Happy Thanksgiving and Sam is 18 months!

The day before Thanksgiving marked Sam's 18 month birthday, and our first such photo in the new house. He is a tough subject these days always with more important things to do I guess. But we got a good one eventually! Happy 18 months Sam!!


This was the 8th year that Jeff's family came to visit for Thanksgiving and the first time we took in the parade instead of the football game. We had a great time! The kiddos really liked the parade and we all enjoyed watching the Packers beat up on the Lions from our family room. Highlights included Casey yelling at the top of his lungs "Daddy - its Captain Underpants!!!" and Sam rocking out to all the marching bands. Our nephew Carter is such an awesome little guy! He is a few months older than Sam, a few pounds lighter and way ahead on the verbal skills. He is delightful. All the boys seems to have a fun time together. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving as well!
At the parade ...



In the tub


A little reading


Computer games with Uncle Doug


Helping Grandpa make the stuffing

Crunch time

I probably have a week. After that it could be too late, with the ordering and the waiting and the addressing. And I am not having any luck. Of course I am talking about getting a picture of the boys good enough for the Christmas card. Neither the budget or the calendar allowed for the professional family photo shoot this year, which is totally fine. I kept thinking "of course I can get a good shot of them myself". It could be that I have set my standards too high. Is it too much to be after one picture where they are both looking at the camera and smiling? I have considered two separate shots, one of each of them. But I am sort of stuck on wanting one of both of them. At least this week. By the end of next week I will settle for "both in the shot, no one crying". Have a look at some attempts...

Fall Marches On

We've been trying to go outside whenever it's decent enough because we know these nicer days and the day light are fleeting. The boys love playing outside so we just have to take advantage while we can. Time just keeps flying by and our life feels pretty busy. We have all had minor coughs and stuffiness but no major illness so far. Casey's shoulder continues to improve as far as we can tell. He has started offering us adjustments, where he wants us to lay on our tummy and he pretends to crack our back. He has also been telling us that certain foods he wants - pizza and cookies in particular - will "help my shoulder feel better". We had our first ever parent teacher conference! It was great - Casey is getting good marks all around. He has a few areas of improvement of course but his teacher said if she had 15 Casey's in her room she would have a wonderful time and be quite entertained. Apparently he is consistently asking the 83 year old music teacher is she can play the theme songs of various Nick Jr shows.
Sam is really growing in his understanding - he seems to get what we are doing next or follow simple requests. He is also falling ALL the time. Some days I wonder about his inner ear. But mostly I think he is just trying to keep up with Casey and is a bit of a risk taker. Seriously though, some days it feels like all he does is fall over. Sam is very social, waving hi and goodbye to anyone that will pay attention and he has these very sweet, albeit determined, head moves for yes and no. His vocabulary is coming right along and we are once again weening from the pacifier. I think Sam might be the only toddler that would enjoy a dance CD of all the NPR segway music. He just rocks out to any sound, no matter how brief.
We are temporarily without a camera, as Sam put it in the toilet. Luckily I caught him before he flushed giving us only a camera to replace, not a sewage system.
So, we are doing fine - and hope you are too!

Happy Halloween!

The boys enjoyed Halloween this year! Our house is on a great trick-or-treat street so they got to go out door to door and gather up an insane amount of candy. Grandpa and Grammy were here and brought a book that teaches the all important "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something sweet to eat!" Surprisingly Casey did not actually say this to people.
Earlier in the month our favorite photographer did a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society where there was no sitting fee as long as your kids were in costumes. So, I'll post a few pictures from last night and then hers - of course I am totally biased, but these are pretty cute!
Hope you had a great Halloween!

The Perfect Storm and The Sickies

We are fans of the Sesame Street podcast - 6 minutes on 1 word. The words they focus on are interesting - glockenspiel, pumpernickel, gigantic, apology, just to name a few. There are also ones on dance, family, curly and mail. And its the last one, mail, that has Casey intrigued right now. They run continuously on the ipod when he watches them but he always has a request of where to start. It changes a lot and lately we are always starting with mail. As a direct result, he has gotten more interested in the mail we get. He likes to come outside with me to get it out of the mailbox and likes to help me sort it into piles of keep and throwaway and then a pile for daddy, etc. I have been encouraging all this until I realized the other day that we have started receiving Christmas toy catalogs. When Casey sees these, he tries to keep focused on the rest of the sorting but his mind is already elsewhere. Once we are done, he takes the catalogs and finds a place to sit and check them out. And then proceeds to go over every page, saying over and over; "Mama, I gonna be this one for Christmas"


The Sickies
In the last week, we have had a few medical issues in the house. Casey has croup, taking us to the pediatrician twice. The Benadryl they recommended helped Casey snooze but also caused some extremely bizarre behavior when he woke up. Sam had two very restless nights in a row along with a low grade fever getting him an add on appointment to Casey's 2nd visit to check for an ear infection. None there but a hefty ball of wax the doctor removed seems to have done the trick. The fever is gone and he is good spirits again. However in the process we have let the pacifier back into the mix. Casey took a tumble off the couch that left him wanting to be very still and wincing in pain when he tries to do anything (or coughs with the croup). A trip to the chiropractor showed some vertebrae a little out of whack leading to his first adjustment. He was a real trooper. We're headed back again tomorrow for a follow up. So, here's to healthier times ahead!

Daddy's Birthday

The boys got to play a more active role in birthday preparations this time around, and in the process got to learn the all important life skill of licking the spoons and mixers. So they enjoyed helping with the cake, and later helped Jeff place, light and blow out all 38 candles. It all turned out pretty well!





While I got dinner ready tonight, I learned a few things I thought I would pass along:
First, while "Happy Birthday Dad" balloons are cute and festive, trying to keep 2 little boys from destroying them all day until dad comes home to see them is not possible, and can cause increased blood pressure.

And, putting cheerios in a garlic press repeatedly will in fact yield a pile of Cheerio crumbs. I don't recommend this experiment unless you have a dog willing to be on clean up. It was nice though to see the boys working together. Sam got the cheerios out, which he often does, and Casey had the garlic press out. Sam was taking cheerios out to the living room and I figured he was eating them. But he was giving them to Casey to put them in the press. Team work!

And just for fun ...

The only reason this picture was needed was that I distinctly remember throwing this piece of toast away quite awhile before I found Sam eating it.

Well, Happy Birthday Jeff! I am so grateful that you are my partner in this truly wonderful life. I think this is the 16th birthday I have helped you celebrate and the first time I ever made you a cake - I guess I had to wait until I had the right help. Here's to many, many more!

Brusha Brusha Brusha

This kid is so funny and other updates

Sam is really a funny little person. He has a lot of personality already and we think he is just a hoot. He loves all buttons - computers, remotes, phones, cell phones, the TV, doesn't matter - he love to push buttons. And he is doing that endearing thing where you tell him "no" and he smiles at you while doing that thing anyway. He is really into hairbrushes, toothbrushes and headbands, and is often carrying one or more of them around. He has mastered pulling a kitchen chair over to the counter, climbing up onto the counter and eating whatever he can find. He eats anything and anytime. He has 3 molars in and another poking through this week.
We recently had a mostly ignored and under appreciated milestone - taking a bite. I think this is a big one because it totally changes mealtimes. I still cut his food up but not into nano bites anymore. And this makes it so much easier to hand a graham cracker back in the car or while he is in the stroller.
Sam fits the phrase "takes a likin' and keeps on tickin". I recently had to explain to Casey that he would be getting a time out every time he knocks Sam over on purpose. But at some point Sam needs to decide against going right back toward Casey after he has been knocked down ... twice. He is just so eager to do whatever Casey is doing and be near Casey. Often times, Casey is really quite sweet to him. He asks him how he is doing, if he had a nice nap. They hug a lot. Casey translates for Sam to me ... Sam says a bunch of babbles and jibberish and Casey says "he wants to play trains in the basement!" Sam is understanding a lot of what we say. Tonight, in the kitchen, I said, "Time for baths" and Sam took right off to the tub and was standing there waiting for us. He is giving hugs, kisses, fives and fist bumps when asked and all of these are pretty adorable. He also has the head shake for "no" down and uses it appropriately.
Casey went for his school check up - weighed in at 40 pounds and 42 inches tall which explains why his pants are too short. He peed in a cup, which he was quite excited about, and told everyone we saw for the next day or so. He also had a seeing test where he identified shapes of various sizes from far away. I was pretty impressed by that. Casey is loving pre-school. On the way there last week, he told me that his teacher was just going to be so glad to see him. Apparently he has a healthy self esteem as well :)
So, all is well. Never a dull moment!
Here's the boys having their snack in their dinning room table fort...

Remember Memory?

The other night as we talked about Casey's amazing memory, Jeff thought out loud that he might like to play the game memory. Turns out we had a set of memory cards downstairs in a bag of hand me downs we had not yet gotten to. Jeff taught Casey the other night - its an instant hit!

First Day of Preschool

Today was Casey's first day of 3 yr old preschool! I know you are wondering about the shoes ... aren't they cool? We talked them up much of the week, to the point that every time we talked about school, Casey would chime in about his special school shoes. Last night when we were getting ready for bed, he wanted to wear them for awhile. He ended up falling asleep with them on. So the morning was really no trouble because he wondered where they had gone and wanted them back. So, it seems the first day went well - all reports were good. At the pick up the teacher comes out in the hallway to give the parents a quick report on the day. They say this is to avoid the "What did you do at school?" "Nothing" conversation in the car on the way home. It's a nice touch, we thought.

Sam was excited to be at the school and seemed excited and confused to be leaving without Casey. The other 3 of us went to the grocery store and Sam got the car cart all to himself. He did not mind.

After school we all went to lunch with Carl and heard more about Casey's day - the teacher report really does come in handy!
Since the middle of August, Casey has not been sleeping much during quiet time. Maybe once a week he will doze off. This has lead to some crabbier evenings and earlier bed times. He still goes, fairly willingly, to the guest room and looks at books, or watches something on the ipod. At the recommendation of many moms who have older kids, we have not abandoned the concept of quiet time. We thought school starting might make a little difference. Well, at least today, it did.