Christmas pics!

Again, these pics are compliments of my sister. Just a few of Christmas with my side of the fam...Will's side will come soon.

Birthday Prince!

I couldn't resist this one all on it's own!

Pictures courtesy of my ever talented sister!!! & Yes she is for hire!

Here are pics of our crazy trip to OH and pics of M's 1st birthday...only my faves are here. If you are on fb & my friend you can check out the rest!

M'S B-DAY

The boys and cake!

M Dancing!

Cousins!


E & the ladies!

M & his pal Z!

The Beautiful Birthday Boy!

E & Uncle Noel playing with his favorite gadget---the iPhone!

All partied out!

OHIO trip for Josh's grad school graduation!

Sibs & nephews....exactly 9 years after my graduation from college!
Could I be any shorter?



E @ hotel!



Uncle Josh, the graduate, & E!

Big boy shoes!

Yep, my 3 year old no longer wears diapers and my 1 y.o. is now in regular tennis shoes. No more baby shoes for him. Boy my boys are getting big. I am so sad about M growing up so fast, I think that's why I put off the shoe buying as long as I did. :(

Cold Turkey

I've finally done it! No more diapers for E! Yep, Dec. 26th we took the diapers away. I knew the only way to do it was to go cold turkey and so he now wears underpants with a diaper cover over it so as not to soak everything if/when he has an accident. He will wear diapers at night and nap time but that is it. So far, we have had a couple of accidents. We've gotten some resistance, especially when it comes to pooping, but I am hoping today is the pooping breakthrough. He realized, M who is a baby, poops in a diaper and he poops in a potty. I hope that thought sticks. I will keep the web world updated of our progress.

Is it Christmas now?

It's been a long wait for E. He has been ready for Christmas for a while the week prior to Christmas he was so hyper. I thought we weren't going to make it to Christmas with all of our hair. He gets so amped up that you can't even calm him. It's been a rough couple weeks. Christmas eve came and you could see him mellow. Christmas day came and he relaxed even more. Then, the 26th came (we celebrated this day as our little family unit and Santa came late to our house on Christmas night) and E said to daddy seeing all the presents under the tree, "Is it Christmas now daddy?" Will laughed and said, "yes." E has been himself ever since.

Finally Will has his wish....

Yep, he finally has a daddy's boy. M runs to daddy instead of mommy on all occassions. Will is so pleased he has wanted that since bringing E home and E was such a momma's boy. It is nice to see M so close to his daddy but now I know why he was so jealous.

My fear....update

Nap time has been reinstated. We are back to rocking to sleep but I will take that any day over him coming out of his room and claiming, "quiet time is over." Yep, I will give up 15 minutes to get a couple hours of peace. Besides he still badly needs quiet time.

"No Mom"

The first words of my 1 year old...yep that's it. "No Mom."

E's first word was "doggie", which sounded like goggie.

I'm not sure which is better, to be trumped by our beloved family pet or to hear "no mom" as a first word? Hmmmm....I will have to think on that.

Oh the fear.

Yikes it's been 3 days of refusal, nap refusal by E. Yep, 3 full days of me putting him down to nap and not napping. Not only was he not napping, I think he was attempting to wake his sleeping brother. Here was how it went.

E...I don't want quiet time.
Mom...You don't have to sleep you just need to be in your room quietly reading or playing.
E...I don't want to.
Mom...I just need you to be in your room for a little while, if you don't sleep then you can come out.
Mom put E in room. He doesn't lay down, just sits briefly on his bed. Mom leaves and E begins to play. No biggie, I can handle playing I just need to be alone for just a little while. Just a little peace is all I need. Then E begins the shouting & the crying. Mommy can't leave him in there to wake his brother so we try to rock on the pink chair (our lovely mauve recliner in the living room). He sits quietly for about 5 minutes and then begins the squirm. Mom tries him in bed again and he is quiet for about 15 minutes. Then the shouting begins and out he comes. Clearly he is not currently tired but he will be soon or so I hope. No luck for me. He is up all afternoon for 3 straight days and on all 3 days he practically falls asleep while eating his afternoon snack between 4 & 4:30. Yep, so much for his usual 8 pm bedtime.

Please tell me he isn't weaning himself from his nap. He needs them so badly and so do I. I admit it everyday I look forward to that time when they are both asleep and I get a little me time. A little peace in the house never hurt anyone either. I hope my biggest fear is not coming true....I need that nap!

To Ohio we go!

Yep, the boys and I, minus Will because he has to work are driving to Ohio with my family. Will thought I was completely crazy and now I agree. Who ever thought that driving to Ohio for 2 days there was a good plan. Granted my brother is graduating from graduate school but still I think he would have understood had I said no of all people. On Friday, weather permitting, the boys (E & M) & I, my parents, my sister and 1 of my brothers are headed to Ohio in 1, yep 1, minivan. We must be crazy, 5 grown adults and 2 children in car seats all in one car.

Boring, boring....

....now I know why I was never going to be a creative writer. I just don't have the knack for it. I read my friends blogs and they are hilarious. Mine, not so much just mundane and boring. So sorry for those of you who read it! I will see what I can do about that.

What a day!

Today we celebrated M's 1st birthday. It was nice to gather all those people near and dear to our hearts to celebrate our little boys 1st year. I think everyone had a great time, even the birthday boy. That is a feat in itself since E spent his 1st birthday with a rash and asleep most of the party. Luckily on child number 2 I got smarter about the timing of the party and chose a time that worked better for our children. M was awake and alert the whole time. His first cake experience was funny. He felt no need to put it into his mouth he just enjoyed smashing it. It wasn't until his Nanna fed it to him that he even attempted putting it into his mouth. Of course the wrapping paper was a lot better than any of the gifts in them. As usual the ending of the party triggered a melt down in E. He just couldn't keep it together. After numerous attempts to put him to bed Will finally brought him out to the recliner to rock him. E declared, "I don't want parties. I don't want cakes. I don't want anything." He'd had enough. Two minutes later the phone rang and the birthday party we were to attend tomorrow was cancelled. Hmmmm....was it really a sick child or the curse of E! We'll never know.

Christmas is almost here.

I can't believe that Christmas is literally 20 days away. That is so crazy. This year we cut way back on gifts but I still have some light shopping to do. At least I have all the boys gifts done. I have Will done too which is usually really hard. I have some great ideas but know that my budget is too slim for all of them. I am starting to dislike what Christmas has become. With the economy in such turmoil and so many people out of work this whole Christmas season is really bothering me. The consumerist American way is also driving me crazy. It's like you aren't worthwhile until you accumulate the right amount and type of stuff. It just really is starting to get to me. It's a bummer that this holiday season makes that whole idea so much better.

My baby is 1!

I can't even believe it. It seems like just yesterday that we brought him home and now he is 1. Yikes how time flies. The funniest part about the day was the question E had. We were talking about how M was 1 and how big he was. E's question was, "Now can he talk?" Completely hilarious to think that in his mind he figures you turn one and just suddenly the words appear.

Hard time keeping up

November has been full of travelling. I feel like every weekend we live out of a suitcase and during the week we launder and re-pack adn do it all again. Among all the travelling I have had a hard time keeping up with my life. I have not been on fb in so long and not blogged until ... well today. I can barely keep up with my email. I am looking forward to the lul that comes after the holidays. Unfortunately that means my babies will be older still and I am so sad to see them growing so fast. I can't believe my youngest is almost 1! Yikes...time flies. It's almost Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2008! (I know it's kind of late)

The amazing costumes were compliments of my mom, Nana as E & M call her. She has a gift...thank goodness!

Voted!

This morning we got up early, gathered the boys, the stroller and anything we thought would help the wait in line. We rolled out of the house at 6:30 and arrived at our polling place shortly after. We arrived to find about 30 people ahead of us and boy were we happy we took the time to get going. There we sat, the 4 of us, E in the stroller watching his Cars DVD and M toddling around until the polls opened at 7. I was really happy that it was not a cold morning...it may have been a different story had it been cold. Once the polls opened it was smooth sailing, we cast our ballots and were back in the car by 7:19. Will went off to work and the boys and I went home. I meant to take a picture of the boys in their stroller on election day but I forgot. Bummer, that would have been cute in years to come.

2 nights and counting...

It has been 2, count it again...2, gorgeous nights of uninterrupted sleep. My baby M has slept through the night 2 times. Of course both nights I got up because I swore I heard him and well I didn't, I was just dreaming, but luckily drifted right back to sleep. I hope this continues because it sure is nice and makes my days go so much better.

The bedtime weening...

Okay, okay so I know we should have weened E from falling asleep with us in the room a long time ago but we didn't and so now we have decided it's time. We are finally putting him to bed, reading books, listening to one song with him and then kissing him and saying good night. Here's how it has gone so far:

Day 1 (Wednesday night)

• Talking up the big change!
• E to bed
• Daddy kisses goodnight and leaves
• about 1 minute of crying
• off to sleep.

Day 2 (Thursday night)

• Again with the talking it up.
• E to be
• routine
• Daddy leaves
• about 40 minutes of crying
• Mom goes in to settle him
• kisses good night and leaves
• more crying
• E comes out of room
• gets a drink of water
• Daddy puts him back in bed
• listens to 1 song
• E falls asleep during that song

We'll keep you posted!