Memorial Day

We headed over to Michael's today for some hospitality and a swim in his pool....which was a bit cold still. BRRRRR! The kids loved it anyway and we all got to relax and enjoy the family and the day. Jason loved the water and the floats and was violently against coming out even when his lips were quivering with cold. Here are a few shots of him enjoying the water and following in his father's footsteps. Floating around the pool and having people bring him drinks. :-) Lucky for him, he had Aunt Marie.



Jeff and Grandma relaxing poolside:


Uncle Mikey and Ethan:

Jason's first trip to the zoo

For the holiday weekend we braved the crowds and headed to the zoo to check out the new elephant and rhino exhibit. It was a great day to go since it was raining early and then cleared up.



The exercise was needed and it was amazing to see the animals in their simulated natural habitats. I can't describe how vast it was. Of course, I loved the giraffes the best (as always). Ethan seemed to like the elephants and monkeys and Jason just took it all in with his usual style. The silent gawking type.

Here are some great pics of Jason and Jeff navigating our trail followed a few shots of the elephants. We could not get Ethan off of the baby elephant - he is such a ham! Both kids wanted to be picked up at all the good vantage points to get the best view so we got out workouts.








We stayed mostly on the African side and ate lunch late having hotdogs and fresh lemonade. I tried to take Jason on the carousel but he decided no way once we got on so E got to ride twice. All in all, it was a nice family day and made me remember all the times Mom and Dad took me to the petting zoos and farms in upstate NY. I loved those times. I hope the boys appreciate these moments as much as we do.













This was one of our favorite non animal items. Jeff loves anything that flies, drives etc and Ethan can't get enough of "driving". Notice Jeff and Jason watching from the other side as I took this pic of E in the helicopter. Jason was not as enthralled and was satisfied in his stroller with his snack.







So I tried to buy Jason a cool hat but he still insists that hats are for throwing. Jeff got one instead and then we bough some ice cream dots and ate them before the trip home.

First 3 wobbly steps

We were walking towards Mommy while holding her hands and I backed away slowly and carefully let go....he took a good two steps and the third was starting to tilt but we did it unassisted and before our first birthday. We still don't say much except Mama and Dada (and Duh for his rubber duck) but we are flying around the house now and at 28 pounds, his Mom is VERY relieved. Carrying him from place to place was building biceps but killing my back. Oh...and we have learned to shake our head "no". Nice! (sarcasm) It goes so well with the head throwing temper tantrums that are attributed to me since supposedly I did the same thing. Go figure that this is also one strong willed baby. In other news, we still are toothless on the top and gumming all our food. Quite successfully given his size but it makes for a lovely old man look since we are still mostly bald. And we had our 2nd trip to the emergency room for our first (and only) tumble down some stairs. I was blocking the steps on our back deck by siting across the opening and he was cruising on the furniture heading away from me and towards Daddy. I got distracted and turned for one sec, got up, started heading down the stairs to get Ethan, and Jason beat me to the bottom. My heart and stomach were interchangeable and I felt dizzy. He was totally unhurt if you can believe it. I feel we were blessed but the Doctor mentioned something to Jeff about "fat rolls", "lots of cushion" and "decent amount of padding". We took some great pictures this past weekend at Sears. If you are interested in perusing, check out my slide show on Kodak Gallery.

Aunt Jean comes to visit

She took a last minute flight just to see the boys and to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary. We had a great visist and the boys just adored her. We took Mom and Dad out to dinner (with the kids) and did some shopping and visiting with family. I so love having her here and miss sharing all the little day to day items with her. I want my boys to feel about her the way I do and have her as an integral part of their lives. Visits like this really help. Here are some of the pics we took and there are more in my Kodak gallery if you want to peruse.







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10 months old today

And I am sad. I am not there to celebrate and do all of our normal daily things that may seem so boring to most yet mean everything to me. I miss watching him as he eats his cheerios, dumps his sippy cup just cause he can. I can't catch him as he starts to tumble, and help him as he cruises along the sofa. I can't laugh as we walk and walk and walk him around the house, with JT leading us and just stopping when he wants to go a different direction. Jeff and I have semi-permanent stoops since we are bent over him as he hangs onto our pointers and walks the floor. I miss watching him wave bye-bye or nod his head when he agrees and clap his hands when we sing, E does something funny or when we play.


Why am I not there? I am out of town on business and I miss my family. This is my first time away from Jason since he was born and it has been a long time since I couldn't be there to read E his goodnight story. We have been doing I am Bunny this week and we almost have it memorized. Jason likes to turn the pages.

The entire month of April will be so hard. I am away on 3 different trips and it is so funny to see how much my priorities have changed. What used to be seen as such a great opportunity to visit new and exciting places is now a huge impact to my beautiful family and a huge source of guilt. Here's to you my little man and know I am sending you butterfly kisses and our special rendition of Hush Little Baby to you both.

We have a tooth!!

Need I say more? There is good and bad items that come along with this developmental milestone. He will soon be able to eat more foods and his smile will have additional character. In the interim, we get drooling, crankiness, biting on everything like he is a 8 week old puppy...even the furniture is not safe.

And we have a very old fashioned tradition in my family. Whomever spots the first tooth gets to buy the first pair of shoes. Don't even ask where it came from since I have no clue. Somethings just live on because we are fond of them and propagate the ideal. For E, my Mom had the honor. Dumb me has been looking for JT's and now has to shell out $45. Poor planning on my part. I am the kind of person who begs to know what I am getting for my b-day too so this should not be a shock.

Jason goes mobile

Today at school, Jason got up with one of the push walkers and made it half way around the room. According to Miss Alex, he was VERY proud of himself. Tonight he continued to cruise along the couch before passing out.

Yesterday we also had a first. Jason had his first waffle...compliments of Daddy.


We also took the kids to Pullen Park for a day out. Here is a cute pic of the boys on their swings. Ethan is giving JT instructions in between demanding we push him.

Delinquency

Yep, that's me. But I finally have some time to post and have lots of great pics so maybe I will be forgiven. Jason is growing and growing...more out than up and he is not too mobile but he is definitely fun! He says Mama and Dada and can clap, wave hi and bye (as of 2/19) and nods yes with this incredibly devious look. He loves seeing our reaction when he takes finger food and dumps them off his tray. He can roll over both ways like nobody's business and can sit up and stand unassisted for long periods. When he is on his tummy, he can move himself backwards and in a circle. He is like a big weeble. Mostly he loves to stand and Daddy spends many hours each evening walking him around.






Here is the one good pic from Valentine's Day. I bought them both some Valentine Day jammies (or onesie) and it has been hard to get them both in them for any length of time given spit up etc. I love watching the boys play together and E is just so incredible with his little brother.



We took JT for his 9 month checkup today. No teeth but developmentally doing well and off the charts for head size and weight at 25.4 pounds and 97%. Height was at 80% and he was 24 inches long. He is LOVING daycare finally. It was so hard the first week with him hysterical at drop-off and when he saw us at pickup. We had to go feed him the first 3 days because he wouldn't take a bottle. He barely napped and was wiped out each evening but they assured us he had a blast during the day. Now he waves goodbye and is eating nearly everything on their menu. He takes 2 good naps and is having a blast. He is great at reaching for objects, watching the effects of dropping them and using his pincher grip to grab small items. Still no real movement from the weeble though at school either. :-)

Much needed sleep

We have had a horrid week. My poor Mom came down with Shingles and couldn't be around JT so we scrambled for some temporary care. Jeff and I took a few days off and worked at home and then leveraged Mary Molly for this week. Friends come in handy when they are in between assignments. Phew. She has been great with him and we are able to work this week.

However, if that wasn't bad enough....in the midst of all this, we all got colds. Now at least I can take Nyquil. JT and Ethan were miserable and were up multiple time at night with coughing fits, temperatures and overall malaise. We have all been holding it together on a shoe string. JT wasn't able to eat at all and his bottle intake went down to 2 ounces a shot. Yes...I know...he could use the diet....he is wearing at least 12 month clothes right now. But the problem is that if they don't eat more, they wake more. And he is totally off his solids too. He had been doing so great with his finger foods....sweet potato puffs, cheerios, bananas, cheese, etc and he loves his cereal, yogurt and baby food. He does feel he could live without veggies. Then again, so does E and Jeff and that gets them nowhere either.


So then there was last night. Jason got a spot at E's daycare and starts Feb 1st. So we took him to visit yesterday. He had such a blast watching all the other kids scrambling around and they would bring him toys to chew on and then take them away and bring him others. He just wore himself out with everything there was to do. He loved Miss Sandra and Miss Mary and came home and ate a 6 ounce bottle and crashed by 7:30. We only heard from him once between that and 7 am. Amazing. It is like I have my good child back again.

Still no teeth and no crawling. But he can sit for hours, reach everything within a 2 foot radius, and walk assisted. He just coos and babbles all the time and says Da-da for Jeff and Ba-Ba for Ethan. I just get the screaming when he is hungry or dirty. No respect. Last night he was doing some major laughing and splashing in his tub and just giggling at Ethan or when I would play with his toes. He has such an incredible smile and laugh and I love the dimples.

Milestones

The past week has been full of progress...and a flu shot booster.

• We can say Dada and can now wave bye bye if in the mood. Probably only to Dada with my luck. :-)
• Jason is sitting up for ages on his own and scooting if you give him something to push against. Everything still goes in the mouth but he is really interested in all his toys and exploring.
• Can pick up those little puffs and feed himself...and no longer spits them out and gags. You have to give him about 20 as 5 end up on the floor, 10 on the high chair and stuck to him in various locations, and 5 do indeed do make it in the mouth. No teeth yet though.
• Will eat an entire biter biscuit and then SCREAM if you take it away or try and clean him up. Have you seen what they look like after eating one of those? Mess!
• Gets excited when he sees you and even reaches for you. This also translates to: if you don't respond to his satisfaction, he SCREAMS. I can not even tell you how loud he can be.
• Sleeping 6 - 7 hours at a clip again....FINALLY. We regressed big time in the last few weeks on that end. But beware if he is hungry...five alarm when he sees you coming.
• Established our temper and authority. Meals need to be on time, toys cannot be removed unless he throws them, you can not sit down between 7:30 and 9 pm (you must walk him).

Merry Christmas!

We put posts of the happenings on E's blog for Christmas day and did Christmas eve here on JT's. However, here are a few embarrassing pics of Jason to show him when he is 16 or to his future wife later on. You have to have the obligatory 1st Christmas outfit and many thanks to Aunt Jean for the long johns!

Christmas eve

Uncle Mikey hosted us for Christmas eve and we had an antipasto tray and many different types of fish for dinner. We had a nice time and were going to go to mass at 8 but JT got very ill and we went right home. He is off his food and getting a bit dehydrated so we are giving him pediatric electrolytes and wanted to get him home. Here are some pics from our dinner:





Snuggling by the fire:



Notice my happening reindeer bib.


Wrapped up in 2 pairs of jammies and ready for Santa:

Maw-maw and Paw-paw visit

Jason is getting so big...sitting up so long by himself now, eating cereal and fruit and veggies. Can we please please go back to sleeping through the night though? This teething thing is slaying us. That and being sick and not wanting to suck has kept him to around 3 ounces a feeding and wanting a feeding every 3 hours. Around the clock. UGH! But this weekend we had help and we spent some quality time totally bonding with the grandparents. We had a lovely visit and I managed to get the camera out and take some cute ones.







Sitting up with a "spotter"




Climbing up Aunt Susan in our pjs:




Resting after a long day:



This is one of my favorite shirts for JT. "I ate Santa's cookies". I mean really...he is over 20 pounds at 6.5 months. He ate more than that!!!

My first visit with Santa

We had the most incredibly perfect Saturday. We woke to Ethan's usual clamoring for us to come get him and then his "Good morning Christmas tree" as we brought him down. We then all climbed into our bed for some snuggling and tickling. Then, Jeff made us French toast and Ethan ate 3 pieces. Jason ate an entire bowl of oatmeal cereal and didn't end up wearing much. We then headed out to take the boys to see Santa.

We got out pretty early this morning (or as early as you can with 2 kids) and the line wasn't too bad. Ethan got to also ride the Carousel and was thrilled. We waited in line with Kevin, Kalani and Josh and the kids were all very patient. Ethan never blinked and kept asking if it was his turn. He also kept yelling "hi Santa" across the area as we waited. Jason and him both sat together on his lap and Ethan told Santa he wanted "presents" and especially a black tape measure like Grandpa's. He also asked for cereal for Jason since "that's all he eats".



We also went perusing through the Xmas decorations at Sears and the boys loved the dancing penguins and the Santa train. We had lunch at the mall and then headed home where we played on our new swings (it was 65 today!!), visited with Grandpa and Grandma and watched Daddy hang more Christmas lights. The house looks incredible and the kids just can't get enough of watching the tree, the lights, the skating pond, the train etc. Ethan has to turn everything on at least once a day and I have visions of dancing penguins, dogs singing jingle bells, and bears....lot of snowman and polar bears.

Tonight we all ate pizza and watched the Grinch and when I put the boys to bed, we read Twas the Night before Christmas for the 15th time so far this year. When we get to the reindeer part, Ethan always asks "What that name" and points to each one. Jason is just enthralled with every picture and talks and talks to the pages.

6 months going on a year

We had our 6 month appointment today and yet we are wearing 9 to 12 month sized clothes at a minimum. We are in the 95 percentile for size (oh ya...and head size too) and doing well developmentally. After being sick all week and unable to eat, our weight still was a very healthy 21.0 pounds. We have certainly seen the pediatrician a lot in the past few days...our very first illness. Ethan and Jason both had a viral infection in their throat and JT couldn't suck or swallow easily and was just miserable. He slept a lot and just wanted to be held. His nights were spent coughing or propped up on pillows with Jeff and I taking turns sleeping next to him and watching over. Ethan's turned into a sinus infection but the good part of that was a few days on antibiotics turned him right around. And he got a few extra days of vacation so was thrilled. After missing school for the Thanksgiving week, the transition back to work and school was hard on all of us.

We have had a momentary lack of rolling but have taken to standing and trying to actually take little steps and walk if you hold his hands. And with Jason's sheer size and grip, he can actually pull chairs to him. Not a lot of impetus to waste energy and roll or crawl! :-) We are sitting up more now on our own and using the tri-pod approach as opposed to the weeble impersonation. No teeth yet but they seem to be right beneath the surface. E had his first one just shy of 5 months but there couldn't be two children more different. E is so independent, JT is a big mush and very sensitive. E can play on his own and entertain himself a bit...Jason wants you to entertain him and you had better not leave his sight. E has been in the 10th - 50th percentile so far so even their size is totally different. My largest awakening was when I realized that E is only 8 pounds heavier than JT. Wow.

Thanksgiving in Seattle

After you read this one, you can send the medal of valor to Jeff. He was a trooper and let me plan our holiday. We decided to spend Thanksgiving out in the Seattle area. So we packed up 2 kids, 2 diaper bags, 2 carseats, strollers, suitcases, and our sanity and flew out for a week to go visit Aunt Jean and meet Uncle Russ for the first time. We rented a great corporate apartment in downtown Bellvue and Christopher met us out there as well so we could have a total family vacation. We managed to drag my parents and grandfather with us as well and without them, I am not sure how we would have carried everything. We will be going by tractor trailer next time.

It was great to be together with all the kids and Jean, Mom, and I cooked a traditional Becker feast with all the trimmings. Jean really went all out and we had such an awesome meal. We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans almondine, sauteed spinach, stuffed mushrooms, a cheese, fruit and nut tray, little piggies in blankets and 10 kinds of pie. Okay, maybe not 10 but it sure felt like it.

After cooking for 2 days and cleaning for one, we did a bit of shopping, caught a parade and basically just spent LOTS of time enjoying the kids and each other. Here are a few of my favorite pics for the week. Check out E's blog for all the happenings from his view point.

Morning at the apartment in Bellvue:





Kisses from Aunt Jean:



Bowling with the boyz in the hood:




Prepping the day before:




Napping on Aunt Jean's bed:


The boys "hanging" after nap time.


The big day - Thanksgiving at the Phillips residence:




Some of the sharp dressed men in my life:






What? This isn't turkey? I get plastic toys and bananas?



I just have the BEST time:



Here is our Thanksgiving bib and Aunt Jean. The day is done and JT is clean and jammiefied.