little faces

here we all are at 6 months.

and none of us can sit up yet :)

just some more pictures of the kids at 6 months...





group shot

garrett & diego

the other morning garrett and i were snuggling in bed and i was trying to ignore the fact that he was really awake and wanted to get up. the other kids were sleeping and that's what i wanted to do to...just stay warm and cozy in bed, forgetting about the snow outside and my chilly wood floors. funny how 2yr old boys have a different idea about what a good january morning should look like.

so were are just laying there and garrett decides it time to surprise me with his first full sentence. up until now it's just been one or two words at a time. mmm...what will that cherished first sentence be? well it turns out it was a glimpse into our life. let me explain...garrett is a hard kid to keep busy. he likes a toy for about 5 minutes then he's back to wandering around the house saying either snack, mouse (he wants to watch the mickey mouse clubhouse) or puter (which is garrett-talk for the computer).

out of these 3 choices, my favorite is the computer. nickjr.com is a lifesaver. he'll watch a full length diego cartoon...that's 25 minutes of free time for me. which is huge since nothing else keeps him occupied. granted it's probably not the best use of his time and i could get more creative in terms of parenting him, but it works for us right now. plus he does learn things...whenever he sees a bird he says macaw (from the scarlet macaw episode, in case you missed it). how many 2yr olds think of an exotic bird when they see a little sparrow? see it's educational in it's own way :)

so back to his long awaited first full sentence...watch diego on the puter, mom.

our little guy is growing up. perhaps he'll be a computer techie someday or just a kid who runs around the jungle with his older sister rescuing animals. time will tell...

who's sleeping?

that's the big question at our house...well techinically it's the big question in garrett's room. every time garrett goes down for either a nap or the night he wants me to lay with him. i know, bad habit, but i just lay down for like 5 minutes. then i use some lame excuse to leave. so while we're laying there garrett and i have the exact same discussion every time. it goes like this...

garrett: ry ry sleeping?
me: yes, ryan is sleeping. (keep in mind ryan is usually squealing downstairs and we can totally hear him.)

then he asks about livy and daddy. then we repeat the whole conversation over and over again. it's quite exciting. oh, and if i change my wording and say "yup, he's sleeping" it doesn't count. i have to specifically say "yes, ryan is sleeping." nodding my head doesn't work either.

so last night garrett decided to add to our "who's sleeping" list. in addition to ryan, livy & daddy, i have to answer that ALL the character of the mickey mouse clubhouse are asleep. i think it's a ploy to keep me in bed longer. what do you think?

olivia bolivia

about a month ago olivia discovered that garrett sounded a lot like carrot. since then she has been working on rhyming words. it's been rough going. our conversations ususally sound like this:

me: what rhymes with house? it sounds like mmm.
olivia: umm, mr. potato head. (let's start praying for her kindergarten teacher right now!)

the other night during dinner she surprised us.

olivia: mom, what rhymes with spoon? it sounds like mmm.
me: moon.
olivia: yes, sweetheart. excellent job!

the conversation went on for a while and we were totally impressed with her rhyming. watch out dr. seuss!! finally she stumped me with the word blanket. and i still can't think of anything to rhyme with it. any ideas?

6 month baby

Ryan's feeling a bit left out. All his other "born in July" friends have had blogs written about their 6 month milestone. So to keep up with Sam & Alex, here's a bit about Ryan...

Actually the best way to describe him is simply this picture. It totally captures him. Most days he even looks just like this. Well, except for his clothes which I do change. Actually I change them about every hour because as you can see he likes to spit up. Olivia calls him our "little spit machine."

Ryan is also a big fan of taking off his socks. When I go put them back on they are always wet because he loves to chew on them too. Tasty, I guess. His other activities include the jumparoo and sitting in his green bumbo chair. FYI: the bumbo was the best investment ever...especially since the little guy can't sit up yet. And it's easy to clean (see spit up comment above).

Mmm...what else about Ryan. Well he's totally into food, but still refuses a bottle. This makes it a little hard to do a Friday crop night...so I've told Ryan he will not get a scrapbook until he starts taking a bottle. He doesn't seem to care.

Ryan loves to watch Olivia and Garrett. As soon as they walk in the room his face lights up. They love to keep him busy with a constant supply of toys and kisses (and as a result, colds). Olivia has even given herself the title of "Mommy #2" and loves to "supervise the boys" as she calls it. Garrett has just discovered that Ryan is chubby. So he loves to squeeze his fat little arms and legs. Ryan's not a big fan of that, so we do our best not to leave them in the same room together.

Ryan is a great addition to our family. He's assumed the role as the 3rd child quite nicely. Both Tim & I agree that he is by far our easiest baby. So we're willing to over look some things like the constant spit up and anti-bottle issue. Although we don't want him to grow up too fast, we look forward to the day when he can really play with the other kids. Olivia is already getting ready for that...whenever she finds a small toy on the floor she picks it up right away and says "Mom, this is a choking hazard." See her title of "Mommy #2" is quite appropriate.

Thanks for keeping life interesting, Ryan! We love you :)

favorite words

garrett is talking more and more every day. and we are finally beginning to understand what he's saying. every new word he tries out is greeted with "what?" from tim & i. eventually we catch on. in addition to talking, garrett has been busy with potty training. some days are more successful than others. so put talking and potty training together and you can guess what garrett says all day long...potty, mom!

garrett has also discovered the wonderful world of puzzles. he, i mean we, work on puzzles all day long. we are both getting quite good. i think i can do the toy story puzzle in my sleep. and that gives him his second favorite word... puzzle.

so when garrett gets up in the morning or after naptime he yells out either potty or puzzle. someday he'll figure out hi, mom.

a little explanation

guess i should explain the title of this blog... well i heard a song once by the same name. i've always thought it's a great way to describe the beginning of a smile. and since i love to see my kids smile i figured it was a cool title. hopefully some of these posts will make you smile too :)