Parent Tot Sports

This Fall Ryan and Owen are participating in a Parent Tot sports class.

Every Saturday morning they practice drills from a different sport.  The first Saturday 

was soccer (Owen's current favorite sport) and today was tee ball.  

 

Joe is always napping during the class which means I don't get to watch, but this morning

he woke up a little later which meant we had some time to go and take a few pictures. 

 

 

 They practiced throwing,

and catching grounders with his glove.

Owen was so excited with his new glove skills that he decided he no longer wanted to

throw with his hand, but with the glove instead.

   Probably his favorite part of the class though is he has a few of his best friends 

there with him, Asher and Graham.

I'm glad we got to come and watch you today Owen.

It looks like you and Daddy are having a great time together.

11 Months

Happy 11 Months Joe!!

 

Weight - 19 lbs 7 oz (27th Percentile)

Height - 29 in (35th Percentile) 

How is it possible that in only a month Joe will be 1 year old?  Where did the time go?

The one thing I've noticed is that with Joe things have flown by so much faster because

between him and Owen there's a lot going on.  With Owen I could sit and watch his every

move with nothing else to distract me.  But this time around I have two little guys to keep me

occupied so things seem to pass by quicker.  I still make sure to savor every sweet smile, 

little milestone and fun memory...life simply moves a little faster this time.  

 
Speaking of fast, I'm not sure how he does it, but Joe is the fastest army crawler I have ever
seen.  He has some serious upper body strength.  Our house is in full childproof mode again
because he gets around everywhere and he does it at a lightning quick speed.  The days of
setting him in the living room to play while I work in the kitchen are long gone.  But I'm ok
with that.  Sure it's a little more effort keeping a watchful eye on him, but it's so
much fun watching him grow and learn new things.

     His newest skill is walking while we hold his hands.  He wanted no part of it for the
longest time.  I used to grab his hands to see if he wanted to try some steps, and he would
stand with his feet firmly planted on the ground.  Now he is getting a little more adventurous
and is having fun with it.  He has also started waving.  He sticks his arm straight out in front
of him and opens and closes his fist almost like he's grabbing at the air.  It's really sweet.
But his favorite new thing to do is pull up on the bottom stair.  He LOVES it.  It doesn't
matter if we are in the living room or in the basement, he will find the stairs.  He crawls over
to them, holds onto the first stair and pulls himself up so he is on his knees.  Then he
bounces up and down on his knees, smiles and hides his face on the stair every so often, then gets back up to his knees and continues his bouncing.

The one thing that has stayed consistent is he is still the happiest little baby.  Not that I really
thought it was going to change...at least I hoped it wouldn't.  He is so relaxed and content.
Whether it's running errands, going for walks or having play dates, he's happy just being
there.  It makes my life so much easier and having a little guy who is so happy is almost infectious.  How can I not be happy when I have this little face smiling up at me all the time?

His little smile is getting even cuter with all of the new teeth he's getting.  He has two on the
top and three on the bottom.  It's hilarious because his top two teeth have a decent sized
gap in between them so Ryan and I call them his Michael Strahan teeth.  I'm sure they'll
grow together with time, but right now they are super cute.  The only problem with him
getting new teeth is they seem to make him a little uncomfortable.  He gets a little cranky at
times, but those times are few and far between.  Most of the time time I have my smiley
baby looking up at me with those cute Michael Strahan teeth.

Aside from his smiles, this is one of my other favorite faces he makes.  He's so intrigued with his new top teeth that he keeps rubbing them together with the bottom three

just to make sure they are still there.  It's almost as cute as his smiles.

His biggest smiles and laughs though are still saved for Owen.  That is one of the new
experiences with the second baby...being able to watch him interact with an older sibling.
He gets so happy and laughs at the most random things that Owen does.  Last night I was
nursing him in his room before bed.  At the same time Ryan was reading Owen a bedtime
story in his room.  Joe heard Ryan and Owen and kept turning his head towards the door
 with this huge smile like "Hey guys...I'm in here."  Figuring he was not going to focus on
eating until it was quiet, I took him in to listen along.  

The four of us quietly sat on the chair in Owen's room and Ryan began to read.  I'm not sure what triggered it, but all of a sudden Joe started laughing.  And not just a little laugh, but a big belly laugh where he actually had to stop and catch his breath.  Ryan would read, 
Joe would crack up, and then Ryan would stop because we were all laughing.  
We'd quiet down, then Ryan would start reading again.  Like it was on queue, Joe
would start giggling in my arms.  Once Owen realized Joe was laughing, he decided
to make silly movements to keep him going.  Yes I know you're not supposed to rile your
kids up before bed, but it's times like those that leave me feeling so happy.  There is nothing
better than seeing the two of them get along so well and have so much fun together. 

And while we're on the topic of bedtime, let's talk about Joe's sudden urge to wake
up at 4:00 AM.  I thought we had finally turned a corner, but it seems he had a different
idea.  Thankfully he wakes up, I feed him, and he goes right back to sleep until about
6:30AM.  The problem is Owen has been waking up at 5:15AM.  So before I can even get
back to sleep from feeding Joe, I hear Owen wake up.  Ryan is great and gets up with him
but it still makes it really hard for me to get any sleep once I'm up with Joe at 4:00AM.
Needless to say I'll be happy when this little phase runs its course.  Until then, the Starbucks
employees can count me in as a regular.  I always thought it was cool when I saw people
walk in and the cashier already knew what they were going to order.  Well, that is now 
Ryan and I.  Either of us can walk in and they'll ask, "Would you like your Americanos?"
I guess you can say we've finally made it big in the Starbucks world.

The other thing that is hit or miss with Joe is his eating.  We've started finger foods and he
does great with a lot of things, namely starches.  Pancakes, waffles, crackers, toast...if it's
a carbohydrate, chances are good this kid will eat it.  He also loves dairy.  Yogurt and
cheese are two things he will gobble right up.  The things he won't even touch however are
chunks of fruits and vegetables.  Actually, I take that back.  He will touch them to pick them
up and drop them right off the side of his high chair tray onto the floor.  I'm not sure if it's the
wet, slimy feeling or what, but he wants nothing to do with them.  My two successes are with
roasted sweet potatoes and strawberries.  Other than that we haven't been so lucky.  I've tried pears, peaches, carrots, butternut squash, peas, green beans, blueberries & avocado, all with no luck.  Hopefully in time he will grow to love fruit as much as his big brother does. 

 The one thing he already does take after his brother with however is how vocal he is.
I remember Owen used to babble a lot and Joe is the same way.  He's started saying "mama"...YAY!!  He's been saying "dada" for a few weeks now, but I think he actually knows
what it means now and says it with purpose.  I can only imagine the conversations he and
Owen are going to have when the time comes.

This past month he seems like he has grown up so much and I can hardly even believe that
his first birthday is just a few short weeks away.

Happy 11 Months my little Joe!!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Now that he's perfected the army crawl and is getting much more secure pulling himself

up on things, he has decided to give walking a try (with a little help, of course).

I know we still have a little ways until he is walking on his own,

but we're having lots of fun practicing. 

The Art of Screaming

Chalk it up to being the second child and needing to be heard,

or maybe he just loves the sound of his own voice, but either way Joe has

perfected the art of screaming.

It's actually pretty hilarious.  I'm sure there will be a time when I don't find it quite as funny,

but for now I think it's kind of cute.  It doesn't matter where we are...in the car, in the stroller,

in his highchair, or just crawling around.  When he's had enough or feels like you're not

paying attention to him, he'll let you know it with a loud high pitched squeal.

 

 

In other exciting Joe news, as you can see from the picture he's taken an interest in the

stairs.  He doesn't go any further than the first stair, but he's started pulling himself up and

balancing on his knees.  He's getting more and more agile every day and it's fun to

watch.  He's moves around so quick and definitely keeps me on my toes.  

It won't be long before he's chasing after Owen.  Then the real craziness begins.

 

Summertime Fun

The summer is quickly coming to an end so we're spending as much time as possible

outside while we still can.  One of Owen's favorite things to do is play in his pool.

And as long as Joe has a graham cracker in his hand, he's happy doing anything.

 

 I love the Fall and am super excited for it to arrive, but for now we're having a blast

enjoying the nice warm weather and sunshine.

Big Boy Bed

AHHH!!!!  ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?

Yep!  Owen is officially in a big boy bed.  When we were in Wausau this weekend we gave it
a trial run.  He was getting too big for the pack n play, so we figured we would let him try out
Aiden's old bed.  We laid him down, gave him his lovies, covered him up and said our good
nights.  I could hardly believe what happened next.  He laid down and went right to sleep.
He did it again for his nap, the next night, and so on.  He never once got out of the bed the
entire time we were in Wausau.  I was so proud of him!!

He did so well in Wausau, that we decided to move him into a big boy bed at home too.
So before bed Ryan took off the front side of his crib to turn it into a toddler bed.  
I'd say Owen seems pretty happy about it. 

 After checking out his new bed by jumping on it and practicing rolling off of it, it was time to
go to sleep.  We laid him down, gave him his lovies, covered him up and said our good nights.  I was a little more nervous this time around because he seemed so excited
right before bed, but he laid down and went right to sleep.  He never got out of bed once.

I realize this is only the first night and I am sure we will have our moments where he doesn't
want to stay in bed, but for now I am so happy and impressed by him.  He is growing up
so fast and now that he is potty trained and sleeping in a big bed he seems like such a big
boy.  Way to go Owen!!  Daddy and I are super proud of you!!

A Weekend of Wausau Fun

With it being a long weekend, what better place to go than Wausau where we can spend

time with some of our favorite people?  Sarah and Stacey ended driving up for part of the

weekend, so Owen had plenty of company with all of his cousins there.

Normally it is a four hour drive, but that is before we began potty training.  We got in the car
on Thursday with Owen in a diaper just to be safe.  To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what
to expect.  But after an hour of driving he piped up from the backseat and let us know he
had to go potty.  We pulled off at the very next exit and I ran him into the bathroom.  
I was so excited because not only did he let us know he had to go, but he had kept his
diaper completely dry.  After purchasing two squirt guns and a car to show him how 
proud I was of him, we continued our drive.  

Maybe 45 minutes later we took our second potty break.  And then another 45 minutes
passed before we stopped for lunch (and potty of course).  Thankfully he fell asleep after
that so we had a good stretch with no potty breaks, but once we arrived in Wausau we
were pleased to see his diaper was still totally dry.  I am so proud of him and how great
he is doing.  It might take us a little longer for us to drive places, but I'm OK with that.
I'm also OK with him having his first outdoor peeing experience since we were needing a
bathroom before the restaurants were open to stop at.  Good daddy-son bonding time.

Once we got to Wausau we kept ourselves pretty busy.  We spent some time at Hannah and
Bobby's house where Owen practiced his flipping skills and Joe got to hang out with 
Ellie and Drew. 

 

On Saturday we went to my dad's house for dinner.  He made us a gourmet feast of

homemade linguine with red sauce.  He has fun cooking and it was really delicious.  Even

Owen cleaned his plate and was asking to have pasta again after we left.

It was really warm on Sunday so we decided to get the slip and slide out.  Owen loves
 anything that has to do with water so he couldn't get enough of it.  And yes, those
would be his big boy Superman undies he is sliding in.  He got wet before
we could even get his swim trunks on him.

 

And with Owen's love of the Ice Bucket Challenge, he never gets tired of dumping

water on not only his, but any other willing participant's head.  

Sunday's lucky participants...Ben and Uncle Alex.

 

Though Joe didn't take a turn on the slip and slide or participate in the ice bucket challenge,

 he got plenty of love from his mom and aunties.

 We had so much fun and left feeling so happy.  I feel very fortunate and blessed to have

such an amazing family.  Owen and Joe are going to grow up with so much love

and I couldn't ask for anything more for them.