In the Snow

We finally got Daniel his own shovel. He likes chopping the snow. I thought you would like to see this little video. We are currently suffering through a little flu. Hopefully it will move through quickly.

Christopher's 1st Birthday

We had a great party on Saturday to celebrate Christopher's 1st birthday. He was a champ and loved his cake. He really loved his cake. We couldn't even light the candle because he was so anxious to get at the cake. Here is a video of the first few bites. By the end he was completely covered in blue frosting. I can't believe that he is a year old already. The time really does fly.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's been a great year! This evening I got to enjoy a nice quiet night at home with my three favorite boys ;) You will notice from the pictures that I was not going anywhere. I do have a new hairdo these days. Well some days. Sometime in the last few months my hair decided to be curly. I'm trying to work with it.

Matt carried on our family tradition and made me a cake. We did have to make an additional trip to the store for frosting procurement. He thought when the box said it came with pudding you didn't need to buy frosting, too. He was so disappointed when he found out that the frosting was an additional purchase. I was impressed that he thought about it. I can envision him in the cake aisle debating the matter.

I can't wait to hear what Daniel tells the world about my birthday. Matt relayed this conversation to me from earlier today. Matt, "Daniel, what did we get Mommy for her birthday?" Daniel, "We got Mommy underwear!" Matt shakes his head and laughs. They got me a shirt, a cardigan, and a bracelet. Aunt Kelly got me the underwear.

Other exciting things going on here include the 9 inches of snow we got on Saturday night and the below freezing temperatures today. We had a nice long fall with great weather, but winter got here in a hurry. It is really fun to be able to get out an enjoy it for a change. I'm not pregnant, and Daniel is loving the snow. He is partial to shoveling and snowballs these days. I think he is going to be a big fan of sledding, too.

My cake made with love by Matt and Daniel.

Daniel and Christopher enjoying their favorite jumping spot.

Me studiously blowing out the candles and Daniel showing the big cheese.

My boys posing for the camera.

Daniel was pretty excited about the cake.



Risky Behaviour

Here are a few pictures to preceed my post on Christopher's risky behaviour.

Daniel and I went to Sesame Street Live a few weeks ago. He loved it, and was a great audience member.

4th row seats!

Christopher's first snow.

Our big helper.

Daniel really wanted to pull Christopher in the sled.

Over the last couple months Christopher has changed from this sweet cuddly little baby to a very curious and busy boy. In order to buy myself a little sanity and time, I've invested in numerous child safety devices. These were awesome and provided enough containment in a quantified risk area that I could divert my attention for a few moments to do things like swap out the laundry or use the restroom. Well, that all changed this week when Christopher learned to climb on the couch by himself. For a few days, he needed to move something near the couch to use as leverage, but now he has it down all on his own. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that his main goal of getting on the couch is to climb on the arms of the couch or attempt to climb over the back of the couch. So how does one babyproof the couch? Face it to the wall? We could just watch the backyard instead of the TV. Move it to the foyer? Everyone needs a couch in the foyer, right? I can't even imagine what I'm going to do when he figures out that the stools or chairs can be moved around and he can use them to get even higher like on the counter or something like that. I used to think that Daniel did wild things, but he always seemed to stay within his cpapbilities for getting out of the situation. Christopher has no concept of a graceful dismount. He usually just goes for it and lands face first on the floor. No big deal when its the step down into the carpeted sunken living room, but it is a little more of a concern when its down the flight of stairs or off the couch. So this makes me worry about the teenage years. Hopefully the trend will not continue.

Jingle Bells

As a preface to this post I should let you know that my boys love music. I really do the a disservice in my lack of music in the house because they truly enjoy music.

Daniel has selected a favorite Christmas carol. It's Jingle Bells. He is thrilled when it comes on the radio and does not understand why the next song is not Jingle Bells, too. In his defence one of the local radio stations has Jingle Bells twice on the rotation. Maybe they do that because all kids feel this way. I suspect that it was just the intern's mistake.

Last night during the witching hour, I decided to play a little Christmas music for them on the stereo. I did not have Jingle Bells, so I dug out the Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD and put it on the DVD player. I just thought I needed to mix things up a bit. I was totally awestruck by how ecstatic my boys were. They both turned their attention right to the speakers and started dancing immediately. They were just enthralled with the music. I was overcome with the moment. It was pretty awesome. I guess I need to play more music for them.

I must say that watching Christopher dance is the cutest thing. He spreads his legs apart and kind of does a squat bounce move. And, of course, he squeals with joy while doing it. I'll have to make a video for you to watch, too.

Christopher's Game

Christopher invented this little game yesterday, and for some reason Daniel actually went for it. I was quite suprised that he was ok with Christopher having Bucky and teasing him with it, but I am frequently suprised by these guys.

Life has been crazy since Christopher started getting into everything. I feel like I can't get anything done, but soon this stage will be over. I also posted a video on Facebook of Christopher chatting up a storm and doing kisses. So cute!

Go Irish!

This football season was a little less than spectacular, but we are true Irish fans and can't tear ourselves away from the TV despite the performance. The boys got into it a bit, too. Daniel normally moves this much. Just imagine church together.

Daniel and Christopher in the Boat

I'm just wondering if all of you climb out of bed and get in your boat? That's the kind of house we live in. We have been enjoying the slower pace of life since our travelling earlier in the fall. Today is a rainy and cold November day. The boys are doing great. Christopher follows nearly everything that Daniel does and is getting faster on his feet each day. Immediately after shooting this little video, Christopher had to go over and watch the video with Daniel and Matt. He kept pointing at himself in the video and then would look at the front of the camera to see where the picutre was coming from. I wish I had a video of that. It is amazing to see their little minds work.

Alligator Wrestling

Banana Phone and Palermo's to the Rescue

I had to make a rush-hour trip to the grocery store this afternoon with one toddler who did not nap and one baby who just seemed a bit frantic (teeth?). I knew it was a dicey situation, but I had to go. We are hosting the dinner portion of our Women's Club Progressive Dinner tomorrow night and I'm volunteering for Expanding Your Horizons tomorrow afternoon, so it was now or never. Things were going alright until I got into the vestibule and there were no car carts. That meant that Daniel was either free or thrown in the big part of the cart. I opted for the big part of the cart, but I knew that my groceries were likely to get pulverized.

We started in the produce department where Daniel asked to taste everything. I don't know how many times I had to tell him that we have to pay for the food before we eat it (this was particularly important for the produce as it is by weight!). Well I grabbed some bananas, and before I knew it, Daniel had one plucked from the bunch and was talking on it like a phone. I decided that this was a pretty good compromise. He continued to talk on his banana phone for half of the store very loudly. The fun was wearing off by the frozen foods, and I started to get worried.

I had no need to worry because we ran into the Palermo's Pizza sample lady. She was giving out slices of pizza, and Daniel loves pizza! Now these were not a taste of pizza. These were Happy Hour at the grocery store size slices. It was perfect. If you recall, I'm a big fan of Palermo's. I mentioned them in a earlier post about coupons. They have a .pdf $1 off coupon on their website. The pizza lasted until the dairy aisle when Matt called. Daniel had to ditch the pizza for the banana phone. It was hilarious. I was talking to Matt on the cell phone, and Daniel was talking to him on the banana phone.

We finally made it out of there with minimal outbursts. There was a mini-meltdown when the banana phone went into the bag instead of to Daniel. If you could have only seen the look on the bagger's face when Daniel asked him for his banana phone. The banana phone made a perfect snack for the ride home.

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Photos, I Miss You

Some of you might be wondering why there have not been any pictures here since our trip to Virginia. I guess you might have to call it a casualty of good fun. Sunday morning was so hectic getting up and out of the hotel and to the airport. I was fine. It was just early for me, but Matt was, well, under the weather. Let's just say that being a groomsman in your college friend's wedding brings out the college in you.

So anyway, the camera never made it from the rental car to our bags. The part that ticks me off a bit is that I called Alamo before we even arrived at our house only to get a really sorry excuse for customer service. I am fairly certain that the person answering the phone that day has a nice Nikon Exlim now complete with pictures from Chris and Laura's wedding. At least we can see the Mariner's Museum and the Williamsburg Winery online, but there will never be a replacement for the beautiful bride or the green Focus. I've called back four more times, and their best excuse for helping has been that they sent an email. Thanks Alamo. I have zero confidence in their ability to find things as there were at least two other people's rental agreements in our glovebox. Despite the camera loss, the weekend was wonderful.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about getting a new camera. I feel like we should wait until Christmas or upgrade to iPhones or something like that, but then I realized that Christoper will be turning 1 before then. I'm going to have to figure out something before then! I'm open to suggestions.

Happy Halloween

Here are a couple videos from Halloween. The boys had a great time. Christopher made it a couple houses, and Daniel made it almost the whole block. Much of our Trick-or-Treating involved redirecting Daniel from flowerbeds and other things like that. I particularly liked the house where Daniel found four treats - sand, a pinecone, berries, and leaves - before reaching the front door. He was a very cute duck, and got many compliments. Since then, we have been struggling with getting back into our non-treat routine ;)

October Videos

Here are some recent videos. Daniel and Christopher are full of life these days. If you get through the crying on the costume video, it gets cute. We are looking forward to Halloween now that Daniel is set on being a duck. For the longest time, he only wanted to be Daniel.

My Most Recent Definition of Fun

I feel like I'm becomming more and more of a Mom. Or maybe a better way to put it is that I'm starting to appreciate more and more what being a Mom really means. I tend to have daily epiphany's on this front, but I want to share with you a little about my most recent epiphany's. I'll start with yesterday's big event. I actually paid someone to watch my children and feed them the dinner I prepared while I went grocery shopping. Big deal right? Well, to me it was wonderful. I made it a super special event by going to the Super Target instead of the lame grocery store around the corner, and I left my phone in the car. I did return to about 5 missed calls from Matt who had gotten home to find a couple babysitters instead of me, but that's another story. It's amazing how much you can purchase with your whole brain focused on buying rather than 1/3 of it. I hate to admit it, but it was actually fun in a strange sort of way.

Tonight's fun might actually be described as fun by more than just Moms. Our neighborhood women's club had our monthly meeting tonight. Big deal right? Well, the meeting was yoga and chocolate tasting. Woo Hoo! We were led in a nice easy but slightly yoga class by the owner of a local yoga studio - Bliss Flow Yoga, and after we did the yoga, we got to taste some super yummy chocolates from Vosges Haut-Chocolat. I love the new trend of fusion chocolate. We had samples of sea salt chocolate, a curry chocolate, a mexican spicy chocolate, a super dark chocolate, and a sesame and wasabi truffle. Wow! I highly encourage you Chicago readers to stop by one of her stores in town. You travelers can stop by the store in O'Hare.

This kind of fun continues this weekend because Matt and I are headed to Williamsburg, Virginia, for a wedding and the kids are staying here with Grandma and Boppa. I can't remember two nights in a row without children. I'm sure it happened sometime in the brief spell between Daniel and Christopher, but I just can't remember it. I'm sure the time between now and then will be a bit hectic, but that's ok. What day is not hectic anymore?

Go Irish!

We got a wild hair and decided to go to ND with the Lee family last weekend. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great, the boys were great, and best of all, the Irish won! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

With Touchdown Jesus
Daniel and Boppa waking up the echoes in the stadium.

Daniel titled this one, "Daniel and Christopher being shy."

Not sure what silliness this was.

Christopher and Maggie.

The Pumpkin Pick

We went to the pumpking pick at our CSA this past weekend. It was great. Vermont Valley has provided us with some really awesome produce! Thank goodness we are splitting a share with a friend. Otherwise, we would be overwhelmed. Christopher has probably benefitted the most from this experiment. I've made tons of babyfood for him from our share. I've also really enjoyed seeing the food change as the seasons have passed. It makes me a little sad that we only have two more weeks left. I can't believe how soon winter will be here. For those of you who are curious some of the more interesting things I've made with our produce are homemade tomato soup and real pumpkin puree that I used in muffins. I'm thinking that we will be doing it again next year. Maybe Daniel will say, "Is today vegetable day?" instead of, "We get begetables today, Mommy?"

No, Daniel did not hit Christopher with that gourd.

Professional pictures coming soon.

Billiken In House

Billiken? You might ask. Billikens are a good luck charm doll that happens to be the St. Louis University mascot. Well, Aunt Kelly who attends St. Louis University came up for the weekend and showered Daniel with Billiken trinkets that she got from their homecoming parade. He loved them! Give Daniel something you catch out of the air, and he is a happy boy. She brought him a frisbee, a ball, and a fox. Billikens are pretty big in our house. Here is a picture of one so you can get an idea of the look.
Daniel was pretty confused by the Billiken at first and kept calling it a pig. He is so funny like that these days.

Here we are having some floor playtime.

Daniel was a big Aunt Kelly fan.

We had a wonderful time playing (the boys) and shopping (me). It's such a rare occasion that I get to go shopping let alone with a shopping buddy. It's so much more fun to have your sister along for the ride than a toddler. We found some nice decorations for the house. Ok, it was only a new crop of fall fake flowers, but new is fun no matter what. We also had a banner coupon day at Copp's. Kelly enjoys saving money just as much as I do ;) I love it when you can combine sales, with coupons, and promotions. Proctor & Gamble was a good friend this week.

Christopher Walks

Last week Christopher decided that he really wanted to give us a challenge, he started walking more. He stood up and took 10 steps across the kitchen. He still crawls quite a bit, but he walks all the time. He's just 9-months-old! Here is a movie from yesterday. It is in reverse order, but hopefully you will get a taste of the action around here. Somewhere in the middle there is a clip of Christohper taking a bunch of steps. It is not so easy to get a video of him. He loves the camera, and crawls if you are far away. Christopher is working on theeth 3 and 4, so he's been a bit grumpy. I'm hoping for a breakthrough soon!

Just Feathers - No Head

Me, "Daniel, what do you want to be for Halloween?"
Daniel, "For Halloween?"
Me, "Yes, what do you want to be for Halloween when you go Trick-or-treating?"
Daniel, "Hmm, a duck."
Me, "A duck would be a good costume."
Daniel, "Yes, a duck. Just feathers. No head."

Eating and Building - It's a Boy's Life

"Is this avocado mask working?"
Look Mom! Aren't you glad I feed myself?

Daniel from inside his fort.

Daniel on his throne.

Inside the fort.

Today has been one of those crazy days. Our events have included:

- Christopher escaping to climb up the stairs four times before breakfast.

- Christopher testing to see just how much toilet paper is on the roll.

- Daniel practicing folding the runner in the kitchen and the pad under it. (He managed to successfully fold both of them.)

- Swimming lessons for both boys. Daniel is more of a fish than ever before. I owe you guys a new video. Christopher likes to splash.

- You saw the avocado face painting. Christopher is the messiest eater ever. Most meals end with a sink bath.

- I'm looking forward to what the afternoon brings.

Brothers

I've always heard that brothers share a special bond, and being one of four kids, I do have an appreciation for siblings. However, I feel like Christopher and Daniel have a uniquely special love for one another. Their eyes light up everytime they see each other. The most amazing part to me is that it is a mutual affection. Daniel loves to have Christopher do everything with him, and likes to make little bites for him at mealtime. Daniel holds up a piece of food and asks, "This little?" If I say yes, he'll bring it to Christopher. Christopher loves following Daniel around and playing with him. One of their favorite activities is jumping on the couch together. (Yes, I know where the ER is.) I often think that Daniel is tackling Christopher a little too rough to find that Christohper is at the bottom of the pile smiling ear to ear and giggling.

I can only hope that they will share such a love for each other as they grow up. I am sure that there will be bumps along the road, but if the first few months of brotherhood are a prelude, they really have a special relationship.

Obviously this was taken a week ago.

Grass is really awesome!

Daniel followed Christopher in to the basket.

Fishing with Boppa

Boppa has promised Daniel that they can go fishing together when he is 3. Ok, not a bad thing to look forward to. Daniel is really looking forward to this activity and now everytime someone's birthday gets mentioned, Daniel has to discuss fishing with Boppa. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me, "On Saturday, we are going to Jack's house for his birthday party."
Daniel, "It not Jack's birthday, it Daniel's birthday. I go fishing with Boppa. I three (pronounced - free)."
Me, "Daniel, your birthday is in April."
Daniel, "I go fishing with Boppa. I three?"
I try some other method of distraction, but Daniel is consistent with his talking points. He is three. He is going fishing with Boppa. I hope Boppa is prepared on April 5, 2011, rain, sleet, snow, or shine. At least he is consistent. Maybe we will have a fishing party?

Potty Training

So as I write this, Daniel is sitting across from me at the table in Thomas the Train underwear. Now, I'm not sure if he is actually ready for potty training, but Matt went to South Bend for the game with his parents and I guess I needed a project. I would say that we are having average success at best. There are still lots of accidents.

The high points are the few times that he actually walked himself into the bathroom, pulled his underwear down, used the potty, dumped it in the toilet, washed the bowl, put it back, flushed the toilet, and came and told me. Seriously, he's done that more than once in the couple days we have been doing this. He also had his first out of the house outing today with success! We went to church and Daniel made it there and back dry! It was all for the lollipop that I told him he had to wait until after church to eat, but it happened. Clearly he has somewhat of an understanding of the potty. The cute part is watching him run around in underwear and a t-shirt. Those little legs move so quickly. It is particularly cute with his Crocs on, too.

Anyway, I can tell that this is going to be a battle of wills as Daniel is quite the stubborn little guy. Somehow I have to make the potty seem more appealing that play. That's a challenge. I guess I could just bribe him with candy into using the potty. That lollipop got me 3 hours of dry underwear. The stickers are only moderate motivation, but he will use it if he really wants one.

Christopher is not taking well to the extra attention Daniel is getting. He has been a total Mama's boy the last couple days. If I got out of the room he starts crying and crawling after me.

Luckily backup should be arriving home soon. I'm getting a little stir crazy here in the house. I don't have high hopes for Daniel going to school on Wednesday in underwear, but I bet our diaper consumption will be down over the next few days. Wish us luck!

Monkeying Around in the Yard

Time Flys!

Well, these pictures are not really in the order I intended, but Blogger is being a bid difficult right now. Here you go.

Matt headed to South Dakota for Chris Clement's bachelor party. They stayed in a lovely cabin, visited Mount Rushmore, did some hiking in the Black Hills, went to Sturgis for the motorcycle rally, and shot guns. Here is a picture of Matt shooting. I wish you could see his Reagan Viva La Revolution shirt.

Daniel has been enjoying jigsaw puzzles. When he finishes, he always asks to look at it. Here is one he got from his grandparents.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Grampie and Aunt Kelly earlier this summer. Here they are sitting the the chairs Grampie made.

Time has been flying by this summer. I can't believe we are halfway through August. We have been enjoying the warm summer weather, but we could live without all the mosquitos! Daniel has started speaking very clearly and has started telling us lots of stories. I love getting to hear more about what he is thinking. He loves helping me around the house. Christopher is changing daily. He is crawling and pulling up on everything. I heard that he took some steps at Little Builders the other day. My guess is that he will be walking sometime in September.

Yankee Doodle

Daniel has been singing a lot these days. I hope you enjoy ths little video. When he sang this for Matt, Matt suprised all of us by singing all four verses of Yankee Doodle. Too bad I did not get a video of that :)

These Kids Crack Me Up

The kids were absolutely thrilled with this parade/chase game. Christopher tried his best to keep up, but you will see that he only made it about 5 feet the whole time. And nothing like the Reynolds Wrap box for Daniel's parade instrument. Between the frisbee and this box you would think that we do not have a living room full of commercial toys ;0 It really goes to show you that you can't buy fun.

July was a big month!

Here is a recent video of Christopher. In the past couple weeks he has started doing so many new things. I have a few videos that I'm trying to compile into a movie to show the development, but the Flip software is not really doing what I want. So he started crawling and doing the army man crawl a couple weeks ago. He seems to prefer the army man because it was faster until today. Today he really started to get into crawling with speed. Last weekend he started pulling up on the couch. Now all he wants to do is stand. He will even walk a bit holding our hands. Each day he gets better and better. I'm amazed at how quickly he masters new skills.

He stared using some baby signs this week, too. Hopefully knowing 'more' and 'all done' will make mealtimes easier. Well, they are pretty easy now, so I don't know if they will actually get easier. Christopher loves to clap. He claps a lot when he hears any kind of music. It's pretty cute. As you can see in the video, Christopher is quite thrilled with his voice.

This month Daniel is taking on the puzzle world among many other new things. He loves jigsaw puzzles. He is getting pretty good a the 30 piece puzzle from Gamma and Boppa. When he finished it, he always makes me wait a minute while he looks at the picture. Daniel is also becoming quite the pack rat. He will get attached to the strangest things sometimes. Last weekend we went to a parade and he got two lime green frisbees. They are about 3- or 4-inches in diameter. Anyway, he likes them so much that he has taken them to school each day and sleeps with them for naps and at night. He has also reached the age where he will tell me stories about what happens at school or he will start doing things he learned there like singing "Yankee Doodle" in Target today or doing the "Firecracker, firecracker, boom, boom, boom" cheer between stories and prayers tonight. The "boom, boom, boom" was complete with hip shaking for those of you who were wondering. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Christopher's Big Week

I know I already mentioned it here, but Christopher had a huge week. He got his first two teeth, started sitting, and is almost crawling. The pictures and videos here are already out of date. Now he is getting up on all four and rocking. I'm trying to enjoy my last few days with a stationary child. As you will see, he is quite vocal, too. He loves squeeling. He is naked in the pictures because he is such a messy eater that his clothes had to go in the wash after lunch. I should be a pro at babyfeeding, but this kid is sneaky and quick. He will distract me and then grab the spoon. Maybe I'm just a pushover? The videos are kind of long, sorry.