A Family that Bounces Together, Stays Together

For -N-'s birthday we rented a bounce house. He was exstatic to have his "very own bounce house in his very own back yard", so when the news that we had to keep it longer came, because they couldn't make it out to pick it up that night, it was music to his ears. So after church we headed home to blow it up one last time and jump as a family.

This was -A-'s first time to enjoy a bounce house, and since he has become quite the pro in his jumparoo, it was right up his alley!

Turning 3...

So it's official, he who was once 2, is now 3!

My once small and completely dependent baby boy is growing up, and fast!

It seems like such a short time ago, that he made his debut. He was calm and quiet and we were at such peace settling into the idea of being a family of 3. Snuggling my baby boy and taking in all that made the day so special, I became a Mom and my hubby became a Dad. A day that changed our lives. He arrived in an instant and in one deep breath, we became a family. That first moment changed our "forever".


Happy Birthday Big Boy,
We love You!

This year has changed him so much. He is a big brother now and has figured out how to express his wants and needs. It really is amazing, his imagination is never ending and he loves life.

He is no longer the little baby that he once was. He is the "oldest" 3 year old We know.

Now this particular day could only be described as Birthday fun! We started the day by opening presents from Us & Nini and Papa after we ate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, of course.


Then -N-'s friends arrived for a party fit for the heartiest of pirate crews, with a whole lot of bouncing too!


Once we finished, we headed out to Grammy and Grandpa's for a third round and the official cutting of the pirate ship cake, a special request made by said 3 year old.

Here it is: 1 Pirate Ship at sea, complete with Pablo and Uniqua on top and a treasure island too!

And yeah, that's homemade Baby!

Has it been 7 months already?

So as of Tuesday, -A- is 7 months old! Yeah you read it right, in less than 5 months, my baby will be turning ONE!!! Where is the time going, honestly? Can someone please hit pause??? No? Well then I am at least gonna document this moment and freeze it in the pages of history, k?

Here he is, without further ado and he is sporting something new...

Why yes that is a new outfit (thank you Nini and Papa), but that's not what I am talking about, can you see them?

Open wide -A-, look really close...

alright still can't see them???

well here ya go...he has TEETH!

Two to be exact and the other two on top are on their way!

That's Life

BROTHERS:

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero. ~Marc Brown

These two boys are amazing.

Just because they are.

I know I am a bit partial, but they are both enamoured with each other. -N- is always happy to show -A- just how to play with toys, and well, -A- is always happy to learn.

-N- has proven over and over that he is a great BIG brother!

We are so proud of him, such a life changing event and he has accepted it so well.

When -A- arrived, -N- was so excited to be a big brother. His understanding of the whole event was that Mom went to the hospital with -A- in my tummy and when he and Dad came to pick me up, it was because the doctor gave me -A- to bring home with us. End of story. Makes sense, right?





Well after being home and making adjustments to our little family of four, it had been about a week when -N- simply proclaimed that he was READY to take -A- back to the hospital.



Once we explained that -A- was here to stay, and that he was going to be a brother forever, just like Mom and Dad would always be a Mom and Dad.


He accepted his fate and has been the BEST big brother ever since.



It takes two men to make one brother.
~Israel Zangwill

As for -A- he has filled the role of little brother quite well too. He knows just which toys are the best (the ones big brother has of course) and can't wait to crawl or walk, which ever comes first, just as long as he can keep up with his big brother.

That's really all that matters.

They love each other so much and it shows. -A- can often be found just watching that big brother of his, and even when no one's watching -N- can be found talking softly to his little brother saying things like "I love you my Bubba" with a great big smile on his face.

There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother.
~Astrid Alauda

Our Day of Love...

Well this weekend started with a BANG! Friday we had a much awaited bundle join the family out in Chicago!

Welcome Baby -Z- and congrats to -K-, -S- and -R-...isn't he just so cute? Can't wait to snuggle and hold this little one, may you all enjoy the wonders of a little boy and all he has in store!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

With Love in our hearts, we set out to have a very Happy Valentine's Day! We started our day, bringing the boys out to find their Valentine's goodies and had a sweet breakfast with the boys.


We had Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Muffins, and -A- even got to indulge a bit with his two new teeth, the only ones so far, and not quite picture worthy, but none the less they get the job done when it comes to finger foods!!!


Then we got the boys all dressed up in the Valentine's Day outfits, nope, no Hearts here, but they most definitely are "Naturally Irresistable"!!

We loaded them up in my parent's car and sent them to spend the day with Grammy and Grandpa, -A-'s maiden voyage!!


-A- and -N- had a blast spending the day with them!!!

SO MUCH LOVE!!!

Once the kiddos were all set, we started out on our adventure of Love and TORTURE, HA! We decided to make-over the front of our house this Valentine's Day, what says "I Love you" better than Manual Labor???

This is our house before we started... and this is after...

Our Front Entry, all clean and defined!

No more out of control bushes on the front of the house and the crocuses already in full bloom for a touch of color.

Our Garage sporting a new coat of darker paint and let's not forget the amazing artwork on the driveway done by Mr. -N- and note the hand prints all along the side of my car...

What an awesome wall, no more wire fence or stone paver/white rock walkway and NO more walking under trees to cut the grass, woohoo!

Only couples with this kind of LOVE can enjoy a project like this on the most romantic DAY of the YEAR, hehehe!

Now we just wait for Spring to arrive, the weeds to die, the grass to grow, everything else to be in full bloom and a good rain to wash away some amazing sidewalk art...after all the painting, staining and landscaping we are exhausted, so is now a good time for a NAP? The next item on our agenda is the backyard, that sounds like a good project to tackle on our anniversary weekend, HA!...hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day, we may have not done anything traditional but we still had fun, even if it was spent working on our house!

When Help is Needed

Well Hubby decided to take the kids out while he did some minor yard work in the front yard. -N- is always happy to help and with -A- in the stroller what could possibly go wrong?

Well, let's see, -N- had a shovel, so...

This is the fate of -A- when in the line of fire of said shovel, enjoy!

I would also like to point out, there are no tears, just smiles, even after having dirt heaved over his brother's shoulder and on to him, still smiling. This is the way to have fun, I tell you what!

Another Birthday, Another Cast???

The Scene of the Crime!!!

Our day started with a walk with friends around the mall and then moved to the play area. -N- was having a blast climbing to the top of the rocks and sliding down the slide in many different contorted ways, but none the less having a blast, I sat done to play with -A- and talk to a friend, and wouldn't you believe -N- comes a running...

Through tears, he described his fall as "I landed on the 'rocks' and hurt my arm." (yep those big foam things, meant to protect them from getting hurt) So after testing and finding he had limited strength and wouldn't move it much, I got ice from Haggen Daas and iced it for about 5 minutes. At which point, he decided he wanted to go play, he slid off the bench and quickly turned back around to inform me he needed more ice...

So after 20 minutes of icing and still no apparent change in demeanor or use of his left arm, we walked upstairs to the convenient store and purchased Tylenol, & dosed him up. Our friends headed home, while we stayed to wait for -B- to arrive, as he was heading there for a Eye appt after work (the whole reason we were at the mall in the first place).

When he arrived, I explained what happened and -B- gave his two cents (that's what I did whenever I broke my arm...) and immediately I was rushing back to thoughts from this time last year as -N- was having his leg set in a fiberglass splint one week before his 2nd birthday, and wondering if this would become a birthday tradition of "which appendage will be in a cast for my birthday this year?"

So we headed to -C-'s Children's Hospital after -B-'s appt as -N- was showing no signs of improvement, we moved quickly from one place to the next and after two x-rays and NO BREAKS (woohoo), we found out he had Nursemaid's elbow (which I had never heard the term for until a friend mentioned it a week ago). The Dr. reset the dislocated elbow and -N- screamed bloody murder at him while he did, then the nurse brought him a Popsicle and -N- gladly took it and was just fine!


We left with instructions of no swinging or supporting his weight using his arm as it is easy to re-injure, and you would never know that -N- had been hurt in the first place. So it looks like we will be avoiding monkey bars or anything of the sort for sometime, say til he's 5!!!

This Week on Television...

-N-'s FAVORITE T.V. SHOW:

http://http//www.nickjr.com/shows/backyardigans/index.jhtml

So this past week our house has been hit by the FLU, no not the stomach bug but the actual respiratory FLU!!! Oh the fun, let me preface this with, we have all had our FLU shots, but we're lucky to have been graced with the presence of a strain not combated against this year! Oh the love we feel...NOT!

Luckily as it has played out the only one of us, thus far, to actually get sick has been -N-. We are hoping to keep it that way!

Last Tuesday, he started out with an unexplained fever around midnight and then we played the waiting game as we treated the fever. By Thursday, we found ourselves at the doctor's office at which point he tested positive for Influenza. He and hubby were given Tamiflu and little -A- and I were left to fend for ourselves, he is too young and since I am nursing, that means I am out too. Since then we have played the quarantine game, so to speak. This game involves every time I touch -N- I wash my hands, I avoid face contact at all cost and if he has snuggled me, my shirt gets changed, all to avoid the 6 month old getting the lovely virus. Did I mention the house smells like Lysol??? -N- has been ostracized from our bed and now sets up camp on the floor in a sleeping bag in the event he needs to come into our room. He has 3 more doses of Meds and with the will of God and a sterile house we hope to not revisit this again anytime soon.

This being his first bought of the Flu in his short lifetime, it has been interesting to say the least. For the first day or two, he and I would argue about him being sick, I would say he was, he would in turn, deny, deny, deny. The only way to get him to be sedentary was to play episodes of the Backyardigans back to back, luckily there are 39 episodes currently saved on our DVR, so there hasn't been any re-watching, yet. This is one of the only shows he watches and he LOVES it!

The Backyardigans are influential to such phrases as:

"The Ping-Pong Bandit is gonna beat you!" (in a game of Ping-Pong of course)

"You gotta have Pirattitude, Mom"

"It's Racing Day"

"Come on Dusty we gotta catch that Bandit"

"I love you Mom, I'm going to Texas" (he doesn't quite understand that he is already in Texas)
"I can do the Funkadilly, watch me now!"

among many others, our life has become quite the reference to The Backyardigans.

At any given moment we could be asked to watch the Backyardigans, and for the past week we have watched all 39 episodes. Being that we aren't out of the woods yet, -N- still needs to get plenty of rest and so we are back to the top of the list, when to my surprise I was told this morning, "Mom, I think I would not like to watch The Backyardigans!"

Wha-Wha-What? Could it be possible that he is as sick of the fun loving imaginative group of creatures as the rest of us?

Well, guess not, I was then told, "Mom I want to watch the Berenstein Bears and then I think I would like to watch the Ping-Pong Bandit. Oh well once he has made a full recovery, we may just have to unplug the T.V. for a week!!!

Time for a Bath, 1 a week whether you Need it Or Not!

Okay so maybe not, but needless to say, these boys have started a journey of bathtime fun together. With -A- sitting up on his own he can now enjoy bathtime with his Big Bro, and boy oh boy -N- thinks it is great.

Usually we do showers, but once a week it has become a habit to follow up that shower with a bath. -N- looks forward to this with growing anticipation and -A- seems to enjoy them too. They are just too cute for words, the bond is there and in a couple of years we are in TROUBLE!!!

No Excuses...

I have been totally slacking AGAIN!! No excuses, Hubby had two whole weeks off and oh the fun we had and the time we spent just enjoying each other, honest, see!

First there was Interlochen and the Christmas light display...

Then on to Gingerbread house baking, assembly and decorating...

YUMMY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Let's not forget Christmas Morning, we baked muffins and sang happy birthday to Baby Jesus and the boys both enjoyed their awesome gifts from Santa, -N-, so much so, that it was a battle getting him to open anything else! All while little -A- wore himself out jumping up and down!

Then we headed over to Grammy and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner and opening gifts with them, my little bro Uncle -J- and G. Gram, see the tree above?

One word SPOILED!

-A- is sporting his Christmas outfit from Nini and Papa and -N- is sporting his apron made by Mwaaa!

There is not one gift that these two little boys didn't love! -N- constantly wants to wear his "awesome camo jammies" his words not mine, he thinks his "bery own guitar" and "mote car" are great and loves playing all of the new games he received,

thus birthing family game night!

Last week's were Memory, Candy Land and putting together a puzzle.

He is overcoming his fear of the dark with the help of his new bed tent while snuggling his night light teddy bear. -A- LOVES stuffed animals and any toy that lights up or makes sound,

just when I thought we had it ALL, we got sooo much more!

From that point, I spent what seems like an eternity reorganizing and collecting items for donation.

Moving us quickly into a great start to the New Year, Happy New Year!!!

In the meantime, -A- learned a new game of his own,

PEEK-A-BOO!!

Before we knew it, it was all over and hubby was back at work and the 3 of us were returning to a "normal" schedule while Dad worked.

What more can I say, no excuses, just a whole lot of fun, I can't wait to do it all again!