too much...take 2

Anderson and I took a little trip to B-ham to visit Lily and had such a great (exhausting) time! Unfortunately Aunt Manda and fam were at the beach so we didn't get to see them. Because my nephews are basically professional lacrosse players, they have lots of tournaments & practices this summer. Between that and all my random cheer/inservice/life stuff we haven't seen them in forever!

I have always enjoyed putting Lily in random things.

I do it with Anderson, too.

He loved crawling through the tunnel in the playroom. He is a speedy little thing. Is that a toe or a finger on the floor? Gross.
Of course no trip to Aunt Cole's house is complete without swimming through some books. I am thinking of Duck Tales when he swims through the money. Thanks for the books, Sherri!Please note the hickey on my arm from Anderson. He is taking this Twilight vampire thing a little too far.

Chubbers! This is after playing in the splash thing at the zoo. I love this because it just scream summer and boy!

Hanging with the cuz.

Do not let the adorableness of this picture fool you. He was a terror in the car. He slept 3 minutes of the entire car ride. Both ways. That's 8 hours. You think I am exaggerating. Just ask my mom who got hourly updates on the way home. I don't really want to talk about this part. There is no way to make it humorous.

It's a good thing Nicole & I have never tried drugs because we have the most addictive personalities. Here is a little project we started. More on this in a later post.

Anderson loves Aunt Cole if for no other reason than the fact that she has a ball pit in her house. I can't get over it, either. Of course there lots of other reasons he loves her, too. I just think a ball pit is toward the top of the list.

Bribing Lily to stay in the stroller. At one point, while we were waiting in line at the zoo, I looked up and realized out of the 30 or so kids that I saw ours were the only 2 not in the strollers. I know that people think we just give in, but the alternative is screaming and I am trying to be nice to the general public. They look nothing alike but are genetically identical in their opposition to pacifiers, strollers and car seats. Really, I thought all babies liked pacifiers.

1st real jammies from Aunt Cole!

A shot from the weekend: Aunt Cole reading to Anderson, Uncle Hughes digging in the toybox to find a toy for him and Lily hanging out. Maybe the novelty of a daughter has worn off? Just kidding, of course. They both get monstrous amounts of attention.

Before we left we celebrated GGs birthday. Anderson helped her blow out the candles and she let him play in her cake! What a lucky boy.



During storytime Anderson was more interested in climbing up my legs and growling.

livin the life

Just a few pics from the past weeks. Anderson got ready with Brandon on a SWAT training day. Anderson even realized the seriousness of his job: no smiles for him. Once Anderson is old enough to realize what a cool job his dad has I know that he will be officially done with me.

I think it is fun that he is starting to look like me! You know, if I looked like Brandon. Use your imagination, people.

Such a boy! Just chasing a car. I love it.

Speaking of boy, he loves to hit everything! As soon as he grabs something, he bangs it on whatever is closest, even if it is his head. This adorable onesie is from my Aunt Ann in Florida-it says #1 at everything and is, of course, true.

The other day he was really obsssesed with this bag of spinach. I took him into Ingles with me still in his carrier, which I never do because he hates it, and nothing would fit in the cart. Because I like to take advantage of a situation, I used him as a helper and handed him some of the groceries. He clutched the spinach and threw a huge fit when the cashier took it to scan it. Then he calmed down when he got it back and stared at it the rest of the way home. It will be nice when he is 3 to remind him that he used to like vegetables.

We went to the Market Square Farmer's Market with Noni, Bop, Clare & Jack last week! I bought the $5 bag of 200 peaches and we ate them for a few days until we were sick of them, so I made them into baby food. My friend, Lindsey, has totally inspired me on her blog (http://www.lindseydoby.blogspot.com/) to make baby food. It is a fun little project. I have made apples, peaches & mangos so far.

Another highlight is that we went to our first storytime at the library with Clare & Jack! Here they are getting ready for the big time. Anderson even wore his Dr.Seuss onesie for the occasion. I figured there is nobody better than the good doctor himself to get you in the mood for a story! If they look even closer here than they have in the past, that is because they had their first sleepover this week, too! Jack let Anderson take a nap in his crib! He has not been napping well at all lately and this was a really long nap-I actually thought we might be staying for dinner!They totally bonded over the experience.

Before storytime, Anderson was moving around and someone commented on how early he is crawling when they found out he is 5 months old. I was the proud mom, of course, until I became the only mom who had to leave because my child wouldn't stop crying. I think that probably sums up parenthood. You get 1 thing right and then mess up the next 7 things. Once I realized he was starving, a bottle calmed the situation. And he found a shoe which usually works better than a bottle anyway. We were the last people to leave because they were having so much fun! I also got to see some Jack smiles, which was great.

This weekend I was at UT for cheer camp, so Brandon had lots of hang out time with Anderson! I am so proud of my girls; they did great! Here is a video of what the performed at camp. Please note that they are amazing because of their talent, dedication and all around wonderful attitudes-it has nothing to do with me. I am just kind of there.

Here is a shot at what Brandon & Anderson were up to over the weekend!

And just because I am really obsessed with my child, here is one of him just being cute. I am sure everyone has stopped watching by this point and I understand.

sisters update

This has nothing to do with the girls, but is one of my new favorites. I was feeding him and obviously was making a mess. At one point he sneezed and there were some peas on his nose, which made me laugh and then he started giggling, which made me laugh more. It was so much fun.

On to the sisters...let's be honest, I love them both. It's a good thing I love them because they are a lot of work. Besides breastfeeding, they have been the hardest part of this baby business. They are just a little (lot) high maintenance. With the feeding, the pottying, the playing, the shushing of Chloe and the VACUUMING! I vacuum all of the time. I was only doing it every other day, but now that he is moving everywhere, I have started doing it daily. I empty the canister every time (sometimes twice) and above is how much I get every day! I know a little germs/dog hair is ok for him, but I feel like this is borderline child abuse.

The Gabs. How can this not be worth it? They love each other.

I am fully aware that my giant German Shepherd looks a little like a wolf and is potentially scary looking if you don't know her. But, she is such a sweet girl. She is perfect all around-she is loving and snuggly, but also would chew someone's face off if they mess with me or the Munch. A pretty nice set up.

Then here is the Worm. She likes to make herself useful as a climbing toy, teething ring, etc. So helpful.

daddies

I am almost a little embarrassed at this post. See, I am the most spoiled person in the world. It's Father's Day and I am realizing all of the wonderful fathers in my life. Warning: gushing ahead! I have the good fortune of being married to the love of my life, who is not only a caring, supportive husband, but is the most amazing father already. The other day I caught Brandon playing a video of Anderson on his phone because he was asleep and he just missed him. Anderson is getting to the point where he is so excited to see him. He makes crazy noises and wiggles everywhere when he gets home. So cute. Of course, there I am covered in applesauce, hair looking crazy because it hasn't been brushed and have a bruised arm from diving on the floor to prevent Chloe from walking on Anderson, but I'm just mom, so no excitement there. Seriously, I can't imagine a more fun, helpful, supportive, perfect partner in this parenting/life business. I am a lucky girl.

I can see why Brandon is such a good dad because it is obviously genetic! Jack, soul-dad, J-Pa is so genuine & dedicated to everything he does and I know he is such a huge reason why my husband is perfect! He seriously introduces me as his daughter to people-no "in-law" attached. And he means it! He is not just trying to be nice. It is so cute and very much appreciated:)

Then, there is Pops. There aren't many people who can say they met their dad when they were 5. People sometimes refer to my "real" dad and I correct them, of course. Pops is the most real, perfect dad in the world! Here we are the day Nicole and I officially became Salvaggios! I think adoption is like marriage; you don't actually feel any different just because you have a piece of paper that says it is official. The people involved already knew it was official.

The aforementioned "spoiled" is summed up in this picture: my breakfast of strawberry & chocolate chip waffles! He even knows exactly how to make my coffee.

Not only is Pops taking care of myself & my son, but he has taken on the task of my dogs (Chloe is at least 4 projects herself) & now, my plants. I told you I was embarrassed. I mean, can I really even be called an adult?

shoes!

Aunt Manda sent Anderson yet another present-she is determined to spoil him- and he loved it! He loves to eat shoes. Loves them. I think they are his favorite toys. These shoes are especially cute because they have little flags on them and we got them on Monday, Flag Day!

I took the shoe away to try and get a smiling picture, but he spotted the other one...
and was pumped!!

I ordered some prints for his baby book and thought this was a cute one because we're having so much fun, the background is great with the clouds, the trees, the Chloe taking a poop..... I realized that last part after I had printed it. Leave it to Special girl to make an appearance in the picture.

Anderson made a visit to Pappaw last weekend and they enjoyed hanging out together. Pappaw is Anderson's namesake, so they have a lot in common!

Holding his own bottle, with a little help from his feet. .

This is my favorite Lily thing ever, and that is saying a lot because I love everything that girl does. Nicole said that Maggie, a 1 year old daughter of a friend, was showing her touchdown and Lily was watching and started frantically doing her tricks, too (itsy bitsy spider, rolling up the patty cakes, etc.). She quickly realized these tricks were not getting her attention, so she began doing touchdown, too! Hilarious.

Anderson now does this hilarious crawl/fish move to get across the room. Sadly, he ignores the toys spread all across the room as he jets toward the cell phone. Is this some kind of early sign that I am failing as a mom?

too much.

Nicole and Lily came to visit for the WEEK and it was beyond fun. Aunt Paula, Shannon & Jacob were supposed to come but staff infection interfered with those plans. Here's a little shout out to Aunt Paula....we missed you, guys!
Seriously this week was kind of like camp. We swam, made smores (in the middle of the afternoon), went to the park, went to the zoo, attempted to go to the Farmer's Market and the Lenoir City Craft Fair, cooked out, and played, played, played! Seeing my sister just makes my life better. I mean, we talk about 15 times a day to the point where I can literally tell you every detail of her life. It's just a lot better to actually see her. And it's even better now because Lily is with her, too! Another nice little twist to the week is that I didn't have to cook at all. All 3 meals were at my parents' house! Pretty nice set up for me actually. Brandon had to work late all week and he even had plates of food sent home. Here are a million pics to sum up the week!

By the way, I did not order this shirt myself. One of my students got it for me!

This was the best part of the zoo! It was a little play area for kids to crawl around in-I tried not to think about the germs that he probably licked off the floor. Plus, he left quite a nice present, in the form of a huge puddle of drool, for the next baby.