From Baby to Little Man

December 24, 2012

So... we started to get lots of comments about our little girl. Sure, sweet little man's hair was long but it was a little silly that people thought he was a GIRL. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a girl. I'm a girl. I like it, actually. Plus, boys have long hair all the time. Look at my other kid. Nobody ever thinks he's a girl, but he usually has a big ole mop of red mess on top of his head. Anyhow, we started to think that it *might* be time for a haircut. I have to say, I'm so slow with this guy. It was one thing to rush through stuff with mister W even if I felt like he might be the last kid in this family, but this little guy feels so much more like the last baby this family might have. I know now how fast babyhood turns into childhood and I want so badly to SAVOR it. Basically, I'm not rushing into things like first haircuts this time around. It did start to seem like it was really time though.

Christmas Eve we were all home and getting ready to go to church in the evening and it was snowing and seemed like as good a time as any to cut this baby's hair. Daddy got all his hair cutting stuff ready and went for it.

Sweet little man was unsure what it was all about but he sat still enough.

Mommy got a little sad as the first curls started falling.

...but as Daddy kept going I felt better.

Especially since this little boy is so cute!

Ice Skating

November 22, 2012 After Thanksgiving dinner we decided to do something a little different and way fun. We went ice skating! Miss L was beyond excited and I think mister W was really ready to give it a try too. Brad rented skates for him and the two big kids and I planned to watch. It didn't take too long to realize that I both wanted and needed to be out on the ice.

Miss L started right on the wall. She wasn't quite brave enough to let go yet.

 

Mister W didn't quite have his ice legs with him. He would make it around the rink about once and then want a rest. I couldn't blame him! It's hard to keep yourself upright out there!

 

Miss L graduated to skating with her daddy holding hands (and you can see me on the side over there. I thought I'd be a big help. As it turns out I'm not super great at skating...).

 

We made a couple of go arounds with mister W between us.

 

...and miss L (as we knew she would) graduated to skating all by herself. She's so graceful and willing to work at something until she gets it. Good for her!

 

It wasn't very long until mister W declared himself done. He wanted his skates off. He wanted to leave. He was done. Sadly, in a family this size, he didn't get to leave. Luckily, since his grandparents were here, he got to hang out with them!

 

We had a blast. Miss L's been begging to go back ever since. Mister W is not quite so excited, but I'll give him a year or two. :o)

Beautiful Boy

(October 6, 2012) There were days when I would get out my camera and lay on the floor with the kids. I'd take some photos and sometimes they would smile and sometimes they wouldn't, but they'd always LET me take the photos. These days, everyone is too fast for that. The games in our house revolve around going to the doctor, or playing school, or cooking. There's not a lot of sitting and playing, but more running and going.

It's okay though. When the big kids are running and going this little guy is sitting on the living room floor with a pile of toys and he even smiles when he sees the camera coming. I know it isn't going to be like this for long so I'm going to relish every second.

My sweet little man

Where do I even start? This is the first face I see most mornings and it never fails to melt my heart.

I dropped the ball on the whole giraffe photos thing. I feel awful about that! Miss L has a baby book chronicling each day of her first year. Mister W has a book with nothing in it, but I did jot down notes in my calendar to fill it in when I get a chance. Sweet little man has a book and I'm hoping I made enough relevant status updates on facebook to fill that calendar in someday.

It isn't an indication of how much he's loved though. Seriously, how can you resist this face?

At six months old, sweet little man is a ray of sunshine. He smiles at anyone who looks at him. He giggles. He says, "da da da da" and "ma ma ma ma" and "ba ba ba ba." He loves to make his motorboat sound. He can sit unassisted and roll both ways. He likes to be held so that he can jump. No teeth yet, but we're in no hurry. At seven months, sweet little man is better at sitting and still just as happy go lucky. Most nights he goes down in his own bed and most nights he joins mom and dad around 2:00. Some nights he even makes it all the way through on his own. He finally started a normal bedtime routine and has started taking a single nap each day coinciding with mister W's nap (HUGE sigh of relief!). At his six month visit (where he was almost 7 months old...) he weighed 17 lbs 6 oz, was 26 inches long and his head was 46 cm around. The boy has some monster thighs. He's a perfect squeezy little mama's boy though he's becoming easier for others to take care of.

What a guy!

What happened to my tiny baby?

Photos from April 13, 2012

When miss L was born they told us, "no solids until four months." When mister W was a baby they told us, "no solids until between four and six months based on whether or not baby is hungry for more." For sweet little man we were told, "no solids at all until six months." Isn't it funny how in such a short time all of that can change?

It was no matter for us though. It seems like with sweet little man things are just going so darn fast that we forget to be concerned about things like milestones and solids. So... when we realized sweet little man was around six and a half months old and that he was seeming veeerrrryyyy interested in our food, we decided that perhaps it was time for him to try out some oatmeal.

He was more interested in the spoon than the oatmeal but he did eat some. Only time will tell if he will be a picky eater like his sister or a "mikey" like his brother. :o)

Painting Flowers April 2012

We love painting in this house. Mister W got four spill proof paint cups in his stocking this Christmas and both he and miss L really love using them. Since we were in need of SOMETHING to do in our post tonsillectomy haze but nothing too physically intense. Miss L picked out some flowers (given to us in an awesome busy box while I was pregnant with the twins by a friend. That box was AMAZING!) and the paints and we stripped mister W's shirt off and got ready to go.

I love watching all of my children, but because miss L is my first watching her is always even more amazing to me. It's fascinating to me to think that even a year ago she'd have taken the flowers and painted them all one color or painted random colors on them without a thought to what she was painting. Now she's meticulous. She wants the pots one color, the flowers another color and the stems yet another. She wants to mix colors to create purple and green (even though we have green :o). It's just pretty amazing to watch her grow and change. 

Mister W, of course, is still into painting for the experience. He just likes it, so that's what he does. His flowers left some white space with splashes of color. The human brain is just so interesting, isn't it?

When we ran out of flowers we switched to paper and continued.

This is the first time I remember miss L painting pictures so purposefully. This is of a lake near our house. You can see the grass in the front with the lake behind and the sun in the sky.

...and what would a painting be without a place to display it? :o)