Happy Birthday Daddy!

Not only do I have two wonderful, handsome, silly, sweet little boys, I also have an amazing husband. Today is Brian's 34th birthday. We began celebrating with breakfast at First Watch - we had a coupon so that made Brian happy. When we came home Brian and Max spent some time outside to 'mow' the grass. Isn't Max's frog hat the cutest little thing? We found it at my new favorite store, Verde Kids. It was even half off - again this made Brian happy.

Will also wanted some Daddy birthday snuggles. Too bad I can never get a decent picture of all three of my boys together.

Tonight we are off to my parents for Brian's birthday dinner - pork patties and German Chocolate cake, two of Brian's favorites.

Max the Artist

Yesterday I bought some paper and a heart hole punch for Max to work on his valentine's for his class. He is loving it! He punches out the little white hearts and glues them to the red paper. Then he tells me who it is for so I can write the names on them.

He is very proud of his creations and can't wait to pass them out to his classmates I think the finished product turned out pretty cute. I tried to get him to make one for his brother but he just told me that Baby Will is too small and would eat it. The sad thing is, I'm sure Will would just try to eat it.

Will's Tricks

Watch out world, we have a full blown, hands and knees, forward moving crawler. Just last week Will perfected transitioning from laying down to sitting up. Little by little throughout the week he began getting up on all fours for very a few seconds at a time. Tonight he just took off. He was crawling all over the room. It feels like he went from zero to sixty in five seconds flat. I tried to get a good picture of Will showing off his new skill but he just wouldn't sit still so this is the best I could do.

Another new trick of Will's is blowing rasberries. He just does it over and over. I hear him blowing rasberries in the car on the way to the sitters. The funniest thing is when Will and Max go back and forth with their rasberry blowing. It is just too funny to watch.

We had Will's nine month check up last week. I have to say it has me a little worried. Will weighed in at 18 lb 8 oz and was 27 1/4 in tall, or long whichever way you look at it. That put him in the 20th and 25th percentiles respectively, which is quite a drop from his six month check up. We are working on supplementing, but he just fights the bottle like crazy. Since we can't seem to get much more milk into him we are trying to up the solid foods. Will's new favorite is Yo Baby yogurt. He can't get enough of this stuff!

Keen Ad

Max loves, and I mean LOVES, his red shoes. We bought him a pair of tennis shoes but he refuses to wear then and insists on wearing his red shoes every day. Last week his preschool teacher sent this picture to me. This is how he fell asleep during his nap. I think I need to submit it to Keen so that Max can be the heart of their new ad campaign - maybe we will get a free pair :)

9 Months Old

Can my baby really be 3/4 of a year old already? I just don't see how that is possible! So what is new in Will's world? He has been battling a pretty nasty cold. I stayed home with him on Tuesday and took him to the doctor. Dr. Joe said it was just a cold and to let it run its course. Unfortunately Will seemed to be getting worse rather than better so we ended up seeing Dr. Joe again yesterday afternoon. Max is now on an antibiotic to help clear up his cold which has turned into an infection. Hopefully he is on the mend and his nose will stop running. He hates having it wiped and yells every time I try. So he often looks likes just like this picture - snot running down and all.

His two bottom teeth are just about all the way in. His top two are so close to cutting through. They look just awful - all bulged out and red. I really hope they cut through soon so my little man can get some relief.

Will is doing a great job at pulling up from a sitting position. He loves to stand whenever given a chance. It drives Max crazy that Will pulls up at the side of the train table. I have a feeling things are going to only get tougher in this area. Will is showing more and more interest in Max's things and Max isn't too wild about.

Will has been working hard to perfect his pincher grasp. I just gave him a few Gerber Puffs the other day and he loved trying to pick them up. I'm not sure how many actually end up in his mouth. While he is great at grabbing things with his thumb and forefinger, he hasn't quite gotten the idea of letting go of the treat once it reaches his mouth.

Probably my favorite Will 'trick' this month is his wiggles. He wiggles his little body on demand and shakes his head from side to side. He gets all excited and it is just the cutest thing ever.

It really does just amaze me how much children change this first year. It is a wonder to watch.

Visiting Uncle Mel

In my Christmas post I shared pictures of Will with two of my great uncles, Sam and Joe. My grandma had a third brother, my Uncle Mel. As I was growing up I was probably closest to Uncle Mel. He took me to Tower Tee and signed me up for a kids golf session with Hale Irwin. He would pay me $1 for every shot I took that made it past 100 yards. In all the years we went I think I made about $3. Uncle Mel was always willing to drive me to sports activities in grade school or work in high school. Although I have to admit that driving with him was always a little scary - he never was a great driver. I'm so grateful for Uncle Mel and the role he played in my life.

Uncle Mel is in nursing home now. He suffers from dementia and some days are better for him than others. Last night was a wonderful night with Uncle Mel. Max, Will, Nonna, and I headed to the nursing home to visit last evening after dinner. Uncle Mel lit up when he saw me and boys. He reached out for Will and wanted to hold his hand. Will was pretty excited about it too. In addition to just a visit we had an extra treat for Uncle Mel last night. Nonna and Great Aunt Carmelina had Uncle Mel's old home movies put on dvd's with music. We brought in my laptop and showed Uncle Mel a little of the movie. It was pure magic. He held my hand and told us who every person in the movie was. Max was excited to see his Nonna as a baby and he thought the swimming pool scenes were pretty funny.

I'm so fortunate to have my family in my life. It means even more to be able to share my family with my boys.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year with a fun new activity - bowling! As you may know, Brian is an avid bowler or at least he was at one time. He even has a 300 game, or two, under his belt. After enjoying a yummy New Year's Day breakfast we headed to the bowling alley. I don't think I'm sure who was more excited - Max or Daddy. Although I have to say that Max was so excited he wasn't very interested in posing for pictures.





Max loved rolling his ball down the lane and waiting for it to emerge from the ball return. I guess for a three year old the ball return is a pretty amazing thing. He would also plop his little tush at the line and watch his ball bounce it's way down the lane - thank goodness for bumpers!

Max was all tuckered out about two thirds of the way through their second game, but he was still pretty proud to pose for a picture with his very first bowling score. Funny thing is he got a 55 both games.

All in all I think his first bowling experience was a huge success. In the car he told us he wants to go again.

We are very excited to begin a new year - I'm sure there will be many more wonderful firsts in 2012. Happy New Year to all!