This, that, and the other...

Just some random things from the week...

Maddy's nails REALLY needed a trim, but she wasn't interested in letting me cut them. I bribed her with nail polish. :) It's hard to see, but it is just clear w/ glitter. I have had this bottle of nail polish since high school...scary. :)

Close up (don't mind the crayon scribbles on her table...lol)

She got in my shoes, so I got in hers!

Phone call for Tommy!

Lance came home and Maddy randomly asked to play his game...Madden on PS2. He hardly ever touches it these days, so it was funny that she remembered this and asked to play. Tommy was there for moral support.

Lance took the kids out after dinner last night so I could clean up without the extra chaos. I *love* the new baby Ergo carrier...and Lance doesn't mind it either. Most importantly, Tommy likes it, too!

On the way out with both kiddos

A special treat for Maddy while she brushed her teeth. Lance does it all...daddy, med student, husband, and now hairdresser! :)

Building blocks with daddy...he made her some glasses. I'm sure she'll get her own real pair eventually. :(

We usually go to the downtown library, but yesterday, we tried the little local branch that's 2 minutes from our house. The whole place is probably just as big as the whole kids area downtown, but it worked out. I needed to makes some copies and Maddy needed to get out the house for a bit. They have a little coloring table and a lone shelf of board books, so we at least had that. We only got to stay for about 30 minutes, though, as Tommy was not really all about being there. Balancing his emerging nap schedule with Maddy's morning activities is getting to be a challenge!

6 Months!

Happy Half Birthday to my little man! It is hard to believe so much time has passed already. While it's gone by fast on the whole, it's been slow day by day...especially the first 2 to 3 months when I seriously DID NOT sleep. We've come a long way, but he still wakes up at least 2 times a night. Aside from sleep habits, things are wonderful! We have continued to have a successful nursing relationship, which has been such a special experience. I am so thankful to have been able to bond with him in that way. He is such a sweet, sweet boy. I love walking in to his room when he wakes up and seeing that huge grin spread across his precious face. He has the most contagious laughter, but he saves it for special moments when playing with mommy and daddy (still working on catching that on video!). He is still figuring out the whole rolling thing, but is able to manipulate toys, pick up his paci and put it in his mouth, and grab all sorts of stuff. He is learning how to pull his sister's hair, which cracks me up. I am starting to hear, "Mommy, help! Tommy let go hair!" on occasion. We still aren't quite sitting up, but today with the help of being sat upright-ish in his swing, managed to find himself sort of sitting up. He didn't have his arms in the straps, so he leaned forward for a bit...watch and see :)

We love our little guy and couldn't imagine our family without him. Happy Half Birthday, Tommy! We love you! :)

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend was extra-special in that Lance was actually off on Saturday as well as Sunday (this has not been the case for the past month). We took the opportunity to go downtown and hit the farmer's market on Saturday morning. Sunday, we went out to St. George Island for the first time. FINALLY a beach I like! The last couple times we attempted to hit the beach from here (Tally), we ended up at beaches on a bay or inlet, not the actual Gulf. I miss the Atlantic coast beaches...but this place was great. Plus, the entrance fee (went to the state park beach) was only a $1 for Father's Day, versus the usual $6, which was a pleasant surprise.

Walking around while mommy was buying some fruit from the farmer's market

She just loves these flowers

We brought her tricycle instead of the double stroller or even the other single one for her. She actually did really well just staying on while Lance pushed her around. I wonder how long the novelty will last... :) Either way, it garnered us quite a few smiles.

Tommy just lounging in his stroller. It was HOT.

Maddy smelling the flowers. (We forgot her hat, so we just plopped Tommy's on her head...oh well!)

Don't pull the petals off!

Trying desperately to pull the flower off.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! New sandals :)

The card we made him (excuse my spelling error...Lance is not a piece of yard machinery, rather a mower of lawns...lol ;o))

St. George Island. Couldn't ask for a more beautiful day!
--I really hope the oil doesn't make it's way here :o(

Way-cool umbrella set up that we picked up at Sam's.

Tommy before the water. His little UV shirt makes him look like he has no neck...lol

The view

Tommy before we went in the water. He even had his own little fan to keep him cool!

Way-awesome daddy!

Hard at work in the sand

Hard at work on the gnawing

She loves her "shubul"

The bucket is full!

Serious work.

The top had to be smooth and even

Swimming with mommy in the shallows. I would crawl around and let her "ride" on my back. The waves kinda scared her so she wasn't a fan of standing on her own.

Sitting on my lap as the little waves crashed was acceptable, too. :)

2 of Charlie's Angels? :)

Tommy even managed a short nap. Always the swaddle baby, though, we had to loosely wrap him in Lance's shirt. Luckily, the shirt is a very light fabric.

Manning the Tommy post while Mommy and Maddy swam.

Deep thoughts in her deep hole :)

Wakey wakey! :)

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Tommy in the water because the one time he was in, we were all swimming. He was good to go after the one dip and then I just went ahead and changed him back into a clean diaper. He did a great job of hanging out. His one nap was pretty short, but he wasn't too cranky, which was great. We were there for about 4 hours, too. He ate a couple times, but it was pretty hot, so I can imagine he was just as thirsty as the rest of us :) That was another bonus of the neat umbrella thing that Lance found...it made it easier to feed him without worry of flashing the rest of the beach ;o) Also, no family pics...we were having too much fun, I guess :) Lance said we should just photoshop one together from the ones we did get. At any rate, we had a wonderful day, and look forward to going again soon!

Earlier in the week...

My happy little guy!

A little girl who loves her daddy. Watching him in admiration...

...as he mowed the lawn after a long day at the hospital :)

He Learns Fast!

So, Wednesday, Tommy rolled from back to front. Yesterday, he did it again AND did a spontaneous front to back (I had just rolled him over for some tummy time). Later on, when Lance got home, we put him on his tummy to see if he'd do it again, and he started scooting himself around in circles, trying to be mobile. He was trying very hard to get his knees up under him. He may have taken a while to get to this point, but now he's moving quickly. Lance thinks he'll be crawling far sooner than we think even though he took so long to hit the initial motor milestones.

No pics right now, but I'll be back with some later! :)

Finally!

Maddy and I were goofing around this morning. She was on my back and I was running and crawling around with her--just being silly together. Tommy was laying on the floor nearby playing with a toy. I happened to glance over just in time to see him roll from his back to his tummy!!! This is the first of ANY rolling front to back OR back to front that he has done yet. He's been in no hurry for any gross motor milestones thus far. His fine motor stuff is pretty good--grabbing toys, switching them from hand to hand, and even using a pincher grasp. He's still getting his trunk strength built up. Can't sit up very well supported and is a ways away from doing so unsupported. Anyways, I was so surprised to see him flip. We hadn't even been "working" on or playing with him today as far as rolling goes. It just kinda happened out of the blue. Of course, then he was stuck on his tummy and wasn't a huge fan of that, so I had to get him back over on his back. :) He hasn't done it since (well, its only been a couple of hours...one off which has been spent sleeping...lol), but we'll see how quickly the curve goes now. I'm sure that I'll find him stuck on his tummy in the crib soon enough...hopefully not in the middle of the night. :)


I had actually just taken a couples of picture of him a few minutes prior because he was playing with his Pooh Bear my mom got him when he was born. It has a little rattle inside and its one of his favorite items to play with as of late.

This is how I left him when Maddy and I started to play

So cute!

And, all of a sudden, this is where he found himself!


Uh, mom, a little help here???

Unlike Maddy, this guy LOVES to be swaddled for sleepy-time. This is his preferred blanket (he really doesn't like any others...too funny). This blanket is also extra special because it was mommy's baby blanket that she slept with for a number (coughcough*almost21*coughcough) years. Yes, I admit it. It went to UF with me. I traded it in for a husband. :) It has survived 2 of my babies now....not sure how much life it has left in it, though...Tommy is putting it to good use and it is getting a bit threadbare. Even still, I am so glad this is how it is finally going to meet it's end. :)

In other Tommy news, he is definitely teething. FUSSY. I think I can see two little bottom chompers working their way up now. We've given him some baby Orajel the last couple of days and that seems to be working well for him (didn't for Maddy when she was teething). Nap-wise, he does well if we stay at home all day and he gets to stick to a routine. If we leave the house, though, he's a mess all day...the boy likes a good schedule. I mess him up twice a week or so when we do the library or the park, but Maddy needs to get out of the house...ahh, the balance of two very different kiddos. We're doing better. He's still NOT sleeping through the night, though, which is the big milestone I'm waiting on. Life will be much nicer when that happens. For now, coffee and naps sustain me...that and whole heck of a lot of love for my babies. :) We have fun :)

The New Ride

Now I REALLY need a new carrier for Tommy...can't push this and a stroller...well, not successfully, anyways...lol. :)

(So excited...ordered a Baby Ergo today!!!)

She's Got Wheels!

We have been on the fence about getting Maddy a little scooter/riding toy/tricycle lately. Part of the debate was whether or not we should just wait for her birthday. Well, Saturday, we were at Target and decided to just go for it--that way she can spend the summer enjoying it. :) She was SOOO excited about it. All the way home, all we heard was "bicycle!!!" --We've been working on the fact that it's a TRIcycle...she's just about got it (she now says, "3 wheels--Barney!" alluding to a Barney episode where they sing the Shapes song that says a TRIangle has 3 sides--way to make connections, Maddy!).

She loves to help daddy do anything with tools. She thinks that he can fix anything...I love how she admires him so. It is such a sweet love she has for her daddy. :)

We picked this one out because it has a removable push handle which also turns the handlebars. The pedals also work like a mountain bike--she can rest her feet on them without getting all tangled up...they just click. We're still working on figuring out the whole pedaling thing. :)

In the meantime, Tommy was hanging out on the floor. He really wanted to pull the star down. It was so cute how he kept reaching up. He STILL hasn't figured out how to roll over yet...you'd think he's almost there given how he twists and reaches like this.

Sunday afternoon, we did some outside water fun again. We finally got Tommy a hat, too. He's also got a little UV-blocking shirt. Bathing suit can wait for now...swimmer diapers should work :)

Lance also got Maddy this water beach ball thing. You hook up the hose to it and fill it up a bit and it sprays out. It should make for a fun part of her upcoming birthday party. It will definitely be a water-themed event!

Catching the spray

Mommy and Tommy in the pool

I posted this sequence of pictures on Facebook, too, so you may have already seen them. We were trying to get a family picture using the timer and multi-picture setting on the camera. Just as Lance got it set up, Maddy bolted towards the back of the yard. We got the following shots as Lance tried to retrieve her. Priceless!

Finally, the family photo we wanted. :)

Action photo of everyone splashing around :)