:00

Can you see it?

Santa

2011-12-20T21:05:00.000-06:00

Christmas 2011

Twins

2011-12-20T14:32:00.000-06:00

It has happened 3 times in the past couple of weeks--a stranger has commented on my "twins". Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about the boys. All three times we've been at the grocery store, they've been bundled up in their jackets and sitting side-by-side in the huge truck-cart. "Awwww, look at those twins, they are sooo cute!" Once I just let it go and nodded and the other two times I told the ladies they weren't twins, two years apart actually (23 months, but who's counting).

Anyway, I have a hunch that as Alec gets older we might be hearing this a bit more. I don't see a huge resemblance but they are brothers, after all.

Alec trying to tackle Ethan.

Snowflakey Elfie

2011-12-18T20:44:00.000-06:00

It feels like months have gone by since I last wrote a post, so I figured I'd better write something about Christmas before it's long gone!

We learned about "Elf on the Shelf" two years ago from my sister-in-law, at which time Ethan was too young to really understand the idea. So this year was perfect to adopt our own elf, the boys have had a lot of fun mornings searching for their elf. If you aren't familiar with the idea, it's really cute. There is a book called "Elf on the Shelf", and the book comes with your very own little elf. The story is simple, the elf sits on a shelf and watches the kids during the day and then while they sleep he makes a quick trip to the North Pole to report on their behavior to Santa. And then when he returns, he hides somewhere in the house so the kids have to hunt for him when they wake.

Ethan named our elf Snowflakey Elfie, we call him Elfie. He's a mischievous little guy and often finds himself in a mess come morning time. The very first thing on Ethan's mind each morning is where Elfie might be. Here are a few places he's been lately:

Snacking:

Locked outside after his trip to the North Pole:

Talking on his elfphone:

Hanging in front of Ethan's bedroom with his toothbrush:

Watching a movie on the iPad:

Alec gets very excited to find Elfie too, and throughout the day will point at him on the fireplace mantle saying, "Ehh, ehhh". We've reminded Ethan a number of times that his behavior is being watched all the time but it honestly hasn't helped much as far as whining goes, but it has encouraged him to share with Alec a little better.

We took the boys to see Santa last week, and as we predicted, Alec would scream and Ethan would love it. You can imagine what that picture looked like. Then Ethan was lucky and saw Santa again at his pre-school. He got to chat with him this time around and asked for a Spiderman bike and one of those grabber/reacher things that you pick stuff up with.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-29T22:06:00.000-06:00

Seventeen hours of cooking, 15 minutes to eat it, but so worth it. Nick and I had his mom, his sister and her family over to our house for Thanksgiving this year. It was a lot of fun getting ready for their visit, and getting ready for the big dinner. While I'm not a stellar cook, I do enjoy cooking (for the record, I didn't burn anything this year and I did take EVERYTHING out of the turkey's cavity this time, ewww).

The cousins (Ethan, Alec, Gavin and Mallory) didn't stop moving for one single second. They had such a blast with each other, even Alec hung in there with the big kids. The weather was unusually warm (65) so they got to play outside too. Then they all climbed on Nana, I was hoping for a good picture of all 5 of them but as you can see, they were all hyped up on pumpkin pie so it wasn't happening.

Mayhem!

This was the best one I could get!

I just adore this picture of Mallory and Alec. She acted like such a little mommy with him, it was adorable.

On to Christmas time! The tree is up and the stockings are hung. More to come on a new (for us, anyway) tradition we've begun this year.

Long Ramblings and Random Pictures

2011-11-19T21:50:00.000-06:00

It seems this blog has taken a back seat lately, I should really be posting pictures and writing about things the boys are interested in. I have good intentions, it just hasn't happened. We aren't a family who is on-the-go every single day or who attends 19 Halloween events within a 2 week period so I guess I never really feel like our everyday life is worth a blog post. I think I'm wrong about that though, those so-called "boring" moments are the ones I need to capture because they are our life. So, here's the boring stuff! :)

Ethan is still enjoying his 2 mornings a week of pre-school, I know he enjoys his time with friends and his teacher. They make all sorts of crafts, have show-and-tell, chapel time and just this week they hosted "Thanksgiving Feast" in which all family was invited to enjoy. He likes his teacher, gives her a hug and kiss every morning and often tells me stories about his classmates ("Kate is in Colorado on vacation, Chris got in trouble for hittin, I stood up to pee, Mrs. Dickerson likes Spiderman too!") all in one breath.

Spiderman is still a hot topic here, as I write this, Ethan is wearing his Halloween costume (best $16 I've ever spent) while telling me he has "spider sense". He wore it to Home Depot last weekend and got lots of oooo's and ahhhh's from strangers but he couldn't figure out why they were all staring. "I'm just Spiderman, do they think I'm really cool or something?". To be 3 again!

Our bathrooms smell like pee. I'd like to say we have a plumbing problem but that'd be a lie. Truth is, Ethan is a horrible shot. I'd rather he sit to pee but he wants to be like daddy so he stands and misses (like daddy??). I don't know, but it's unpleasant and Lysol wipes aren't doing the trick. I thought about tossing a cheerio to aim at but given Alec's love for all things edible (and he watches everything Ethan does), I'm afraid he'd dive in head first to retrieve it. Food, toilets, pee. Not a good combo. So for now, we have a stinky bathroom until his aim improves.

Ethan still causes Nick and I to cock our heads to the side by the things he says. I've forgotten most of them now, of course, but the other day all four of us were practically sitting on top of each other on the couch and he said, "The whole fam-damily is on the couch". I hope he doesn't say that at school, I might be asked to attend chapel time if so. And then just yesterday he was coloring on a blank sheet of paper when I asked what he was drawing, he casually said, "It's abstract." My ears perked up, "Abstract you say?". I thought maybe he learned that from school but he told me it was from his favorite cartoon, Caillou. I suppose watching a cartoon or two (or six) isn't so bad after all.

As for Alec, he's changing by leaps and bounds each week. While he doesn't have a huge vocabulary that is terribly understandable, he definitely likes to mimic many words. His favorite words to say are: more, up, down, bra-bra (brother), uh-huh, nope, ish (fish), shhh (shoe), EYE!!!!, dada, eyed (outside), mamamammamamaaaaaaaa and my personal favorite, jew (drink). Nick is 1/4th Jewish so it cracks us up when he walks up to Nick and shouts "JEW, JEW!".

He follows Ethan around the house the majority of the day, they seem to be having more and more fun as they get a little older. They both really like playing upstairs while I'm up there folding laundry (because a housewife's work is never done, ever). The other day I was in my room and they were in Alec's room playing when I realized it was too quiet, so I knew something wasn't right. I walked in and found everything from his closet that a 3 foot high person could reach, scattered on the floor and inside his crib. Ugh.

Ally (we call him Ally most of the time by they way, it just caught on, even though it's kind of girly) seems to be good with his KDO program one morning each week, he no longer screams his little head off when I leave him and he's all smiles when I pick him up. They also make really cute crafts and have lots of little kid play time, I really enjoy his teachers (he has 3 or 4), they are so warm and friendly which is probably why Alec has a good time. He goes to a different church than Ethan so I think they'll both attend Alec's church next year.

Alec has a protective streak in him, towards me, of course. If Nick hugs or smooches me he'll try to pry us apart, or if Nick is pretending to rough play, Alec will yell at him and let him know he'd better not hurt his momma. It's sweet actually, I think Alec just wants me all to himself.

Which leads me to the next thing Alec has been doing, while this has been going on for a long time, I'm not sure I've really mentioned it. There are periods throughout the day (usually about 4 of them) in which he is in dire need of my complete undivided attention, usually while I'm in the shower or cooking dinner or on the phone. If he doesn't get my full attention then all hell breaks loose and he's pissed. Stomping around, screaming, crying and all around angry. Have you ever tried cooking fried chicken (we're healthy like that) while holding a 27lb angry bowling ball? I don't recommend it.

What else? Well, we're looking forward to our first Christmas in our "new" home. We've got a spot for the tree picked out and I already bought "Elf on a Shelf" and am itching to break it out December 1st. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the day we break out the decorations and Nick climbs on the roof to hang lights without falling, so we'll be getting decked out before you know it.

Lastly, Ethan takes off his socks each time he takes off his shoes. I don't know why, he just doesn't like to be sock-footed. Anyway, I end up with a thousand socks throughout the house no matter how hard I try to keep them in their proper home. But it never fails, I always find them under a couch cushion or in my underwear drawer, outside, or even in the trash can (thank you, Alec). So it was honestly no surprise when I walked by this vase of flowers and something caught my eye.

Glad I got us all caught up on our regular ol' lives, it only took me 14 hours to write this entire post in between doing a hundred other things today, so I'm happy to log off here and enjoy my 17 minutes of me-time before I hit the sack.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

2011-11-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

We had a first at our house tonight, Nick nearly peed his pants while Ethan almost got knocked out.

Let me explain.

We put the boys to bed at 8 as usual, and about 8:45 we heard a thump come from Ethan's room. Not a big deal, he's usually up there playing for awhile before he finally throws his hands up and closes his heavy lids. I did, however, start leaving his door cracked because he's always scared to be left alone so a fleeting image of him creeping down the steps entered my mind (he's never left his room before). Nick and I talked about how freaky it would be to see him on the dark steps with his little faced pressed against the spindles, listening to us blab. As we're talking about this, Nick was in the living room with me and was making his way into the dimly lit kitchen when all of a sudden I heard the loudest man-shriek I'd ever heard followed by the crying of a little boy. It actually took me a few seconds to realize what had happened. Ethan had snuck all the way downstairs and into the dark kitchen

Crouching Tiger.

After everyone wiped up their puddle of pee and stopped shaking, we told Ethan how much he scared his dad and that's why he yelled and that's why you STAY IN YOUR BED, SON! Nick said he was crouched down in the dark corner of the kitchen when he walked in, and that after having just talked about how creepy it'd be to see him, it was a freaky, scary, surreal experience. His adrenaline had been cranked up in an instant. Frankly, it ruined Nick's night...he couldn't get it out of his head. He was a scaredy cat the rest of the night.

Our fingers are crossed that this was a one-time ordeal, that Ethan was as equally spooked. Nick's heart can't take another scare like that, and I'm certain I would have karate chopped his little tiger body before realizing who he was. We're also hoping that if there is a next time, that it isn't in the dead of night in our bedroom...while we're fast asleep.

Franklin Stein

2011-11-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

HALLOWEEN 2011

Ethan high-fiving Frankenstein (or Franklin Stein as Ethan calls him) in a neighbor's yard, it spooked him to begin with but they turned into buddies after a couple walk-by's.

Cute pumpkins, eh?

Two bad-ass super heros

Ethan says he's "the friendly neighborhood Spiderman" then throws his web at me.

We only walked down one cul-de-sac to trick-or-treat, with Ethan leading the way. Alec walked up to nearly every door himself and held out his bag, I wasn't sure he'd be into it, but he took big brother's lead. He was itching to open a piece of candy though. So after about 10 houses we'd collected enough loot and made our way back home to chow down and to pass out treats.

We let them both have as much candy as they wanted that night and then no more after Halloween. Ethan thought he had some pretty cool parents, while we thought it'd be better than hearing them beg night after night for more. He ended up eating 4 or 5 pieces and had had enough, so we were all happy. Alec got a little taste of everything and is probably going through withdrawal as he keeps pointing to the candy bowl saying "mo, mo, mo, he didn't understand the whole "all you can eat" idea.

The four of us hung out by the front door munching on the goodies, jamming to MJ's Thriller and passing out treats to the neighborhood kids. Ethan was very strict with the "two pieces only" rule for all trick-or-treaters, poor kids.

It's now 2 days after Halloween and Ethan has worn his Spiderman costume both days, he's definitely got a thing for Spidey this past month. Lately he's been asking us to call him Peter Parker when he's out of costume, and to pretend we're bad guys while he's in costume...it's exhausting!

Asleep

2011-10-19T19:56:00.001-05:00

Ethan still takes a nap almost every single day, and most of the time he doesn't fight it. The other afternoon he went to take his nap around 2, it wasn't until after 3 that I stopped hearing him chatting and playing. Around 6pm he was still asleep so I needed to wake him up for dinner, I tip-toed up there and saw a terribly cute sight. I just stared at him fast asleep in nothing but his tighty whities with his 398 stuffed animals (how he fits in this bed, I have no idea...it's time for a big boy bed). I grabbed the video camera and captured the sleeping prince. Oh, and don't knock his lullaby music. He's been listening it since he was born.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-17T11:10:00.000-05:00

As promised, we took the boys to a pumpkin patch this past weekend. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have an actual "pumpkin patch" that required a hayride to get you there, but the boys were none the wiser so it was fine. They did have several other attractions as you'll see.

A train ride:

Trailer full of corn and trucks (Alec would have been content here all day):

Bounce house:

Barrel horses:

"NO LEFT TURN MAZE":

Poor Alec couldn't quite figure it out:

Three little pumpkins:

Solo barrel ride:

Tunnel crawl:

Corn maze:

Ethan asked for a sword from balloon man and his wish was granted:

Alec fell asleep on the ride home:

And then woke up right after I took the "asleep" picture:

Ethan and his pumpkin:

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-11T12:27:00.000-05:00

Ethan had his first field trip at his preschool today, his favorite part (so he says) was seeing the pigs eat pumpkins. Our group took a wagon ride to the patch, played on the playground and saw some piglets that were 1 week old, and the weather couldn't have been better.

Our family is planning on visiting a pumpkin patch this weekend, there are so many of them around this area so it'll be hard to choose which one!

A picture story

2011-10-07T10:27:00.001-05:00

Alec looking cute, spotting an airplane, and figuring out my camera phone. How could you not love him to bits??

Busy doing this and that

2011-10-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

I pulled out our fall wreath and a couple Halloween decorations this past weekend. October 1st seemed appropriate for that. Last year Ethan had just started to grasp Halloween but this year he's all over it and has opinions left and right. His idea for a costume has changed about 6 times so I'm not sure what he's going to decide on (UPS man, policeman or spiderman are all contenders at this very minute). No ideas for Alec yet, but I'm sure he'll rip off anything I put on him anyhow.

My mom came up this past weekend so Nick and I could go to the KU football game with friends. We missed the first half (possibly my fault for reading the start time wrong?) and they lost but it was great getting out and having some adult interaction. Mom and the boys had lots of fun playing too, Ethan doesn't ever stop going so I'm sure my she went home exhausted. Before she left we went to Deanna Rose Farm for a quick visit. The boys did the usual. They fished, rode a pony, played, and fed baby goats. Only took a few pictures:

Here's a throwback picture of Ethan on his first horse ride. He was about 14 months old here (and in mid-blink):

Lastly, root beer is a very special treat for Ethan. Beth happened to have some mini mugs that were Nick and Kate's when they were young and now Ethan has one too! Nothing like a frosty mug of root beer to put a smile on a kid's face...or to bribe them into being good. Works like a charm.

PDA

2011-10-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

A big kissy hug sandwich.

Lots of kissin' and huggin' goes on here.

Jeep

2011-09-27T22:06:00.000-05:00

Nick has wanted an old, rugged jeep for a long time and he thought now was the time to buy one. His dad and ex-step-dad were both jeep lovers so it was only a matter of time before Nick had one of his own I suppose. As luck would have it, he was able to buy one that used to belong to his ex-step-dad. It's very rough around the edges and is lacking in anything remotely luxury, however, from what I'm learning, it's got some mad rock climbing skills. Ethan was especially excited to ride in it so we bought a couple car seats that would actually fit so they could both enjoy the wind in their hair (no rock climbing for these guys!).

Nick and a friend drove out to Colorado to pick up the jeep, and were able to stay a couple days and drive some trails. The pictures he sent me were gorgeous, I'm still a little bitter I didn't get to go. The pictures below show the gorgeous Colorado background and a few happy boys going for a ride.

Sons

2011-09-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."

-Agatha Christie

Somewhere inside those boys is my heart.

It was a circus

2011-09-17T21:32:00.001-05:00

Literally.

Ethan and I had a mom/son date last weekend, we went to the Barnum & Bailey circus. Ethan enjoyed it, but was ready to leave about 3/4th of the way into it, which worked out perfectly to avoid the people and traffic.

$12 Cotton Candy!

The elephants looked terribly sad, I couldn't help but wonder if they really belonged there.

We had a lot of fun together, he was extremely well behaved the entire time and was fast asleep after we hit the road back home. I think we might go back next year and maybe we can bring little brother, Alec!

Lessons from his 15 month checkup

2011-09-16T12:28:00.000-05:00

I took Alec to his 15 month checkup this morning and here is what we learned:

He weighs 24.8lbs (55th percentile)

He is 33 1/2 inches tall (97th percentile....WHAT?!?)

He does NOT like to sit, lay, crawl or even touch the exam table.

He is strong and can escape 2 people holding him down for shots.

His lungs work fine, the doctor from across the building told me so.

He does NOT like waiting in the exam room, at all.

He does like to show his doctor where the door is, pointing at it so she'll leave.

He does NOT like stickers or band-aids.

He does like mommy's hugs, a lot.

He gets over things quickly, thank God!

Don't let this sweet pose fool you, he's not a patient patient.

Bathing Brothers

2011-09-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

Official First Day of Preschool

2011-09-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

The official first day of preschool sort of lost its luster after having "Meet and Greet Day" and "Orientation Day" the week before school started, but it was still an exciting morning for us. He was very ready to go and told me he was going to learn all his letters and tell everyone about the human body (he's still into all things bones and blood). Since he only goes 2 days a week for a couple hours each day, it doesn't really feel like "school" so I didn't start crying as I kissed and hugged him goodbye, instead I was excited for him to socialize and hang out in a different setting for a change.

School pictures and a pumpkin patch visit are coming up on the preschool calendar! Yea!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T20:12:00.001-05:00

We've been blessed with GORGEOUS weather (upper 70's!!) these past 2 days and so we found a few outdoor things to this Labor Day weekend. My mom and Jim were driving though KC on their way home from visiting my step-sister and her family (Hi Heather, Mike and Myrah!) so we drove to a small lake just a few miles from our house and had a picnic, skipped rocks and played with them. And then today we visited the local Arboretum just 10 minutes from our house. I brought my camera and snapped a few pictures, but didn't quite capture the beauty of the place. Very peaceful, lots of trails and of course, a lot of gorgeous flowers and plants. Definitely a place to visit if you have time!

Kiss

2011-09-05T20:11:00.001-05:00

The boys are affectionate, but generally don't give each other kisses too often. Mainly because Alec doesn't sit still long enough. So this was a rare occasion when they both puckered up. My camera has a second or two delay before snapping the photo so each time they kissed, the camera flashed right afterward so there were many failed attempts at getting a good shot.

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2:

Attempt 3:

Attempt 4: Ethan grabbed Alec's cheeks and pulled him close.

Ethan went for the bear hug instead:

Ended up on the floor:

Recovering...

And back to the kissing, I finally timed it just right!

One more.

Can't wait until they're much older to show them these pictures!

Four Years

2011-09-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

In some ways it does feel like 4 years, and in other ways it just doesn't seem possible. But indeed, we are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary today.

Nick and I met nearly 10 years ago while we both worked for Walgreen's, we dated for a long time before jetting off to Hawaii with our close family members to tie the knot. Our wedding, such a small affair, is by far one of the best memories of my life (right up there with our sons' births, of course). It was stress-free and casual, and more beautiful than I can even remember (the wedding, NOT their births). There were a total of 10 of us and everyone got to enjoy a gorgeous vacation in Maui doing things together, or going it alone. It was lovely and I wished I were there now.

I desperately want to go back to visit, but adding two small kids to the mix makes it a lot more complicated, however, I'm crossing my fingers that there will be 2 plane tickets in my anniversary card in the year 2017 for our ten year anniversary. Ugh, that sounds like a million years away.

Nick surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of red roses, a nice card and a gift certificate to a spa. Those gift certificates are like gold to me. Seriously. An hour of massages or facials or manicures is the best medicine for any stay-at-home mom. And to top it off, he asked his mom to watch the boys tonight while we enjoyed dinner at The Melting Pot. We stuffed ourselves silly with their four course dinner for two and then called it a night.

I showed Ethan some of our wedding pictures recently and he was full of questions. "You're going to have a marry wedding?" ""Where you a princess?" "Was I a big boy when you was married?" "Me and Alec were in your belly when you was married?" It was terribly hard to get him to understand that he and Alec didn't exist when we were married, I told him he lived in God's heart and then in my belly later on. He let it sink in but still had a very confused look on his face. Later I asked if he'd like to get married when he got big and his exact words were, "Yep, and when I'm big I'm gonna get married. I wanna married YOU, Mama!" Awwww!! This kid knows how to butter me up!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2011-09-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

Today was is my mom's 50th birthday (which only makes me 25, sweet!). She's a super grandma and doesn't miss a chance to drive up and see her grandsons, who obviously adore her as well. She's rocked plenty a baby in her time, she's the 3rd oldest of EIGHT so she's well versed in childcare and has definitely helped me out when things got (get!) crazy. Thanks Mom.

Happy Birthday!

Alec meeting Grandma for the first time.

Dancer

2011-08-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

Looks like someone got Nick's rhythm. Lucky kid.

Boy Box

2011-08-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

I haven't been keeping up with this blog much lately, we are doing a whole lot of the same things day in and day out and I guess I just don't feel that any of it warrants a blog post. We've been to a couple play dates, parks, Legends, the Plaza, shopping, Nana's, restaurants, and such in the past couple months.

Ethan starts pre-school next week (two days a week for 2.5 hours each day) and I'm toying with the idea of having Alec attend a Kid's Day Out program one day a week. He could definitely benefit from some social interaction, and I'll admit that I could benefit from from anti-social interaction. So we'll see.

Monkey see, monkey do. Ethan went first, followed by Alec. And then for some reason Alec showed his grouch face (which he does by request now, most of the time).

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

2011-08-22T21:09:00.001-05:00

...what do you see?

I see a big gun pointing at me!

Dandelion

2011-08-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

Getting a dandelion from your child will never get old.

Ever.

Straw Glasses

2011-08-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

They might not help you see better, but they sure do make things taste better.

Wonderscope

2011-08-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

Oh, the million different kid activities to do in the Kansas City area! I can't keep them all straight. Sometimes I even remember to bring my camera.

Nick's sister and her 2 little ones were in town so we checked out Wonderscope. It's an old school building that has been transformed into a kids museum. Perfect for the 4 little kids, Alec even had a room solely for toddlers his age. I didn't get any pictures of Gavin, he took off every time I pulled out my camera, but he was there too.

Mallory and Ethan at the farmer's market.

Mallory and Ethan playing checkout.

Dr. Mallory fixing up Baby Jane. She makes a pretty good doctor, doesn't she?

Dr. Ethan assisting.

Alec found these doctor glasses and did NOT want to take them off.

Face painting and water coloring, what more could a 3 year old want?

His First Tat

2011-07-29T22:03:00.001-05:00

Like Father, Like Son

2011-07-29T21:42:00.000-05:00

When Ethan requests crab for lunch we decided it was best to grant his wish (Nick doesn't want the boys to grow up anti-seafood like their mom!). So we tried out Joe's Crab Shack down the street. Ethan loved the crab, Nick forgot how much work the crab was, and my distaste for all things "sea" was accentuated when I smelled the crab. Thank goodness for hamburgers.

They wrote "Crabby But Cute" on Ethan's bib. Awwww.

And we have liftoff!

2011-07-26T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm behind in posting about this, but Alec took his first unassisted steps about 2 weeks ago. He still much prefers his walker to get around but we were delighted to watch him do it on his own. I was telling some friends of mine about how excited we were to watch him take his very first steps and one of them said, "Oh, the little things." Taken aback, I responded with "WHAT? Little things? Not in this house! Walking is big-time around here, sister!"

Happy Birthday Nana!

2011-07-25T07:33:00.000-05:00

Today is Nana's birthday, but we surprised her this past weekend with a birthday dinner at Spin. Kate and her family came to visit from Maryville, MO this weekend and then told Beth they were going back home Friday afternoon (but they secretly stayed!). Nick then called Beth and told her I had plans to take the boys on a play date with my mom's group so he'd like to have dinner with her. We all met at Spin (one of our favorite restaurants) and surprised her when she walked in. She said she was truly surprised and was blessed to have such a wonderful family. Well, we're blessed to have such a loving Nana!

Pink Princess hat and balloons for the Birthday Girl!

Three of the 4 grandkids celebrating.

Happy Birthday Beth!

Bible School

2011-07-24T16:03:00.001-05:00

Ethan participated in his first Vacation Bible School this summer, and is still talking about it 2 weeks later. He went for 4 days, two and a half hours each day. It was great to get him out of the house and with some people other than Alec and me. We're looking forward to next year already.

Here is his artwork (Jonah and the whale, Love God, and a fire). Missing was his backpack, but you can be sure it was cute as well.

The last day of the program all of the kids (125 of them) got up on stage and sang their songs for the parents. Ethan was right up front and did most of the correct motions to the songs, though I didn't really get it on video that well. But here's the idea:

All the kids were given a PandaMania CD with all the songs they learned, and you can bet that it's in my car playing whenever we go. The songs are actually kind of catchy! But many of the songs have led to questions from Ethan that I simply don't know how to answer because everything is so literal to him.

How to paint a stripe-For dummies like me

2011-07-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

After living here for 4 1/2 months or so, we've worked on nearly every room (other than the basement) with the exception of the boys' rooms. Ethan's room was boyish enough to please him temporarily and Alec wouldn't care if his room was pink polka dots. And really, the main way we did any work at all was to do it after the boys went to bed, so finding time to paint their rooms was nearly impossible.

And then a window of opportunity presented itself when I enrolled Ethan in Vacation Bible School for 4 days, from 9-11:30am. I bought all my supplies beforehand and was ready to rock-n-roll after I dropped him off. Another plus was that Alec napped at 9 so I had 2 full hours to work on this project, and I needed every second of that time to finish. From beginning to end it took me about 12 hours here and there to complete.

Because I'm terribly talented now and am basically a self-taught expert stripe painter, I thought I'd share my painting journey with you by offering an easy-to-follow step-by-step process just in case you had a hankering to paint a stripe on your wall too.

Quick confession before moving on. Ethan actually picked out the green color himself, no help from dear ol' me. Now, normally I 'd stand in front of the 3 million color samples and hem and haw for 50 minutes before choosing a color but this particular day I had 2 sassy kids with me and needed to feed them, so I saw this white and blue and thought they made a nice trio. I snatched up the cards and bought my paint without really having a plan because, after all, I am a risk taker you know.

Step 1? Step 1 is for sissies. Let's jump right to Step 2.

I wished painting was as quick to do as writing this post was, gahh! It looks so easy to do (and really, it is easy) but be prepared to spend some quality time with your paint and tape. However, if you have an extra set of hands you might save yourself about 6 hours...holding a laser light level while marking the walls requires flexibility and finesse. Both of which I lack.

Give me another 4 1/2 months and I'll write about Alec's new room!

Curious plumber and other tidbits

2011-07-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

Alec gets into everything. When Ethan was his age we never had to completely child-proof the house. We had a couple gates and some outlet covers, that was it. Ethan was curious but the worst thing he ever did was toss a few toys in the toilet. So as Alec becomes more and more adventurous, I'm sure we'll have to visit the Safety First section at Target often. I just bought those cabinet locks this morning because I found Alec licking the Dawn dish soap bottle!

So anyway, here is Alec crawling under the bathroom sink in our basement. He had every single drawer and cabinet opened and luckily for me, they are all empty.

In other Alec news, he's continuing to blossom into a young boy each day. I always seem to be blind to the baby-turned-toddler phase, or it just happens so quickly I don't catch it. Anyway, he's become so interactive and is trying to talk and while he hasn't started walking yet (Nick and I produce late walkers), he has been giving it some serious thought. For now he's focusing his efforts on standing unassisted. He can push the walker around like a crazy drunk driver though, our walls show the proof.

His vocabulary isn't terribly big yet but if he follows in his big brother's steps, I'm sure he'll be a jabber box in no time. So far he makes certain sounds for a few words:

Bah-bah=Brother

Bah=Ball

grunt noise=Woof!

Mih=Milk???

Mama

Dada

He is getting the hang of signing the word "more", can point to his hair and nose and will lift his shirt to show you his big belly button. He definitely has the head shake down pat and can nod yes as well.

I told Nick the other day that one of the many things I love most about the boys is how different they are from one another. Ethan was (and still is most of the time) quite mellow, loving, laid back, gentle, cautious and happy. Alec is also a very happy and loving, but boy, he has attitude! He's quick to turn on the tears when it doesn't go his way, but is also quick to shut them off, thankfully. He'll fall on his belly, kick and scream when I won't let him do something he shouldn't, or when I want to change his diaper or clothes. He'll arch his back and kick his stout legs in protest, and this boy is heavy, so not dropping him is something I actually have to think about. One last difference in the two is the amount of snuggling they did at this age. Alec is my snuggler, and I love every single second. He gives the best bear hugs ever. Ethan hugs often too, but they're more like mini-hugs, with Alec I can just hold on for a long time. I sure love these kids of mine.

Stinky britches

2011-07-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

Nick thought he'd figured out how to solve poopy diaper duty without actually having to change the diaper. He has slacked in the diaper changing department for a year now (that's actually an understatement....he has stopped changing diapers altogether), ever since Ethan became potty trained. Now he somehow manages to be MIA whenever Alec's turns dark shades of red leaving me with a mess to clean up.

So his novel idea??

Upon closer inspection:

He's going to need an entire box strapped to his butt to even make a dent in the smell.

Better luck next time, Nick.

Fireworks

2011-07-10T06:51:00.000-05:00

Ethan got to experience his first fireworks show this year. He wasn't sure what to expect and kept asking me what a firework was (I swear he isn't sheltered!) so I pulled some up on youtube for him before we went. Anyway, we didn't park in that great of a spot but he didn't know any better and was just happy to see the show and stay up past his bedtime.

Happy 4th!

The Birthday Celebration

2011-07-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

This was the first year Ethan *sort of* had an opinion about this birthday theme. He and Nick spotted a Cars Movie pinata at Target a couple months ago and Nick told him he could have one for his birthday. Ethan didn't forget about it as his birthday approached so there was no turning back.

Ethan's Grandma, Papa, Nana, Aunt Kate, Uncle Matt, and cousins Dakota, Gavin and Mallory all came over to celebrate on Saturday. It was absolutely wonderful having all this family in our home, we're very thankful they all took the time to travel to our house for Ethan's big day...thanks guys!

My first go at a cake, turned out pretty cute I think.

Ready to blow out his candles.

The Cars pinata

The cousins chowing down on cake and ice cream.

Ethan opening some great gifts. See the "My First Skeleton"? We've since named him Mr. Bones and are in the process of learning the names of each bone. Great gift, Grandma!

The aftermath of the pinata. Candy galore! Alec grabbed 2 suckers and bolted before anyone could take them away!

Nana playing balloon volleyball.

Mallory and Ethan.

Then the fun really started.

Nick launched each kid down the Cars slip-n-slide, we have the perfect hill in our yard for it. They had an absolute BLAST cooling off!

Even Alec joined in and crawled/slid up and down the slide.

Water balloons!

All five cousins.

Alec proved to be a daredevil on the slip-n-slide, he swallowed a lot of water but that didn't stop him.

We have one teeny tree in backyard to provide shade so it was hot! I think the adults entertained the idea of jumping in the water.

The party was a big hit, I'm so happy everyone had fun (it's the simple things that kids like...ice cream, water toys and cousins). I don't think there was one second of whining, crying or pouting....until it was dinner time. Ethan skipped his nap which we never allow, so he hit a brick wall while we were at Oklahoma Joe's for dinner. Big meltdown, one in which we knew there was going to be no recovery from. Poor guy was just tired, so home he went to bed. I'm sure he wouldn't have had it any other way though, he had an event-packed fun day!

Alec and Papa right before they headed back home the day after the party.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!!

Firecracker's 3rd Birthday!

2011-07-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

So hard to believe that 3 years ago today Ethan came bursting into our world, so fast that neither Nick or I had time to process what was happening. What a whirlwind it was in the beginning and now here he is, full of life and wonder and excitement. Nick and I are forever grateful that he belongs to us.

Today is "The Day of Ethan" so all activities will be decided by him, which means I will have to post pictures of his party later (we had his birthday party on Saturday since family members were in town) because right now he wants to play cars. I bet I sleep good tonight!

Here is a short video of him blowing out the candles:

Sneak Peak of our Family Portraits

2011-06-27T21:43:00.000-05:00

The family and I drove to River Market in downtown KC the other day for a mini photo shoot session (one hour was plenty of time!) with photographer Sarah Dickerson. We haven't had our pictures taken as a family of 4 yet so it was time to update the frames in our house and I also wanted 1 year photos of Alec. Sarah put up a handful of sneak peek pictures on her blog and I thought I'd share some of them here too. I thought they turned out great and I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of them. How will I choose!??!

We didn't bring these balloons with us, a stranger asked if we wanted them. Later I tied them to a bench near our things and next thing we know, a woman walked off with them!

My little 1 year old

LOVE these!

Master Griller

2011-06-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

Fire Station Visit

2011-06-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

We joined our Mom's group this morning and went to a Fire Station for a tour. We saw where the firefighters cook, eat, sleep, workout and hang out as well as check out all their awesome gear. Ethan was on his best behavior (despite the one time he took off running toward the street!) and even answered a few of the questions correctly. When the firefighter was showing us all the tools they used to fight fires Ethan piped up and shouted, "MY DAD HAS THOSE TOOLS IN OUR GARAGE!!!!". He wasn't bashful one bit.

Apparently we have one of those tools in our garage.

Alec chilled in the stroller the entire time, which was a relief to me, because really, this guy is heav-y!

Ethan could have sat there and chatted with this fireman for hours.

Ethan wouldn't get in the picture with us, which was the exact moment he took off toward the street!

Laughter

2011-06-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

"We don't laugh because we're happy-we're happy because we laugh." --William James

Great-grandma's Red Chair

2011-06-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Taken in Alec's Great Grandma's yard.

My mom, the boys and I went to Iowa last week for a visit with my family. I hadn't taken the kids up there before now (it's a 6 hour drive, need I say more?) but was happy we went. The boys met loads of relatives and enjoyed hanging out with each and every one of them.

We were there for 3 nights total, which was just the right amount of time. We stayed at my step-dad's mom's house (Great Grandma Jo) since she has lots of room. She raised 11 kids in that house so there were definitely enough bedrooms for all of us to have our own. Ethan and I shared the room with 2 beds in it, which worked out well when he fell out of the bed in the middle of the night!

I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there, but wished I would have now. We visited with 2 Great Grandma's, 1 Grandpa, loads of Great Aunts and Uncles, 1 Great Great Aunt, 2 Aunts and Uncles, 1 second cousin, 1 third cousin, 4 first cousins and many more! Ethan went nearly 4 days without his daily nap, and actually managed to act like himself most of the time despite being exhausted and going to bed late a couple nights. Alec was a trooper and kept up with his regular routine no matter where I plopped down his pack-n-play. All in all, these guys are pretty good travelers (it also helped that my mom brought 12 DVD's and a million toys)!

The family we have in Iowa all seem to live out on farms so there were no quick shopping trips or sight-seeing or nice restaurants. Just a lot of visiting and catching up (and tons of food from the grandma's!), which was all very relaxing, but towards the end I know all of us were looking forward to our own beds and our regular routine.

Ethan in Grandma Shurtleff's yard

The view from Grandma Jo's

The view from Grandma Shurtleff's

Til next time, Iowa!

Sherry

Puddle Jumper

2011-06-16T22:09:00.000-05:00

Today was a rainy and gloomy day, but after the rain clouds moved east we went outside for a puddle hunt. We only found one good one though, but it was plenty. Ethan could have played in it for a very long time, but it was pretty much right in the middle of the road and I'd rather not get into the habit of playing in the street.

Walk-er

2011-06-10T21:38:00.000-05:00

Up until today, Alec hasn't really shown any interest in being mobile other than crawling. But this afternoon, while his brother was napping, I convinced him to give the walker another try. I think he did pretty good for his first time. Go, Alec, go!

Pool Party!

2011-06-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

The boys' cousins were in town visiting their Nana this past weekend and it was perfect weather for the pool. The kids had so much fun together, it was great watching them play. They laughed, splashed, smiled and joked the entire time.

Ethan was able to swim on his own *with a puddle jumper*, which is an improvement over last summer. He can doggy paddle slowly and he absolutely loves jumping off the side into the water, but feels safest if Nick is there just in case. This was Alec's first time in a big pool and he did great. We're planning on doing swim lessons for both of them this year, so we'll see how that goes.

Time has passed since this picture was taken and he still has the indention marks of his goggles.

This guy had his 1 year checkup and he's a big boy. He's in the 97th% for height and 70th% for weight. Chubba chubba!

Special Delivery!

2011-06-05T15:40:00.001-05:00

Ethan asked me to ship him to Grandma's house, so we tried. He stayed out there to wait for the UPS man but he never showed and Ethan started to get hungry. But don't worry Grandma, we'll try it again soon!

He loves his music

2011-06-05T15:33:00.001-05:00

Alec doesn't sit still very often (one exception is when there is food in front of him) so I was surprised when he sat through 3 entire songs with headphones on. He likes to boogie to music and he jiggled his little shoulders and bopped his head while taking it all in. I couldn't stop smiling at him, he looked so grown up!

Here is a throwback picture of Ethan doing the same thing, around the same age as Alec:

Goofy Kid

2011-06-05T15:31:00.001-05:00

Alec wearing a winter hat with his shorts saggin' low wishing he could go outside to play in the rain.

This is how we roll...

2011-06-05T15:11:00.000-05:00

...when we go to the grocery store.

1st Birthday

2011-06-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Alec!!

A quick look back:

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Month 6

Month 7

Month 8

Month 9

Month 10

Month 11

We had a small party for Alec this past Sunday, even though his actual birthday wasn't until today. My parents were going to be in the area that weekend, so it worked out great. As I was pulling up these pictures I noticed I didn't take one picture of the boys WITH any of their grandparents. Sorry!

Step away from my cake!

He's not bashful.

Ethan enjoyed shoveling cake into his mouth too!

We all enjoyed a great BBQ (thanks, dear!), cake and homemade ice cream (thanks Papa!) and then headed inside for Alec to open his great gifts.

Both kids are screaming to be let down but Nick wasn't going to let that ruin the picture!

Since we had Alec's party on Sunday, we didn't have big plans for his birthday today. Luckily, we can still get away with that at this age. We did have a nice and relaxing day though, and sang him Happy Birthday about 73 times. Here are some pictures from today:

A birthday cookie

Love Letter to You

2011-06-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

Dear Alec,

Four hours from now, it's officially your first birthday. At 2:11am, June 2nd, you entered this crazy world and met your new family (thankfully you didn't retreat back into my belly after we introduced ourselves!). Your brother told us you'd be born on "two", so you must have clued him in on your arrival because he nailed it.

I still remember many of the tiny details of that early morning, everything from the sound of your heartbeat on the baby monitor during delivery to the very first kiss I laid on your cheek to your tiny pink fingers touching my neck for the first time. I also remember our first night together in the hospital. It was just you and me. We snuggled for a long time and then I put you in your tiny little baby bed right next to my bed so I could rest, but I didn't rest. I kept the light on dim and stared at you, you sucked on your finger while your little body twitched as you slept. Those first few fresh newborn days contain some of my most cherished moments with you. I hope never to forget them.

Not knowing whether you and your brother would share several traits or not, your Dad and I were eager to see you grow and develop your personality. You proved to be a fairly laid back baby (excluding the times you had to ride in a car and screamed at the top of your lungs, for 3 months straight) and you were much more of a spectator than a player. You and your brother definitely have different personalities and interests and I look forward to seeing how your differences shape who you become.

When you were 8 months old we left Wichita and moved to the Kansas City area, so you'll never remember the house you were brought home to but our new home is much more kid friendly (and easier on your knees with some carpet!) plus there's so much to see in our new city. You adapted so well to the move and started sleeping through the night once we got settled, which you still do, thankfully.

You decided to hold off on crawling until you were nearly 11 months old, and I must admit, I was thankful for. Because really, chasing after you and your brother is exhausting! Your favorite part of the house are the stairs, and while you have yet to fall, I dare not let you climb up without the safety net of my arms. You also like to be chased and kick it into high gear to get away. Despite weighing a lot (25lbs+ possibly?) you sure do cruise. As for words, your pretty stingy with letting us hear them. Every now and then a "mama" or "dada" comes out but nothing more at this point.

You've become a snuggle thief lately and I loooove it. You'll be minding your own business and then make your way over to me (or your dad) and nose dive into our lap or crawl up to lay your head on our shoulder. You rarely stay but for a minute, but you do it over and over again and those are the best minutes of the day. You're always so warm and squishy, and the kisses you give are to die for.

There's so much more I could write to you but I know you have a short attention span (seriously, like 2 seconds) so I'll wrap this up. It sounds so cliche but I love you more than you'll ever know, maybe someday you'll realize it. I'm also eternally grateful that you're mine and that I'm yours.

Happy 1st Birthday.

Love always,
Mom

Video

2011-05-28T17:26:00.005-05:00

Here's a video of Ethan being nothing but silly. He knows when the camera is on him and always acts a little extra nuttier than normal. He did crack me up in the first half of the video with his battery remark though.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

2011-05-24T10:14:00.000-05:00

If you guessed Nick was the one to get his hair chopped off, you were right. A million bonus points to you!

We all scream for Ice Cream!

2011-05-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

Nothing says summer like swim trunks and ice cream:

Quick Family Pic

2011-05-22T22:08:00.000-05:00

I bribed all 3 boys with chocolate to pretty please sit down on the grass for 30 seconds and look in the general direction of the camera. Three out of 4 of us succeeded, so I'll consider it a success.

One of us went and got a much needed haircut the day after this picture was taken. Any guesses who?

Pictures at the Park

2011-05-21T18:35:00.000-05:00

Here are a handful of the pictures we received from a fellow mom in our play group. She offered her time and talent to a few of us lucky ones at the park the other day. The boys weren't into sitting still but that wasn't a shocker. I think she got a few good ones though. Next month we'll be getting Alec's One Year pictures taken, so wish us luck!

SO TRUE

2011-05-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this today and had to post it:

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a Cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?' 'Yes,' was his incredulous reply. She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.'

Oh, how I can relate!!

Bring on the heat

2011-05-14T17:04:00.000-05:00

Because this is Kansas, we aren't unfamiliar with scorching temperatures one day and chilly temps the next. I personally don't mind the variety at all but the boys definitely lean toward the warmer days. We bought one of those $5 plastic pools the other day and they thought it was awesome, best 5 bucks I've spent lately! Ethan threw every single backyard toy inside it and Alec spent his time trying to catch floating grass while I read a Reader's Digest (no idea why these are mailed to me every month!). A few minutes later I found my magazine floating in the bottom of the pool. That would be thanks to Ethan.

Feast your eyes on this little butterball:

I wished my love handles looked this cute:

He spotted FOOD:

Ethan's obsession

2011-05-13T17:11:00.001-05:00

A fair warning: Nick and I are still at the point with Ethan in which we think most (not all!) things he does are cute, funny or brilliant. And since I thought this latest development was interesting, I decided I'd better jot it down in this electronic scrapbook of mine. That way, 30 years from now when he's graduating from med school (a mom can dream, right?) I can pull this up and say I knew he'd be something!

Obviously, he's a typical soon-to-be 3 year old boy. He digs in the dirt, he plays with trucks and he gets dirty. He throws HUGE temper tantrums, he disobeys and he even spits. However, from the moment he started talking, his questions seemed never ending. A simple answer was never enough and we quickly found that he required a detailed answer about his curiosities, his appetite for learning new things has never once slowed.

It started about a month ago, with a simple question he had about where food goes after you swallow it. We explained the digestive system and he literally sat there with his mouth wide open, silent, eyes not blinking, taking it all in. More, more, more...he wanted more.

The seed was planted and his obsession began.

Nick found him an awesome series of videos to watch and he soaked them up. He memorized most of them and asked a million questions. What do the big intestines do? How does your brain work? Where are my kidneys? Can I see your eardrum? What's inside your spine? There isn't a day that goes by when he doesn't say, "let's talk about the human body" at which point I ask which part and he responds with whatever it is he's thinking. Then we discuss it for a few minutes and he goes back to whatever it was he was doing.

We found him a big kid book about the entire human body. He was in love. He says "hmmmm" while we read things like "even though it only counts for 2% of a body's total weight, the brain takes up one-fifth of the energy and oxygen we use each day" and would nod as though he understood when we read "some of the cells in our skin make a chemical called melanin". This book was the only one he wanted us to read every single night at bedtime for a couple weeks. Eventually, I told him we had to read some of his others as well because I was missing all the fun books we used to read!

Anyway, I love his passion for wanting to learn new things and I'm proud of what he's become in his 2 years and 10 months of life and look forward to him growing and developing even more. He amazes Nick and I every single day with the things he says and questions he asks. And as many times I've heard him tell me about what your brain helps you do and the types of cells that are inside your body, I will never tire of listening to him.

Love, love, love you Ethan.

Two Brothers, Two Years Apart

2011-05-13T13:03:00.000-05:00

Ethan eating strawberries

Alec eating strawberries

A simple story

2011-05-07T22:23:00.000-05:00

This afternoon was gorgeous, so while Alec napped, Ethan and I hung out in the front yard. He happily posed for this picture:

Isn't he sweet? We hopped like bunnies, he squished a roly poly (and yes mom, I was upset about it), he pedaled his tricycle and we played baseball.

Then he started to get crazy:

He wasn't interested in having his picture taken anymore, huge shocker, I know. So I told him there was a fish inside my camera and he could see it if he looked closely:

A bit closer:

It was funny that he actually fell for that trick, generally he's one step ahead of me.

So after all that playing, he found a twisty stick to play with. He was sure it was a bird's foot and asked me if we could glue it back on. His thoughtfulness for the bird made up for the killing of the rolly polly.

This picture, I love:

A few minutes later Ethan told me Alec was awake. How he could hear him and I couldn't, I don't know.

Good afternoon, sunshine:

Almost hard to tell which is the little brother. They crawled all over the drive way, where one went the other followed. Unfortunately, Alec puts everything in his mouth so we didn't last long before heading back inside.

And yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet. Again.

Deanna Rose Farmstead

2011-05-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

Nearly every person I've talked to here has said Deanna Rose Farmstead was a must. I knew it would be neat, but I had no idea how neat! The place just didn't end, it kept going and going. As a matter of fact, we didn't even get to see it all as our outing ran into Ethan's nap time so we'll be making another trip soon. Oh, and it's free (during weekdays)!!

Ethan fished for the first time ever, didn't get a picture of it though, it only held his attention for about 3 minutes and he was off to the next attraction. He isn't quite old enough to ride the ponies but will be in a few months so we'll do that later. I didn't take many pictures of the animals but there were lots. Ethan kept hoping to see an elephant.

What boy doesn't love a train?

Still too short to reach the pedals but that didn't stop him!

I took the boys inside the pen with teeny tiny goats and Alec was intrigued, Ethan got the heebie-geebies and I got peed on. By a goat.

A little theatre with tractor seats.

Future jockey?

Getting a GOOD picture of them together is my mission, I'm still working on it.

Mining for gems.

Two boys and their Nana (thanks for joining us Nana!)

This old schoolhouse had all original things inside it and we learned some interesting facts from this lady. A pretty neat building to check out!

The teacher asked Ethan if he knew his letters and he busted out the ABC song. Atta boy. As for Alec...he's going to be the trouble-maker, I can already tell.

My little turkey.

Have I mentioned yet that I love living here?

Brothers under a chair

2011-05-04T20:22:00.000-05:00

These 3 pictures are of Ethan right after his 1st Birthday party. I remembered taking them as I was taking pictures of Alec crawling under the same chairs, 2 years later.

Ethan:

And Alec:

11 Months

2011-05-02T22:14:00.000-05:00

Oh dear, he's going to be one in one month. So fast, it happened so fast.

I find myself holding on to him a bit longer each day, letting him sleep on my shoulder a bit longer each night, and letting him climb all over me a bit longer each evening. In the blink of an eye he'll turn his cheek away when I want to give him kisses and he'll tell me "no!" when I ask for a hug. He'll wiggle out of my arms after nighttime stories and he'll shout rather than giggle at my silly stories. But for now, he's still a baby and he adores his mom every second of the day. For that, I'm thankful.

At 11 months old Alec is every bit boy. He and Ethan grow closer each day, they play often and sometimes just sit and stare at one another like they're reading each other's mind. Ethan is still able to make Alec laugh so hard, just by making a funny noise. I've tried to video tape it but the video taping gods must be helping another mother get the perfect video, because it's just not happening.

He is now a speed crawler and just today crawled head first into an empty bottom drawer in the kitchen. Like, inside of the drawer. He is pulling up on everything and dances as soon as he hears a beat. He's an excellent car passenger now and still loves people watching. Oh, and he eats everything. My grocery bill will verify that!

He naps and sleeps great, minus the occasional mishap, which doesn't happen that often. I'm so grateful for full nights of sleep and don't envy parent's of newborns one bit in that regard.

Alec has a contagious grin that stretches from ear to ear. You can't help but smile back and forget about everything you were doing just to snuggle into his chunky little body. He's such a sweetheart and doesn't mind showing it.

Happy 11 Month Birthday Big A!

Queen of Parks

2011-05-02T21:47:00.000-05:00

Another beautiful park has been located! My mom's group had a photo shoot play date at Antioch park this morning and Nick happened to be in the area as well so he drove over to hang for a bit. There were lots of trails and a nice pond with fun little paths over it.

Not only were there 3 playgrounds but an entire western "town" too! Heaven for little boys, Ethan checked each one out and asked what each sign above them said. His favorite? The Town Hall Jail (there's an escape tunnel built into the side of it. clever.).

We'll add this park to our list of places to return. I'll also share some of the photos from the photo shoot today, assuming some turned out. One of the mom's in our group is an amateur photographer and donated her time and talent for a few lucky members, it was pretty cool. The boys actually did a pretty good job too, I'm excited to see if anything turned out, the scenery couldn't have been more perfect.

"Take me out to the ballgame"

2011-05-02T20:31:00.001-05:00

On a whim last weekend we decided to go see a KC Royal's game. We left Alec with Nick's mom and pumped Ethan up for what he was about to experience. We somehow managed to score free parking, Buy 1 Get 1 tickets (plus Ethan was free!) and $10 worth of free food so that was a perk. It was a little chilly but nothing a $4 cup of hot chocolate couldn't fix. And a $5 popcorn. And a $4.50 bottle of water.

We sat in our seats for just a short time, long enough for Ethan to eat some popcorn, then he was ready to run around. I had no idea there were so many kid friendly things to do there (miniature golf, carousel ride, batting cages, etc.) so we kept busy before heading home at the top of the 9th.

Did you know the Royals were the losing-est team in the MBL? They did win both games last weekend so that's gotta help, right? We'll definitely go back once it warms up a bit.

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T15:33:00.000-05:00

Ethan woke up on Easter morning and pretty much forgot that the Easter Bunny was supposed to visit him. Once we reminded him he immediately went searching for his basket. He found his small basket with a baseball glove, an umbrella and 3 eggs with candy inside. We don't go overboard with Easter gifts and we tried out best to limit candy but definitely made an exception for the day. Actually, all the kids were required to eat something from the veggie tray for every piece of candy they wanted, and they gobbled the entire veggie tray down. I guess that's a good trade-off.

Since we moved, Nick's sister and her family are only 1 1/2 hours from us (yea!!) so they invited us over for an Easter brunch this year. The weather was cooperative and the food was excellent and to top it off, the kids had soooo much fun together. Ethan didn't even stop for a potty break from the time we got there until the time we left, he didn't want to miss out on anything so I guess he just held it.

Alec (who napped most of the day), Mallory, Ethan and Gavin. This is the BEST picture I could get of them, it was hopeless.

These two had everyone laughing with their crazy driving skills. Mallory would slam on the brakes and both of their heads would fly forward but they giggled nonstop.

My Boys (then and now)

2011-04-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

Then:

Now:

Little off the top

2011-04-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

This is Alec's 2nd professional haircut, and the only one I remembered to take a picture of. He sat there like a big kid and let the stylist do her thing, every now and then glancing over his shoulder to look at her (she was pretty, afterall).

He's even more handsome now that his hair isn't down to his eyebrows. Fingers crossed he continues to enjoy trims!

Holy Hail, Batman!

2011-04-20T21:09:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago shortly after the boys went to bed it started raining. Then it started hailing, and not those puny marble sized pieces of hail either. It was loud and I'm pretty sure the house was shaking. I quickly ran upstairs to comfort the kiddos but they were fast asleep. I have no idea how.

Come to find out the hail storm passed through quite a large area and damaged many, many homes. Ours included. Luckily for us, our roof is old so to hear that it needs to be replaced wasn't such bad news. I'm positive that each home in our neighborhood will be (or should be) getting a new roof and the work has already begun.

Today on our walk we stopped by two homes to watch the guys at work. Ethan yelled HI and waved to each roofer as we sat there, I think they liked the attention.

Hitting his stride

2011-04-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

If there were an award for "Best Army Crawler", he'd win. I even considered signing him up for Navy Seal tryouts, he is that good. But the past two days he's been reconsidering the whole rug-burn-belly-crawl and trying out the standard method instead. He doesn't get far before plopping down and reverting back to his old standby but it won't be long before he's a pro at crawling.

Mad skills, right?

Bedhead

2011-04-18T21:58:00.000-05:00

I can NOT get enough of this guy! He is so happy and smiley in the mornings when I pluck him out of his crib. He rubs his eyes and smears anything coming out of his nose onto my shoulder then snuggles in for some hugs and kisses. His breath smells sweet (I know that won't last...I have a 2 1/2 yr old and his breath is definitely not sweet in the morning) and his kisses are almost always open-mouthed ones.

He usually says "dadadadaddaada" over and over, but I don't mind. He could say "poopooopooopoo" for all I care, I just love hearing his little boy voice.

That dimple on his right cheek? Been kissed nearly 76 million times.

Mini Pizzas

2011-04-18T21:45:00.000-05:00

The boys and I belong to a Mom and Kid group here in the KC area and in a couple weeks we'll be hosting our first play date. It's a themed play date, called Lunch Bunch and all the kiddos get to make their own mini pizzas and then play outside after they eat. Ethan is looking forward to it (he is going to flip out when he sees HOW many kids will be inside his house!) so I thought we'd make some pizzas for lunch today to test them out.

He likes to help cook so this was right up his alley. I set everything up and let him put the pizzas together completely on his own, so each pizza had about 6lbs of cheese on it. I think our playmates will have a great time!

Bon Appetit!

It's the little things that make me happy

2011-04-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

BEFORE:

This ceiling fan belongs in someone else's home, not ours!

AFTER:

Ahhh, that's better. It's amazing what a new fan and a coat of paint will do to a room.

Pictures

2011-04-08T21:41:00.000-05:00

I had these pictures taken a couple months ago. I was hoping for some outside pictures but the weather didn't cooperate. Heck, the kids didn't cooperate either so it didn't really matter.

Bits and Pieces

2011-04-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some random pictures I've taken over the past couple weeks. No funny stories or interesting things to go with them though. We're enjoying our new digs and are finding lots and lots of places to go (parks galore, new restaurants, shopping!). I feel our days end so quickly because we're on the go a lot, and before I know it, it's 7pm!

We had a really bad hail storm last week and found out our roof needs to be replaced along with the guttering, some trim and screens--it was the biggest hail storm Nick or I've ever seen. Crazy loud! The roof is 13 years old so it actually works out in our favor. Nick's car was outside so his car looks like a silver golf ball, luckily for me, we'd just cleaned out half of the garage that day so my car was inside. Whew!

Ethan has been making some friends lately, I know he was really craving some play time with people other than his family members. We joined a Mom and Tot group here and have met several people and have gone to lots of play dates.

Alec is still happy to be along for the ride. He's army crawling everywhere and eats constantly. Ha!

My mother in law sold her home in Wichita and found a new home here in the KC area so we're very excited to have her close again. We were lucky, she sold her home in record time and found a new move-in ready home that was vacant! Things usually just don't happen that easily, right?

Hanging out in the front yard.

Ethan was showing Alec how to store things under the hood.

See how much his eyes have changed color?

So happy he can put on his shoes, but why is it kids don't think they feel funny when on the wrong feet?

10 Months

2011-04-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

Another month has floated by, just as easily as the other months of this little guy's life. I can't even wrap my mind around what will happen in a couple months, how could he possibly be 1 so soon? Seriously.

Alec is a big ball of sloppy kisses, big bear hugs, dirty hands and clumsy crawling (apparently gross motor skills aren't a strength amongst our sons). He's still generally quite mellow, eats LOTS, is ticklish on his thighs and neck, sleeps through the night and craves attention from Ethan. He's got 8 teeth and 88 fat rolls and his eyes seem to be turning a gorgeous blue/gray/green.

Stats at his 9 Month checkup:
21.3lbs (60th%)
30"tall (94th%-I think the nurse incorrectly measured him too long)

Happy 10 Month Birthday Alec!

Just another day...

2011-03-31T10:47:00.000-05:00

...at the Office.

This is exactly how I found him the other day!

Fritz's

2011-03-30T16:49:00.001-05:00

Wanting to try something different for lunch, we ended up at Fritz's Restaurant in Crown Center. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it put a smile on Ethan's face and that's all that matters, right?

It was much like a diner you'd expect to find in a sleepy town but the neat thing about the place was how your greasy burger was delivered to your table. A train comes out from behind the kitchen, coasts down the tracks which are above your head and the "cargo" drops down onto a tray just above your table. It was pretty fun to watch. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the delivery but you can see the tracks above the boy's heads in the bottom two pictures.

Rite of Passage

2011-03-23T20:52:00.000-05:00

The ice cream truck made its way through our new neighborhood a couple days ago, and luckily for the boys, Nick is a sucker for those things.

Here is Alec enjoying his first cherry popsicle at 9 months old.

A throwback photo of Ethan and his very first popsicle at 1 year old.

Dirty Laundry

2011-03-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Laundry used to be therapeutic for me. We used to be friends, best friends even. I actually enjoyed the washing, drying, folding and putting away of laundry. We enjoyed each other's company and had a nice give and take sort of relationship. I could count on my laundry to always be there for me but I never felt smothered. Then things changed. I added an additional 3 pairs of legs, feet, and arms (who all need clothes) into my life and my special relationship with my laundry was forever ruined. I couldn't give it the attention it needed anymore and it felt left out and neglected.

Now it sits angrily in a pile on the floor, begging and pleading for my attention. I swear I can hear it cursing me as I pretend not to notice how it has grown from a couple pairs of pants into a heaping, tangled mountain of ugliness. I'm pretty sure it even tries to trip me. At first I felt guilty, but now my laundry has taken revenge on me. It has multiplied itself into a million piles throughout the house and
demands I separate it into color and size coded piles. Seriously?! Frankly, its become too needy and I just can't deal with one more needy thing in my life.

Truth be told, it's a bit awkward when my laundry and I are in the same room. We even avoid eye contact. No matter what though, we are still tied to one another for the rest of our lives and I don't want to let the kids think it's okay to have a poor relationship with their laundry so I think its time we call a truce and end our battle.

Union Station

2011-03-06T20:44:00.000-06:00

The whole famn damily (this "word" is new to me but according to Nick means "damn family", just not so rude I suppose) loaded into the car this morning and headed to Union Station to check out Science City today. We've never been but had heard it would be a good time for Ethan. What a beautiful building it was, we'll definitely return for another visit as there was so much to do. He went from one exhibit to the next with lightning speed, and wasn't ready to go home after 2 hours but it was way past nap time so we had to go.

Nick and Ethan testing out the police helicopter

Alec was pretty curious about his crazy surroundings

Miniature town/train set

Ethan climbed the monkey bars as I nervously waited for him to fall.

Nick and Ethan climbing up to the tree house.

Sliding down a "sewer pipe".

Ethan got a kick out of the musical drums (I'm 90% sure he's going to be a famous drummer someday).

The building was just gorgeous, I wished I had even a speck of photography talent to show it off.

After pulling out of the parking lot Ethan declared he was NOT tired. Thirty-two seconds later...zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just another day in the city!

New Places

2011-03-03T21:31:00.000-06:00

We made it to our first new park today, it's directly across the street from Ethan's future elementary school. I swear he seemed like such a big boy playing with all the other kids, where did my toddler go??

The house we bought came with a little bonus for the boys in the backyard. The little playground is perfect size for Ethan (can you spot him?) and he is in love with the telescope that's in there. And somehow in the past couple of weeks he's graduated from the baby style swings to big kid ones. Where was I when that happened?

Suburbia anyone? Granted this picture below isn't all that clear due to that darn beautiful sunset, but it's a view from the side of our backyard. Rows and rows of fenced homes, backyard play sets, and golden retrivers. Nick and I have never owned a home that was truly considered suburbia, and now we're smack dab in the middle of it. It's so kid friendly and very family oriented, and at this time in our lives is a perfect fit for our family.

9 Months

2011-03-03T21:17:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Alec's 9 month birthday. Things have truly been chaotic around here so I didn't get even a single moment to post his picture. But this very instant, both kids are fast asleep and Nick is busy on his computer so this time is my time.

I don't know if it's because he's the 2nd child or if it's just his personality but Alec is such a laid back, patient (mostly), mellow kid. He doesn't fuss much and if he does then you can be sure you've forgotten to feed him or he's ready for a siesta. He still naps wonderfully and in the past 2 weeks or so is only waking around 5am to eat then sleeping in til 7 or so. My body is loving the sleep.

Even more exciting are the "words" coming out of his mouth! He says "dadadada" and just recently started "mamamama". We love hearing those words even though he may not really be saying them toward us, it still melts our hearts to hear.

No crawling yet, but this chunky baby isn't shy about scooting on his big belly wherever he wants to go.

Boxes Part II

2011-03-01T22:46:00.000-06:00

Look what I found inside one of those boxes! The cutest package I've ever opened.

Boxes

2011-02-27T17:39:00.003-06:00

This pretty much sums up what is in my line of vision right now, no matter which direction I look. If I never see another moving box after this, I won't be upset.

Happily though, we are settling into our new home. Ethan (formerly known as EC, but since I didn't hesitate to shout his brother's name from the rooftop I figured it'd be ok to use his real name now) likes his new surroundings one minute then the next he declares we get him a different house "now!"

Well, I'm going to sit on the couch for a bit and see if these boxes unpack themselves already.

Out of his mouth

2011-02-20T22:12:00.000-06:00

Not a day goes by Nick and I don't laugh out loud at something that comes out of EC's mouth. Unfortunately, they aren't as funny when you have to read them but for the fun of it, here are some of his laughable comments:

**He can't say his y's. So "or" means "your" and "ewe" means "you"

EC: Mom, pretend or Ethan and I'm ewe.
Me: Ok, (in my best whiny voice), maaammaaaaa, I want somp-ting good to eat. Will ewe play wif me? I wuv ewe mom.
EC: Awwww, I love ewe too, honey.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EC: (Looking at my face, really close up) Uh-oh, ewe got cracks on or (your) face.
Me: (Depressed for the rest of the day!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EC: (yelling at me from his bed during nap time) Moooooooommmmm, I need somp-ting. Come here mom! I need ewe.
Me: EC, it's nap time, you need to go back to sleep.
EC: Ok Mom, I'm ready to go back to sleep now. (I start walking away) Wait, I need to tell ewe something will-y big. (dramatic pause) Actually, I meant I'm all done with my nap now.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! (a frustrated growl, if you will)
EC: Dadda, are ewe just sick of it?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EC: Are ewe gonna have a baby?

Me: (Immediately sucking in my gut) No, I'm not having a baby.

EC: But ewe want to have another baby?

Me: Nope, you and Alec are by babies.

EC: I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy and Awic's a big baby.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EC: Ma, ewe cookin' dinner?

Me: Yup.

EC: Don't burn the house down, k?

Finger or Face Paint

2011-02-16T14:36:00.000-06:00

I gave EC some watercolors to keep him busy while I ran Alec upstairs for his nap. I specifically asked him not to get paint all over his shirt, he's usually pretty neat about his painting. I was gone for 3 minutes or so and this is what I came back to:

There was even green paint in his mouth. Maybe next time I'll be more specific and tell him not to eat it.