Yeah for having Daddy home!!

It is amazing the miracles that happen when Daddy is home for an extended period of time. Aaron has been off for a week, and had another week off. It is great to have him home. Noah keeps saying, "Don't go to work anymore." So I have been trying to get Brody to take a sippy cup for months. I try every day with every different kind of cup available, filled with every type of liquid available. Tonight, Brody couldn't get enough of drinking for Aaron's cup, so Aaron decided to try a sippy cup...low and behold...Brody drinks and drinks and drinks.

Oh, and no matter how I try, I can never make a fort as cool as Daddy can. Noah was so excited about this one. He had been asking Aaron to build a house for him all day. Needless to say, life is much more fun with Aaron home.

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. I don't think I have been that excited since I was a kid. I had a hard time sleeping for three days leading up to it. I couldn't wait to see Noah's face when he saw all the presents. He didn't quite get the whole Santa thing, but he sure was excited to get so many new toys. Brody, of course, was more interested in the wrapping paper. He played with this green shiny piece for 10 minutes, laughing and squealing the entire time. If you look closely at the last picture Noah's face is classic. He is so excited about his rocketship. Christmas has become more magical now that I have kids.

Here is Praying...

to more sleep at night for everyone. Brody got tubes in his ears this morning. We had to be there at 6:30 and Brody was so excited that he decided to stay up most of the night and then be completely done with sleeping by 4 am.

Everything went really well and really fast. The nurse said they usually take kids' vital signs before they completely wake up from the anesthesia, but Brody was screaming before they could even get him into the recovery room. He was so angry. Every time the nurse looked at him he would scream.

Hopefully the tubes will help Brody feel more comfortable at night, hopefully he will be able to sleep more consistently, hopefully...

Too many things to post about...

There have been way to many things that have happened since I last posted, so here are just a few of my favorites.
Brody loved the stem on this pumpkin. Well, he loves anything that even remotely resembles food.
I look at this picture and wonder how I ended up with such beautiful, sweet kids. This kid melts my heart day after day.


Yes, Noah is giving his snowman a hug. We woke up one morning and had all of this snow, the next day is was 70 degrees. Imagine that! Noah already had issues with the sun, and when I told him that the sun had melted his snowman, his hatred for it increased.
Can you tell by the look on Noah's face how much he liked touching the pumpkin guts. We tried to get him to actually touch the gooey stuff and he said, "No, don't want to. Yucky."

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have to say that the train engineer thing turned out so cute.

Noah

I will post more Halloween pictures later, but I wanted to get these two up here today. Noah has the most expressive face. You can tell exactly what he is feeling by what expression he is making. I love taking pictures of him.

My boys

This week has been kind of rough for me. I am overwhelmed with my physical therapy stuff, I am overwhelmed with memories from the past, I am overwhelmed with being a mother. I feel like I am dealing with old feelings and I don't want to pass them on to my children. Anyway, today I was sitting in my room, crying, trying to get a grasp on things when I heard a sound. I had set Brody in the hall outside my door and Noah was running around doing something. Brody had started to laugh, a big belly laugh with his signature squealing noise. And then Noah started laughing. I didn't want to disturb them so I just listened. This went on for five minutes before I even looked to see what they were doing. I peeked out my door to see Noah putting his favorite green blanket on Brody's head and waiting while Brody pulled it off. They would look at each other and both would crack up. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was a tremendous blessing in my day. I love them both more than I ever thought possible.

Catch up

Here is what has been going on with us this summer.
So Brody is obsessed with food. You can't eat anything anywhere near him without him opening his mouth and leaning towards you. He cries when people around him are eating and he isn't. Anyway, he found this chocolate chip cookie and was in heaven. I went to get him out of here and found him covered in brown goop. It took me forever to figure out that Noah had left a cookie on the exersaucer.

We love our neighbors and our neighborhood. This is Anders and Olivia, they live next door. Noah loves them. Sometimes I think he would rather live with them! It keeps me sane being able to talk to all the people that live around me.

We went to the Children's Museum and Noah loved it. His favorite part was this section that had hundreds of balls that you could put in different tubes and things. Isn't that surprising? Noah loving balls?

Noah, Aaron, and Grandma loved playing in the water in the gutter during a rainstorm. At first, Noah was a bit skeptical. He kept saying, "Oh no! Noah wet."

Oh wonderful bath time! On the nights Aaron is at school I sometimes use bath time as an escape. Is that weird?

We spent a lot of time at the park with Grandma, Ethan, Abbie, and Kathleen, trying to keep ourselves sane with the absence of "Daddy" due to school. Abbie and Noah are enjoying burying Grandma in the sand.

We went to a little water park to celebrate a friend's birthday. Noah used to have no fear when it came to these parks, now he will wade around in this pool, but we can't get him near anything that sprays.

Brody is now seven months and I still swaddle him. I know it is crazy, but it works for us and I need sleep. He is starting to wiggle out and stay asleep so there may be hope. If not, the poor kid will be swaddled until he is two.

The boys are starting to play together. Noah loved pulling Brody in this little wagon. It's great to see them interact. Brody spends most of his day laughing at Noah. He loves him.

Other things that are going on: Aaron is now super busy with school. I don't know who misses him more, me or Noah. Baby steps to April. I am doing a little playgroup with some neighbor kids once a week. Noah loves it and never wants to come home when I go to get him. He always looks at me and says, "No Mommy."

We had Noah and Brody's pictures taken a few weeks ago. Noah is such a ham, he loves the camera. We got them done at Pretty Little Pictures. She did a great job and I am so happy about how they turned out.

Sweet little Mr. Bean

So I wanted to write a little bit about my little Brody. I think I have written many times about how he doesn't sleep, but he is such a wonderful baby besides that. Brody is so sweet and mellow during the day. He is super sensitive and gets scared when Noah and I are too loud. He likes being talked to and touched and cuddled. He loves watching his older brother and his face lights up when Noah walks in. I get more excited every day for the day when they can play together. Noah laughs all the time at the noises Brody makes and says, "Funny Brody." Noah also likes to show things to Brody. He points out things in books and likes to make animal noises at Brody. He also likes to help Brody roll over which can cause problems sometimes.

When Brody is awake he never stops moving. His feet are always kicking and his arms are always flailing. He turns in circles when I put him on the floor, and he is so close to rolling over. He likes to put everything into his mouth, mostly his own feet. He smiles a lot and laughs when you tickle his chubby little thighs, or his neck. I love both of my boys so much.

Liberty Park

We went to Liberty Park today and Noah had a blast playing in the water, of course. At first we just wanted him to walk in it. We tired to stop him from sitting in it, but as you can see, that didn't last very long. He was completely drenched by the time we left. His diaper was so full he was walking like a cowboy. I kept calling him cowboy and he kept saying, "Yee-haw!"