photoblog

what the dudes are doing

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
My little Friday the 13th boy celebrated his 8 month birthday this past Friday.  Friday the 13ths will always make me smile. 
He’s not one to disappoint on his monthly b-days, so at 8 months, he is sporting some new moves.  For instance, this face: 

It must have something to do with teething, right?  He’s getting his second tooth (I can almost feel it) and all weekend, he was sucking that bottom lip in.  I swear, he doesn’t always just live in pajamas.
I think it was Friday night that he decided it would be cool if he just started standing up and letting go.  Then he waits for us to notice and gets a big grin on his face when we start clapping.  Right before plopping down on his tush.  Once he lunged forward.  I’m not sure if he was just falling or trying to take a step towards me.  This kid is going to walk before his birthday, I just know it. Thing is, he’s tiny.  He has no business walking.  Hop on up in mama’s arms and stay little.  Mmmkay?
Look, ma!  No hands.




one hand

 

no hands



try again.
And y’all – whether it lasts or not remains to be seen.  But it seems as though this guy may finally be sleeping through the night.  It only took 8 (exhausting) months. More about this later!
*********
Well, what’s that other dude been doing?
Keeping up on his oral hygiene, of course.
Eating the meal of all meals – yogurt, a hot dog, and a pickle.  Dee-lish.
Snuggling up to Niko.
Hanging out with friends, Max & Mik. 
(Don’t they look like they could be Dexter’s cousins?)
Reading books to brother.
And finally…
Shouting “pee pee potty!” when it’s already too late.  Then squirming and wiggling away when I try to take his picture on the potty.  What?  Don’t all moms take pictures of their kids on the toilet and post them on the internet?  Maybe I should rethink this…nah.
Newsworthy:  We had no plans this weekend other than getting the Christmas decorations put away.  Success! We did the majority of it during Theo’s 3 hour nap on Saturday.  Perhaps that was mean – he was pretty traumatized when he got up and everything was gone.  Once he noticed the tree had been taken down, he went looking for every string of lights that had been up.  It was sad, following him around as he searched for any trace of Christmas. All in all, it was a nice, relaxing weekend after being sooo busy these past few weeks.
Lastly, I have to say that the weekend would have been better had I not been made aware of some heartbreaking news.  I learned that sweet little 2 year old Tripp Roth lost his battle with epidermolysis bullosa on Saturday morning.  No, I didn’t know him or his mother personally but their story has gripped my heart since I stumbled across their site on Top Mommy Blogs.  Take a moment to read about Tripp. You will fall in love with him.  He has so many admirers – I think tears were falling all around the world this weekend.  Rest in peace, little man. 
so thankful,
~C~

splish. splash.

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

I feel like I am on photoblog overload.  But hey, a lot has gone on lately and there have been a lot of pictures to show for it.  Since this is my virtual baby book, this is where the pictures go.  Eventually I will write a post where I actually talk about stuff, but for this week, I’m editing, uploading, and posting tons of pictures.

Mostly, I think Groupon is junk, because all they ever post is 50% off a spa pedicure 45 minutes from my house.  Every once in awhile, they get it right.  My friend told me about a deal for 50% off an indoor waterpark and resort a couple hours from home.  Sounds like a fun weekend getaway, right? 

Welcome to our Big Splash Adventure. It was only $140 for 4 waterpark passes for both days you’re there, one night in the hotel, pizza dinner with breadsticks and 4 drinks, and continental buffet breakfast.  I think that’s a pretty great deal.

When we pulled up to the hotel, Theo said “beeeg house!”  He’s really learning big and little.  He is also getting really consistent with colors.  He still surprises me every day with the workings of his little brain.

Anyway – we got there Saturday around 12:30 and got the boys suited up.

Dexter is looking pretty sassy here, don’t you think? He knows he looks cute.
He spent most of his time in the water swing and playing with the fountains that shoot up in the kiddie pool (see below).
Theo was more interested in checkin’ out the ladies.  Aw, yeah.
Fountain thingies in the background.  Dexter crawled around all over the place every time we put him in the pool.  Silly boy.

After a couple of hours it was evident that they needed a nap so we went back to the room and got them to sleep for an hour or so.  Oh, they must have slept hard because they had the bedhead to show for it. They rolled around on the giant KING sized bed (we only have a full sized bed at home) and shared a little Puff snack.  Some of the best moments from the whole weekend happened right then. 

I. Love. This.
And this.  Dexter with his hand over Theo’s mouth.  I can already picture him doing this again in a couple years as Theo is about to rat him out for doing something naughty.  Can’t you see it now?
Well, here ya go, brother.  Have a puff.  See the bedhead?
Love.Love.Love.
Theo loved this little bunk.

There was the pizza dinner (it was only okay) and more swimming.  More rolling around on the bed and overly tired, hyper little boys that didn’t want to go to sleep.  Theo desperately wanted to sleep in that bunk.  We pushed his pack n play up next to it to serve as a rail, but he was just too excited.  Too excited about sleeping in a “grown up bed” to lay down and do just that.  We put him in the pack n play and he was out instantly.  Both boys were FINALLY asleep around 10:30.  You know, two and half hours past their normal bedtime.  Dex was up at 6ish as usual, and Theo slept until 8.  I think he would have slept a lot longer if it hadn’t been for Dexter making such a ruckus. 
Breakfast was decent, then it was back to the pool. 
We allowed ourselves about an hour and a half before we needed to go back to the room and get checked out.  It only took about half that to realize that Theo didn’t get enough sleep.  He was so tired.
Dex still loved the water swing.
Theo loved the slide.  He mostly went down by himself, this was just for funsies.

Shortly after this, Theo informed us that he was done “fwimmin” so we got ourselves checked out and hit the road.  He was asleep before we got out of the “beeeg house” parking lot.  Oh, but not before throwing a giant exhaustion-inspired tantrum in the room while we were packing up. 
Par for the course, my friends.
All in all, I’d call it a fantastic weekend.  Can’t wait to go back!
~C~

i’m really competitive so…

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

I just wanted to be sure I could win the award for SLOWEST BLOGGER IN ALL THE LAND TO POST PICTURES OF CHRISTMAS.  Did I win? 

We’ve been out of town the last three weekends in a row so there just hasn’t been lots of time for posting updates.  There hasn’t been lots of time for much of anything.  It’s been fun, but it’s been a whirlwind and I’m ready to just hang out at home for a change.  Our Christmas tree is still up, for Pete’s sake. 

For Christmas weekend, we went to visit my mama and my sister and her family in Tennessee.

Apparently, this is about the best picture I’ll ever get of all 4 of my mama’s grandbabes.  Don’t worry Mom, I’ll keep trying.
Since I was a teenager, we always opened presents at midnight on Christmas Eve.  We had to let Theo and Dex go a little earlier because they would never make it that long.  We would have waited until Christmas morning but the whole fam went to church and we didn’t want to rush it.
Theo digging into his stocking.
Grammy and Dexter getting ready to read one of many Baby’s 1st Christmas cards.
Theo checking out his new “smart” phone.
Dexter’s reaction to presents was about what you’d expect.  Ribbons! Bows! Paper! Boxes!  (Priceless).
Toypalooza 2011.  Oh, HI BENTLEY!  (For the record, Theo was not scared of my mom’s dog.  I was a little nervous that he would be after the whole dog bite to the head incident).
Theo was pretty content just hanging out with his cousin, Malachi,all weekend.
We put the babies to bed and then us big kids started opening presents.  Seen here: The Aftermath.  I swear, my mom is not a hoarder.
I swear, she’s not.
The day after Christmas it was time to head back home and work a couple of days before celebrating Christmas with R’s side of the family.  I’m not complaining – having two Christmases is nice.  Sure is a lot of work, packing and unpacking so much.  I’m sad and happy about having our family Christmases at home in upcoming years.  It will be nice to wake up at home and share those moments together, but it’s kind of the end of an era, too. 
R getting his Perplexus on.  (Have you seen this? Tried this?  It is unbelievably maddening and addictive!)
Theo cooking in his new (used) kitchen with Aunt Chelle.
Spencer:  Hey, Pop Pop!  Wanna watch me play my new 3DS?
Pop Pop: Sure.  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I had such a good time watching and helping the boys open presents.
Nana is good at a lot of things – cooking, knitting, and decorating just to name a few.  It wouldn’t be Christmas (or any day) at Nana’s without lots of pretty blue things sitting around.
One of Theo’s favorite little trinkets from Christmas – a light up glitter snowman.
And of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without some fake mistletoe.  Fake or not, it always elicits a few extra kisses here and there.
So there you have it.  Finally.  It’s been bugging me for a good week now that I hadn’t gotten around to posting this sooner.  I was starting to worry that I’d have to lump 2011 and 2012 Christmas into one blog post.  Maybe if we can get our decorations put away this weekend, it will finally feel like Christmas is over.  Oh well.  What’s the rush?
be merry anyway,
~C~