Justin funny...

I will never be able to write this down as funny as it happened, but here goes nothin.....Set up the scene; The kids and I were all outside Saturday (over a month ago now)enjoying the great weather in the backyard. We had a visitor (one of Matt's co-workers child) who was playing w/my kids. I had given them a bowl of grapes to share. While the 2 older boys were playing on the batter operated jeep, Justin was stuffing himself w/grapes on the patio. I was sitting in the middle of the yard on a blanket w/Lily. I called out to Justin to please bring me 1 grape to feed the baby. He looked up, chewing, looked back down at the bowl of grapes, picked 1, looked back at me, looked back at the grape, and proceeded to eat it. This went on for a couple of minutes until I called out to him again. This time, he filled his mouth w/ grapes, and began walking towards me w/1 in his hand. But by the time he got to me, it was 1/2 eaten. I had to giggle, asked him why it was half eaten, he looked at me as if I was speaking Swaheelee, and went back to the grapes. I peeled the grape for Lily, fed it to her in pieces, and then asked Justin for another one. Here we go again. Finally he comes out to me, again w/a half eaten grape. Stifling ,my giggles, I asked him to bring me a whole grape. After some time, he returned, chewing. I asked him for the grape, and he graciously opened his mouth and began to pull out the partially chewed up grape. I was quick to encourage him to put it back in his mouth and return for another. This time, after he picked it and began walking with it, I verbally encouraged him to bring it to me w/o eating it or biting it.

100,000 miles, No more blue and on the move, and Ohhhhh

The van turned over 100,00 miles sometime this week. I don't think I have ever owned a vehicle, from new, that has done that.

Lily no longer has any blue in her eyes. She is definitely going brown like her mama. And, for the past couple of weeks she has gone from rolling and twisting everywhere to actually army crawling forward, and with pretty good speed if she has a purpose. She has been up on all 4's and rocking a lot, so we will see when the crawling goes upper level.

And Justin, he is just so stinkin' cute sometimes. When we read stories at night or for nap, he will repeat the last couple of words you say. Then, I will say "yes" and he says "ohhhhh". But it's the pitch he uses, it's so cute. And today for the first time at nap time he said "change my poopie". I can only hope this is going somewhere good.

CORRECTION!!! Justin's b-day is 12/8 not 12/6.

First laughs, Found fingers, Finally mobile?, Finally sentences, and a Golf ball

Lily began laughing out-loud , for the first time, a couple of weekends ago. Matt was making faces at her while she was lying on the bed. (I believe that is the same way Austin began laughing out loud.) This past Saturday night I caught her staring down her fingers, for the first time, as if they were little aliens. That always cracks me up. (Side bar: Austin said to me the other night, "Mommy, do you crack me up?") Anyway, Lily started rolling from her back to her right side yesterday. Still just 1 roll 1 time.....I thought.....until today when I laid her on the floor, head facing the kitchen, between the living room and the kitchen. (I have found that if I turn the hall light on she sorta hangs out there for a bit w/o fussing.) We sat down to eat dinner and I would glance over at her just to see what she was doing. (I can't talk to her too much or watch her too long if she is watching me because then she tends to start crying.) At one point when I looked at her, she was gone. Part way down the hall, head facing down the hall, on her belly. I have no idea how she did it. She was wriggling a lot. But while I watched her for several minutes, she didn't actually get anywhere. So, did she roll several times to get there? Did she wriggle around just enough to push herself there? Got me.

Justin has been talking in longer sentences for the past couple of weeks, and answering with the right words to certain situations. For instance, when I call his name now, instead of coming to me he answers back "What?" When I tell him to do something, or not to do something, he asks "Why?" And, 2 days ago I was pretty sure he was trying to tattle-tale on Austin, due to the words that I understood in his very long sentence "Austin.......Justin....." and the ever-popular tattle-tale pitch in his voice. That was confirmed when the very next day he came to me crying and very clearly said, "Austin pushed Justin down." Oh boy, here we go!

A few nights ago when I was in bed for the night, in between Lily and Justin, I was reading something. As I lay there for awhile, I was a little preoccupied with a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my lower back. I assumed it was just the tag and seam of my pants being in a jumbled mess. When I was certain the kids were asleep, I got up to do some work, as I often do. I reached back to fix my pants when what do you think I found? Yes, a golf ball. Thank you Justin.

I am SOOOOOO behind!

I hope none of these are duplicates!

One of the boys (I believe Justin) w/his foot across Lily, sleeping, when she was only a couple of days old. I knew it was a sign of things to come!










Lily's first bath at 6 days old.








Aunt Therese bought this "My first 4th of July" onesie for Lily, and when she was 6 days old we got a 4th of July Ty Beenie baby at an event we attended....how appropriate!













Our family and Matt's sister Therese and her daughter Savannah went to the Ohio State Fair one night. This is just 1 picture of Austin & Savannah riding one of many rides that night. Matt went on several w/them. The kids had a BLAST!











The boys were pretending to be crocodiles. Grandma Paula says they aren't going to be very happy w/me when they see these pics in the years to come.













COSI
Justin is a structural engineer in the making! Look at that bridge!













OK, maybe not.











Justin was fascinated w/putting balls up in the air, and they stayed there. He played at that spot for a long time.













BFF'S FOREVER!!!!! It's Lydia on the left and Lily on the right, or is it the other way around? No matter, they each get called the others name often, even in their own homes!










Sadly, this was the first and last time the boys were in our little baby pool this year, in AUGUST!











This was just last weekend at a birthday pool party. The boys had a blast playing in this kids pool.











How cute! Not posed!!












Imagine seeing this guy in your backyard! In the city! Sadly, he couldn't fly away w/the squirrel, so after making sure it was good and dead, he left it under a pine tree and flew away.

new baby on the move

I am pretty sure I was able to feel the new baby move from the outside of my belly Sat. night while in bed. The next day in church I could see my belly/shirt moving ever so slightly.

Justin is a walking madman. He looks partly like a monkey (hands up in the air) and partly like a beauty contestant (quite the swagger!).

Hope to take kids to the zoo tomorrow. Its suppose to be over 60 and sunny, and they LOVE it!

?????

It seems like forever since I have written any updates on the kids. Especially since I used to write every night.

Justin has 2 new teeth, 1 upper right molar (will be right next to a canine) and 1 lower left molar (again it will be right next to a canine). He still hops & scoots everywhere. However, he stands at length and will walk the length of most anything, holding on of course. Today he started letting go of things to stand unassisted and balance himself. He thought it was exciting. Still no real 'talking'. Lots of babbling and he can repeat back quite a few words, most of which you wouldn't understand. One exception, when he yells "Da!" Everyone knows he is yelling for daddy. He has been big with the "Uh-Oh" since around his 1st b-day. He is still a very big solid food eater. Doesn't turn down much of anything. I noticed a few days ago that while he was playing w/a ball and throwing it at a basketball hoop (which is way to big for him but thats what he sees everyone else do) he would raise both hands in the air and make sounds like he was cheering for himself. Very funny! And he regularly throws temper tantrums. He will throw himself backwards onto whatever is close, or throw himself to the floor. Nice!

Austin has decided his new pretend play thing is 'Dino's". I have no idea where it came from, but he made it up and wants daddy to play with him regularly. I am not even sure he really knows what he makes up from day to day, he is just thrilled when someone plays along and makes up things with him. He can be so pleasant and appreciative and mannerly that I am shocked at his '2 year old' behavior he regularly displays (ok, not really shocked, just in awe of the 2 seemingly different kids that live in one little body). He thinks he is a big boy now. He can put his own shoes on mostly by himself (the velcro ones), and he loves to put his slip on ones himself and his own socks too. To the point that trying to get out the door takes longer. But I know its for the best. He has been doing really good not wearing a diaper to bed at night. Only couple of accidents, including last night. It was actually this morning around 8:30am when he whispered to me in bed, "I pottied my diaper." to which I replied, "Your not wearing a diaper!" as I threw the cover off and ushered him off the bed and into the bathroom. Thank goodness the last time we had an accident I remembered to put a chux pad under the bottom sheet. Yeah!!

There are so many things I think I want to write about, but its late and I should try to go back to bed. Things like: there is to much yelling in this house so I have tried to make an effort to tell Austin its not nice to yell and mommy will try not to yell also, my step-sisters new born baby Jacoby and his life & death issues, and my own sinful nature that needs a super over-haul! Baby is crying!

Another success!!

We call this Justin's 'hop & scoot' method of travel. THANK YOU GRANDPA GARY!!!

Standing......

I was going to post that today Justin pulled himself up to a stand on the l.r. couch and in the basement on the gate. But when I was telling Matt all of this, he said that last night Justin pulled himself up to a stand using the coffee table to get Austin's drink cup, and later pulled himself to a stand using Austin's legs to get at Austin's cracker. So, Matt saw him do it first...good for daddy!

Ashes! and such....

PRECIOUS!!











A baby shower cake I made today. REMEMBER, I am NOT a baker!

The reason for posting a pic of it is to see if you see what Austin saw in the side piping....feet! He said,, "mommy, that's very pretty feet on there."













Ashes. That is Justin's new word. It sounds like "assuzz." He did it last night when we were all in bed and I was singing my usual 10-15 bedtime songs to the boys that puts them all (all 3) of them to sleep. When I got to Ring Around the Rosie, all I did was look at Justin (who was sitting up in bed instead of laying down, now that he can sit up on his own) and repeated "ashes" at the end of the song. He smiled and then repeated it. So I said it again, and so did he. I was so tickled and made sure Matt heard it too so that I wasn't imagining things. This went on for several minutes. Interesting word for a kid that only says "mama", "dada", "bubu" like bubby, and lots of babbling. I think I blogged sometime ago on 2 words I was sure he said in bed, but they haven't been repeated since. We are really milking ashes. If you ask him to say it, mostly he complies.

I noticed a couple of days ago that when I told him to go get the football (which was quite a ways away and he hadn't been playing with it and we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10), he looked over at it and started crawling for it. I was shocked! So in bed last night, before the ashes thing, I told him to go get daddy, he looked at Matt, and then started crawling to him.

Altho this is a weird new word, I will say again what I said when Austin was learning to talk, "I am glad his first word wasn't french fry!"

Its MOMMY official!

Justin is finally crawling on all 4's. I mentioned in an earlier post that nursery workers at church had seen him do it. However, I had not. Late this afternoon that all changed. I suspected he was based on where I would see him 1 minute and where he was ending up, still on all 4's. But when grandma Paula came over for a surprise visit, she and I witnessed it together! Funny thing tho, I took him to the Dr. yesterday, turns out he had a sinus infection and they put him on antibiotics, and they asked me if he was crawling and I said no. Question is, where do we go from here? He has been pulling up to his knees for a couple of months. He never did the army crawl (neither did Austin), just rolled around a lot. Today he was sliding off the couch feet first, so I just let him go to see what he would do. He landed on his feet, stood there, and then kept pushing himself backwards until 1 push too many landed him on his backside. They grow up so fast! Now, about the talking. By the time Austin was 1 he could say many single words and say 2 word sentences: 'hi mommy, bye daddy, hi puppy," etc. So far Justin still only says mama & dada and lots of babbling. On request, he can wave hi and bye, growl or grunt in chorus to you, head butt, give kisses, and "get you" which means steer clear because he gets his mini claws out and goes for whatever on you he can grab/scratch. I'm in no hurry, I love him still being a baby, albeit not for long.

I am sure he is talking! :) & A small scare for Matt!

This morning when the kids and I were waking up, Austin and I always say "good morning" several times to each other and to Justin. I am sure he said it also. It sounded more like "gu mo." I know parents understand their kids talking way before others do. But when you don't expect it, and the same words/sounds come out during the same conversations or times, you can't help but wonder.

The other morning, Matt was sitting at the dining room table drinking his coffee before work. He said he kept hearing what sounded like wind. After trying to ignore it, he finally decided it was coming from the basement, AND, he decided it no longer sounded like wind but that it was definitely breathing. Now he was getting spooked. He thought for a second it might be me w/the baby, but he knew he had just left us in bed. Now he wanted to know who was in our basement! So he quickly turned the light switch on and went down stairs. He looked around and listened. Definitely breathing, heavy breathing! Then he saw the source, the baby monitor. Apparently someone (that would be me) had accidentally left it on the night before while I was cleaning. Ooops!

Tooth #5, birthday #9 months, and traveling mercies...oh my!

Justin's tooth #5 is here. But it didn't come today. Must have been some time early last week because it is in pretty good. Top right next to traditional 1st front tooth. I have been watching the bottom row for #5 & #6 because they have been showing signs of making their entrance, however, #5 snuck in on top. Happy early birthday to my little Justin who will be 9 months old tomorrow. Happy belated birthday to little Timothy Steven's who turned 9 months old yesterday. We will be praying for safe traveling mercies for you and your family as you go to SC to visit Mamaw & Papaw. Thanks for leaving us with the trash! :)