Talking back

The other day Pax crawled over to the stairs and started to climb up them. I asked him to stop and to come down a few times.. he was looking through the rails at me and got this smirk on his face put one hand in the air and waved at me and said "BYE!" and continued to climb up the stairs... I am in for trouble with that kid! He is too cute though.. who could not smile at that face?

Mr. Sneaky

Wesley has begun this "trick" of sneaking out of bed... he is really good at it... We usually dont hear him till its too late. So far we have caught him with the v8 bottle in his room. Then the next night it was a cup of water that David had poured for himself and then spent 20 minutes looking for it. Third night it was the vacuum. Not sure why the vancuum but he seemed to think it was pretty funny. The fourth I caught him coming back up the stairs with a chewed open kit kat bar that he had gotten from ON TOP OF THE FRIDGE! Then one nap time he snuck into his brothers bed and they both fell asleep together but it didnt last for long and I put them both back in their own beds and I went and took a nap as well and woke up to a noise and went to check on Wes and he had the pitcher of tea with plastic action figures swimming in it and the peanut butter and jelly with the lids of and a loaf of bread and a kid knife and was about to make himself a sandwich of his bedroom floor. That kid is going to be one hot ticket as my Gram would say!

Finally!!!

After 10 1/2 months waiting Pax finally got a tooth! and in that week he managed to cut 3 teeth! His huge gummy smile is quickly filling with teeth and he is starting to really look like a big boy. He also took his first steps! He walked to his uncle Jake of course. He still likes to play noodle legs when we want him to walk.

Wes zingers!

Wesley has had a lot of great zingers lately. Here are a few!

K-Wes can you go grab that for me?
W- No Mom I cant
K-Why not?
W-My superpowers and broken today


W- Me me me me me me me
K-Is that the way you ask for something?
W-Yeah mom its the spanish way of saying it! (like he was speaking in spanish)


W-Daddy we need to get a new car, this one is killing mom

W-Work is where Daddy lives

W (after dousing himself in my perfume) I dont smell like a cutie-pie any more cuz I smell like a girl

Paxton

Pax is growing up so fast! He will be 10 months in a few days and in the last couple of days he seems to be developing by leaps and bounds. He is really good at cruising and can even stand for a few seconds without support though he tends to be timid about it. He has fully mastered stairs and is super quick about it now. He likes to try and sneak away to any he can find. He and Wesley have invented a screaming game that they usually play in the car which I dont fully appreciate. One of them will scream really loud and then the other will copy just as loud and then they work themselves back down to a little yell. Pax started clapping today and has really been enjoying doing that. He does to to music or even to encourage someone. He has started saying "uh oh" which I find super cute! We also were waiting for David and I was asking him where Dada was. As soon as Pax saw him he started saying "DADA!" Also he was trying to get some ones attention today and he say yelling "HI!".

Baby Signs

With Wesley we taught him just a few baby signs which came in very handy for communicating with us. We Figured we would teach the same ones to Paxton. We started using them when appropriate but were not really pushing it. Wesley thought it was great and really started showing them to him a lot. Almost every meal I would hear him encouraging Pax to sign "please" or "more" or "all done". He would smile and watch but had never even tried to imitate. Yesterday I had left the room to get something while the boys were eating and when I walked back in Pax was smiling at me and started doing the "all done" sign! He did it again this morning at breakfast too! Wesley was especially excited to see him do it.

Fire House

So when I used to Nanny every once in a while I would take the kiddos to the fire station. Well it dawned on me the other day that I had not done that with my own children! We had to run out to get some groceries and passed the fire station on out way and the trucks were parked out front so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to stop. Wesley was all excited about it until a fireman came out and then he went running back to the car. With a little convincing (and an awesome fireman who obviously had kids of his own with how great he was with Wes) we toured around the trucks and the firehouse. By the end of it Wesley was asking question and even wanted to "drive" the fire truck. Paxton just sat on my hip taking everything in and watching every move that anyone made. Wesley got to show off his muscles and held a fire hose as well as some equipment for breaking into houses. They gave both boys some play fire helmets! When we got home Wesley said he wanted to play fireman and that I could be the driver and that he would be the "computer guy"... he had been in the passengers seat and shown how the computer works! I think we will be making many more trips to the fire house!

when you grow up...

This conversation took place in the car yesterday
Wes-"Dad see them building all that stuff"
D-"Yes I see all the machinery, they are building a metro"
Wes-"But there are no worker guys"
D-"Not today they are having a break today. Do you want to build a metro?"
Wes- "No dad I am not a worker guy"
D- "You could be one when you get bigger"
Wes- "I could?"
D- "Yes you can be anything when you get bigger. You can be a firefighter, a worker guy, a musician... what do you want to be?"
Wes- "I want to drive a rocket ship!"
D- "You can do that, but you have to learn really hard in school and pay attention to what people are teaching you"
Wes- "Yeah like numbers so I can 5 4 3 2 1 BLAST OFF!!"

Fair day

Today I took the boys to the fair. It was a scorching hot day but they both stayed pretty pleasent despite the sweat! We got to ride a bus to the fair grounds which started off the day on a very exciting foot. Wesley touched a cow for the first time and was pretty proud of himself for doing it. Paxton was wide eyed looking at everything and trying to figure out all the animals and people. They both enjoyed a snowcone! Wesley had his first (kid) rollercoaster ride which he had mixed feelings about. They let him on the ride and then told him he was too short but that I couldnt ride without tickets and I didnt have any left. So I climbed up to try and help him off and he didnt understand and started to cry so they let me ride. He started out with a big smile and then halfway through the ride said he wanted to get off, but then ended it with a smile and was glad that he had tried it. We watched some pig races which Wesley found very entertaining. Also got to play on some tractors. The quote of the day was when we were walking through the barn and Wes saw a small jersey cow and said "Hey mom its just like chick-fil-a!" I didnt bring my camera :(

Pax

This weekend I went on a trip with one of my friends and only brought Pax with me. It was so great to get some one on one time with him and his little personality really came out. He mastered waving and has the cutest wave where he opens and shuts his hand. He also says "mama", "dada", and "hiiiii". I think he shortly will take off with talking. He was also really trying hard to be funny. In the car he would make a silly noise and if we laughed he would keep doing it. He tasted a lime when we went out to eat and made a silly face and has kept making the face even without the lime to try and get people to laugh. He is such a flirt too! He was such a snuggler and really enjoyed his Mommy time but was very happy to see his brother again and greeted him with a huge smile!

She's Right (Again)

If I (we) kept up with this blog you'd know about all the cool, amazing, tiring things that have happened since July.

From "crawling Pax" to "speed crawling, furniture cruizing, Hi waving, scream laughing Pax".

Then there was the Fourth of July Tradition Wes + Uncle Jake @ Fireworks.

(I think Wes and Pax have a Matthew Mcconaughey shirt allergy thing going on)


You may have heard Wesley learned to swim on his own. K's always taught the boys to hold their breath under water from infancy by blowing in their face right before a split second dunking. Well this summer the fish took to water and Wes and the neighborhood pool were inseparable. You might say K's a super mom because who knew that this technique worked so well.
One afternoon we're checking with Wes to make sure he would know that if he took off his floaty he'd sink and not be able to swim. So we remove the floaty. Release the whipper snapper and prepare to rescue the nearly drowning boy when he decides to just hold his breath, and swim to the end on his own. To which we receive a happy "What happens when you take of my floaty daddy?" --- apparently nothing.

(Click Image to enlarge)

--- Oh yeah he does the diving board.

(Thanks to Mommy, Mimi and Jake for the high flying examples)

The amount of money now saved on those silly "blow bubbles with your face in water" classes is astronomical. We'll be able to know fund another year of music and soccer class with the savings.


You might of known that we drove to Maine and surprised the Maine grands with a 30th anniversary. The under 4 foot crew had a blast as did the Grampy and Grammie.

More to come.

~ D the Dad

Crawling Pax

So I am a bit late on posting this but better late then never! At about 5 months old the little one decided that it was time to really start moving and has not stopped yet! He crawls all over the place and has even mastered the stairs all at the young age of 6 months (have I got my work cut out for me!) He loves to follow his brother all around the house and the 2 of them are super cute. Pax also likes to play "shy" now and when someone says "hi" to him he is very coy and buries his head in my shoulder and then peeks out a few seconds later with a smile. Last night he also was crawling around and found a sippy cup and figured out how to use it all by himself! He is getting bit too fast! He also is quite the eater and wants to self feed which he has become pretty good at!

who is in charge?

Today Wesley thought that he could be in charge and I had to keep reminding him who was. He had decided to jump on the couch and not listen for the 100th time and I asked him who was in charge. He said his friends name and I said no and asked again who was in charge. He finally pointed a finger at me and when I nodded yes he turned the finger to point at himself. I said no and decided to rephrase my question. SO I asked him who he was supposed to listen to. He put a funny look on his face and said "God". I was stumped for a second and then said "yes that is true and God says in the bible for children to listen to their parents!" Mommy success!

Conversation...

while walking to the park on a very windy day Wes and I had the following conversation. W-"mommy can you push the button off?" M-"what button?" W-"the wind button" M-"I cant turn the wind off only God can" W-"But I want it off" M-" you can ask God to turn it off" W-"Do I have to go all the way to church to do that?" K-"no you can ask God anywhere like praying" W-"but I dont see Him... where is He?" M-"He is here with us now, with you and Pax...." W-"and Daddy and grammy and grampy and sam and crocker and moxie" M-"yes that right... do you want to ask Him?" W-" No its fine!"

Mohawk!

So Wes and David have been talking about mohawks and how cool they are... Wesley really wanted one and after a really hot soccer game and a very sweaty head with all the thick curls I caved in and gave him one... We had the following conversation a day later ME- "Wes you are so cute" Wes- "No Mommy, I am not cute I have a mohawk and mohawks are cool so I am cool"

K and P come to visit again!!!

Katie and Peyton came to visit us again and we all had a blast! We did tons of stuff and it was fun to have all the munchkins together. The boys both loved little Peyton! After 20 years of friendship its awesome that we both are still just as crazy and daring as we were before kids (ok maybe not quite but close!)

Paxton is eating

Pax has always been pretty interested in food and I thought he would probably start eating solid food early. One afternoon we decided to have a lazy sunday lunch and watch some tv. It turned into watching Paxton eat his first food and Wesley feeding it to him! He now eats applesauce, banana, and yogurt on a regular basis and the other day while having a picnic got very angry that we didnt have anything that he could eat and grabbed Davids sandwich out of his hand and put it in his mouth!

Paxton laughing

Paxton thought that Daddys bad singing was pretty funny!

too much time...

So I have been bad and not blogged in a while.. so I will do a photo blog to catch you up on what we have been doing!

I Heart Squirrels

Walking through the neighborhood park, W and I saw a squirrel playing in a bunch of leaves. "Did you see that Squirrel dad?" he exclaimed pointing to the fluff ball of excitement rustling in a furry of action. "Oh dad I love that squirrel!" I asked him why he loved the squirrel and got a rather matter of fact answer. "Because he's so cute."

~ D

crack.....

The other night we were trying to take some photos of Wesley and trying to get a good smile out of him. I kept saying what my mom always said to me when I was little "Dont smile, your face is going to crack." I said that to Wesley hoping to get a good smile from him. He gives me this puzzled look and turns his body to point his back at me, points his finger to his booty and says "But Mommy it already cracked!" I had to laugh about that one!
~mommy

Breaking the routine....

The other night Wesley woke up crying and though it doesnt happen much, usually he calms stops in a few seconds but he continued to cry. I got out of bed and went in there to see what was wrong with him. His nose ended up being a little stuffed up and it was making it hard for him to breath. I ended up rubbing him back for a minute and then Paxton started crying to eat. Wesley was not ready for me to leave yet so David brought Pax into me and Wes. He then went and got everyone a drink and some pretzels. You would have thought David had brought him chocolate cake. He was so excited to be able to be up and to have everyone in the room. We all just chilled on his bed for a while and had a great time talking and laughing. Lesson learned- Sometimes routines and schedules broken makes for some great unplanned family time!

Back Seat Driver

I tend to be a vocal driver. Not aggressive but I do tend to speak to the people in the other cars like the can hear me. The other day driving in lots of traffic a woman decided to cut me off and try and get in front of me. I stopped to let her in but she was so busy eating something that she just sat there blocking two lanes of traffic. I spoke up and said "common lady!" Wesley then piped up from the back seat "people get away from my mommy!" Back seat driver at age 2 and 3 months!

Kissing and Toodles

The other day I took Wesley to the open gym for little kids and it was crazy with lots of kids and parents so I had a hard time keeping track of where he was. I lost sight of him one time and started looking around for him and finally spotted him at the top of the bleachers with a little girl. They were totally flirting with one another and playing around drumming on the bleachers. They were having such a good time that I just let them be. The next time I looked over at them they both were KISSING!

One of Wesleys favorite TV shows to watch is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Its not one of my favorites and I didnt think it was very educations. In the show they call "toodles" who keeps the mouse-ka-tools for them to help them solve problems. The same day on the way home from the gym Wes was drinking a milk box and the straw fell inside. He asked me to help him get it out and when he passed it to me I felt that it was empty. I told him I couldnt get it out and that it was empty so it really didnt matter. He then said "oh toodles.....we need scissors!" I guess maybe I have to give in and admit that the show is a little educational if it shows him how to solve problems....

Bowling

So with the mass amounts of snow that we have gotten around here the playgrounds are all "snowed in" and most of the sidewalks are covered so spending time outside walking or playing is pretty hard. We had been stuck in the house for all weekend so we decided to take Wesley bowling. He had only been asking for 2 months! We had a really good time and he did pretty well. He thought the shoes were pretty cool! The only problem we has was once it was time to leave he didnt want to stop bowling!

Spelling

Tonight I was talking to David and spelled M-O-V-I-E so that Wesley wouldnt know what we were talking about.. He came over and inturrupted us to say "Mommy. No! Daddy and I are going to A-B-C-D-E-F"

Also later in the night he said "W-E-S those are my letters!"

Paxton is getting big!

Paxton went for his 2 month check up and it tipping the scales at 12 lbs! He also is in the 95% for his height. I knew he felt like a long baby to me.. He is going to be like his Uncle Sam who is 6feet 6 inches tall! He has become super smiley and today found his hands and he spent most of the day putting them in his mouth! The photo is from our trip to Florida. By the time Pax was 8 weeks old he had traveled the whole east coast by CAR!

Dancing Dude

So today we were going to pick david up from work but ended up with an hour to kill in the city. I decided to be brave and try and find the Haitian embassy on my own. Wesley we really into helping me "find" it and was looking for street signs and such. We found it pretty easily and a parking space too! We went inside to find out if I could sign up to help with anything this weekend in the area. We were waiting in line and Wes said "Mommy, are we in Haiti?" I didnt know how to explain that to a two year old so I told him that we were in the embassy. A Haitian man standing behind me heard him and asked me if he has just said Haiti. I told him he had. The man then asked if he wanted to go there or had ever been there. I told him he sort of had because I had gone when I was pregnant with him. The man looked slighty shocked and said with doubt "YOU have gone to Haiti!?" After it was my turn to talk to the lady organizing and Wesley was walking around looking around and had taken off his jacket. I finished with my questions and asked his to put his jacket back on. He ignored me and continued to explore the embassy, he was sitting in chairs and looking at artwork. He then started walking up to people and saying "bonswa" (good afternoon in creole). He went over to a man who had just walked in the door and very loudly said "bonswa!" and started jumping up and down. The man said "bonswa" back to him and started jumping up and down with him. Eventually the jumping sorta turned into dancing together...... the man.... The Haitian ambassador to the United States!!!

Paxton starts to smile

He has started to smile this past week. He is a photo of one of them. I love the dimples the smile produces!

Helping Haiti

This morning when I was watching the news I saw a report saying that they needed people to help sort donations that had been made to get them ready to ship to Haiti. So we decided that we would all go downtown and I would go work for a bit and David would take the boys and find something to do with them. After going to a few places and finally finding one that was not too full already I left them and got to work. They went and got some food and then hung out across the street at a soccer field and were watching people play. After I had been there a while I got a text from David with the following conversation Wes: Mommy help Haiti? David: Yes she is. Wes: I wanna help Haiti. So cute! He is very interested in Haiti and the people there. He talks about Chama (the girl I sponsor) quite a bit. He also says he wants to go there and we had a conversation yesterday about how he had been there when he was in my belly! When I was almost finished working I went and got him and brought him over to the work area. I showed him the bin that had the toiletries in it and I worked on sorting out a box and he would carry the stuff to the toiletry box and put it in. He was very serious about the job. Once that was over we left. While walking back to the car he grabbed my face and turned it to look at him and asked me very seriously "Mommy did I help Haiti?" I was very happy to tell him that he had! I love that he loves to help!

GG vs Wes

So while in Maine for Christmas Wesley started to pretend to play soccer with Bethany. They passed the imaginary ball back and forth a few times and were having a great time and laughing. Then GG (his 70something year old great-grandma) decided she wanted to get involved in the game so she went and found a real soccer ball. She put it on the floor and started passing it with Wesley. They passed it back and forth a few times and he got one past her and she had to go chase it down. Meanwhile Wesley thinks he has "scored a goal on GG" and is fist pumping the air and yelling "DC United!!!" It was very amusing to see him get so excited about scoring a goal against his great grandma!

Brave Wesley/Wimpy Mom

Today we had a doctors visit. Wesley has been waking up in the middle of the night crying and complaining of knee pain. We think its caused by flat feet but took him to our pediatrician just to make sure. They wanted to do a blood draw just to rule out some of the really bad things it can be. First of all I was by myself with Wesley and Paxton and those car seats dont get any lighter to carry babies in. So we go up a flight of stairs to the examination room. Then down 2 flights of stairs to the lab. I am burning up from carrying the car seat and helping Wesley walk down. We get to the lab and you can see the look on the clinicians face. Obviously drawing blood from a 2 year old is not her favorite part of the day. We go into the room and she looks for a good vein to draw from. She then explains to me that I am going to have to lay Wes on the table and trap his knees between my legs then lay my body over his stomach and hold his shoulders down. She also said that she was going to bring another nurse in to help hold him down. She exits the room and Wes looks at me and asks what she is doing. I tell him that he is going to lay down and they are going to put a tie around his arm and poke him really quick and get some of his blood and if he is good then we can go get ice cream. He looks a little leary of the nurse when she comes back in. So we begin the process of laying him down and getting me situated into the correct position and the nurse holding down his arm and the clinican ready to draw the blood. Wes looks so little now and I begin to shake just a bit. They insert the needle and all he says is "ow" in such a tiny pitiful voice that I start shaking really badly and all of a sudden feel very hot. He does not move a muscle the whole rest of the time and just lays there perfectly still.... meanwhile I am about ready to pass out at the thought of that thing going into his arm and am having flashbacks of getting my blood drawn when I was pregnant and the pain that that involved. At one point they suggest that we sing Twinkle Twinkle and I start and my voice is shaking so bad I sounded like 90 year old woman. They finish up and he jumps up from the table and gets his shirt back on. Takes the paper to carry back up the flight of stairs to check out and marches out of the room announcing that he is ready for some ice cream! The nurse looked at me and said they had never had a kid handle it as well as he did. They then proceeded to ask me if I was ok and did I need any help! We quickly left and went and got Wesley his ice cream (I didnt get any!
~Mommy

Big Boy Pax

Yesterday I took Paxton for his one month check up. The pediatrician came into the room laughing and said how Paxton was the total opposite of his brother. He was 9 lbs 10 oz which puts him in the 50% for his weight and he was 22 1/4 inches long with puts him in the 80% for his height. He is not the peanut that his brother is!

Road trip

On the drive back from Maine Wesley was being very well behaved. He took a long nap and woke up super happy and was quietly playing by himself. When we would stop he would get back in his car seat without any fighting or complaining. So on one of our many stops David decided to reward the good behavior and get him a treat... a nice bright pink smoothie. He was very excited when they came back to the car with it and very quickly got into his seat so he could start to drink it. We started driving again and he was very quiet for a while. After a while he announced that he was "painting". I turned around and even in the dark could see that he was covered from hair to pants in pink smoothie and was painting the window with his smoothie covered straw! David and both tried to hold in the laughter but totally failed. So much for being good!

Joke

I was trying to teach Wesley a knock knock joke. It went something like this. K-Wes say knock knock. Wes- Knock knock. K- who is there.. Wes say orange. Wes- Orange. K- Orange who. Wes- Orange juice! He came up with the punch line all on his own. Not at all what I was expecting. He thought it was a pretty funny joke too.

Paxton rolls over

We thought is might have been a fluke thing at first but then he did it six times in one day! So at three weeks old Paxton can roll over
from his belly to his back. Pretty crazy!

NY 2010

We were invited to a friends house to celebrate the new year. It was an American/Austrian new year celebration. We also attended a british new years with other friends (new years there happened at 7pm our time so we were able to attend both!) We had some great fish and chips at the British one and fondue and raclette at the Austrian one. Wesley made it all the way to midnight without any problems (thank to aunts and uncles keeping him up late while in Maine). He watched the ball drop and was even showing off his dance moves after. Pax just slept through it all!

Christmas

We made the trip to Maine for Christmas. The drive up was not much fun but on the way back was one of the easiest even with a 2 year old and a 3 week old. We beat the storms home which was very nice. While up there Paxton got to be baby Jesus in the manger. Pax got to meet all his aunts and uncles and grammie and grampie. Wesley got to drive a snowcat (groomer) and ride a snowmobile. We had a huge italian feast for Christmas dinner which was so good. Wesley had a blast playing with his cousin Avery.