Fun with Instagram

Enjoying my break so far....here are some pictures from throughout my day today with those nearest and dearest to me.

So that's where all the Puffs went

Sleepy baby

"Pretend sleeping"

Time to relax

Spring is here! (for a couple days, at least)

St. Patrick's Day, we enjoyed a little porch time with the boys. Sam was having so much fun just running around and Jude loved having the breeze blow through his (crazy) hair.

That night, the boys took a bath together for the first time! They loved it, although Sam kept trying to wash Jude's hair and made him cry. A few minutes later, he was staring in awe at Sam as Sam kept squirting water at himself, cracking himself up...

Sam is pure joy in this picture...he was laughing so hard he looks like he was screaming!

Sam is FREE YEARS OLD!

I have a bit of catching up to do! Blogging is hard for a working mom of 2. Luckily, I'm still taking lots of pictures. I uploaded about 200 today from just the last month! I had plenty I wanted to post, but I'd be uploading pictures for days if I didn't get selective.

Jude and Sam are growing up so fast! Jude is starting to have a little personality. He's still pretty laid back and now that he's not throwing up all his food, he's happy almost all the time. (Unless he's teething...then watch out!) He LOVES to watch his big brother. It's easier for Sam to play with him now that he can sit up and interact a little more. Yesterday, we all played ball together. Jude's pretty good at rolling the ball around! He laughed every time Sam rolled it to him.

Last month, I tried to get some brother shots. You can see how that turned out.

Finally got Sam to try to make Jude smile. It wasn't too hard - like Sam, Jude's pretty easy to get to smile.

Jude's eating all kinds of food now! My favorite baby product ever, the Beaba, is getting lots of use again and I'm making all kinds of crazy baby food. Jude's favorites are ground turkey with apples or pears (which looks an awful lot like cat food - yum), mango, carrots, and blueberries!

Most Saturdays, after a little bit of lounging around in our bed together while Jude eats, we all go downstairs and Ben makes pancakes. Sam likes to request different shapes, and I have to say that Ben has gotten quite skilled at meeting his requests. Can you guess what Sam asked for here?
If you guessed a snowman playing the violin, you are correct!!! The funny thing was, Sam's first comment after Ben gave him his plate was, "Where is his bow?"

Sam turned 3 on February 24. We still can't believe it. He started talking about it daily about a month before. There were lots of things for him to look forward to with the big 3: a birthday party, birthday cake, moving to Mrs. Polly's class at school, and just about everything else. Everything he does that's new is explained with, "I did that because I turned free years old!" Almost all of his good buddies at school turned 3 in February, too, so we heard a lot about Neely, Jack & Anna, Kate, and Rishika all turning 3 and moving up to Mrs. Polly's class. It's been nice that they've all been transitioning around the same time and the school has been great about having a gradual transition over 2 weeks. This is his first week in Mrs. Polly's class all day and it's going well, although I know Sam misses his beloved Ms. Cassie. We love her so much, and we look forward to Jude having her. We're lucky that we have such wonderful people taking care of our boys...it sure makes being a working mom and dad easier.

Sam's actual birthday landed on a Thursday. We had a little family party for him that evening. He requested his favorite meal, pasta with "regular" (meat) sauce. I got him his own green cupcake since green is his favorite color and we sang to him. He loved it, but was really excited for the real party that Saturday.

Jude enjoyed the Sam's birthday, too. :)

That Saturday, Rachel brought the boys up and we took Sam and Jackson downtown to the Taft Theatre to see Children's Theatre's The Jungle Book. It was so cute and the boys loved it! Sam's favorite character was the snake. Both boys were so well behaved! About 30 minutes into the 45 minute show, Sam leaned over and whispered, "Is it over yet?"

Afterwards, we had a little family party at our house with my parents, Rach and the boys, Neenee, and Uncle Brett and Aunt Dianah. Sam kept calling it his "house party." It had a Toy Story theme (obviously - what else?). Sam just loved having everyone there to celebrate.

The big gift from us was a new bike. He was speechless he was so excited! I think he forgot about wanting a bike after opening his other gifts. A couple weeks before his birthday, he'd asked me one morning, "Mommy, why do you and Daddy go to school?" I told him that we went to school so that we could have money. He asked, "Why?" I told him we needed money to pay for our house and to buy food to eat. Then he added, "And so you can get me a bike for my birthday?"

He figured it out the next day. Now we just need some warmer weather so we can get it outside more!

Slacker

Well, only on the blog front. I've definitely been a blog slacker. Only because I can't slack in my other responsibilities. Except maybe cleaning sometimes. Although a woman I work with who has 3 grown children has told me that she regrets being such a clean freak when her kids were young because she could have spent that time she spent cleaning playing with her kids. I always think of that when I realize that I can write my name in the dust on my furniture and it makes me feel a little better.

The boys are great. Jude likes to do his impersonation of Linda Blair in the Exorcist every couple of days and drown himself, me, and anything around us in spit-up puke. And then look at me and smile. We're taking him for his 6 month check up Monday so maybe they can enlighten me on what's going on with him. Sam is just always saying funny things and is curious about everything. He's also constantly starting family soccer or football games in our foyer. I've played more soccer in the last few days than I have in my life (which, admittedly, is not much).

Today is Jude's 6 month birthday! We can't believe it. He's had a couple firsts in the last few weeks...first cereal and his first tooth broke through this week! Jude's not a big eater. Although he loved the peas I made him, he's "meh" on the butternut squash. Maybe he'll like my sweet potatoes better.

I've been having fun with my super-duper DSLR camera my AWESOME husband got me for Christmas. Since we've had kids, our biggest splurges are things like a night out at the movies, so taking the plunge on this camera was a big deal. But I love taking pictures of my boys, so it will go to good use. Here's just a few of the zillions of pictures I've taken with it!

Sam has really taken to the big brother role. He is so sweet to Jude and also so proud of him. Jude's a big hit with Sam's friends at daycare, and Sam's very protective of him.

Jude's first cereal.

Bathtime Photo Shoot - he hammed it up for the camera for about 40 pictures.

Scary Santa

It's been such a busy December and I'm finally posting our Santa picture from this year. We went to see him after Thanksgiving with Ben's family. He kept telling us that "Santa is a nice guy" and that he wasn't going to be scared of him. When it was his turn, he totally froze and just stood and stared at Santa. Meanwhile, Jude was loving every minute of it. We decided to turn it into a family picture and then Sam felt more comfortable. When Santa asked Sam what he wanted for Christmas, Sam belted out "Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear!" just like he had practiced. Sam keeps telling me he was scared that day so he had to sit on my lap, but that he's not scared of Santa anymore.
A couple weeks ago, Ben arranged for a phone call from Santa to come for Sam (through Cincinnati Bell). Sam patiently listened to Santa's message and then excitedly reminded Santa that he wants Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear for Christmas. When Santa stopped talking, he told him "I being a good boy. I not being a bad boy!!!" Later that night, when Sam wouldn't try any of his dinner, Ben went upstairs and called our home phone using his best Santa voice. When Sam answered, "Santa" explained how he had been watching Sam and he saw that Sam wasn't eating his dinner and that he wanted him to eat 3 bites. I've never seen Sam eat that quickly in his life!

This has really been a fun Christmas season so far. We can't wait to see Sam's face when he comes downstairs Christmas morning!

Photographer Sam

Sunday morning, Sam asked to take some pictures. Here's some of his work:

He was pretty proud of his pictures. :)

Gobble Gobble

We stuffed ourselves silly on Thanksgiving this year at Neenee Sue's house! Although it was Jude's first Thanksgiving, he got the same old meal, of course. But the rest of us sure enjoyed the food! Sam got to sit at the kids' table with the boys, which he loved. His favorite part was probably playing football with his cousins, who were so sweet to him.

Jacob reading a story to Sam

Uncle Jim gets some baby time in.

Jude hanging out with Aunt Jane and Aunt Susan

Droopy Drawers