Thursday, February 25, 2010

Eight Is Enough

Today, my little men turned eight months old. I can't believe how fast the time goes. I've decided that they need to stop and stay eight months old for a little while. My cuddly little babies have become busy young men who are starting to get into that most dreaded of positions - the crawling one. They sit and play together for hours. Their favorite activity is to dump out the basket of toys and roll around in them - picking and choosing which ones to chew, which ones to throw, and which ones to steal.
All of the boys are a little under the weather. James feels the worst - he has a fever and a runny nose. I'm pretty sure that the snot content of my shirt is fairly high. The dogs like to eat the kleenex before I have a chance to throw them away (YUCK!!!). The boys hate it when I wipe their noses. Each of them has a disgusted face and turns his head every time my tissue passes by. James has the best don't wipe my face look, Michael runs great interference with his hand, and Ryan has a good duck and cover move.
James is very focused on his toys. He loves to figure things out. He is always studying the situation and trying to do things on his own. He is the first and only one to hold his bottle consistently. I LOVE that he can hold it himself (he doesn't always hold it for the entire feeding, but it makes my life so much easier that he likes to do it himself). He still likes the bouncers, but he definitely makes tracks in his jeep. Today, I had to go and return him to the living room after he made his way into our bedroom. He's figured out how to back up and maneuver around in his jeep. He has just started to say "dadadadadada" (he's the last to say this new sound, but he was the first to do the raspberry - with and without food in his mouth). He doesn't always like to stay face up in the diaper change station - he's a flipper. Although I don't think James could live without his pacifier, he's been less addicted to it lately. He'll play for almost an hour without thinking about his most important appendage. He still likes to sleep with his face firmly planted in the mattress, and he seems to have adapted to the upstairs naps better than Michael and Ryan.
Let the hair pulling begin!
Michael loves to give hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, his kisses sometimes involve teeth that his brothers don't appreciate. He's so cute with his giant open-mouth approach and his fists firmly ensconced in your hair. It's sweet yet painful. Michael is very focused. When eating, he loves to play with his toys and is hard to distract. We had Cheerios today for the first time, and he must have spent 20 minutes moving them around on the tray. I'm not sure how many made it into his mouth, but Duke was more than happy to clean out his chair and the floor around it. He's still such a smiley kid that I'm a little afraid he'll come up to me and say "Mom, I just spilled a whole bucket of red paint in the middle of the living room floor" then flash that smile and get away with it. He's starting to get tired of his crab bouncer, but he does still do his little crab dance occasionally. Lately, he's been snuggling up with his blanket like Linus from Peanuts.
The pacifier exchange program - James is NOT a fan.
Silly faces are Ryan's new favorite thing. Lately he has not been a big fan of sleep. He seems to think that 20 minutes equals a long nap. Which is a little distressing for a mommy who uses nap time to do important things like pee and take the trash out. In addition to his sleeplessness (luckily only during daylight hours), Ryan has become the messiest eater (a title previously held by young James). Yesterday, he had food all over - in his hair, eyebrows, ears, and several other insane places. Mom had to actually rinse out the washrag and go for round two before he came away clean. During these self-decorating sessions, he has so much fun, that it's hard not to laugh. He is still pretty patient (all of the boys are), but he is in need of a little extra attention lately. I seem to have him on my lap more often than not, and he's got a pathetic look when he's in need of love. He will cuddle up and give you a good hug, but only if he's in the mood. I think Ryan is closest to getting mobile. He's got his stance down, but luckily hasn't figured out how to move forward (whew). He also is quite a driver and can make it around the house quite speedily in his jeep, and he's certainly not afraid to push someone else out of the way or stop to pull things off of tables or out of baskets, etc - baby proofing, here we come.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

My Little Loves

Valentine's Day was quite a day at our place. Daddy came home from a LONG trip, and that was Mommy's favorite Valentine (the flowers and candy were nice, too). The boys got Valentine's from Daddy, too - these cute little shirts. The boys really enjoyed opening their Valentines - or at least eating the paper envelopes.
James
Michael
Ryan



Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Three of a Kind

The boys love to sit together and play. (Or wrestle toys away from one another). They are starting to roll to get to where they want to go, and I fear that crawling is in the near future.
"Sharing" the big fluffy dog.
Sharing Momo's lap. The boys love their Momo. I don't know what they are going to do when she goes home. She loves to sing them little songs and entertain them while they eat. I have a feeling they'll be looking for her & wondering where she went. Luckily, she'll be back in a couple of weeks to catch a plane to Atlanta. We're going to have to watch her close when she leaves, Grandma has been threatening to sneak one of the boys home with her in her suitcase. Luckily, American charges for extra baggage.
Double Duty.
The boys love their sippy cups. Tragically, they are very messy when drinking, but they do love to drink their juice from a cup. Bob and I like that they can hold the cups themselves.
Uncle Joseph amidst some new OU fans. He couldn't let Uncle Stephen throw Baylor out there as the sole college choice. Uncle Zach keeps threatening to buy the kids UT shirts to make Uncle Joseph have a meltdown, but as of yet, Joseph's sanity is safe.
James mugging for the camera during our Valentine's Day photo shoot.
Michael enjoying holding on to both sets of toes.
Smiling Ryan. This boy loves to laugh!
Three of a kind. (All of whom are sporting their love for baseball).
Playing together. When they share, it's so cute, when they tackle each other and wrestle over toys, it's a little more labor intensive for Mom, but still fun.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Snow Fun

Last week, our house got 14 inches of snow. It was surreal. Grandma and Mom were very excited by the snow, and as it kept piling up outside my windows, I started to enjoy it as well. (I'm not very fond of cold, wet weather, but it is kinda pretty for a day or so). Grandma went out and measured how much snow was on our patio furniture, and around noon, it was 7 inches. My snow joy was somewhat abated by the fact that I had to get the ladder and a broom to free the satellite dish from winter's icy clutches (all of said snow promptly landed upon my head as I scraped it off, but a girl has to have TV). The boys enjoyed watching the snow fall through the window, and the dogs refused to go outside (wise animals).
Aunt Faith was more than happy to go outside and play in the snow. Luckily the neighborhood kids were all out playing so I didn't have to go school her in a snowball fight. This is Faith duded up in Bob's ski gloves and boots. I made her go outside for a picture and pushed her down in the snow (unfortunately those pictures are on my phone and not readily available for this post). I think it might have been my favorite snow moment. The next day, after the snow had stopped falling, Grandma insisted that the boys get their pictures made in the snow. I wasn't too keen on it, but looking at the pictures, I'm happy she said we should.
Ryan wonders "Mom, where are my shoes?" (tragically, he doesn't own any).
Michael checking out the white stuff and wondering when we can go back inside.
James finds a winter time playmate who would rather lick him than frolic about in the snow.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Roaming Ryan

Ryan loves to roam around the house in his jeep. He's the fastest driver in the house and he can definitely get to where he wants to go.
Continuing with the foot fetish.
Chowing down on the lamb chair while pinching the stuffed dog's nose. It's a good life.
Trying to catch the fish.
Reading the Walmart ad.
If he can't find a foot, a sock will do.
Enjoying Grandma Newhouse's Valentine gift.
Stuffed or real, Ryan loves dogs.
In the stationary walker.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Mischievious Michael

Tasty jingle pig.
Mamma's Boy.
Keepin' it real with Uncle Joseph.
Let's go for a ride!
Here's my Jabba the Hut pose.
Jeep parking by the fish tank for hours of amusement.
Smiling for the camera.
Hello Happiness.
Finally able to put the ball pit to good use.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Jovial James

When sleeping, comfort is apparently not James' first priority.
"Even though I'm mad, I'm gonna chew this toy, but you'd better realize that I'm mad!"
Mommy's little monkey.
Chewing, chewing, chewing, but still no teeth.
Reading the ads from the Sunday paper.
Testing out the new (and very messy) teething biscuits. The boys did well with them until the biscuits broke into smaller pieces & Mommy freaked out and took them away.
Say what?
Toes are fun to catch.