We're Ready!

We only have a couple more little things to do, and then we'll be officially ready for Christmas morning! Here are some snapshots from our abode:

I made this wreath with my own two little hands using gardenia cuttings and lavender sprigs from our garden. I hung it proudly on our front door, took this picture, and then you know what? It dried to a crisp that same afternoon. Oh well. Lesson learned. Better stick to fake greenery for the front door.

Our tree--tabletop this year because babies and full-size Christmas trees don't mix.

A Christmas card "wreath" in our kitchen.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care...

And reindeer food! I made these for Ben's class party, and he was SO VERY excited. He told me it was "SO NICE of you to make food for the reindeer, mommy!" Yes.. well, I'm a giving person. What can I say:) The instructions are HERE.

There's been a lot of other activity happening too. We made these and ate them ALL, and they were seriously the best sugar cookie recipe I've every tried. I made a batch of these today, and they were so easy and so good. I think I'll be eating a couple more before bed:) I'm hoping to try this recipe in the next two days, and Joel will be making toffee soon. There are some super secret projects happening in Joel's shop, and it looks like two little boys will be getting their own work bench for Christmas, along with other things. Ben has asked Santa for a bike with NO training wheels and it looks like Santa is going to deliver on that wish, with some training wheels in a box JUST in case:)

And after the presents are unwrapped and we've finished phase 1 of Christmas 2011, we'll be packing up our car and hauling the entire family (including Ladybird!) halfway across the country to Grandma and Grandad's house in Oklahoma to have phase 2. Ya'll, we are crazy. I'm apprehensive about this trip, but I also realize it could be a great adventure. It's happening regardless, so I should probably focus on having a good attitude. Please pray for us:)

Merry Christmas!

Abe at 13 Months

I just had to post these pictures of Mr. A. I swear, this little dude just makes my heart melt. His favorite activity is sitting on top of the steps, just hangin'. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen and hear him laughing, and turn around to see him dangling his chubby little legs from the top step, waving his arms and babbling on about something to an empty room. What a silly boy.

At times he'll stand on the step for a while, like he's debating whether or not to just start walking down them. At the last second, right when I'm starting to get a little worried, he always turns around and crawls backwards, as if to say "What! I don't know how to walk down these steps! Ya'll are crazy!"

Here he is noticing Ben riding his big wheel just outside the door. No matter how hard he tries, Abe just can't keep up with his older brother. How hard it is being the baby!

More birthday!

I thought that I should post more birthday pictures before Christmas. So here it goes!
I've been searching forever for the perfect white cake recipe, and debated between 3 different recipes before settling on this one. It was pretty good, but not "the one" quite yet. I think the reason I wasn't as impressed about it was because I over baked it by about 3-5 minutes--just enough to make it a tad dry. Oh well. Nobody complained, and Abe loved it, which is the most important part.
Our attempt at a family photo. I have two boys who are not really fans of having their pictures taken. A few weeks ago we had a family photo session with a professional photographer, and I don't know what I was thinking. Trying to get a 3 year old and an almost 1 year old to cooperate with anything much less actually look up at a camera in unison is a bad idea.
Mimi and Poppy gave Abe this push toy/ride on train that lights up and sings and does a ton of other stuff that is pretty cool to babies. Ben decided he needed to show Abe how to use it. Actually, Ben likes to "show" Abe how to use this toy almost every day. Sometimes Ben is kind enough to "gently" remove Abe from the train and remind him how it works.
Grandma and Grandad got him a drum with a bunch of musical instruments. His favorites are the egg shakers, and sometimes the sticks. Abe is a big fan of anything that makes noise.

I know that every parent says this, but I sincerely can't believe how fast the time has gone. I really feel like Abe was just a tiny newborn only a few months ago, and now that he's moving around it feels as though my time on bedrest and his first few months were just a dream. For some reason this birthday was hard for me. When Ben had his 1st birthday I felt nothing but excitement for the future. And truly, I think the months between 1 and 2 are some of the most rewarding. MUCH better than the first year, if I'm being honest. But I guess because Abram is our last baby I feel the passage of time more keenly. I don't want to relive his babyhood, but I have moments when I would love to just hold his little newborn body in my arms and smell his little baby smell one more time. But that's life, isn't it? Every season has it's end, and my season of babies is coming to a close. The exciting part is that the season of toddlerhood is just beginning, as Abe is walking about 40% of the time! He usually takes about 6 steps, drops down and crawls a few feet, stands up unassisted and takes a few more steps, crawls again, etc...He is approaching walking in such a gradual way that I'm sure we will hardly notice when he starts to walk everywhere.

We had his 1 year well check yesterday, and he is doing everything he "should" be doing at this point. Initiating games of peekaboo and chase, understanding most of what we say, using some words (he says "nana" for banana and for food in general, "dada" for Daddy, and "ah-ah" for uh-oh), self-feeding, walking...no worries! He's still a little peanut in the 10th percentile for height and weight, but that's a big jump for him since he has always been in the 3rd percentile. The pediatrician immediately jumped on the weight issue (cue to me inwardly rolling my eyes) but then quickly reversed course after watching Abe crawl, walk, climb and generally act like a little pistol for most of the appointment, including trying to throw himself off the exam table while the doctor tried to listen to his heartbeat and look in his ears. I think the phrases "he looks really good" and "oh...he's fine" were said a few times:) And since this is my blog I can brag a little...he also mentioned many times that Abe is very cute. And if the 70+ year old pediatrician who sees hundreds of babies a week thinks your kid is cute, you can be assured he speaks the truth:)

One more thing: when this pediatrician (the only one in our practice who had not yet met Abe) walked in he immediately said, "Well HELLO there pretty girl! Aren't you so pretty!" I laughed and laughed. And then I laughed some more. And I'm still laughing as I type this. He is pretty! God has a sense of humor, I suppose. I might never have a little girl, but at least I have my pretty boy!

Abe turns 1!

I'll write more later about everything that happened in between, but for now here is the beginning:

And the end!

Baby Abey gets his first haircut

It wasn't an official "big boy" haircut, but this little clean up made a big difference. I originally wanted to just let his hair grow and wait at least another few months before his first haircut, but after cleaning food out of his hair for the millionth time I decided it was time for a trim.

Before:

After:

I like it. He still looks like my baby, only not so trashy:)

Halloween 2011

How was your Halloween? Ours was pretty uneventful. Ben was more excited this year about the whole process. He went dressed as Batman and insisted that we call him Batman all night. Owen went as Batman also, and whenever they got to a new house one of them would say to the other, "Batman! Let's fly!" and then two Batmans would spread their capes and run pell mell to the front door. No shyness this year when it came to saying "trick or treat!" and no forgetting about that candy either, no sir! Last year Ben ate a couple of pieces and then I hid his bucket. He never once asked about his candy and I ate it ALL! That is not going to fly this year. Yet another way that 3 is so different from 2.

Abe went as Robin and he was VERY unhappy about wearing his mask. He had it on for all of one minute, and that was because I held his hands back from ripping it off. Ben was obviously disgusted that he was being made to sit for pictures. Batman doesn't take pictures with his mom. How lame. FYI--we borrowed Ben's costume and cobbled together Abe's from various things. The green jumpsuit is a pair of pajamas turned inside out, the red onesie I got at the thrift store and had my mother in law cut the sleeves off and baste the edges, the yellow belt is cut from an old onesie of Abe's and Joel actually drew a belt buckle on it with paint pen (but you can't see it), and we drew the black circle and yellow R with fabric paint pens. The mask and cape were borrowed from another costume.

Abe was in a better mood once he got the mask off. Here he is deciding that a mini pumpkin looks like a good snack.

And sweet little Abe again. I don't think he ate the gourd:) By the way, the jack o lantern was carved by my father in law. Isn't it good? Ben said he wanted a sad face, and Poppy obliged!

And in other Abe news, I made an appointment today for his first haircut! We go in on Friday. Can you believe this little munchkin will be turning 1 in less than two weeks!

Last week...

Ben spent a lot of time putting his together his USA floor puzzle. Some days he knows the names of every single state and I think he's a genius, and other days he talks a lot about Mizzazona, Indiohio, and Mizziana:)

Joel took Ben to his first football game at a local high school. When Ben got home, the first thing he did was walk through the door and immediately say, "Well...I thought I was going to be playing football." I don't know where he got that idea. Oh! Mr. B's favorite state in his floor puzzle is Ohio because it has a picture of a football, so in Ben's mind the state of Ohio and football are forever linked. When they arrived at the game Ben turned to Joel and said, "Is this OHIO?!?"I returned home from a run the other morning to see Ben and Joel playing catch in the backyard. Ben turned to me and said, "Mommy, did you come back here to see a QUARTERBACK?!" I said, "Oh, of course!" And then I smiled and kind of laughed. Ben did NOT smile and laugh. He takes his duties as quarterback very seriously. Got to get ready for Ohio!


And Abe spent some time doing one of his favorite activities. Might finally be time to give the hair a little trim, no?

Ashton Farm visit

Last weekend we joined up with some friends to visit a local farm just outside of Wilmington. Ben LOVED it. Here he is feeding some goats.


The owner of the farm let the kids run after and catch chickens. Ben loved the idea, but didn't really have a plan in mind. He would just run like crazy, and then when he finally got close to a chicken he would pause a bit, and then start running again. Then he got a little distracted. Here he is with a toy he found in the mud.

Finally, Joel caught a chicken and gave it to Ben. He wasn't too sure about the whole experience.
At the end of the farm tour every kid got to ride a horse. Ben immediately chose Prince (the biggest horse, and the only "boy") as his ride. He acted totally relaxed and unafraid, but after he got home he said, "I think that horse wanted to put me in his belly!"

10 months already?

The time since Abe was born has truly flown by. I had every intention of giving Abram the same amount of attention and one on one interaction that I was able to give Ben, but intentions are not the same as actions, and the reality of life frequently interrupts. My memories of Abe during the past 10 months are really of him being a little tagalong while I did various activities with Ben. But even with the lack of attention, Abe is still a happy little boy who is developing perfectly and brings joy to our family.

Ben was "late" doing almost everything: sitting up, crawling, walking, talking. When Abe was close to 7 months and still barely sitting up, I assumed he would be on the same trajectory as Ben. No biggie. Then when he got to 8 months, BAM! In that one month he got four new teeth, started self feeding, crawling, climbing up the stairs, pulling himself up and cruising. I think standing alone is coming soon, along with walking down the steps while holding on to the banister since he seems to want to skip crawling backwards and go right for the most dangerous option available.

Abe likes:
Putting objects inside baskets, bowls, etc...Looking for the remote? Missing a toy? Be sure to take a look inside all of our "catchall" baskets, and don't forget to check the kitchen drawers and the oven warmer.

Socks. He will take a single sock out of the laundry basket, show it to me, and then wave it around gently as if doing some sort of creative movement routine. Then he crawls around with it for a while. Sometimes he tries to put it inside a hamper or a dresser drawer. DO NOT try to take away this sock as it will lead to heartbreak.

His big brother. If Ben is telling some of his "jokes" and not getting much respect, he can always count on Abe to laugh.

Biting. He chews on everything in the house: toy, socks, shoes, furniture, me...If he is hungry he just pulls himself up on my leg and gives it a few bites. That lets me know he wants to get in his high chair and devour everything in sight. He usually proceeds to self feed by picking up whole handfuls of food, throwing them in his face and hoping a few pieces land in his mouth. If I make the mistake of thinking he is finished eating and put him back down on the floor, he just crawls up a gives me another bite so we can start the whole cycle over again. Yes, I do sign language. No, it's not working yet.

Abe dislikes:
Doing anything that he is "forced" to do, such as:
Getting his diaper changed
Getting dressed
Taking medicine
Having his face wiped down after eating
Being put in anything resembling "baby jail" like his exersaucer, bouncy swing or crib.
Having anything taken out of his hands, such as: my cell phone, electric cords, dirty silverware from the dishwasher, sticks from outside that he is chewing on, and rolls of toilet paper.

Gotta go right now and see if that little munchkin will actually go down for another nap. Wish me luck!

Preschool: Long Post!

I'm a little late posting this, but Ben had his first day of preschool last week. This year he is going 3 mornings a week instead of 2, and both he and I are very happy with that arrangement:) I think he may be somewhat in the minority, but Ben has never had a problem going to school. He truly loves it, and has never acted like he didn't want to go. In fact, I wish I had signed him up for more preschool "camps" over the summer, because most days he would ask, "do I have school today"? I don't know what that says about my parenting skills or lack thereof, but I'll choose to not be offended!

Inspired by a little survey I saw on Pinterest, I thought I would ask Ben some questions to commemorate his first day. My plan is to ask him the same questions every year, and then compile them all along with the first day of school pictures into a book to have as a keepsake. Here are his 3 year old preschool favorites:

T.V. Show: Veggie Tales
Song: Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Food: Oatmeal (this is true, believe it or not)
Candy: Bunny teeth (these are some sort of gross gummy concoction he got at his preschool Easter egg hunt)
Toy: Green trash truck
Activity: Riding my big wheel with Owen

And as a bonus, yesterday we were taking a little nature walk down our street and had this conversation that came about after discussing the leaves changing colors:
Ben: My favorite color is red.
Me: Oh really? That's a good favorite color. I like it too, but my favorite color is orange.
Ben: Yeah. I think your favorite color is blue.
Me: Oh...okay.

This summer has been a big one for Ben. He grew a little over an inch, and went up a whole shoe size. He adjusted to being a big brother and after a little bit of a rough start he is really starting to have so much fun with Abe. His capacity for learning has become so much greater, which means we are enjoying longer books during our reading time. We even made a little foray (accidentally) into reading non-picture books and Ben was able to keep up with the story for quite a while before needing a break. This lets me know that he is capable of hearing the words and then drawing from his own experiences to imagine the scene on his own. Big stuff for a three year old.

Our reading has invited a whole bunch of questions regarding how to to spell various words and write certain letters, so we've been forming letters with play dough. He has taken an interest in learning how to write and likes to sit down and practice his Bs and Ss! He also likes to count and assign a number to groups of objects. I know they don't really work on number or letter recognition at his preschool until age 4, so this interest is entirely his. Ben seems to be pretty left brained and he is a very visual learner, so it makes sense that he enjoys the orderly aspect of letters and numbers. And having a father who is a mathematician, an uncle who is an engineer, a grandfather who is a geologist and two great-grandfathers who were talented carpenters certainly means he comes by it honestly!

Basically, Benjamin is growing into being a fun kid. He likes to climb the highest structures and ride the fastest bikes, and barely makes a fuss when he falls or wipes out on his big wheel. He likes to make friends with everyone, doesn't need a whole bunch of attention and is great at entertaining himself in a constructive way. I mean, 3 year old boys are also pretty frustrating and Ben can drive me cah-ray-ZAY sometimes but I'll avoid the complaining in this post!

I used to think that how a kid turned out was entirely dependent on parenting, but now I'm not so sure. I think parenting has a huge influence on how a child turns out, but I also think you can just get a kid with a combination of personality characteristics that just makes them close to awesome. I just happened to birth a child who is friendly, inquisitive, easy-going and independent. And when it comes down to it, I think Ben is pretty cool little dude. Watching him grow these past few months makes me excited about the coming year school year.

Update

Wow. Long time no blog, huh? I can't even give an excuse and say this summer has been so busy, because it actually WASN'T that busy. We spent a lot of time hanging around the house and adjusting to being a family of four. With a baby on an ever evolving nap schedule it was hard to really make plans, so we usually ended up spending our days reading books and riding the big wheel. I was so lazy, I didn't even use the "real camera" to take pictures, but whipped out the phone whenever I needed a pic. Here are some random phone pictures from the last month.

We did take a break from our slow days to take a weekend trip to the farm in VA. Here are Ben and his (2nd) cousin Logan.

Ever since he was a tiny baby, Abe has LOVED to have his hair blow in the wind. One of his favorite things to do is crawl over to the air conditioning vent and enjoy the breeze!

Ben and Joel visited the beach to watch the waves the day before Hurricane Irene blew in. Ben COULD. NOT. understand why he wasn't allowed to swim, and promptly jumped belly first into the water. I think this picture was taken right before that incident. He looks pretty mischevious:)

My two little helpers. I've recently started giving Ben his own chores around the house. Besides being in charge of picking up his toys and putting away his laundry, his job is to unload the silverware from the dishwasher. Sometimes it's SOOOOO frustrating because I could unload it in half the time, but I think it's important for him to understand that we all have to help out. Sometimes he wants to do these things, and sometimes he hates it. The other day he told me he was "too busy" to unload the silverware. I guess he was too busy climbing on the couch and throwing the pillows on the floor! He eventually acquiesced.

Abe is completely obsessed with the dishwasher. The other evening he was happily playing with some toys on the floor of the kitchen when I opened the door of the dishwasher. I heard the LOUDEST crash and turned around thinking, "what in the world..." and saw that Abe had literally thrown his toys on the floor, and was crawling towards the dishwasher as fast as he could. The flair for the dramatic is what was so funny. Like he couldn't just think, "oooh, the dishwasher. That looks like fun." He had to be like "DISHWASHER!!!!! WAIT! WAIT! DON'T CLOSE IT! NOOOOOOOOO!" Ben loved the dishwasher also, (I think most babies do) but I don't think he LOVED it like Abe. Silly boy.

I'll be back soon, (really, I will) with more pictures and updates. Ben started 3 year preschool last week, and Abe will be 10 months tomorrow! So much is happening with our family right now and I need to be better about documenting it. I'm slowly coming out of my post-baby fog and starting to recover some of my pre-baby energy. See you soon!

Little Guy on the go!

Abe recently became more mobile. Here are some examples of how he's passing the time should mommy and daddy termporarily break their vigil.

MMmm shoes!

Something hanging down? Abe's on it!
Abe exited the blanket last weekend at the beach and gobbled two or three handfuls of sand before mommy and daddy could even shrug their shoulders.
Brother's asleep? Abe makes a bee-line for the toys.
Abe loves to inspect the dishwasher.

Greetings and happy summer!

Good morning everyone! Here are a few pictures from our trip out west. We were gone for 10 days and arrived back home last Monday. It's taken us at least since then to recover. During our trip we were able to stay a night with some friends in Tulsa, stay with my parents in Tecumseh and visit Salina for a couple of nights to see my sister Catherine and some friends of mine from high school. This involved some long plane rides and more than a few extended car trips. Needless to say, the boys were sleep deprived and cranky by the time we landed back in North Carolina. Schedules were thrown out the window and we just went with the flow, but that can only last so long before 3 year olds start to act out maniacally, babies start to cry at the least provocation and parents finally snap. Ahhhh....vacation. However, I can honestly say we DID have fun (all of us) and it was nice to see family and friends. The picture above was snapped from the car window while we were just a little lost making our way from Tecumseh to Salina. Taking our "detour" ended up being a positive experience since I was able to relive just a piece of my childhood, plus show Ben some combines. It had been a LOOOOONG time since I last drove down a dirt road in Kansas. That area of the country was in the middle of harvest, so the roads were full of wheat trucks. It had also been a LOOOONG time since I had been nearly forced off a dirt road in Kansas by a huge wheat truck barreling along at 50 MPH. Good times.

Ben and Abe at mom and dad's house. Abe is getting some long locks but it will be a while before we have the first haircut. Some parts are down to his shoulders which is quite a follicular achievement for a 7 month old. People ask me nearly every day if he is a boy or a girl. Such a difference from Ben, who was the recipient of the exclamation, "look at that little old man!" at the same age. I think they're both pretty darn cute!

Ben and I (and Abe) at the River Festival in Salina. Ben had never had a corn dog, so we had to remedy that situation right away. And I had to have my Kansas special, a home brewed root beer and a bierock. They were both a little disappointing. I think I might try to make homemade bierocks sometime soon.

Another midwestern treat...snow cones! We don't have snow cone stands here in NC. Why is this? I have no idea. Someone is really missing out on a great business opportunity.

We saw a lot of tractors in Oklahoma and Kansas. I never noticed them when I lived there, but now when I visit I feel like it's all I see. Not that people don't drive tractors here in the South, but there's just not as much farmland, at least not in our part of the state. Seeing all of the tractors, combines and trucks was pretty exciting for Mr. B.

Now that we're home summer is in full swing. It's so hot. Like, miserably hot. I know it's hot everywhere, but here the high is supposed to be 97 with 65% humidity. See what I mean? Absolutely miserable. Add in a few hundred mosquitos and various other bugs, and basically I don't want to go outside until September. Plus, every time I venture out in the middle of the day I almost step on a lizard, or have a lizard run in front of me, or I reach out to open a door and don't see a lizard resting right next to the door handle. Now, lizards aren't dangerous at all, but they sure do scare me when they're jumping out at me all day. Normally we would try to get away to the beach a little more but beach trips are a lot more difficult for me with a 3 year old and a baby. So we just try to spend our time doing air conditioned activities between the hours of 10 and 5!

Ben is in vacation bible school this week, which is a nice break for both of us. I do wonder what they talk about though. I asked him if they talked about Jesus, God, if they prayed and if they sang songs, and he answered "no" on all counts. Is this what Presbyterian VBS is all about? Maybe I should have put him in a good evangelical Baptist bible school:) However, since he's only 3 and notoriously reluctant to answer questions, I don't think I should trust his version of events.

Well, Abe is up from morning nap and I still haven't brushed my teeth! I have more pics to upload but they'll just have to wait.

Sweet little Abey Baby is 6 months!

photo.JPG, a photo by annercampbell on Flickr.

I really can't believe it has already been 6 1/2 months since our precious little boy arrived. I feel like we're still in the adjustment period, but it HAS gotten a bit easier. Baby Abe has started eating some solids, gotten 2 teeth so far, learned to NOT cry in car seat non-stop, and is S-L-O-W-L-Y gaining weight and figuring out how to sit up without immediately face planting.

He likes:

Having his clothes and diaper changed. It makes him chuckle, every time.

Watching his big brother play, talk, run, eat, etc...

Sucking on fingers and toes.

Listening to mama sing.

Taking baths.

Looking at other babies.

He doesn't like:

Being taken out of his bath.

Eating. He basically only nurses when he HAS to...like, to not starve. This dislike of eating is why he weighs a whopping 12 pounds. Solid foods have been rocky so far. Three bites seems to be his max, but we hit the jackpot tonight with avocado.

Being in his high chair. See above.

Sleeping. What's up with this? It's like he suddenly forgot how to nap. NOT COOL. What do I do about this?

Being in his crib. See above again.

More pics tomorrow!

Ben turns 3

Whoa. I am waaaaay behind on this blog. I have a new resolution to post at least once a week. And maybe even twice! With that in mind, here are some pictures from Ben's birthday on April 12. Yeah, that was a long time ago.

His crown from school.

Leftover party cupcakes. Still as good 3 days later!

Lots of great gifts from grandparents plus a trike from Joel and I, complete with a bell that MUST be rung at least once every 30 seconds or so:)