Final Four

In what might have been the most spontaneous thing we have done post-children, David and I decided to go to Houston to watch UK in the Final Four. We set out on our 17 hour journey, and made it quite a fun road trip.

We were there with thousands of our closest friends. Well, maybe not, but at least we had something in common, right? Truthfully, we did run into several people we knew.

Unfortunately, our road ended there a couple of days too soon, but it was fun anyway!

Pep rally at the Tipoff Tailgate.

We were there with our friends, Ben and Courtney, who now live in Texas. We were excited to get to hang out with them for a couple of days.

That place was crazy huge!

Easter 2011

Here are a few pictures from our Easter weekend.

Helping Caleb with his first Easter basket

Adam loved the eggs with "Mikes" in them.

The night before, we colored Easter eggs. I love making traditions for our family to do together.

Dipping...splash!

Proud of his work!

The day before that David and I were able to go to the boys' daycare to take part in refreshments, reading of the Easter story, some songs, and the egg hunt, which was moved inside due to the rain.

Adam was running all over the gym to fill his bucket with eggs.

He and his friends were super cute!

What a fun day!

Brennan's 1st Birthday!

Our sweet nephew turned one year old this month! We traveled to London for his birthday party where he had tons of family and friends come to help him celebrate his first year!

Isn't he cute?

He had an Elmo-themed party with an Elmo cake and cute cupcakes like this one.

Thankfully, Brennan received plenty of toys and was willing to share because one blonde-haired boy of mine was eyeing this prize as soon as he walked in the door!

My dark-haired son preferred this plastic prize...

He planned his attack...

But when you are one year old, you quit letting little babies take things from you.

A boy's gotta stand up for himself, you know.

I think Brennan must have been saying, "Hey now, don't you know I'm the Birthday Boy?"

Then Big Brother steps in to say, "That's okay, Bubby! It will be your birthday soon enough!"

Caleb: 8 months plus a little!

I love to play in the toy room

I keep my eye on what my big brother is doing too. His toys usually taste the best. I am happiest when all eyes are on ME, though. I am the baby, you know.

Caleb is 8 months old! He wears size 4 diapers and 6-9 month clothes (only until it warms up a bit, these are getting a little short), and weighs 20 lbs, 10 oz. He loves to laugh and play and chew on any toy he can. He is still super grab-by, but it is so cute to see him learning about everything around him. He has started to be pretty vocal, saying lots of da-das and ma-mas and maybe even some ad-am. He makes really cute faces and has great big grins. He loves cereal and now eats applesauce, bananas, pears, peaches, green beans, squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. He still nurses or we supplement with formula. He sleeps from about 8 until about 6 or maybe 7 and occasionally sleeps through, but usually gets up once. During the day he takes 2 good naps and sometimes one cat nap around dinner time. He will be crawling before we know it!

Caleb - 7 Months Old

Hey, I'm 7 months old now!

Another month has passed now and Caleb is now over half the way to his first birthday! Who can believe it? It was just a little bit ago that I first held my little Caleb in my arms, right?

Caleb is a happy baby. He makes us all smile. Over the past couple of months, Caleb has developed a laugh, and its a belly laugh. I love it. His smile spreads across his whole face and he laughs with his entire body. L-O-V-E--I-T!

These days, Caleb is into anything that is within reach. He is quite proficient at sitting up and reaching for things.

He nurses or drinks a bottle every 3-4 hours, and now he is a big fan of solid foods. Besides rice cereal, he also eats bananas, applesauce, pears, green beans, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Still no teeth, but it could be any day!

Favorite toys and activities these days involve watching everything that is going on, pulling off his socks and eating them (or his toes), sucking his thumb, and bouncing, wherever he is. He loves to play with any chew toy, his jingly frog, musical table, jumparoo, or musical activity center. Caleb doesn't crawl yet, but he can spin and roll to end up someplace completely different than where you left him. He has started liking peekaboo and still loves silly faces.

Stats for this month: 19 lbs, 8 oz and 29.5 inches long. He wears mostly size 6 months clothes, plus some 6-9 months (if one-piece), and size 3 diapers.

Happy 7 month birthday Caleb! We love you very much.

Caleb's First Haircut

Well, it was time, I guess. My little Caleb had a big comb-over. Unless it was "carefully combed over", his hair was a little crazy. Adam was in need of a haircut too, so it became the big day for Caleb. He was so good!

He looks so excited, doesn't he?

The "After" picture.

I cried, of course! We got the "first haircut certificate" and souvenir lock of sweet baby hair, and now I think Caleb looks so grown - well, grown up for a 6 month old!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you feel loved this Valentine's Day!

Play-Doh Family

Here's a couple of masterpieces Adam and I made during a recent play-doh event. We talked about making puppy dogs, boats, cars, etc., but Adam was most interested in making Dada. (Of course!) We then turned it into our whole family. Can you guess which one is which? Haha!

First Cereal

Caleb recently had his first bites of rice cereal. After a few bites, he was all about the spoon and wanted me to hurry up!

What? You mean I get to eat more than this thing?

Hmmm....

Not too bad!

Keep it comin' Mom!

Playing with Friends

The Andersons came over to watch the Super Bowl, and we had some yummy food and good times. Adam and Dustin started really playing together this time - in the past, we joke that they "play around" each other. They were cute, crawling through the tunnel and chasing each other around the circle! Before you know it, Jackson and Caleb will be playing together too!

Adam and Dustin playing during the Super Bowl

Fun times!

Earlier this week two of my close friends from pharmacy school were meeting in Lexington and I ended up getting to see them too. It was funny to see how times had changed for us; we hardly had time to chat for chasing this bunch below!

Caleb, Adam, David, and Ava

Here, little Ava must be trying to figure out why these boys can't sit still for a minute

What a crew!

Adam-isms

For some time now I've been mentally trying to collect a bunch of cute things that Adam says, does, or likes these days. Most of the time, this "mental collecting" is happening in the car, while we are out, or even while we are at home and my hands are full with one or both boys. Well, let's face it, its impossible for me to get this stuff written down, so I'll do the best I can from my mental collecting!

On our way to Uncle Scotty's Birthday Dinner

Helping to entertain Caleb for a bit

More of the same, and I have no idea what food that used to be on Adam's tray


We love to play Mr. Potato Head!

Snow buddies

• Adam has taken an interest in the "E-B" for the first time. His favorite shows are Dora, Chuggington, Handy Manny, and Thomas the Train. It is so cute to see him climb on the couch next to me and sit still to watch a show. My boy is growing up! He says "Chug'ton", "Swiper, no swiping!" and "Aww, man!"
• Adam loves to play pretend these days, and his imagination is growing. We frequently make food and eat it in his little kitchen, and we play "ride on the bus" by sitting on the steps in our house and driving, hitting bumps, honking our horn, etc.
• A new game to play is "Marching Band", which Gigi taught him. We all have to follow Adam as he marches us around the house saying, "March-ing Band...March-ing Band!" Nana recently gave him a set of instruments to make it even more fun!
• Most of the time, Adam now remembers who gave him what, etc. An exception: Lan kept him one day last week when he was home with an ear infection. After getting a Happy Meal with a toy truck in it, he accidentally left it at daycare when we went to pick up Caleb. However, he forgot that part. Instead, he started saying, "Lan took my truck!" Soon after that, he got a replacement truck, and now he says, "Lan got this for me at McDonald's". So far, we haven't lost it!
• He loves to play, and plays hard, and is so observant when someone plays with him. If you do something special or funny with the toys, it becomes the new gold standard for how to play with that particular toy for the future. This also applies to putting away his toys. Once he learns of each item's "place", he is excellent about putting things away where they go. I laugh because his little kitchen has knobs where utensils and frying pans hang, but to him these knobs are not interchangeable - each one is for a certain item. Hopefully I have not messed him up for life - ha! I like to think he has just learned good habits, both here and at daycare. He sings they same song at home that he sings at daycare when its time to clean up!
• At home, Adam is often our little narrator. He is learning so many new words and stringing together longer sentences, and he tells us everything we are doing as we do it!
• Adam loves to be helpful. He likes to help me cook, clean, or even get ready to go somewhere. He gets his shoes and coat, or diapers for Caleb, puts Caleb's hat on, shows me where my coat and purse are, and even sets my shoes together so I can easily slip them on! David likes to have Adam help him pick out clothes to wear in the mornings, though I warn David that this can make me look like a bad wife!
• Adam has a new interest in his Cookie Monster, and he likes his little Elmo too. Every night he puts them on the pillow and covers them up, then comes to tell me that they're sleeping. Sometimes he carries them around in one of my purses, carries some keys and tells me he's "Going to make Dada some monies!" How funny!
• Yesterday he and I went to the pediatric opthamologist as his final follow-up there to check his eyes for problems related to his prematurity. Thankfully, everything has been perfect so far and we can go to regular checkups now. On the way, we passed a huge parking lot FULL of cars, so I pointed it out to him. Adam said, "Wow! Two of 'em!" So...he's not the best counter just yet :) This came from David carrying both boys around - Adam says, "Dada has TWO boys!"
• I have never seen a little kid have a sense of direction like he does. I am positive he could get us to several places in town completely on his own. Sometimes this becomes a challenge, though, such as when we turn a certain way and he thinks we're going to "Chick-Fil-A!" when we're not. Oops.
• Occasionally it becomes obvious the "terrible twos" have set in. The other day, just after filling up with pride at how sweet my little Adam is, he had a big tantrum on me. He was hungry but wouldn't agree to anything I suggested. He saw some crackers that he decided sounded good, but when I asked him to say please first, he refused. And when I say refused, I mean he fell down on the floor, kicked and cried, etc. This seriously went on for 30 minutes! The longer it went on, the more I realized I couldn't give in either. At one point I had Caleb playing on a blanket in the living room and Adam went near him and started saying, "Bubby's touch-in' me, Mama...Bubby's kick-in' me!" Great. He even signed "please" once in an obstinate manner just so he didn't have to say it. Finally, he gave in. Isn't it amazing how young we become so stubborn? I'm afraid he gets this from me, but David has his stubborn streaks too!
• Most importantly, Adam is a wonderful big brother, and I feel very blessed. Those two boys are going to have the best time together! Love you Adam!

I am sure there is more that I'll think of, but then I'll just have to do this again!