5 Months

Dear Cooper,

You have been BUSY this month. You're learning a lot of new things all at once. I absolutely love this stage! It's so much fun!

Here's what you're up to at 5 months:

You are consistently sleeping 11 1/2 to 12 hours every night with one to zero times waking me up during the night! I'm so proud of you that you're doing such a great job with the sleeping thing! (Consistently, as in, most of the time. Last night would be the exception, of course, when you woke up 2 or 3 times and then ended up in my bed. But we'll just blame that on the tooth that is just about in.)

Your naps are getting more and more consistent now. You typically take a nap from around 9am-10am every morning, another one around 12:30 or 1:00 until 3ish and occasionally a catnap around 5pm for 20-30 minutes. I can always tell you're ready for nap because you start getting fussy and even with me holding you, you don't really quiet down. Our nap routine is to go into your room, turn on your sound machine, sing "Jesus Loves Me", and then I lay you on your side, give you your paci and stuffed cow that you've come to love and you either lay there and play with the cow for a minute before going to sleep, or you push the cow out of the way, roll onto your stomach and go to sleep. Sometimes, if you're having trouble falling asleep, I will cover you up with a light blanket and pat your bottom and that puts you right out.

When Garrett was a baby, I put 2-3 small stuffed animals in the corners of his crib to see if he would be interested in any of them being a "lovey" of sorts. He never was and really didn't care if they were in there or not. I've done the same with you and that is what has resulted with your love for the beanie baby cow. Sometimes I can go in your room before or after a nap and see that cow waving around in the air as you're playing with it. It's so funny!

Physically you can:

Roll both directions, but you haven't figured out that rolling can take you places. Though you do roll all over your crib, you haven't done this on the floor yet.

Do a big push-up where you're entire upper body is off the floor. It's so funny to walk into your room when you're doing this in the crib because your entire head is peaking over the side of the crib (when the rail is down).I would think you're sitting with the way you look, but you're just pushing yourself really high off the mattress.

When you're in the middle of doing something, I can rarely get you to smile...

You have started pushing yourself up onto your hands and knees. I'm still a little surprised by this because it seems early to be doing it, but you do it a lot now that you've figured out you can. I can actually fit my arm underneath your stomach because you have it lifted completely off the ground. Garrett army crawled for at least a month before crawling on his hands and knees. I will be interested to see if you do the same, or if you figure out the hands and knees crawling really quickly.

You've actually gotten onto your knees a little better than in this picture, but I don't always have the camera out when you're playing on the floor.

Sometimes when you're pushing yourself up onto your knees, you end up scooting backwards. You've gone from being in the middle of the blanket I laid for you on the floor, to being with your bottom half completely off of it.

You're able to sit independently for good stretches now and you love it! You've already sat in a restaurant highchair a couple of times and loved that too! (We have a Floppy Seat that covers the entire sitting area of a highchair and a shopping cart, so you're not touching any bit of the germy surface.)

You are very funny when it comes to baby food. You've let it be known that you do NOT like any baby cereals and you also have decided you don't like any fruits either. But you LOVE veggies and will eat an entire jar in one sitting, whereas you only take 4 or 5 bites of the others and start crying and turning your head after that. I'm betting you'll enjoy "big people" food once that time comes. I'm thinking in another month or so we will try baby yogurt and see what you think of that.
This was after eating almost an entire jar of peas. You loved every bite!

You LOVE LOVE LOVE drinking from a sippy cup. After every meal of baby food, I always give you a sip from a cup and you have taken to that real well. After 3-4 swallows of water, I have to take it away or you would probably drink it all. But I don't want you filling up on water, so we'll just stick with it being practice and the chance for you to "cleanse your pallette" after eating.

You are definitely cutting your first tooth. I have found a "rough, raised" spot in the front on your lower gum. Assuming this tooth breaks through before you're 7 months, you will have cut your first tooth before Garrett. And I'm praying it breaks through before then. You are very clingy right now and our house is a disaster because of it.

Bottle feeding you has become a lesson in flexibility. Sometimes you're very intense and take the entire 8 ounce bottle (or close to it) pretty quickly without any playing around. But other times, you'll drink a few ounces, then sit up, look around, take a few more ounces, sit up, then I'll just attempt to feed you the rest of it with you sitting up.

You love your crib mobile and I'm so sad that I will have to take it down soon. But once you're sitting up well, it's only a matter of time until you figure out how to sit up on your own, so that means the mobile can't be in your crib anymore. It has become the spot to put you while I'm making your bottle. It runs just long enough that I can: get a bottle made, run to the restroom, and sometimes do something quick for Garrett. Hopefully you'll still be good with hanging out in the crib during that time even without the mobile because our system works really well.
This really doesn't have anything to do with the above paragraph (though you can see the bottom of the mobile at the top of the pic), I just had to include it because I thought this was funny. I came in his room to get him up after a nap and found his arm outside the crib. He wasn't crying about it, he was just laying there. The above pic of him and the cow in his crib is what he looked like inside the crib while his arm was outside.

Your tear-duct is still blocked in your right eye. I don't know how many people have asked me if you're sick, have a cold, have pinkeye, etc because your eye is watery and sometimes mucousy. It's getting very old. I've started being very blunt and telling them that you have a blocked tear duct and eventually will have to have surgery where they will shove a metal wire in your eye to unblock it. That usually shuts them right up. I'm still hoping that it will unstop on it's own.

We're now approaching the half-way point!! This weekend we went a 1st birthday party for your cousin Michael so I was able to refresh my memory as to what 1 year old looks like. It's hard to comprehend how much you'll be doing over the next several months, but I'm going to love every bit of the time leading up to the point where you hit the tantrum throwing stage. Then it's downhill from there.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten that I have another child!! I will post what Garrett's been up to lately, real soon!

Veterans Day (and a few other things)

I think it's so important to recognize our veterans as well as those who are actively serving in the military. In today's time, the anti-war movement is very vocal and unfortunately, this can translate into anti-servicemen and women. If you know someone who has served or is currently serving, take a minute out of your day to say thank you. It means more to them than you know.

Keith's grandpa is a WW2 veteran. From the sound of it, he's one of the few still living. He's in his 80's and has been in poor health ever since I've known him. He still has shrapnel in his leg from the war. He has survived cancer and a whole host of other physical ailments. During one of his month-long hospitalizations about 5 years ago, he met with a pastor and, after listening to what he had to say about salvation, he accepted Jesus in his heart. He's never publicly told the family this, we only know because his wife was there and she has told us. I can't imagine exactly what it would do to someone to go to another country at the tender age of 18 and watch virtually everyone else in your squadron get killed along with doing plenty of killing of your own. He's never been one to talk about his experiences in Germany. I do know he brought back a few interesting things from his time there.

When I was student teaching, I lived with Keith's grandparents for 4 months. One evening the movie "Thin, Red Line" came on TV. Keith's grandpa asked me if I wanted to watch it with him, so I said yes. I hadn't seen it before, but I had seen "Saving Private Ryan" and I think they both came out around the same time. Keith's grandpa is a man of few words (much like his only grandson), but every now and then, he would comment on what we were seeing in the movie. He would say things like "That's very close to what actually happened over there." Or he would point out errors they made. To say it was an interesting experience would be an understatement. To be honest, I wish I would have had a video camera rolling somewhere because I know his 2 sons and 3 grandkids would have loved to hear all of that.

One of my biggest fears, being the mom of 2 boys, is that in 14 years or more, our country will be in or will go into a war that will require one or both of my boys to be drafted. I do understand the need for the draft, but when it comes down to contemplating the idea of one of MY sons being drafted, then I have a harder time with it. If one or both of them were to make the decision to enlist, then I wouldn't try to stop them, but the draft would be much more difficult to accept.

I will never forget when I was 8 months pregnant with Garrett, our pastor showed the video for the song "Letters From War" by Mark Schultz in a Sunday morning service. I sobbed through the whole thing.



If for some reason that video isn't showing up then here's the direct link.

On a completely different subject, I can't believe Christmas will be here in about 6 weeks!! I've already seen a few Christmas lights up on peoples' houses and of course I've seen the Christmas displays and heard the Christmas music when I'm out doing my grocery shopping. I'm excited to see what Cooper thinks of the Christmas tree. Garrett's first Christmas, he was barely 4 months old, so I don't think he really knew what was going on. Cooper will be 6 months old this Christmas, so hopefully the tree will mesmerize him (during those times I'm needing him to be mesmerized rather than crying to be held) and maybe I'll get some good shots of him and Garrett around the tree.

I've been able to get some of my Christmas shopping done. I've bought several things online. It's just so much easier to do that, especially when you either find really great deals that make the shipping worth it, or you get free shipping. If you're looking for something to get for that "hard to buy for" person, check out this site. I LOVE her stuff. I bought one for my parents for their anniversary this summer and I've bought a couple more for different people for Christmas this year. And for the locals, she's from Mt Pleasant, Texas, so she's kind of a local herself. I personally like buying from locals. I don't know her, so I'm getting nothing for advertising for her!! Just thought I would pass on an idea if you're wracking your brain, trying to figure out a gift. Just know you probably would want to order from her by early December in order to get it in time for Christmas. But I will say that when I ordered back in May for my parents' anniversary, I literally received it in a week, so she's really fast if she's not really busy. I've already placed my Christmas order to try and avoid the rush.

Are you ready for the race that will begin in a couple of weeks? At least, that's what it feels like to me. The race of the holidays and the end of the year. I love it, but it sure does get hectic at times. Good luck to all of you with your Christmas shopping and attempt to avoid gaining any weight between now and New Year's. Just give it up, we all know that 3-5 pounds (or more!) is inevitable.

My Weekend Without Kids...Well, Kinda

This weekend was pretty full (for me anyway) of activities that aren't the norm around our house. It wasn't my intention to pack everything into one weekend, it's just the way it turned out. (And apparently I had much more to say about the weekend than I realized. So this is long.)

On Saturday morning, after getting breakfast for everyone and getting the boys dressed, I left to get my hair cut/colored. It had been atleast a couple of months so my hair was feeling desperate. I love my stylist. She always does a great job with my hair and we have fun chatting (not one bit of gossiping!!!) while she does her best to make me look presentable. Which we all know is a tough task, but she takes it on rather well. I usually can't get out of there in under an hour and a half when I have everything done, so Keith had a lot of fun with the boys at home. (Well, it would have been fun had Cooper taken a nap that lasted longer than 20 minutes...)

When I got home, Keith's parents were at our house, ready to spend the rest of the day with the boys so we could get out of the house. Excluding an evening when Cooper was 2 weeks old, this was our first time to leave him for an extended period of time. Not that I have a problem doing this, we just don't have any babysitting options in our immediate area (scratch that, we do have options, but I save them for emergencies. I have a problem with asking my friends with kids to take on my 2 kids just so we can go see a movie. Especially when one of my kids is still too little to run off and play with the others. So I save calling these friends for if/when something comes up that I desperately need their help.)

Keith and I had accumulated several things that needed to be returned at a variety of places. I loathe making returns and exchanges at stores. It is such a pain, but everything needed to be returned. One was a vacuum cleaner where the on/off switch was completely broken off while it was still new in the box. So we made our rounds with the returns, while also buying Christmas presents here and there if something caught our eye. We ate lunch at Texas Roadhouse, which is our go-to restaurant. We love it! Then we went to see "Couples Retreat". Hilarious!! We love Vince Vaughn and he was really good in this movie. Again, not the cleanest movie, so no official endorsement from me. But it was still funny.

After the movie we went to Best Buy and bought a few more Christmas presents, then went to Cavenders. This is a western clothing shop, for those of you who have never heard of the place. Keith had a pair of pants given to him for his birthday (in JULY!) that were bought there and he needed to return them because they were the wrong size. He found a shirt to replace them and then insisted that I buy a pair of cowboy boots. I've never owned any in my entire life and ever since we've known each other, Keith has always wanted me to get a pair (along with a John Deere t-shirt and a cowboy hat, but let's take this one step at a time.) I dug through the boots on clearance (I refuse to pay $300 for a pair of boots I will only wear occasionally) and found some that I really like. So I'm now an owner of a pair of cowboy boots after almost 31 years of life on this Earth. *And all the Texans gasped in horror at that statement.*

We then headed to the place we dreaded going, but knew it was unavoidable if we were going to make an attempt at more Christmas shopping. Toys R Us. This is NOT the place to go on a Saturday night. Apparently everyone with kids and nothing else better to do goes there and lets their kids run wild and play with all the toys in the store. I'm pretty sure it's a STORE and not a playground, but whatever. We had balls bouncing all around us down the aisles. Insanity. We did find a couple of things for Garrett for Christmas and checked out a few more, so I don't feel as if this was a trip wasted.

By this point, it was 6:00 pm. I hadn't given Keith's parents any bedtime instructions for the boys and since Cooper typically starts his bedtime routine around 7pm, we figured we should head on home. Thankfully the boys did well for their grandparents, so that was a plus.

Sunday morning, we went to church and had great services and Sunday school time. We picked up Sonic burgers and came home to eat and straighten up around the house a little. From lunchtime until 4:00, I stayed busy getting laundry done, making the rest of Cooper's bottles for the evening, starting supper, and laying out pj's. Because at 4:00, I was headed out of the house for the rest of the evening, leaving Keith to tend to the boys. He's certainly taken care of them by himself many times, but he had never put them to bed by himself. Bedtime in itself is not a big deal, it's the hour or two leading up to it that can be chaotic. Mostly with Cooper.

My reason for abandoning my husband to do bedtime alone was because my friend, Kelli, and I had tickets to a David Cook concert in Dallas. I met her at her house at 4:30 and then we headed to Dallas. We found the concert venue and then drove around downtown to find a good place to eat supper. We decided on an Italian restaurant and had a hilarious time trying to find it again. We parked in a parking garage right on the same block as the restaurant and were totally confused when we came out of the garage that we ended up walking around the entire block before we finally found the restaurant again. I don't think Dallas is necessarily unsafe, but I don't want to make it a habit of walking around downtown after dark. After we finished eating, we managed to find the parking garage without rewalking the whole block, but then we couldn't figure out where the stairs or elevator were, so we just walked up the garage in the driving lane. We're morons.

Let me just add that if you smell urine while walking in a parking garage, be sure to watch your step. Keith said he has seen much worse than that in the parking garage he parks in every day. That's just disgusting. If I'm a homeless person (and I'm assuming it's homeless people doing this. At least I hope it is...), then I would rather find a patch of grass to take care of business than in a parking garage! That's, of course, assuming I was unable to find a public restroom or a shelter's restroom to use.

We managed to find our way back to the concert venue and somehow the line waiting at the door had tripled in length. Thankfully the doors opened pretty soon after getting in line and we moved through all the check points quickly and got about 8 rows from the stage. This venue is standing room only, so it was basically first come first serve as far as your "seat" goes. I haven't been to a lot of concerts in my lifetime. It wasn't something we could afford growing up, then when I was in college, I was more concerned with paying my college tuition and affording food without accumulating a huge amount of student loans that I never went to any concerts. So the majority of the concerts I've been to have been ones that my youth group went to at different times over the years.

So I say all that to say that I had never attended a standing room only concert. First off, it's a very frustrating experience for a person who likes order, like myself. Nobody really has an assigned area. While you would like to think that people would respect your space, they don't. I saw many people push and shove their way through the crowd and they weren't doing it to get back to their friends. Things like that make me so mad! When there was about 20 minutes left in the concert, the lady next to me, shoved her daughter about 2 people in front of me. The same daughter had been hitting me with her purse all night, so while I was irritated that she got in front of me, I was happy to be done with getting beaten up.

(Why, women, would you bring your purse into a standing room only concert where you're only going to have to hold it for 4+ hours???? I put my cell phone, ID (not that I needed it, it was just in case), credit card and some cash into my pockets and hid my purse in the car. If you really think you need to bring makeup in order to touch it up during the concert then I have to call you a moron. It's dark in there. Not to mention the fact that if you're doing it to attempt to impress the singer, as some do, he doesn't give a flying flip about you other than the fact that you paid money to come see him perform. He won't notice your stunning makeup in the midst of an audience of hundreds and think that he needs to meet you. So ditch the purse.)

Back to my story, after the mom shoved her daughter in front of me (and the daughter was at least 21 because she had a drinking wristband on), the mom made a move as if she was going to stand in front of me. All 6 feet tall of her in front of 5'5" me. I used a good placed elbow to keep that from happening. She kept looking down at me as if she was going to intimidate me into moving out of her way. She finally realized that I wasn't intimated by her ridiculous tattoos and moved in front of someone else. RUDE!!

The concert itself was really good. There were 2 opening bands: Green River Ordinance-a band who is from DFW and had lots of local fans in the audience, so that was cool, and The Script-a band from Ireland who actually opened for Paul McCartney when he played at the new Cowboys stadium. I was surprised they would be opening for David Cook after a gig like that, but I certainly don't claim to know how that kind of thing works. Both bands were good, though The Script was probably a little less my style. David Cook and his band were also great. He played quite a few songs off his current record along with 2 songs from before he won American Idol and then he covered "I Just Died in Your Arms" from the 80's.

After the concert, Kelli and I drove around downtown because we were both confused as to how to get back to the road we needed to get to her house. You certainly would not have thought that she drives in Dallas on a regular basis or that I'm somewhat familiar with the city. I should have brought our GPS but it never occured to me. Needless to say, don't ask either of us for directions. And definitely don't let me drive you around Dallas. Unless you need to get to a mall or Keith's office. Those are the only places I'm sure of where I'm going and how to get there.

It was really a fun and busy weekend. I'm sure it will be awhile before I have another one like it, but that's ok. My body needs to recover from the concert.

I promise this post isn't all about my kids. This time anyway...

The boys were Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story for Halloween this year.

So I apparently took a break from blogging without even realizing it. I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I've posted anything. 2 kids definitely keep you busier than 1. You would think they would also afford me with plenty of things to blog about, and they do, but my mental capacity is all but obliterated, so even when I think "I should totally blog about this." I forget about it approximately 10 minutes later. So here are a few things from off the top of my head.

• Cooper's 4 month check up was yesterday. Everything went well! He weighs 16 1/2 pounds and is 26 1/2 inches long. I looked back in Garrett's baby book and Cooper outweighs him by 1 1/2 pounds at this age, but they're the exact same length. Cooper may be our Linebacker and Garrett our b'ball Center. haha Keith and I have no aspirations for them to play sports, but if they want to, then they can.
• On that note, Garrett and I went to our church's fall festival on Saturday night. We worked a booth for the first part and then made our way around to the rest of the booths after our shift was over. One of the booths was a basketball throw. It was exactly like one you would find at an arcade. The kids got 3 chances to make a basket (and got candy either way, so that part didn't really matter.) The boy in front of Garrett was at least in 2nd or 3rd grade, maybe older. He missed all 3 shots, no big deal, it's a tough shot to make. Garrett steps up and totally misses the first 2 shots, then makes the 3rd. I was really surprised! I think the guys manning the booth were too. There were high-5's all around. And Garrett couldn't have been prouder. He's very competitive right now, so I wasn't sure how he would react to missing all 3 shots. Thankfully we didn't have to find that out.
• Back to Cooper's doctor visit, (because I love to switch topics at the drop of a hat) everything was really good. The doctor said Cooper is the picture of health, advanced with his physical abilities, and very ready for more baby food. haha So he's now eating cereal in the mornings and a veggie in the evening. Sometimes he only wants 4 or 5 bites, which is perfectly fine with me. But he loves trying it out and he always has to stick out his tongue and barely taste what's on the spoon before he will open his mouth to take the first bite. Just to be sure I'm not trying to trick him I guess.
• Garrett has become a marketer's dream. He loves quoting commercials to us. Just this morning when we were at Walmart, he kept saying "Look better. Walmart" That's their new slogan and he loves repeating it. While I was writing this, I forgot the slogan (see? My mental abilities are shot...) so I said "Garrett, it's Walmart what?" That's all I said and he said "Look better. Walmart." Then he pointed out a light bulb that's burnt out in the kitchen and said "We need to go back to Walmart and buy a new one." He also recognizes the Target logo even though we rarely go to Target. He said they have the good toys. And I shared this on Facebook awhile back but I'll reshare here too. Recently I handed him the Toys R Us catalog and told him to pick out what he wanted. This is the first year where I've really thought he would understand what I was asking and really pick out things he wants. Well of course he wants everything! Minus the girl toys. Which I found funny because we've never said "No you can't have that, it's a girl toy." In fact, he's accidentally been given the "girl toy" in his McDonald's happy meal and he loved it (My Little Pony). But he does not want any girl toys for Christmas. He does, however, want Cooper to own all baby-related toys in the catalog too. When I pointed out a few of the baby toys that he had circled and asked about them he said "They're not for me, they're for Cooper." Good looking out for the baby brother.
• This Saturday will be Cooper's first time to be kept by someone other than me or Keith since he was 2 weeks old and my parents kept the boys so we could go out one evening. Keith's parents are coming up to spend the day with them while we go Christmas shopping and hopefully squeeze in dinner and a movie. Maybe Cooper will be cooperative for them.
• I know some of you are thinking "Christmas shopping? Already?!" And that would be a big yes. Once I got to looking at the calendar I realized that it's either this Saturday or the Saturday before Christmas. All the Saturdays in between are full with a variety of other activities. And we are homebodies so you have to know that these are for real activities that we have to be involved in or else we'd totally skip them and sit at home in our pj's. And yes, I am a stay at home mom so as everyone thinks "I have plenty of time to go Christmas shopping during the week!" hahahaha Not really. I cannot even look at something I'm considering for Garrett if he's around. The kid is sharp and has called me out on that a few times already. And while it sounds like I could just go shopping with Cooper while Garrett is at school, those of you who actually think that, have never had a 4 month old baby. I could shop for maybe an hour and then the meltdowns would start. From both of us.
• I don't think I will be able to listen to Steven Curtis Chapman's new CD anytime soon. In case you weren't aware, his new CD is almost completely full of songs he's written since the death of his young daughter. I can't begin to imagine how sad I will be just listening to the songs. Even if the songs themselves aren't sad. I love SCC and have always appreciated his music. I'll bet 50% of the married people reading this blog had his song "I Will Be Here" played and/or sung at your wedding. It was played at mine, sung at my sister's. I even sang it at a friend's wedding. Of course he has many, many other great songs. I love that he has consciously made the decision to keep living his life and share with the world the emotions he's dealt with since Maria died. I think it would be way too easy, in that situation, to just curl up into a ball and cry all day. That would be my first instinct anyway.
• We recently watched "Yes Man" and I have many ideas floating in my head that I want to jot down about that movie. I'm not going to attempt to do that now, but I will say that I think this was one of Jim Carrey's first movies to actually have a point that made sense and even made me take a hard look at myself. Now, I'm not going to outright tell you to go out and rent this movie. It is, after all, Jim Carrey. So that means there's most definitely inappropriate language and at least one downright crude scene. So, should you decide to check this movie out, you've been warned. I hate that too because the message of the movie really was a good one, in my opinion.
• We also recently watched "The Proposal" and it was really cute! I love Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds is always funny. There's something about his line delivery that I love. I think he's probably a pretty sarcastic person in real life. And I heart sarcasm. Big Time.

And I think that's all my current mental abilities are capable of. You're welcome for this wonderful post of mediocrity. Now you have a snapshot of what goes on inside my brain.

4 Months

Dear Cooper,
Today you are 4 months old! It's hard to believe that we are one-third of the way to your first birthday!

When you were born, I really expected things with you to be similar to the way things were when Garrett was a baby. Mostly because I planned to do things the same way. However, you are definitely your own person and want to do things your own way regardless of my attempts to do them my way.

Ever since you were born, most people have told us many times that you look just like Daddy. I didn't really see the resemblence and didn't really know who you looked like. Until I saw Daddy's baby pictures last weekend. You look a lot like him as a baby, minus the hair color and eye color. And you definitely get your ears from him. :) As Daddy said, "Well, atleast we know he'll eventually grow into them."

At 4 months old you are:

-rolling over, mostly from stomach to back, though you have gone from back to stomach once so far. You mainly want to roll at night in your crib. And then during the day lay on your stomach on the floor and cry because you want to roll over, but can't figure it out.

-sitting up really well with support. I can put the boppy pillow around you and you can sit for atleast 5 minutes before you have trouble staying upright.

-beginning to play with toys. You hold them in your hand and sometimes wave them around. You also try to put them in your mouth. Your current favorite toy is an Elmo radio that plays a few different songs when you push the button. You've hit yourself on the head with a rattle a couple of times now and don't like that very much.

-loving to sit in the Exersaucer and Jumperoo. You jump some in the jumper and enjoy the toys in the Exersaucer.

-starting to enjoy cereal. You've had it a few times now and definitely prefer it mixed with cold apple juice. You eat quite a bit before I can tell that you're tired of sitting in the highchair.

-doing better about sitting in your car seat. You haven't had a total meltdown in it since our trip to the beach, so that's been a nice change.

-squealing a lot. You love to talk to us and squealing is your current choice of communication.

-loving the time on your changing table. Weird, but true. Anytime I lay you there to change your diaper or clothes you start smiling and laughing and seem so happy to be there. Even pulling your arms and head through shirts doesn't bother you. You think it's funny and laugh. The exception to this is first thing in the morning. You want your bottle immediately and don't appreciate the time taken for a quick diaper change.

Naps are finally becoming more predictable and we're down to about 3 a day. Sometimes more on the days Garrett goes to school because you go down for a nap and about 45 minutes later we have to leave to pick up Garrett, so you finish the nap when we get home. Eventually I hope to move that nap to after we pick up Garrett, but I know you're not ready to go that long between naps, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

You're down to 4 bottles a day and take 6-7 ounces with each feeding. That's been a very nice change!

You go to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 each night. You usually sleep really well until 4 am, then you start stirring and rolling over and searching for your pacifier. So from then until 7 ish, I'm up and down getting you settled again. Sometimes, if I'm really tired, I'll just bring you into our bed. But I know that needs to stop. We will begin crying it out to get past this hump soon. I'm sure you're excited about that.

I know the next 4 months hold a lot of new things for us. Assuming you do things roughly the same as Garrett did (and who knows about that), then you'll begin sitting up on your own, crawling, and pulling up during this time frame. It will be a busy time for us, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to it!!

And here are a few recent pictures I've taken of you.

First bites of cereal

Even though you do look a lot like Daddy, you remind me of Aunt Grace's baby pictures in this shot. I guess it's the expression on your face.

But in this picture you really look like Daddy...

One Year

One year ago today, I found out I was pregnant.

It's crazy how fast time goes by.

I remember taking the pregnancy test and it was positive. Keith was at work, so I called him and asked him when he was going to be home (this was early afternoon, so obviously it wasn't going to be anytime soon.) I had sworn to myself that I wasn't going to tell him on the phone, but he asked me if I needed him home early and I said I had something to tell him. He said "Is it the something we've been waiting on?" And I said yes, hoping we were on the same page.

Then I proceeded to call my parents to let them know. I was excited to call my sister Grace because she was pregnant at that time too.

When Keith got home that night, he acted as if it was just another day. After about 30 minutes, I finally broke down and asked him if he understood what I was telling him on the phone earlier. He said "You're pregnant, right?" OK, don't get too excited... But then he went on to call his family and let them know, so I guess he was more excited than he let on.

This was a better experience than when I told him I was pregnant with Garrett. He paced the floor for a better part of the evening after that announcement.

Signs That You Live In a House With Boys

-You see this when you go to the bathroom.


Because all men need to take a potty break when they're in the middle of using the chain saw. Then they wander the house wondering where their chain saw is. Umm, you left it hanging on the bathroom door.

-You also open the bathroom drawer to get out toothpaste and find a gun.

You thought I meant a real gun, didn't you? We do have those around here too, but they're safely locked up in the gun safe.

You actually see a lot of things when you go to the bathroom in a house with boys. I refrained from taking pictures of the toilet seat left up or the puddles on the seat (that wasn't lifted prior to pottying) or the puddles on the floor. I was informed that since I'm in the minority I should put the seat up when I'm done in the bathroom. I politely said no.

But I do refrain from any toilet seat nagging. It's not a big deal to check to be sure the seat is in the down position before sitting. I grew up with 2 brothers so it's second nature.

-Toy Story reenactments are routine. Especially after seeing Toy Story 1 & 2 in the theater last week. In 3D. (Woody #1's pull-string broke. When Garrett got money for his birthday, he immediately requested to buy Woody #2. I was impressed with his dedication to the movie that he would rather buy a new toy to replace a broken one than to just buy something entirely different.)

-You do photo shoots with a Tonka truck. And evoke the ire of big brother who was "Using that! And he better not slobber or poop on it!!"

-Bugs and other creatures are pretty regular around here. Garrett found this (dead) butterfly in the garage. He told Keith it was sick so Keith told him to bring it inside and show me. He brought it in and I said "I'm sorry your butterfly is sick." He said "It's not sick! It's dead! You ran over it in the car." OK.

-We are pretty clueless when it comes to girl movie characters. Garrett insists that Tinkerbell is actually called Jingle Bell. And he won't be persuaded otherwise.

-Burps and farts are a huge crowd pleaser. If you want to get a laugh out of someone in a house with boys, you do one or the other and everyone laughs. Unless the person doing one of these is a girl. It's apparently gross when a girl burps or farts, but hilarious when it's a boy. Hello double standard.

-Bedtime prayers can be amusing. Here are a few of Garrett's recent prayers:
"God, thank you for going to the beach. We played golf, but not baseball. I hope we can play baseball next time."
"God, I need more sand for my sand box."
"God, can we please not have more rain? I want to play on my swingset and ride on my mower." (It's not a tractor, it's a mower. I've been informed of this correction many times.)
"God, thank you for Thomas." (the train.)

I know that I will only have many many more things to share the older that my boys get. But that's what is fun about raising boys. They're hilarious, sweet, fun, energetic, exciting, exhausting, loveable, and crazy. Plus many many more adjectives. (And yes, I know girls are the same...)