9 Months, 4 Weeks Old! Your First Easter!

Well, we probably would have had a much more lovely Easter if we hadn't all gotten sick again!

However, it was nice to have the extra hands to help with you guys, even if it was only for a few hours!  We spent the afternoon at Grandma's house with Mama's side of the family and you enjoyed trying watermelon for the very first time.  While the older boys had a little Easter hunt you got to open a fun little bag of gifts just for you.  Your favorite is the play cell phone- you seem to have an affinity for electronics!

All in all things have just been rough this past week with all the sickness we have been enduring, but hopefully we will be on the mend soon!

Happy New Year Lion Cub!!!

It doesn't seem possible that it is 2010 and you are officially living in a different decade than you were born in!!  We rang in the New Year with some good friends of ours- sleeping over at their house and all!  Mommy & Daddy celebrated our 6th Anniversary and our generous friends even watched you boys and gave us a gift certificate for dinner so we could celebrate!  We played a lot of Wii and you got a kick out of watching the older boys play!

Our goofy friends:

Erik...

and Christa!

Ringin' in the New Year...

and scaring the bageebies out of you!!

Your brother was asleep already...

but you were busy whoopin' it up with the adults... and trying to figure out what in the world we were up to!

Your cousins, aunt and uncle also came over on Saturday since we hadn't gotten to see them yet this holiday season.  They had a lot of fun seeing you and your brother again because it has been quite some time and you have grown like a weed!  We are hoping to start having regular monthly or bi-monthly dinners so we don't go long between seeing each other again!

 

In other news, you continue to motor around like a crazy man, including right on down the stairs which just about gave mama a complete heart attack!!  Oh what a terribly feeling!  It literally scared the poop out of you and nearly out of me!  You are a resilient little man though, and bounced back to normal in no more than five minutes.

You are getting more and more interactive and are showing a definite preference for mama at times!  You really notice when I leave the room now and are not happy about it!  You follow me all over the house and seem to love crawling straight under my legs while I do the dishes!

You love to be held so that you are standing up, and think it is a lot of fun to push up into a crawling position and then all the way up on your feet like a bear (although you still crawl like an inch worm!).

Your new favorite nighttime activity is taking a bath with your big brother!!  I hold you up while you splash around with him and when he blows bubbles in the water you giggle uncontrollably!  It is the cutest thing!

We are truly starting to have so much fun with you Lion Cub!  You love to watch mama up close while I sing and to give all of us big wet kisses!  You also started chowing down Cheerios for the first time today and they could literally keep you busy for hours!  You are getting so good at pinching them between your thumb and pointer finger!

Your precious smile melts my heart and we can hardly remember what it was like to not have you around!  I love you Lion Cub!

Always Your...
Mama!

Your First Christmas!!!

What a fun Christmas we had little man! Relaxing and joyful. 

You were of course more crazy for the crowd of family members to hold you and play with you than you were the actual presents, but that is fine by me (especially since mommy and daddy were totally broke this year!  Don't worry, you'll have plenty of presents next year thanks to Swagbucks!)! Oh and you also had a particular affinity for this box:

We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Michelle & Uncle Rick's house with Nana's (my mom) side of the family and Christmas Day at Grandma & Grandpa's house with Papa's (my dad) side of the family (who were especailly fun to see since most of them hadn't met you yet!)!

There are really so many pictures that it was difficult to choose, and in spite of how it may appear, I did narrow them down to only these!  So, here goes:

Grandma & Nana admiring you!

Nana lugging you around!

Napping with Papa- a favorite past time for both of you!

Mama & Daddy just cuddling while checking our e-mail and blog readers on our iPhones!

Aunt Michelle & Uncle Rick- our hosts!

Hangin' with Mama!

Your beautiful Nana & handsome Papa, just snugglin'!

Fun with Nana beatin' on the couch!

Snoozin' on Grandma!  What a nice way to spend Christmas Eve!

Christmas Morning!  You played in the exersaucer while your brother tore through his gifts...

...and placed a bow on your head, anointing you as the best gift we received this year!

Family photo opp at Grandma & Grandpa's!

You can see how enthused your brother was about taking this picture!

You love your Grandma! And she loves you!!!

Mama, Grandma, Aunt Jeanna & You!

Grandpa, Grandma, Papa & Nana after a rousing game of Catch Phrase!

Uncle Bob & our cousins Macy & Kolton

And we finished out the day by having Kolton serenade us all with some lovely Christmas songs- "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" & "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"

He has a great voice and it was really nice to hear him play- your brother especially loved it!

Merry Christmas Lion Cub!  

You are the cutest Christmas baby on the planet!

Love and hugs,

Mama

25 Weeks Old and your first Thanksgiving!

I have one word to describe your latest fascination: TOES!  But only the one on your left foot!  Whenever there are out of your PJs you just go to town!  It is so cute and funny!

You get closer to crawling every day!  You can now balance on your hands and knees pretty darn well- you can even twist your torso and pick up one hand!  You really get to rocking back and forth and we know that anytime now you are just going to race across the room!  When you really get going and then flop down on your belly you get so mad!  But you are getting better at scooting and twisting your way around the living room floor.  You can nearly get to everything you want, it just takes more effort than you want to put out!

Sleep has still been rough this last week.  You are fine once I am actually in bed with you for the night, but anytime before that and you just don't want to snooze for long.  What can I say, you just love to snuggle!

You continue to be a screamer and we are quite sure that you are just very bored!  All the moms at my Bible Study think you are going to be very outgoing and talkative, though, because you are so interactive and vocal!  They laugh as you LOUDLY soothe yourself to sleep during study each week!  You are a character, no doubt!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving over at Aunt Michelle and Uncle Rick's house.  I was very grateful to have lots of hands to hold you and you were of course loving the crowd of people to watch!  Pretty much everyone got some face time with you, Lion Cub, but my favorite pictures from the day are this one with you and Papa snoozin' after dinner:

And this one of you and grandma!  She just adores you and is such a wonderful help!

You of course thought that the moment we sat down to eat would be a good time to start screaming, so I fed you in the other room with less distractions and then was able to pass you off so I could eat myself!  Fairly typical of a holiday meal with a little one though, I guess!

I love you sweet boy and adore watching your little personality emerge more and more!  I simply can't believe that you will be 6 months old in a week! Time goes by so quickly! 

Kisses and cuddles my Lovey Boy!


Mama

21 Weeks Old!

What an eventful week little man!  You are truly blossoming into a crazy. interactive little tyke!  You still scream a ton (you don't ever want to be put down... unless your naked) but you are really starting to laugh and jabber a lot more too!  You have developed quite the new vocabulary over the last week, including "Buh, buh, buh," "Duh, duh, duh," and "Mamamama!"  It is really funny though because your voice is so low!  It is lower than your big brother's!  We laugh so hard when you talk away with this little grumpy old man expression on your face!  Priceless! 

Your pension for grabbing things has also greatly increased over the last week!  You have even developed a love for certain toys, most of all a little Baby Einstein stuffed dog- when we put him next to your face you just crack up!  It is hysterical!  It is so nice to be able to put toys in front of you and have you be happy for even a few minutes!  Improvement!

You have also started pushing up on your arms while laying on your belly and sticking your bum up in the air- just not at the same time yet!  You want to crawl so badly and we are all looking forward to the day when you finally take off and are able to get to the things you want.  We are sure you will be a much happier baby when you attain that level of freedom and mobility!

Other than that we have been pretty darn busy, running around to appointments and such.  You even raked the leaves with me!  You fell asleep on my back eventually and I had to keep shifting you over so your head didn't bob over the side!  You were so cute and content even though it was a very windy day!  I think you liked the change of scenery!

This past weekend was Halloween and your Nana's 49th birthday so we went over to Grandma's house to celebrate!  True to form, you were amazingly quite and happy with the large group of people around!  I think you were actually destined to be a 5th or 6th child (so that there would be more going on around you constantly) but somehow ended up as a 2nd!  Oh well- each week you get a smidgen less fussy (or at least that is what I like to tell myself!)!

We don't really celebrate Halloween but there was a little bit of dress up for the evening that was rather amusing- especially in terms of hair!  Here is your brother with the real mohawk we cut him that morning (it was intended for just that day but it fits his personality so well that we decided to keep it for a while!):

And here is Aunt Rena and Uncle Rick with their matching wigs (make note that the wig Rena is wearing is her actual hairstyle that she has sported since the 1970s!):

It was a nice and funny night with family and we look forward to gathering together in just a few short weeks for Thanksgiving as well!

You are the cutest thing you chubby cheeked man!  We love you!