walking man

Last night Finny walked.  First he took two steps, then about four, the back to two.  I kept trying to take his picture, but he kept making a game of trying to get my camera.  This was the best one I got.  

(Thanks Aunt Michelle for the awesome Star Wars shirt for my first birthday!)

Eli got a hold of my camera and took this picture of Finn.  I don't know how he got the coloring like this, but it's pretty neat.  Not bad for a three year old.

Eli after building a tower.

Always wanting to be cozy while playing a game on one of our phones. 

Celebrations

Tomorrow is July 4, which means that one week ago Finn turned 1.  We celebrated by going to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC and dinner at Lupie's!

 Finn LOVES ranch dressing!  Country boy.

Finn riding his pirate ship birthday present.

Eli is a fish!  He loves to swim.  See what he can do...

Yup, that's him, jumping off a BIG diving board.

This is what happens after swimming...

We have celebrated a lot in the past few weeks, not only because of Finn's birthday, but because of Kevin's new job!

Kevin started his new job yesterday...look at how handsome he has to be everyday now.  

This is from this morning, his first day at his new office.

Happy Independence Day! 

Transitions

We are in a season of transitions.  Lots going on in our home and family right now.  Here are the transitions that the kiddos are making...all good progress!

Finn is pulling up on everything.  We know he's going to walk soon.  Ready or not, it's coming.

 

 Eli loves to sit and watch movies.  He'll watch the same movie everyday for a week if we let him.  It gives us peace, much needed peace.

 The weather is hot and sunny - summer is here.  Our pool even opens tomorrow.  We've been playing a lot in our backyard with the hose.  Eli and Finn both love it. 

 *Disclaimer: this is not a Speedo.  He's wearing his undies.  :) 

Finn's 10 month birthday!

In honor of Finn turning 10 months old today, here are two quick videos that we recently recorded. 

last night in the tub...

and today at lunch...

happy 10 months, finn!

today and yesterday

After church on Sunday, we can home and some neighbors had put up Easter decorations.  Eli wanted his own decorations, so I hopped online, found a simple (at least I thought at the time) craft, and off to Michael's we went.   This is Eli with the finished product: 

our Easter Egg Wreath.

 Finn ate black beans, corn, cheerios and some spinach/apple baby food for dinner.  

Who is this baby that loves southwestern cuisine???

 This morning our boys were color-coordinated.  Finn's a little unsure right here. 

 He looks a little better here, maybe, kind of...

Eli took this picture of Finn and me tonight all by himself.  It's not the best of me, but look to the right - that baby's awfully cute. 

Spring Has Sprung

It's hot here in Charlotte.  So hot that we finally caved and turned our air on last night.  I couldn't take it anymore - our thermostat downstairs was at 81 degrees at 7 last night and we could probably add 10 degrees to the temperature upstairs.  It's been in the 80's for the past few weeks - all the trees are out, daffodils are already past their prime and evenings are getting late since it's so warm and light and we play outside until well past a reasonable hour.

Part of our new spring routine is soccer.  Eli is in a preschool soccer clinic at the Y and had his first "practice" last Saturday.  It was really cute and he did a good job (although by the end he was very tired - mission accomplished).  Here he is sporting his soccer stance:

Along with being SO active, Eli is showing interest in reading and likes to read books by himself.  His favorite new phrase is "I can do it!"  It's nice that he wants to be so independent, but it's also a pain sometimes, like when he tries to pour himself milk or empty the dishwasher...

Finn still is not crawling, but he's getting there.  He's got the arms down, now he just needs to get the legs going at the same time.  He's gotten picky with food - all he wants to eat is our food - no baby food.  He sometimes refuses to eat with a spoon, so he's getting bits of what we have for lunch or dinner. Yesterday it was cheese, chicken and broccoli.

"Hi.  I'm so cute!"

"I mean, seriously, look at me."

This last picture is from two nights ago.  The boys are sitting in the "jammy spot".  It's our hallway upstairs, but we designated this space as the jammy spot because it's the place where they put their pajamas on every night after a bath.  It's really just a ploy to get Eli to cooperate at bedtime.  He's always eager to run to the jammy spot because it turns into the goofy spot and he climbs all over Kevin, but it's cute and they play and Eli makes Finn laugh.  A nice ending to our hectic days.

what's new....

Eli's been helping Kevin with guy stuff, like fixing the oven element

Eli got a special lunch at Chick-Fil-A after his first dentist appointment

Finn is desperate to crawl.  He can move backwards, but not forwards...yet.

Eli likes to go to Target just to play with their toys.  We're signing him up for spring soccer today.

Both boys take a bath together every night.  They love it.

Eli is silly...always, always, always. 

More from Finn...

Today Kevin, Finn and I went to lunch at Jason's Deli.  It's nothing spectacular - just a deli with a salad bar that's loud to drown out the sound of a screaming kid or crying baby.  That's really why we went there, we knew that if Finn fussed no one would hear him. 

On the contrary, Finn had a lovely lunch that was a bit of a surprise to us.  He ate the strawberry yogurt that I brought for him, then I decided to try giving him some roasted red pepper humus and he loved it!  The salad bar includes ice cream or frozen yogurt - whatever it is, Finn loved it, too.  Here he is enjoying his treat:

happy boy on a happy friday ~ enjoy!

Pizza Party

In an effort to expand Eli's palate beyond processed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we've been requiring (codeword for forcing) him to try new foods.  Here's what he's tried the past few weeks:

• Spaghetti - Likes it!
• Rice - Hates it! [He spit it out and said, "get these bugs out of my mouth"!]  :)
• Penne - Likes it!
• Chicken - Only likes it if it's a chicken nugget from Chick-fil-a or (gulp) McDonald's (which we never go to)
• Mushrooms - Hates it!
• Yogurt - Likes it!
• Pizza - Loves it!

We've gotten pizza at a restaurant before with him, but the other night we made it at home and let Eli make his own little pizza for dinner.  Here's the final product...

And yes, he ate it. 

PS - please ignore our messy counters. 

Just because it's Friday

Just because it's Friday

And it's sunny and 70 outside

And it's 4:49 and I can't go get Eli from school because Finn's sleeping

And I could be doing something productive, but I'm choosing not to

And I'm patiently waiting for Kevin to get home so I can have a cocktail :)

I thought I'd share some of this week's best scenes with you...

Finn loves his baby food...

and Piper

Bros playing "birthday party".  Eli was using the pillows as birthday cakes.  Who knows!  

Happy Weekend!!!

Big Things Happening in 2012

There's a lot going on here at Traditions Park Drive these days.  It seems like every member of our family (with the exception of our dog, Piper) has something exciting going on.  Here they are not in any particular order of importance (although I think this first one is the most important):

1.  Kevin's bloodwork numbers are FANTASTIC compared to where they were in November when he was first diagnosed with diabetes.  And how, you ask, have they dropped so much?  We have made a 100% effort to change the way we eat.  We didn't eat unhealthy before (i.e. we're not fast food junkies, we don't drink soda, we don't snack on chips all day long), we just didn't really read labels or pay attention to the amount of carbs and fat and calories in food.  Now we do pay attention to them and seeing the results of Kevin's bloodwork proves that what you eat does matter.  Now don't get me wrong, we're not eating veggies and tofu at every meal, but we're eating leaner protein, more veggies and healthier carbs (and plenty of vino to wash it all down). 

2.  Big Boy can sit up.  All by himself.  And he doesn't fall over.  What an accomplishment!  He had his six-month check-up this week and he's a growing kid (plus he has an ear infection).  He's in the 75th percentile for weight and the 98th percentile for height.  He loves to eat baby food and he prefers veggies (SO different from his big brother).

LOVE THIS ONE:

3.  Eli...well, the latest with Eli is that we are only allowing him to have one circle PB sandwich per day.  (A circle PB sandwich is a frozen, pre-made Smuckers peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he would eat for every meal to sustain his life.)  He now is eating hot dogs, pizza and chicken nuggets.  Healthy food for our boy!  We try and are doing the best we can to introduce him to new foods without starving him at the same time.  And, just so you know, Eli loves to be nude - no matter the temperature or time of day, he always finds an excuse to take all of his clothes off.  :)

4.  My column is on the front page of the South Charlotte News section today. 
You can read it online here: Couple goes the distance to have children 
This is exciting for me and I'm hoping to be able to increase my writing opportunities this year. 

That's it.  Those are our biggies right now.  Stay tuned.