Happy Easter

Brody & Maverick, Easter 2013

Maverick finds a treasure from the Easter bunny.  He loves eating books, score!  Brody loves reading books, especially Eric Carle, so this is a score for him too!

Yes, at 5:58am, you need a headlamp on to look for Easter eggs.

Oh yes, there was an egg in the back of that rocket.

Max, Maverick, Brody, Mara, Claire ~ 5 cousins together on Easter

I had to capture a little bit of the big-kid plates.  These kids eat so well, I'm so proud of them and thankful to Omi for pushing them to grow to like things like salad.

Reading to find some Easter eggs!

Look at that full basket:)

Sue & Papa with the little ones.

The oldest kids stand proudly with their baskets.

Claire, Brody & Ev get an A for posing, Maverick takes the cake for goofiest face, Max, Briggs & Mara...focus kids!

Mara was after Brody's basket and he tried to protect it.

Score, Mara got the treat she was after!

We had a great Easter! It started with Brody (and then soon after Maverick) waking up at 5:58am. He asked if the Easter bunny had been at our house and quickly starting looking for his Easter basket and eggs. Barry headed to work for the day and I headed over to enjoy a meal at Sue's with the boys. We had a great Easter overall!

Messy Eater

Yum, corn on the nose and baby food mush all up in his hair!

Haha, look at those teeth!  7 and counting

Aw, such a sweet little mess he is!

Maverick has taken a liking to this whole eating thing! At supper he can chow down 3 thick, large ice cube blocks of veggies, 3.5 ounces of whole milk yogurt, way too many puffs, and 2 ounces of formula. He still seems like such a light weight so I'm wondering if he's going to start packing on the pounds in the coming weeks!

Brody at 3

This is long past due, but way back on February 12 Brody had his 3 year check-up. I want to get it down so that I can remember. At 3, my Broden is 35.2# (75-90%) and 37.75" tall (50-75%). He's taller now on his fun growth chart hanging on his wall; somewhere in the 38+" range. Since having full blown conversations with Brody is common place, it cracks me up on the rare occasion that he says, "I don't know what that means Mommy." I forget that he's only 3 and there is a lot in this world he has yet to come across! He remains my champion sleeper! He still takes great afternoon naps that typically are 2 hours. He can sleep through anything at night. The other night we tried letting Maverick cry himself back to sleep in the middle of the night when he woke up. An hour and a half later Maverick was still not back to sleep, had taken screaming to a whole new level, and there across the room was Brody, sound asleep. Amazing!

Maverick 9 month check-up

All about Maverick: Maverick was 9 months awhile ago and had his check-up March 1. I forgot to update his stats: he weighs 17# 11oz (10-25%), he's 27.25" long (25%), and his head is 18.25" (75%). He's been crawling since Brody's birthday around 8 1/2 months. His crib has been lowered since 2/15/13 after we found him pulling himself up and dangling over the rail. He has never been great with bottles/nursing formula/breastmilk and he continues to be a stinker. Although he can feed himself, he'll only drink half an ounce before moving on to more exciting things. Often he loves meal time, but really he'd prefer to eat Puffs non-stop. He babbles ma-ma-ma-ma and da-da-da-da, but when he's eating Puffs and he runs out he will say ma-ma in a specific and determined way to let us know that he wants MORE NOW! He's still not a great sleeper. He's such a little bird with eating that I feel like he takes after my eating a little bit very often! I admit we still feed him a small bottle some nights when he won't go back to sleep in the middle of the night. When we get ready to give him the bottle he gets so feverishly excited as if he's famished! He is very good at going down at night. I sing him "You Are My Sunshine" every night in his bedroom before laying him in his crib and he often goes down without crying. It took 1 night of re-sleep-training him to get to that point. The first night he cried 40 minutes, the next night he cried 1 minute. Best thing I ever did! The nights when he sleeps from 7pm to 6am are glorious, there are just to many nights when he's up at 2am too. He is a stinker about getting diapers changed and getting dressed. He's so quick about flipping over and oddly he does it just to flip over and bury his head in the floor out of excitement. I'd have everyday be pajama day if it weren't for needing baths! He LOVES bath time. He splashes non-stop from the minute he sits in the tub. Brody doesn't quite understand why he can splash and get me drenched when I don't allow Brody to do that. I cannot wait for summer to arrive when we can sit in the water at the splash pad. play in the water table, and sit in little warm wadding pools. I know he's going to love summer and swimming!

Why do I bother sometimes?

Brody & Maverick try on outfits for family pictures.  At 9 months old, Maverick is already perfecting the uncooperative role!

And because Maverick got to stick his tongue out, Brody wanted a picture where he got to stick his tongue out too!

We have a few events coming up that will require Brody & Maverick to be in nicer looking clothes. Well when they outgrow outfits so often I hate to invest a lot of money. As luck would have it, Easter, a Park wedding and our family pictures are all happening in a span of less than a month! Which means one outfit for Maverick and that's it, score! Brody is another story, but I'm savvy and I have that taken care of. So "Why do I bother sometimes?"...the question is what possesses me on a day after work when the kids get home at 5:50pm and we have dinner to get ready, mouths to feed, baths to take, story books to read, and boys to tuck in by 7pm and 7:30pm, why on Earth would I chose to play "dress up" and try on outfits for both boys to make sure they fit and photograph decently?? I don't know what it is about some kids, but Maverick does not want to have any part in getting shirts on, EVER! His outfit had 3 layers of shirts, what was I thinking? How can a string bean of an infant wiggle and flip around so ninja quick?! Did I mention that Brody must immediately take tags off just to try clothes on (which is a little annoying unless you plan to keep every item). Lesson learned. Thanks for "cooperating" boys! I have now noted that I indeed have 2 boys and so all future clothes will just be purchased and we will make them work without trying them on!

Capturing my Maverick at 9 months

Bright blue eyed Maverick in his giraffe hat.

Maverick is trying to yank off his giraffe hat!  Hilarious capture of his facial expression!

Ever tried capturing a quick picture of a crawling 9 month old on a high bed?  Well don't, it's next to impossible.

My sweetie

I love capturing their features up close when they're so young still.

Maverick playing with daddy.  He loves sticking his hands in his own mouth and anyone else's mouth.  His drool sure makes it less than appealing though!

Swimming Lessons

Swimming with the noodle to help him float.

Having a blast in the pool!

A turn in a life jacket.

Brody has been taking swimming lessons recently. As I expected, the trip to Arizona helped his confidence and skills a ton! Next week is his last lesson in this class. He's in a class of 3-5 year olds and then one parent per child goes in too. I signed him up for this so that he could have fun without getting so worried about being with a strange teacher without us there. Come April though, he's in a class of 4 kids with a teacher. I hope that he's able to get past his fear of strangers and have fun!