Three Months Already?

This beautiful baby boy is just growing too darn fast!  I need to do something to slow down time.  Has anyone figured that out yet?  Sometimes it seems like our days are never ending - especially when we don't have a fun outing planned and daddy is working late - but our weeks fly by.  I just don't get it.

 We have been working really hard on building up Jack's strength with lots of tummy time.  Little by little his is making real progress!  He starts out lifting his head quite a bit and turning it from side to side.  He has one book in particular that he loves to look at.  I've also seen a little bit of the superman move when he lifts his head and his legs for a moment.  While Jack's on his tummy those sweet little legs just kick and kick.  One of these days these little power thighs are going to roll him over and he will be so surprised!

Here is his monthly picture in the chair.  As soon as I disappeared behind the camera so did his smile.  No matter what I did I could not get a smile on camera.  Will tried to help, but he just succeeded in knocking Jack over.  It was pretty cute how sweet

Will was when he tried to sit Jack back up.  Before I know it he will be sitting up all on his own.  I feel like if I blink I will miss it.  After dinner we celebrated three months of Jack with a bike ride.  Poor Jack wasn't to wild about it at first, but the big boys had a blast.  Will cracked me up in his helmet.  About halfway through our walk he tried to pull it off and kept yelling 'hat off' as loud as he could.  So funny.

Peach Picking

What an incredible day!  The boys and I packed up at 7:30 this morning and headed to pick up Aunt Carm.  Then we were on the road to Eckert's Farm.  From the tractor, to the orchard, to lunch, it was so much fun!  The boys were thrilled to eat the peaches right off the trees.  It was the only way we could keep Will from eating the ones that were on the ground. 

 Aunt Carm helped the boys to find the biggest and best red peaches from the trees.  I love that my boys love their Great Aunt as much as I do.  It warms my heart when I think of how many people love my boys. 

Will did take a little detour across the 'road' to peek at the corn.  I showed him how the ears grew - he just kept eating his peach.

 I love these little guys so much!  After we wrapped up in the orchard we enjoyed a yummy lunch in the restaurant before heading home.  I'm glad to say we didn't get lost on the way home.  Luckily for the boys the fun wasn't over yet.  We spent another three hours at Aunt Carm's house.  There was lots of catch and sidewalk chalk - I was amazed at Aunt Carm's sidewalk chalk skills.  I think the kids were too!

 Then I just had to throw in this one last picture.  This is the face that Will makes just about every time I take his picture.  Believe it or not, he is saying cheese.  I laughed out loud when I saw this one.  If you look closely you will see his battle wounds from our last few days together.  The little scab in between his eyes - that I picked off at Chipotle the other night thinking it was a black bean - and the cut on the upper right corner of his lip.  I'm sure there will be many trips to the emergency room in this little guys future - he has no fear.  In fact Brian has started calling him Will the Thrill :)

The Butterfly House

What a great morning with great company.  The boys, Nonna, and I headed to the Butterfly House this morning to meet Nancy and her daughter, Sarah.  Sarah has a sweet little girl just a few weeks older than Jack.  The boys started out exploring the exhibits outside the  Butterfly House.  Max loved playing the role of cashier.  I think I 'bought' that ear of corn about six times. 
 

This picture looks innocent enough, but behind the glass are about a million nasty roaches.   The boys had a great time feeding them 'roach food'.  Which happened to include a few cheerios.  I should have know this had disaster written all over it.  One of Will's roach O's fell on the ground and before I could react he picked it up and popped it in his mouth.  Disgusting. 

 Then it was time to head into the actual Butterfly House itself - it is almost like a giant greenhouse and it was hot in there.  These gorgeous butterflies did make it worth suffering in the heat.  It's such a surreal experience to wander around while thousands of butterflies surround you.  My favorites were the blue ones, but they didn't stay still long enough for a picture. 

 Max ran off to take pictures with Nonna's phone.  It helped to keep him engaged because after about five minutes he was done.  I guess when you are five you see one butterfly you've seen them all.  Will really enjoyed it.  Doesn't he look too cute in his overalls?

 Afterwards we picked up lunch and headed back to our house to visit and relax.  This gave Jack some time to make friends with sweet little Amelia.  He was happy to share his play mat with this little cutie.  They were just adorable!

I was able to get this little shot of Jack this afternoon.  He has a new favorite pastime - sucking on his hands.  He hasn't done the whole staring at his hands thing, but I think he has figured out that they are there, because they are constantly in his mouth.  Well when he isn't cooing that is.  I swear this little guy coos like no other.  I love it!

Playdate Fun

Today we headed out to my friend Kim's house.  Her little guy, Blake, is just a few months younger than Will.  I told the boys that we would be going to Blake's house to play in the sprinkler.  When I was feeding Jack at 7:30 this morning Will brought me his shoes and said 'Blake house please'.  It was adorable.  A little bit later we did indeed pack up to go to Blake's house and the boys were so excited.  What's not to be excited about?  A friend, a sprinkler, different toys. . . sounds pretty good if I do say so myself. 

The three boys had a blast playing in the sprinkler and there weren't at all fazed that it was 90+ degrees outside.  I'm hoping that we can get together with Kim and Blake again before school starts up again.  It is hard to believe, but the first day is just a few weeks away!

Please and Thank You

Will's speech has grown by leaps and bounds lately.  He is just talking up a storm and it makes me smile.  Please and thank you are two of Will's favorite words.  He is one polite little man!  He doesn't have a version of 'yes' yet, so instead he says please.  For example this is a snippet of a conversation when we were coloring the other day. 

Mommy:  Will do you want to color?

Will: Please

Mommy:  Should we use crayons or makers?

Will:  Markers please.

Mommy gets out the makers. . . Will:  Thank you momma.

 

What makes these conversations even cuter is that his please sounds like 'peas' and his thank you comes out more like 'tank you'.  Life is getting easier around here as his communication skills improve and he is able to let us know what he wants or needs. He can ask me to open his marker, tell me he wants more milk, and he can always call out for his brothers.   

 I think my favorite phrases from Will as this point are when he runs to the garage door as he hears the garage door when Brian gets home.  He runs as fast as he can and yells over and over 'dada home, dada home'.  

My other favorite is 'mommy lolo please'.  I'm not sure how lolo translates into hold me, but for Will it does.  He makes it very clear by looking up at me with those big, beautiful, hazel eyes. I mean look at those eyes, how could anyone resist? It melts my heart.

T-ball



I don't think it can get much happier than this little smile.  Max was warming up for his big t-ball game by playing catch with Daddy.  He missed way more than he caught, but he had so much fun!  Nonna and Nonno even came to watch today and I think Max loved having and audience to preform for. 

 

 Last weeks game was a little rough for Max.  He got a bit confused with offense vs. defense and tried to run the bases when he was supposed to be playing the field.  It was absolutely adorable, but it broke my heart when he realized he had messed up and felt awful.  Daddy headed out to the field with him and he felt better about things.  

All week he and I have been talking about how when you have your glove you don't run the bases and when you don't have your glove you don't chase the ball - he had a problem with this last week as well.  Today's game went so much better!  He didn't get confused and he played a great game - you know for a five year old. 



Will had a great time at the game too.  He loved playing in the grass and yelling Max's name as loud as he could.  He just got a haircut yesterday and I can't get over how old he is looking!  I think the baseball cap makes him look older too.  I love that we have entered a new stage of parenthood with games and busy weekends.  It is so much fun!

Sweet Jack

I took some pictures of our sweet little Jack the other night for his Baptism invitations.  He was a wonderful subject and I was pretty darn proud of this cute little shot I got.  I love his big blue eyes and his adorable little rolls all over.  He cannot possibly get any cuter!

The Cousins

The boys love their cousins.  Max talks about how we should take an airplane to California to see Bridget and Sean and he talks about how he has BIG cousins that live far away.  He hasn't met new cousin Madeline so he doens't say too much about her.  He does talk all the time about Paisley and Graham.  Since they have moved farther away we don't see them as often, but when we do watch out becuase there is a whole lot of fun about to be had. 



The anticipation of Graham and Paisely's fourth of July visit lasted all week. In fact Max woke up on THursday morning and said he had 'an excelenet dream'.  When I asked what it was about he said that he rode on Metrolink to pick up his cousins and then they all went to the pool.  It was too darn cute.  They kids did in fact head to the pool on Thursday.  Will LOVED it.  Grandma Mindy said he want up and down the little slide 100 times.  Max was much more cautious.  We really need to get him back into swimming lessons.

On Friday we headed downtown to the Cetnral Library for a special Wizard of Oz exhibit. Max and Will had a great time!

Will thought it was too funny to stick his head through this hole so he could be the great and powerful wizard.

 As usual, Jack just sat back and took it all in.  At times it was like he was telling me 'Mommy, can you belive my crazy brothers?'

Max tested out his brain on the puzzles in the scarecrow's portion of the exhibit.

Max and Will showed how brave they could be by entering the cave of courage.  Seconds after this cute little shot was taken Will apparetnly bit Max and many tears ensued becuase as Max said ' Will did it on purpose.'

It was a great outing with even better company.  I love watching my boys explore new places and learn knew things.  It is just so much fun!

The Garden

Last Wednesday morning we headed to the Missouri Botanical Garden with Nonna.  This was not one of our best outings.  Max was upset we didn't ride the tram, can you imagine?  Will got tired and made Nonna carry him.  I know there were rough spots, but they had a lot of fun too.  Just take a look. . .

The Chihuly 'onions' were a big hit.  The kids thought they were very odd.

 

The whole purpose of our trip was to explore the Children's Garden -which is fabulous for anyone that hasn't been.  This little wagon was at the entrance and the kids were all excited to climb on it.  I tried explaining to them that this is how people used to travel, but they weren't too interested in my history lesson.

 

Will was so excited to see the waterfall when we first walked in.  It took all his little self control not to climb on those rocks and jump in.

 

Our little engineer to be was totally engrossed in controlling the water flow using all the different dams.  He was bound and determined to try every different combination of open and closed dams to see what would happen.

 

Jack enjoyed the trip too.  He is still a little bit small but we have started using the Ergo for some outings.  I forgot how much I loved this thing.  Best piece of baby gear ever! 

When we first left the garden I was a bit grumpy - it just wasn't our most fun outing - but now almost a week later I think we had a great time.  I don't think the kids will remember the crummy parts, but I do know that Will loved running and exploring and Max loved controlling the water.  All in all it wasn't the 'bust' that I initially thought, although I did learn some lessons about what I would do differently next time.

 

 

 

Smiles

This amazing smile makes any bad day better and all those sleepless nights bearable. I love our littlest man so much and I'm so glad that he joined our family. I couldn't imagine life without any of my three fabulous little boys!

The Zoo

A couple weeks ago Brian took Max to the zoo for a class.  It was fabulous, but unfortunately when they tried to ride the train afterwards there was lightning and it was shut down just as they were about to board.  I don't think Max has ever been so upset.  So on Sunday we headed back to the zoo with the promise to ride the train TWO times - thank goodness we have a pass (Bev and Karen you are the best!).  The look on Max's face when he saw that train coming was priceless!

 

As always Max was the man with the map.  He let us know anytime a tunnel was approaching.  The zoo employee in front of us was impressed that he was only five.  He called Max 'precocious'.  I'll take that to mean intelligent.

After our second trip around we headed out to see a few animals.  This grizzly bear was pretty darn cute.  The boys thought he was fabulous.  Will asked daddy to pick him up so he could have a better look. 




We saw some monkey's too.  Will thought their pink butts were pretty funny, but I didn't think I should post a picture of that. 

Two Months

 

Can this big boy really be two months old already?  Time flies when you are having fun, not to mention when you are crazy busy chasing three boys around all day.  Jack is doing amazing.  We had his two month check up with Dr. Joe and he looked great - 24 1/2 inches and 14lb 7oz.  He is one big boy!  I guess mommy makes good milk.  He is more and more alert.  He turns too my voice and gives away smiles when I ask for them.  His hands are more open and he loves to grab the collar of my shirt when I nurse.  It melts my heart.  

I think my favorite new development is when we have conversations.  I ooh and aah at him and he smiles and coos back at me.  It is the sweetest sound in the world and I love our little talks.  This is also when I get the biggest and brightest smiles.  I can't wait to see when developments the next two months bring!  It is just so fun to watch him discover the world around him.

Jack absolutly loves his big brothers and they love him too!  There is nothing like seeing Will give Jack a kiss or hear Max ask to hold him.  It is love in its purest form and this momma loves it!

Adventure Day

Max has several toys that drive me crazy, but of course he and Will love them.  These yellow diggers/trucks all have buttons that you can press and they yell out 'Caterpillar Power'.  I think I have heard 'Caterpillar Power' about a million times.  I've tried hiding them, but somehow the boys always seem to find them.  Well on Saturday they got a glimpse of some real Caterpillar Power.  We packed the kids up at 6am and headed to Peoria, IL - home of Caterpillar. 

 There were diggers of all shapes and sizes for hte kids to climb on and try out.  The wheel Max is standing next to is a replica of one of Caterpillar's largest pieces of mining equipment.  It was crazy to see just how huge some of the things were. 

 

Max, and Brian too for that matter, loved the simulators.  You sit in a chair and use the controls to run the equipment. I have to say that running a backhoe is tough work.  I was totally confused by the controls, but Max seemed to do pretty well -until it pinched his finger that is.

 Will had a blast running around from on piece of equipment to another.  I think this giant digger blade was one of his favorites. 

 

After leaving Caterpillar we head to lunch - unfortunately mother nature ruined our plans for a nice picnic on the riverfront so it was Chik-fil-a instead.  We then headed to a strange, but rather neat exhibit called Wheels O Time.  They had all kinds of transportation theme equipment from the past.  Will had a great time driving this little car.  

Max loved the train whistles that are behind the boys in this picture.  Mommy wasn't too crazy about all of the creepy old maniqunis they used. 

Our trip was a huge success and we are looking forward to going on another adventure soon.