Where, Oh, Where Did October Go?

Wow, it doesn't seem like it's been a whole month... but then a lot has happened.

Quick picture summary of our trip to NY early in the month. We had a great trip. First stop after the overnight in Maryland was to see Cullen's cousin Amy and her little boy Sam. Sam will be 2 in January and we had not yet met him... we usually see them at Thanksgiving, but last year wasn't the typical Thanksgiving. Anyway, the boys all had fun together and it will be neat to see if they remember each other in a few weeks when we have a more typical Thanksgiving in Ocean City together. (Yes, this was the best picture... it's hard to take pictures of boys when they are having fun together.)

Then I cried a little, when we stopped to say Hi to Grandpa... it was hard to be at Grandma's house without her. I cried watching Scott and Blaise play on the Hoppity Hop thinking how much Grandma would have enjoyed watching them bounce all over her house. We introduced Michael to his Great Grandpa, who could not have been more thrilled to meet him. The pictures remind me of when Great Grandpa first held Scott. I cried again as we were driving from Great Grandpa's house to Great Grandma Jill's house and were telling Scott that we were going to see his Great Grandma Jill... he was so confused. He kept telling us he still needed to see his Great Grandma... his other Great Grandma. Then he clarified... he saw Great Grandpa and now he needed to see Great Grandma. He remembered and it made me smile inside, while I tried to re-explain to him that she's in heaven with Jesus now.

We spent a day with Grandma Jill and "Granny" Annie (who by the way, Blaise is still talking about!) It's always calm and relaxing to spend a day with them :) They made Michael a quilt and it's amazing, as are all their quilts.

Then we headed upstate to see Aunt Jesse and Darrell... not sure what to call him right this moment, so we settled on "Almost Uncle" Darrell. We are getting very excited about the wedding coming up in December and were thrilled to be able to "deliver" Jessica's wedding dress and see the basket that Scott and Darrell's neice will get to carry together... kind of a different way to do Ring Bearer and Flower Girl. Ok, so that was mostly just me being thrilled about that stuff... the boys were thrilled to play football with Almost Uncle Darrell.

We also stopped over at my cousin Emily's house to see her and her family and my Uncle Guy and Aunt Fran. Old Uncle Guy was enthralled with little Michael. I'm always sad that we don't get to see more of Uncle Guy living down here... maybe someday they'll come visit us! It was another good visit. Then we headed back down to New Paltz to start the homeward trek. We spent a morning with my Aunt Cynthia, and cousins Eljay and Allee, picking apples, pumpkins, and hanging out at Grandpa's house. The kids had fun with El and Al, as they always do... another one of those, it would be nice to be closer. (At the same time... it was COLD.) We went back to Grandma Jill's for the night and got to visit with Uncle Doc and Caroline too. I'm not sure why it is SO fascinating to my boys to watch other people play video games, but it is. I guess I should add this particular game is just Caro training her various puppies, feeding, and grooming them. Totally don't get the fascination... she HAS plenty of real pets.

Here's our little Tiger... couldn't be cuter... smiling all the time and giggling for me too, ever since we got home from NY. The trip totally threw off his night sleeping... we'll get there eventually, and I'm doing fine with it. He's growing up too fast! How is it that he's 3 months old already?

The other huge thing that has absorbed our month of October is a drawn out goodbye to our dearest friends. The ones we get together with monthly to play Settlers', the ones we're all friends with... whose little boy is going to room with Scott and Blaise when they're all at Clemson together in 2025 and whose little girl has so much personality! Here's Blaise and his buddy Silas playing in our backyard last week.

And this is Riley- she can keep up with these boys, no problem!

Then on Monday we took them to Riverbanks Zoo. What a fun time. Here are our boys on the dinosaur statue... Silas had asked if they would get to see Triceratops at the Zoo and Rachel had explained to him that he wouldn't. As we were getting in the car to go Silas looked at me and said, "Dinosaurs are dead," and shrugged his shoulders, "something happened to them." Too cute... needless to say, we had to take a picture on the dinosaur :)

I'm sure lots of other things have happened this month... can't think of them off the top my head at the moment though. I do have a few videos and I'll post them later... then tomorrow we are off to Clemson for Homecoming and we have plans to Trick or Treat there as Goofy, Pluto, and Mickey Mouse. Yes, I'll post pictures, when we get home.

Quote of the Week

Last night we (Scott, Blaise and I) were discussing princess's and the fact that only girls are princess's. I pointed out that boys were prince's. After telling Scott and Blaise were my 2 princes' Scott's response:

No, just Blaise is a prince. I'm the King.

I found that statement very firstborn :)

Over The River and Through The Woods

To Grandma's house we go...

Well, we already went and now we're back - but Scott is staying by himself for a week. Scott was so excited to go. We left early Saturday morning and when we put him to bed on Friday night he explained quite enthusiastically that we would wake him up "in the middle of the night" (translation - 6am), that we could ride in the car and watch movies, and then he would stay at Grandma's house by himself. Who ever heard of a 3 year old getting so excited about a 7 hour drive. That was a lot of car riding for one weekend though. Fortunately everyone did well. Michael, as expected, slept quietly for the first stretch. After stopping to eat and stretch our legs though, he was not at all interested in getting immediately back into his carseat. Therefore, we had a louder 2nd half of the trip, since he cried on and off (thankfully, he did not cry consistently.) We had a nice visit. Enjoyed the cool weather. Introduced Michael to Nana and Granddaddy Keen. Then we turned around and came home.

Here we are, enjoying the week with Blaise and Michael, and they are enjoying having us more to themselves... but we're all missing Scott. Blaise points out, probably twice every hour that Scott's not here, he's at Grandma's and the rest of us should go back to Grandma's. We're pretty sure though that Scott is having a blast... I've heard he's already watched plenty of movies and examined the contents of his nose in his grandma's magnifying mirror for make-up. Boys :)

In other news... Michael had his 2 month check-up this morning. He is doing well. As of today, he wieghs 12 lbs 5 oz and is in the 65% for weight, but he's already 24 and a half inches, which is the 95% for height. He's also in the 60% for head circumference... that's different, the rest of us have tiny heads :) Here's the most recent Sunday picture, actually taken yesterday (on a Monday), because we were out of town.

He's gotten very interested in his hands and feet and is focused on figuring them out and controlling the movement. It's fun to watch him concentrate!

This is late, but it was really cool... a picture of the boys watching the Clemson vs GA Tech game on the computer the day after it was played- Scott watched the entire 2nd half (there wasn't time to watch the whole game and we played better in the 2nd half.)

And here's one last video of Scott... he was pretending the stick was an umbrella, but wouldn't say so for the video, oh well.

Singing!!!!!

Scott's singing in the other living room... how cool is that?! This is the child that usually tells other people to stop singing. He just randomly started singing Deep and Wide and Blaise joined in.

Oh, and earlier today they found the new baby card that Grandma Jill had sent. She always sends musical cards and this one played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Blaise was playing with the card and came into the kitchen singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I was so impressed. We rarely sing that song and somehow he knew it- from the music?! Why wasn't he singing the ABC song- we actually sing that ocassionally :)

They make me smile... even the one who doesn't sing yet- he just smiles and it's contagious.

Sleeeeep

Ah, 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep... at least for my 7 week old. Michael slept from 7-5. Too bad I was too busy watching that game last night to go to bed before 11:30 myself. Here's hoping we keep seeing more and more of these long nights for Michael. It really doesn't surprise me that he sleeps so well at night... during the day the boy is constant motion and very alert. He takes a few short naps and maybe 1 longish nap (maybe 2 hours, somedays.) He's also cooing a ton already, it's how he manages to completely capture my attention for long periods of time during the day when I have other things on my mind that need to be done. Cuteness.

Where The Wild Things Are

We enjoyed a great visit with my sister, Jessica, over the Holiday weekend. It might be obvious from the picture... but Scott absolutely loves his Aunt Jesse. He was very excited that she was coming for a visit and even got very upset the few hours she wasn't with us, while she was here. For example, he knew she was coming on Thursday night after he was in bed, so Friday he woke up looking for her. Literally, he got dressed and said, "Where's Aunt Jesse." Then we saw a plane go by our house and he thought she must be on that plane. I said she wasn't and he ran down the hall crying before I could explain that her plane had already landed and she was with Uncle Mike. Funny boy.

While Jessica was here we went to Riverbanks Zoo for a day trip. One of my favorite day trips, because it's so easy and everyone has fun. The first picture is of the boys with their Nana and Papa (my parents) checking out the baboons as soon as we got there. Hey, they were on the way to the tigers :) Notice the Clemson hats... I always feel weird even just being in Columbia, so we wear our orange.

After seeing the tigers, Scott was set on giraffes, for some reason (could be he remembers them from the pictures from the last time we went). Of course, Scott and Blaise don't say giraffe, they say "raffes." One of the funny mis-pronounciations they share. Anyway, we headed toward the raffes and of course, grandparents love to spoil, so they got to feed the raffes. Fun times... I'm sure we'll be expected to buy lettuce for the giraffes every time we go. Hopefully, we'll be back there often. We had a big enough group that we went ahead and got a membership.

Let us not forget, the other major event of the weekend was Clemson's first home game. What a way to start a season. We couldn't watch the game... well actually, we could have, but we didn't know it, so we just listened. Remarkable the attention span of a 3 yr old for football on the radio. Scott at least listened quite intently and asked a million questions. I actually got out the little people to stage the game for him. I'm very excited to take him to a game live and we are even planning on going to some local pee-wee games. That's partly inspired by my dad who officiates, mostly high school, but some pee-wee too. Anyway, here's the picture of our 3 little Tigers from last weekend. They look about the same today, except one has grown plenty since Saturday. We'll be watching the game tonight on the computer. Too bad for Scott, it doesn't start til bedtime... I told him he could watch it on the computer tomorrow, we'll see if he remembers and how much of it I get to watch twice. GA Tech is always a close game, so hopefully it will be a good one and hopefully it will be a W.

Finally... here's the little man up close. Finally got a relatively good picture of his smile. It's still best in person of course. Actually, giving credit where credit is due, Scott took this picture.

I absolutely love this picture that Jessica took. Michael found his thumb while hanging out at my parents one evening. Evening isn't his favorite time of day, so it was very nice for everyone. Now if he could just learn to find his thumb consistently and when he needs it.

Blaise is in fact cutting his bottom 2-yr old molars. We'd been wondering, since he's been stuffing things into the back of his mouth lately. It was when he stuffed his finger back there at bedtime that I caught a glimpse of them. The top molars are still not in sight at all, so he's still not finished with the whole teething thing.

Scott's latest phrase is, "I'll eat you up." Can you guess where he picked that one up? I'm just wondering if he's wanting us to send him to bed without eating anything?

Go Tigers!

-Isms

Scott and Blaise both still say the funniest things. Here are a few quick phrases from the past few days...

Blaise in response to whatever it is you ask him to do mostly, well, he still says no a lot too, but it's cute when he says- "OK." (And you have to read it in his man-voice.)

Blaise when you answer a question or tell him something that he understands- "Oh" (Again, it has to be read in his man-voice.)

Blaise when he's getting into something... for example, yesterday he had pushed a chair from the table to the counter where he had picked up a bag of cookies and was about to open the bag and eat one (nevermind that the bag was the cookies we had set aside for Scott and Blaise, so we wouldn't, um, accidentally? eat them all.) I saw him and asked what he was doing and he replied, complete with his notorious grin- "I'm just getting a cookie from the bag. That is all." Major emphasis on the last 3 words there. He has used this phrase probably 20 times in the past 3 days, to downplay whatever it is he is getting into.

Scott for the past few months has been telling me, "Nothing," when I ask what he's doing and it's something he shouldn't be doing. Today it got better... as he and Blaise were both going through the CD's, which naturally they aren't allowed to play with, while I was nursing Michael, I asekd what they were doing... his response, "We're not doing anything anymore." I asked what he had been doing, "Nothing."

"That is all."

A Month Old Already!?

For those that know us, we take pictures of our babies every Sunday (on the same homemade blanket - Michael's is from his Grandma) until they get too mobile to manage. So here is Michael's most recent "Sunday Picture."

Our little dude is a whole month old already... so he had a doctor visit this week. The measurements are - 10lbs 11oz (on a completely empty stomach) which puts him around the 75% and 23 inches which is around the 95%. I knew he was a long one, but I think this measurement was a little bit generous. All around, Michael is a healthy growing boy.

We saw a new doctor, who I think I'll really like... the pediatrician we've been seeing for the boys is going to be a little too pushy about vaccines. We are planning to vaccinate much more slowly and skip at least a few this time around.

Last, but not least the fun tidbits from the past week or so... last Sunday Michael smiled at me :) His smile reminds me of Scott, but I can see both boys in him. Here's the closest to a smile that I've managed to catch on camera. He's also rolled over (tummy to back) several times this past week... totally by accident, he gets a bit upset when he does it.

Oh, and I should add that we have 2 new photographers in the family... so if you frequent our winkflash site, don't be surprised by the less than perfect camera angles! With his new skills, Blaise has also decided that he doesn't want his picture taken, so many of the recent pictures of Blaise feature his hand, rather than his face.

Big Boys and Their Toys

I haven't uploaded any videos in a while, so here are a few of Scott and Blaise taken right after Michael was born. Their Papa thought it was a good idea to give them each an official size sports ball. Scott got a baseball, which we ocassionally roll in the front yard to practice fielding grounders (he doesn't have a glove yet, so we don't actually throw the hardball- not that I'd trust his throwing ability with a hardball just yet anyway.) Blaise got a basketball. As you can see he loves to dribble and actually does quite well considering the ball is HUGE for him. Scott also has to practice dribbling. Not a problem, if you know me at all, you know I have a plethora of sports equipment, so finding another basketball was not an issue :)

This is how we entertained the big boys one of the first mornings that Cullen went back to work. Michael was actually on the floor in his bouncer seat observing the process. They actually both took turns making noodles out of playdoh, including sharing the toys pleasantly! I've always been impressed with Blaise's attention span for things like this- he enjoys playing with play-doh or even coloring sometimes for longer than Scott and for much longer than he will sit and watch a movie.

Three and a Half!

Scott's officially 3 1/2... where does the time go? He is doing well. I am trying to figure out what to do with him this year in the way of "school." I know we don't want to mess with a detailed academic pre-school curriculum... probably won't mess with anything detailed until K. But since we have no intention of sending him off to pre-school, but do intend to homeschool when he hits school-age, I'm tossing around different ideas for home-pre-school this year. So, any of you homeschooling friends want to share your pre-school experiences? I think it's funny when people ask what we're going to do if we don't send him to pre-school, and how we know what consitutes "school." I don't really know how to answer those questions... but thinking back to my own pre-school experience in Mrs. Woolsey's basement, I remember playing on the monkey bars, building with blocks, playing with play-doh, and there was one day when I guess we were making something to eat and we got to peel carrots (random I know.) All those things he already does at home anyway... so I guess mostly home-pre-school is mostly just living life and being more aware of what exactly we do everyday?

Back to Scott... Scott still loves to be read to, and is still too much of a perfectionist to do much in the way of attempting to write or draw. I did convince him today that he could draw a face... and he has progressed to writing the t's in his name by himself. His vocabulary grows constantly... be careful what you say around him, he will use your phrases- usually in proper context, within a week or so. I've started being more aware of what we read in library books. He likes to show-off when he's around the grandparents in particular and talks like he's a very important grown-up, very matter of fact, complete with gestures and everything.

Physically, he's still a strong, rough little boy. Loves to play outside, loves to play sports (baseball, football, soccer, and now basketball), jumps on everything, runs constantly, and now picks up and "tackles" Blaise. There's no doubt they are both boys :) He's still fairly tall and skinny- we are thinking he's had a bit of a growth spurt this summer. His feet have grown practically right out of his sandals and he seems taller- we'll see here in a few weeks when we start trying on his long pants :)