Any Resemblance?

So here is my family at my birthday party. And my sweet Lucky playing outside. Do you see any family resemblance?

Spring Break!

We love when all of our friends' mommies are home from work and can bring our friends to play. This week has been Spring Break in our town, so we've had lots of fun in the Spring and not so many "breaks." We've been busier than ever!

This week....we went to the mall, zoo, library, bible study, park, and Easter egg hunting. Whew! Mommy is worn out! The boys have had a great time and it reinvigorates me to see them having fun.

The funny thing is that my boys, as happy as they are out and about, really seem to enjoy their time at home most~which I must admit warms my heart. My Rolly is snuggle baby. Given the opportunity to play or snuggle with mommy-he's a snuggler! Anyone who knows my Lucky knows he's an on-the-go boy. What he loves most is for me to build with him. More recently though he's become a bit more snuggly-and loves to sit close to us and watch Signing Time or Baby Einstein. We're enjoying a little snuggle time before bed- in fact he just leaned over and gave me 2 kisses. MUAH!

Oh, I love these boys.

Yard Work

On the way home from church today:

Lucky asked: "Mommy, can we work again?" (We worked in the yard all day yesterday.)

To which I didn't have time to respond before he said:

"Will you get my lawn mowers out? That would be amazing. I like to work in the grass. That's cool. "

How do you say no to that?

Rub-A-Dub My Rolly's in the Tub!

Look at cute, little Rolly making a Splash!....I mean a lot of splashes! So fun!

You may be wondering why Rolly is still in his baby tub? Good question!.... Well that's because Lucky takes up my entire garden tub with all his toys. Seriously I can't even find the wash cloth when I drop it because every available space is hidden by toys, and God forbid we take any toys out! Besides why mess with a good thing, right?

Special Delivery

One of Daddy's friends got Rolly this cute, little UPS outfit. Isn't our little delivery man the cutest. I know you'd love this little UPS man to show up at your door with or without a package!

(Here's proof of his crawling too!)

Oh, How My Baby Grows!

Rolly is talking machine. Okay, he says a few things...well, sort of, BUT I know what he means SO that counts...to me. About a week ago he started saying "mama," which I totally love. Yesterday he started saying "Bubba". Now this is a word he's said before but just started using it to refer to his brother exclusively. Now he calls us all by title...dada (the old favorite for all people, is now just daddy), mama, bubba (brother).

He also waves, claps, signs "more" and "all gone". And of course will yell (that's pretty much his talking voice though) and cry for any other needs.

As far as crawling goes, yes he can and has/does crawl, but he's much more into the rolling around and scooting than actually crawling forward. Lucky preferred rolling to crawling also. Apparently being "able" to crawl is the only thing of real importance according to our pediatrician.

He may roll himself into kindergarten but he'll certainly be the sweetest, cutest one there.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

As Lucky's mom, I obviously think he's brilliant and not at all biased in thinking so. Even though I know he's a bright boy I'm continually astounded by what he says.

While putting Lucky back together again after another potty visit:
"Mommy, Jesus does not wear underwear."
-He doesn't?
"No. Jesus is too big."


Snapping my fingers at Lucky's grunting today, I told him not to go stinky in his pull-up. To which he responded:
"Don't worry mommy that was just gas. Don't worry. Mommy you don't need to do your fingers at me. It was just gas. Not stinky."

While at the Kidzone at the YMCA Lucky decided he did not want to do aftershave art. He told me:
"The lady gived me soap. I did not want to play with soap. I played with the stroller and baby. I was gentle to the baby. I did not want soap."

This child is the consummate backseat driver constantly reminding me not to hit the tree or crash into houses. It's truly a three ring circus as we drive around town.

And what does Rolly do while all this is going on? He just smiles his great, big, gorgeous smile. He now says Mama for which I have been waiting on for months. He's said Dada for a long, long time now and finally I have made it into his vocab. Yay!

Welcome to the Jungle- I mean Zoo

We took the boys to the zoo, in spite of the pending rain yesterday. We had a wonderful time. It ended up being a beautiful day. We got to see so much while we were there, but didn't even end up doing half the zoo.

Lucky's favorite part is the zoo train. I don't know if it's because he loves trains, or can see so much on the train, or if it's because our Signing Time video on the zoo, has a zoo train....whatever the reason we road the train twice all the way around the zoo. Most people only ride it half way and then walk, not us! It was fun though.

Rolly really enjoyed himself. He's really into people watching and could care less about the animals. What a champ-taking his hat on and off and generally amusing us with all his cute antics.

It Was A Happy St. Patrick's Day

A yummy start to the day of green gave Lucky plenty of luck all day long. Rolly eyed the green pancakes curiously I think he knew there was something not quite right about them-mostly that he didn't get any!

I Went to Disney World!

We went to Disney World for the first time last month to celebrate Daddy's birthday. We had such a wonderful time. Rolly was such a good sport checking everything out. We saw Mickey Mouse, the Mickey Mouse Lady, Pooh, Tigger, and Donald the Duck (no-not Donald Duck---Donald THE Duck). Lucky had a blast and is spoiled for life now that he's seen how great it is. In fact, when I told him a few friends were going to Disney he said, "Mommy, can we go to see Mickey Mouse too?" When I said not this time-he instantly burst into tears. So sad!

Tooth Aches, Tummy Troubles and Toliet Training

Suffice it to say that we are struggling a bit over here. I have never in my life cleaned so tirelessly and made no progress. Yesterday I changed 12 stinky diapers, gave 3 baths-courtsey of blow-outs (the boys were bathed the previous night), and washed 3 loads of laundry, again courtsey of blow outs.

I took Lucky to the doctor yesterday. He said it was mostly likely just the stomach flu. This has been are real challenge, since we are smack in the middle of toliet training. We're are making do though.

Rolly's been fine, so hopefully he won't get this virus. He's still getting Tylenol pretty regularly for his new tooth that is very slowly making its way in.

I'm just praying that my boys get bettter soon, without Mommy and Daddy getting too sick.

Happy Half Birthday to Lucky!

Today Lucky officially turned 2 1/2 years old. This is quite the milestone to Mommy, because after a child turns 2 years old their age is designated only in years and no longer months. I suppose it's for good reason, since saying I'm 339 months would make make most people's heads spin, as they whipped out their calculators. (I know you're doing the math right now- it's okay I did too!) The one caveat to this is the well known "____ years and a half" tauted by children everywhere until they find out it is no longer cool to do so.

As I said, today is that monumental event in Lucky's life, and to celebrate the occasion we had a little Half Birthday Party for him. Lucky had a guest come celebrate with us as we ate chili and birthday cake. Lucky helped decorate his cake with sprinkles and did a nice job of it. Lucky did have a few minor melt-downs in anticipation of eating cake (something that rarely happens-parties only). He called the event "My Have (Half) Bertay Cake Party." Notice where he places the emphasis.

Poor Rolly was not in the party mood, since he has yet another tooth coming in--his gums are all red and swollen. Although his tooth is not officially in yet, I'll keep you posted. With all the commotion we forgot to have Lucky open his present. So I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Rolly was real trooper managing to fall asleep within seconds. Our birthday boy took a bit more convincing before falling asleep...but alas the house is quiet.

CHARGE!!

Happy MLK Day! I love holidays that allow my working friends to be home during the week. I know it makes them happy too. What better way is there to enjoy the day than an old-fashioned trip to.... THE FARM? A good time was had by all. We feed the horses, looked at the cows, birds, goats and ran away from a pig.

"What do you mean, 'ran away from a pig'?"....Well, we did feed the horses, but had extra carrots, so while Lucky, Rolly and I were waiting for our little friend to finish swinging we looked around a bit more and found that there were random pot-bellied pigs wandering around the farm. (The ones we had seen previously were in pens-so I had assumed they all were....MY MISTAKE.)

Anyway we threw a few carrots near one of the 350 lb. pigs (I now realize that may not have been wise.) The pig got up and started eating the carrots, so we threw more, he began to follow us, at which point I started to get a little nervous. He was easily the same height as Rolly in the stroller. Lucky was walking so I picked him up, carrying him to make an exit....The pig followed, we threw carrots in another direction and started to run away, the pig followed, (I was really nervous now, because even though he was rather fat and slow, I wasn't sure if provoked he'd charge after us.) Fortunately for us there was a dumpster situated at the end of the property and the pig became distracted, no longer interested in our measily carrots. Thank Goodness!!

The whole ordeal was less than a few minutes, but seemed much longer and needless to say made a lasting impression. So in case you were wondering..... POT-BELLIED PIGS DO LIKE CARROTS AND WILL CHASE AFTER YOU TO GET THEM.

Another one?

Yes, it's true....Rolly is sporting a new tooth! This brings the grand total up to FIVE! And THREE of them are new this week!

What a trooper he is. I didn't notice any fussiness ealier this week when Rolly's two teeth came in, but today he seemed a little off. I figured the new teeth were giving him growing pains, but when I checked his mouth out I found another tooth. It's located on top in the middle. So now he won't look like a hillbilly-even though we still live in the sticks!

By the way.... You don't know how difficult it is to get a picture of Rolly without Lucky in the photo. Normally I don't mind and love picturing them together.However, Lucky insisted on being topless today, which is okay except that he's also bottomless due to potty training.

I hope that dressing Lucky in the future will not be a challenge. Time will tell.

Let's Play Ball

Rolly's new favorite toys are balls and blocks. Lucky of course needs to "help" him play with them. Somehow Lucky always ends up with most of the toys. We are working on sharing.

Termites?

We had our annual termite inspection today, I knew it was scheduled, but I was unprepared. When the inspector rang the doorbell at 10 am he was witnessed the following:

-stark naked Lucky answering the door
-mommy with wet hair, wearing a robe
-Rolly in PJs demanding to be picked up
-toys everywhere
-Baby Einstein blasting
-a mess in the kitchen as mommy made dinner (I thought cooking dinner at 10 am would work out better)


I very quickly asked him to inspect outside FIRST. I threw on some clothes, put a shirt on Lucky (still potty training, so no pants), and put Rolly in his highchair for some smashed banana fun! I The kitchen was still a mess, as were the toys, but I have little ones who play.

THE MAN-as we call all men who we come in contact with that we don't know- brought in his flashlight to check for termites. I had to explain to THE MAN that we were potty training, not weird-he said "I figured."

Lucky asked "What THE MAN doing mommy?" To which I answered "looking for bugs." Lucky then ran to find daddy's Mag-lite and turned it on. He proceeded following THE MAN around the house. He said "MAN-I helping you find the bugs!"-over and over again. After such a thorough inspection we found that we have no termites, just a few pests (well just one-but he's so darn cute that we'll keep him.)

Announcing Rolly's....

We are a monument of news over here. It's a good thing you all have this blog to help you keep up with us. :) After 12 hours of solid sleep, being awake for 2 hours, and sleeping for 2 1/2 more hours....Rolly broke through 2 more teeth today! They are on top on either side of the still missing middle teeth. So he now has the new top ones and two on the bottom middle. The new teeth enjoyed chomping on the banana bits he had at dinner tonight.

The Bottomless Cowboy!

We've been hard at work potty training and it's actually working. We've abondoned the timer today. Lucky's been telling me when he has to go potty for pee pee and stinky. Yay!

We have been using this strategy combined with John Rosemond's "no underwear and $75 plan" ($75 for carpet cleaning). Lucky's wardrobe is very interesting. Yesterday it was a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, mommy's socks and crocs. Today he insisted on wearing his gators shirt, to which I had to add a long sleeve shirt, socks, and a cowboy hat. I have much less laundry too. Tomorrow will be our official Day 4, so we can go back to underwear and pants. But for now we have a bottomless cowboy!

P.S. I don't know where his socks went.

Rolly's First Foods!

New Year's Resolutions (Plural)

So the idea of resolutions is not foreign to me. I frequently come up with "a new life plan" as I like to call it, aka resolutions. But now that I'm the mommy I not only make resolutions for myself, but also for my boys. This is all well and fine except for when I make them all at the same time, but so far so good.

Here are our most pressing resolutions:

1. Actively potty train Lucky-

We got him a stool to climb up to the potty (he very cutely calls it a 'school'); Cars, Thomas, and Elmo underwear....is 13 pairs overkill? I don't know, it just seems like something you wouldn't want to run out of; we also purchased a kitchen timer yesterday- the timer was set for every 20 minutes to go potty, then today every 30 minutes, tomorrow we move up to 45 minutes.....so far so good!

2. Allowing Rolly time to fall asleep on his own-

This may not seem like a resolution since Rolly pretty much always goes down for his nap/bedtime awake, however last week we had friends in town and a crazy schedule and unfortunately acclimated him to being put down asleep. I feel bad that he's having to re-learn something that we messed up for him. BUT he is 7 1/2 months old and he can fall asleep alone. He cries a little, but every night does better and better.

3. Starting Rolly on foods- finally!

Yes-it's true, Rolly has never had a taste of anything other than breastmilk----until tonight! He had some banana pieces. He of course loved it and smiled real sweet for the camera. He fed himself a few pieces. I fed him first and feeding himself is just for practice and seeing if he has any allergies, but my baby loves it. Hopefully his tummy will love it too. We'll see.

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As I reflect on our resolutions it makes me a little bit sad that we're experiencing all these changes, but my boys are growing, becoming more independent and that's a good thing. It means I'm doing my job.

What about you any resolutions? Happy New Year!