Now I'm really going to put my money on Alli...

Here's Alli beating up on Ethan a little bit. He's a good sport about it and even makes things right with a hug and kiss.

Sibling love

Ethan and Alli in her crib sharing a little love. That is until Chloe the cat comes in and Ethan decides she is "his" cat re-naming her Mr. Pettybone. For those of you with kids into Mickey Mouse, you know Mr. Pettybone is Goofy's kitty.

Evidence that TV melts your mind...

Ethan watching Curious George this morning (notice the irony that he's wearing his George PJ's).

Who's going to win this one? (my money's on Alli!)

Happy Birthday Ethan

Three years ago Scott, my parents and I were at the hospital waiting, waiting and waiting for my scheduled c-section.  After nearly 7 hours of getting pushed back later and later and later Ethan was born 5 pounds 6 ounces and 18 inches long.  We kenw our lives were changing, but like all new parents, we had no idea just how much things would change.  He was a tiny little thing who immediately took control of our lives, our house, and our hearts.

Here is a little of what Scott wrote in his first blog post after Ethan was born...

"The delivery was amazing and I cannot do it justice in words so I won't try. Ethan was born and came out kicking and screaming for the first 20min or so. The nurses took him away for their assessments along with the standard weights and measures. We'll post all the vital statistics in the future. After that, they let me be the first to hold him and while I wanted to be able to pass him onto Megan, it was such a trill to be able to hold my son and meet him for the first time."

You can read the full post here.

When he was almost one I started a tradition of taking fall photos with our pumpkins in our backyard every October...

At nearly two he would not hold still long enough to pose with the pumpkin

This year he thought it was really funny to eat grass...

...until he couldn't get it out of his mouth!

We had a birthday party for him on Saturday and his Great Grandma Pearl made him a Thomas cake.  He loved it!

He claimed two pieces as his own...and he ate both!

He was very happy with all of his gifts.  When the window is open he loves to line up all of his trains to play.

He was a happy camper after dad got his new train table put together...too busy to look at the camera!

This morning I asked him what he wanted to eat for breakfast on his birthday and he replied, "A piece of cake and a fork!"  I replied, "A piece of cake?"  Then he shook his finger at me and said, "And a fork!"  If you look closely you can see he had a guest for breakfast...Buzz Lightyear!

Happy Birthday baby boy!  I can't believe how quickly 3 years has gone by.  We love you!

It has happened...

Well, it has happened and as a result, pandemonium has ensued at house.  That's right...Allison has learned to crawl.  We are not talking just army crawling or scooting, but full fledged, up on all fours, crawling.  Needless to say, Ethan is none too thrilled with this development because, of course, Alli always heads straight for his toys!

This video is missing a crucial part of life with our crawling girl...Ethan was napping so you don't get to hear his screams when he realizes Alli is messing with his stuff!

Around the lake and through the woods....

Scott is on fall break the first couple days of this week so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go down to Brown County for the day.  We spent a couple hours in the morning walking around Nashville, then headed over to the park for a picnic lunch (accompanied by swarms of bees), some playground time for Ethan, and a hike.  We walked a 1.5 mile trail around Ogle Lake and it was beautiful!  The kids did great.  Ethan walked the most of the time while Alli rode on Dad's back.  After about 2/3 of the trail, Ethan was getting pretty worn out, so I carried Alli in the backpack and Ethan rode on Dad's shoulders. 

Scott's self portriat of himself and a sleeping Alli!

In other news, last night was Alli's first night in her own room!  It has taken much longer than anticipated to get Alli out of our room, but so far so good.  Our original plan was to have Alli share a room with Ethan, but plans change.  Ethan is so great about staying in his bed (sometimes for hours) even when he is not asleep we really did not want to mess that up, so we took down our spare bed and moved Alli's crib into the guest/computer room...so it is now Alli's/computer room.  We knew she would have to share a room, we just didn't plan on her sharing with the computer!  She's also not crawling yet, but she is definetly on the move!  Alli has her ways of getting around.  When on her belly she can scoot backwards and turn in all directions and she is REALLY REALLY close to crawling on all fours.  When she is sitting she can scoot forward pretty easily...something that has been termed "butt walking" by family members.  And this morning, when Scott got Alli out of bed she was sitting up!  It is the first time she has gotten herself from lying down to sitting!

Baby Love

As always, I am way behind in my blogging!  Hopefully I will do a little catching up over the next couple of weeks, but I am not going to hold my breath!  As always, we have been keeping busy around here.  Scott has been busy with work and trips to his parents and the kids have been keeping me busy.  Alli had a cold that we battled for about two weeks.  During that period she started waking up 1-2 times a night and has decided to stick with that schedule.  As I have mentioned before, I like my sleep!  I am really ready for her to start sleeping better again, however, I doubt that will happen.  I am expecting a tooth to pop through any day now.  We took her to the doctor last week for her cold and they weighed her at 16lbs 9oz (with clothes).  That means she gained more than a pound in a month!

This past weekend we all went up to the lake for the weekend.  It was the first time we have really gotten to see Alli and Josh interact, and it was a lot of fun! 

They spent hours on the floor together and there was a little bit of toy envy...

...plenty of sharing of toys and slobber...

....and LOTS of baby love!!!

All that lovin' resulted in them knocking each other over a few times, but neither seemed to mind.  (And the Dads enjoyed keeping score!)

P.S.  Watch out ladies!  As you can see in the pictures, Josh already likes to kiss the girls.  This might give his parents some headaches later in life!

Ethan and Alli

Tonight Megan was away at work so I had the kids by myself.  When this happens usually the kids are great and tonight was no exception.  Ethan was playing in the family room while Alli was in her exersaucer as I finished doing the dishes (Thanks for dinner BTW Megan!).  All of a sudden, Ethan was playing "Boo!" with Alli and she loved it.  I was able to catch a little of it with the camera although not nearly as good as the pre-camera material...one of those you had to see to believe.

Scott

Six (and a half) Months Old!

WOW!  I can hardly believe it!  Allison is now six and a half months old!  We are constantly amazed at how quickly she is growing.  The past month in particular, has just flown by.  Scott started his new job last month and was busy, Busy, BUSY for a few weeks.  In fact, he was home so little (only to sleep for a few hours each night) for about three weeks that the kids and I spent a few nights each week at my parents house.  Having the extra hands helped keep me sane but it has made me feel way behind on things around our house. I am finally starting to feel a bit caught up...but only a tiny bit!

I finally got a picture of both kids smiling.  Only took 6 months!

Allison had her 6 month check up last week and weighed in at 14 pounds 12 ounces and she was 25 inches long.  She is now sitting up very well on her own and she loves to sit and play with toys.  (And try to grab at the cat whenever one walks by!)  She eats baby food about once a day and sometimes likes it, other times not.  She has had all of the veggies and got to try her first fruit a few days ago...bananas!  I think she definetly liked it better than the veggies. (But who wouldn't?!?)  She also grabs at EVERYTHING!  In fact, it is getting difficult to hold her in your lap while you eat. 

We have also been working on potty training with Ethan.  I would love to tell you that it is going great, but instead I will just say that it is going....and it is going to keep going...and going...and going...for awhile.  (Not to be confused with Ethan going, and going, and going.  I wish!)  He understands what he is supposed to do when he sits but getting him to sit is another thing.  He has not made the connection of telling you when he needs to go either.  He has also reached the stage of wanting to be fiercly independent, which can be frustrating for all of us.  To quote my dad, "The 'terrible two's' is a phrase to make you think it gets better!"  I don't think the two's have been all that terrible, but we are starting to glimpse what the three's will bring...does anyone want to borrow a little boy for a year?!?  Ha ha!  Well, at least he is cute!

Our Mini-Vacation...Part I

Last week we took a mini-vacation to the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati, the Fort Wayne Zoo, and Fisherman's Cove. We had a great 4 days.  On Saturday we drove to Cincinnati to the aquarium.  We all really enjoyed it.  In the underwater tunnels Scott and I just pretended we were on a dive vacation!  Alli even enjoyed all of the activity and as you can see by the time we left, she was pooped!

We left Cincinnati and drove straight to North Webster.  The kids did GREAT  in the car!  We made the entire 4 hour drive with only one stop for dinner.  Alli was exhausted so she slept most of the way, and Ethan was entertained by his DVD player.  We bought the DVD player last year and I have to say, it was woth every penny!  It is wonderful for keeping Ethan happy in the car.  As you can see, he also insists on holding all of his books, trains, juice cup, cookie, etc at once in the car.  And yes, he held all of that for the entire 4 hours!  And yes, he did frequently drop things and insist I pick them up!

While in Webster we went out on the boat and Ethan took his first dip in the lake.  Scott put on a lift jacket and float cushion and jumped in first....  Once in the water, Ethan was not too thrilled with the experience. He loves the pool, but likes to be able to touch bottom. Hopefully in a year or two he will enjoy the lake a little more.

The experience did not traumatize him...once was out of the lake he was very happy to watch Daddy and Aunt Kristy in the water!

Baby Faces

Alli was helping me today in the kitchen when I decided to start snapping away.  She proved to be quite the expressive model!

Scott will probably say this is a preview of what we have to come with raising a girl!

Big Boy Bed...Not Big Enough!

Ever since he was about six months old, Ethan has been a good sleeper. (Before 6 months is a different story!) He is a good napper and a good night sleeper. Back in January when we were getting ready for Allison we bought Ethan a big boy bed. Over the next several months he thought it was great to play on, but wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with sleeping in it. We tried everything we could think of...books about big boy beds, bribery, tough love and many other things. Everytime we tried to put him in it he would scream bloody murder and he got to the point when we would get him ready for bed he would point to his crib and say, "Night night! Night night! Night night!" until he was sure that is were we were going to put him. So, finally in June we decided to resort to drastic measures. I took Ethan out for a couple of hours and Scott disassembled the crib and put it in our shed. We told him he could take a few of his toys to bed with him and the first time we put him in his big boy bed he still cried for 15-20 minutes and the second time for just a few minutes. After that, he decided that getting to take stuff to bed with him is pretty great and his number of bedtime must-haves continues to grow (despite our best efforts to minimize it). He is now up to two pillows, two blankets, two stuffed animals, more trains and cars than will fit in his Elmo basket (the Elmo basket is how we carry all of the trains and cars to bed), and about 4 books. Needless to say, some nights he will stay up until 10 or 11 o'clock playing in his bed and every now and then we will hear him playing in the middle of the night. But how can you blame him when he doesn't hardly have enough room to sleep?!?

This is what I found when I went to get him up this morning. He wasn't happy that mom was starting the day by snapping pictures!

Five Months Old!

Wow! It seems like I just did a 4 month post. (Maybe because I was late getting it done?) Allison turned 5 months old on Sunday. We commerated the occasion with an ear infection and her first antibiotic. The one bright spot is that when I took her to the doctor on Friday we got to find out how much she weighs...13lbs 2oz. Believe it or not, Ethan was 14lbs 4oz at 5 months! That is difficult to comprehend since he was (and still is) such a little guy. We made a second trip to the doctor and got a stronger antibiotic on Tuesday since the first didn't seem to be doing its job, hopefully this one will take care of things.


Alli has yet to roll from back to stomach, but she has been rolling stomach to back for quite some time. She is also really trying to sit up. She can almost pull herself into a sitting position when she is lying on an incline...she just can't balance there for long! When she is on her back she pushes with her feet and can scoot herself across the floor. She has gotten mad several times when she has scooted out from under her activity mat. She LOVES to watch big brother play so I am sure it won't be long until she is chasing after him!

More Fun in the Sun

So, of course, Ethan loves loves LOVES the pool! (And what kid wouldn't?) He had a weird, shy day our first weekend at the Cove, but he was over it by the 4th. He went swimming everyday and it was like pulling teeth to get him out of the water. He is VERY lucky to have wonderful grandparents who have a wonderful pool! (Not to mention the lake, playground within walking distance, basketball court, ducks and fish to feed, etc.) Definetly a little kids dream come true.

Allison also had her first swim over July 4th weekend. She liked the pool, which didn't surprise me. She loves to splash in the bath. Besides, it is hard not to like the pool when you look so adorable in your swimsuit and hat!

Last week when we were at the mall I let Ethan throw a penny in the fountain for the first time. He was very excited about it. A few days later we stopped at the mall again to quickly run into one store and as soon as we were in the parking lot he looked at me and said, "I need to throw penny!"

Fun in the Sun...Part I

Instead of continuing to procrastinate blogging until I have time to post everything we have been doing lately I decided its probably better if I do this a little at a time...or else it would never get done and you would be sitting on pins and needles just waiting to hear what is going on in our lives! (Because we know that is what you do, sit around a wait to read more about us. HA!)

As we always do, we spent the July 4th weekend at the lake. It was the first time we crammed all 6 adults and 3 children into Chuck and Peg's house and we all came out alive! The sleeping arrangements were a bit tricky but overall it went very well and I think everyone had a great time. The biggest problem Scott and I had was getting Ethan to stay asleep the first night. Ever since he moved into his big boy bed he gets to take a few toys to bed with him. Right now he is into anything with wheels...but most especially Thomas the Train. After we put him to bed he typically stays up for an hour (sometimes longer!) playing by himself in his bed. Well, the first night at the lake he woke up at 2:30am and started playing! (The whole party of 4 was sleeping in one room.) He continued to play with is trains and cars for 2.5 hours!!! He wasn't loud about it and (thankfully) it didn't wake Alli up, but Scott and I could hear him. Talking to him only made it worse. When I tried to tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep he said, "I found car! I found car!" I guess sometimes even the littlest of us wake up and have trouble going back to sleep!

Here's more of our fun filled weekend....

At the park....

Loving on Josh

Brothers have to compare everything don't they? This time it was the foot size of Josh and Alli!

Ethan loves the slides!

Cheese!

4 Months (and 12 days) Old

So, I started writing this post two weeks ago. My how time flies! Obviously, I don't get around to blogging as often as everyone would like, but it is probably because I have my hands full these days!

Allison is more than 4 months old! It is amazing how quickly they grow up. It is hard to believe how much she has grown and changed in such a short period of time. I think Scott and I have a better appreciation for every baby stage this time around than we did with Ethan. When you are exhausted from not sleeping it seems like it will be FOREVER until they sleep through the night, however when you look back on it it seems like a pretty short period of time. Despite how much I could not wait to sleep (and anyone who really knows me can tell you, I LOVE my sleep) I appreciated the little, cuddly baby stage much more this time around.

Alli is growing by leaps and bounds these days. She very alert and loves to watch everyone, especially big brother. She can roll from her belly to back an we expect her to roll back to belly any day now. She loves to hold and bat at toys and thankfully, sleeps through the night most nights! (As I said, I LOVE my sleep!) She also talks, giggles, and smiles a lot! We had her 4 month appointment today and she weighed in at 12lbs 4 oz and is 23 inches long. That puts her in the 10-25th percentile for both weight an height.

I have posted a bunch of pictures from May and June under the photos link. This is my favorite picture from the last month....