Fun at school

19 Months

Maddox is really talking more now (in words only moms can understand), but still. lately, it's a lot of on/off and "eeeease" (please).

Lately, I feel like I have twins. The boys want to play with the same things, copy each other, follow each other, you name it. If one has something, the other must have it. I suspect it will be this way for a long, long, long time to come now.

Freedom! Downstairs baby gate is no longer. Maddox hasn't even tried to go up the stairs once without us. We did this so they could ride their trikes but it's actually kind of nice to have it more open again. Maddox is still a baby to me, but I know it won't be long until he turns into a little boy.

We are permanently on the inhaler, Flovent, and Singulair through the winter now. Since his pneumonia and given he's so prone to getting chest infections when he gets a cold, we are erring on the side of caution. No more pneumonia please.

And last, he's just so much fun and such a happy baby. (well, except for those tantrums). If he's tired and you tell him no, forget it. straight to the floor he goes...I can laugh as I type this but during the actual event, not so fun.

ok, so my goal before the end of the week is to take real pictures of Lake and Maddox!! I have totally been slacking these past few months and take way too many with my iPhone (which I end up regretting since the quality is so bad!).

ok, a few more pictures for the scrapbook

merry & white

It's Sunday night, the day after Christmas. The babies are asleep and I'm just reflecting on the weekend. My heart is full and so thankful for my beautiful family. the boys...I just want to go wake them and gobble them up! They've been so sweet and fun this weekend. Lake and I have had some quality play-doh playing time and Maddox, well, we play the "on/off" game. That is, he wants anything and everything on and off and on and off. TV, toys, and even his coat. It's his new thing.

We had a very quiet, and very beautiful Christmas. Especially this year with the snow. It's still on the ground as I type and quiet frigid outside! The boys got bikes this year from Santa. Funny thing is, Lake liked Maddox's and Maddox Lake's. That's how they played the whole weekend. Merry Christmas everyone! I usually post a crazy amount of pictures, but I'm just going to upload a few highlights this year.


Maddox giving Lake a present



and we played the morning after Christmas in the snow below. We lasted about 15 minutes. The wind was so bad. The snow was very powdery so it was hard to build anything with it so we opted for a snowball fight.




and I leave you with...

Gingerbread Houses and Jingle Bells

so, the best thing happened this morning. I woke up smiling (which I never do because I'm NOT a morning person). I woke up to Lake singing Jingle Bells in his bed. heart...melt...smile... :) :) :)

and some pictures for you...building a Gingerbread house with Colton this past weekend.








this last picture is them pretending to eat the Gingerbread house.

all I want for Christmas is...cereal?

Lake has been so funny about Christmas this year. He gets Santa and presents, but when you ask him what he wants, here are some of his responses:

Lake, what do you want Santa to bring you? Lake: toys. me: what kind of toys? Lake: and cereal (Cereal has been the response more than a few times now)

Lake, what do you want to get Daddy for Christmas? Lake: a cheeseburger. me: and what about Maddox? Lake: he can have a grilled cheese.

I asked him what he wanted to get Mommy for Christmas. Lake: silly bands...like me!

By the way, I do feed the child!

A year and a half!

what? he's on his way to 2? crazy.

this month (11/28/10):
- Maddox has bitten other babies twice now. He's in a bad teething phase (all of his eye teeth) so I think he's a little more prone to bite. He kissed me on the cheek one day and made the sweet "awww" sound and then bit down. Ouch! I should mentioned he bit one of the babies on the cheek as well...little vampire.
- M is still not a big talker (about 9 words and not often). But he's saying new words almost each day now.

He was almost 25 lbs at his check-up and overall doing great!

Happy December!

Thanksgiving

a quick recap...

- Maddox got diagnosed with pneumonia Monday and had to get a Rocephen shot (and luckily she didn't make us get a chest x-ray)
- We were finally cleared Wed morning to drive to Dallas per our original plans to visit family (did I mention I had a stomach virus Monday and Tuesday too?)
- It was great to visit with everyone! However, my kids were having a rough time this week. Maddox is on breathing treatments, antibiotics, and steroids and the steroids make him not sleep and moody. we had many meltdowns
- Lake has some sinus stuff going on so he was moody as well.
- Little sleep was had by all! I spent last night with an 18 month old lying by me staring at me for 2 hours from about 1am-3am.

However... I am very thankful for the time I got to spend with my family this week, I'm thankful that Maddox is getting better, and I'm thankful that I get to be the one to take care of these babies when they aren't 100%!

Happy Thanksgiving!


sweet babies - Maddox would not take the sucker out of his mouth (note the sucker drool). but giving the suckers was the only way to keep them all still!

adding to my list of things I was not able to get to this week given the circumstances - a haircut for Lake :) I think this may be the first decent picture that has been taken of these three together!

Maddox and Harper in the bath.

"I want my trick-or-treats!"

this is a commonly used phrase by Lake now. I spent half a day with them at school on Friday and then we went trick-or-treating Sunday night. It was so much fun this year to trick-or-treat. Even Maddox got into it towards the end (before a late evening meltdown in which he just wanted to walk in the streets and not be held or anything). Lake and his friend Colton are so funny together and loved going up to the houses. This is crazy picture post...I couldn't pick favorites so you get a ton! oh, and the elephant costume was Lake's old one so since I had that already, I figured why not let Lake be an Alabama football player to go with it!!!


top left - post school trick-or-treat snacks

FYI for my non-technically inclined readers (you know who you are) - click on the pictures to see them bigger.


top right - I'm not sure where this came from, but it's one of Lake's "poses" he likes to do now. Nice, huh?


It was so cute to watch them and Lake would come running back, "Mommy! Look what I got!"

I'm so bummed I forgot to put on Lake's eyeblack strips...they had an Alabama elephant on them and everything! I will find a time to dress him back up again :)


top right - he was more interested in playing in the leaves at first
bottom left - note the candy in his clutches

Happy Turkey Month!

17 Months

Sadly, I had to actually count to see how old Maddox would be this month!! too busy lately!

Maddox is definitely communicating more to us. He rarely says mama, but he has no problem calling "dada". He has started this new emphatic heading nodding or shaking when he wants something when you ask him a question. I must get it on video because his hair flops when he does it and is pretty funny to watch. He signs for "more" a lot now as well. Also, he is terrified of dogs!!! Our lab, Abbi, has been staying with my mom since he was born so he is not used to being around them. Well, we went to visit recently and he was so scared...and she is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet. We must correct this soon!

I'm excited for Halloween this year with the two boys! I can't wait for the pictures (if they cooperate!)

I really hate I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. (due to the busy stuff. bad busy, not good busy) anyway, here are a few recent ones...


During tantrum, after tantrum -- yes, we are in the tantrum phase :)


why I get myself into these projects, I don't know, but I had to try to make this owl hat. I did, don't ask me what stitch I used, but for my first one, not awful. the cute little face under it helps :)

my "pumpkin patch"

visiting the pumpkin farm and Lake picking out his "pumpkin patch".






Riding a donkey. they have camels, zebras, and random mix of animals here. you can feed the camels during the hayride too.

little things

I know one day I'll forget all of the little things that the boys do, so I think I'm going to start trying to post these "little things" every so often so I don't forget.

Maddox
- when I rock him at night, he tucks his arms in under his belly. that's when I know he's comfortable and ready to sleep. He also will tuck them behind him when he sits in your lap.
- he still loves his blankets. they are definitely his teething comfort. they go straight to the mouth everytime and I swear, his eyes start to glaze over. it's like a drug that puts him to sleep.

Lake
- he still will add a "y" to words sometimes. coldy, wetty, etc.
- he still says "I love you SNOW much".
- he likes Sonic's blue coconut slushies. He'll either ask for a "blue ice" or a new one recently...a "flushy". I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Homecoming 2010

We took the kids to Tuscaloosa for homecoming this year. We had a great time catching up with friends and the kids got to enjoy the parade and all of the homecoming decorations and had some fun at the Pi Phi house

the fair

Lake and his friend Colton had a great time at the fair a few weeks back. We didn't have enough time to do everything but we had a lot of fun the few hours we were there!

Happy October!