I am really bad at titles lately.

Parent Conference at Anderson's school-we learned that he is really sweet/likes to help others and is really high energy. Well, we were told those things, but the energy thing was, of course, no surprise. Look at his little handwriting!

Turns out, there are some pretty cute eyes behind the green plastic. 

The theme for the month is "I am thankful for" and I am serious when I say that my heart skipped a beat when I saw Anderson's leaf.

Thank goodness I saw that leaf since he almost choked him in the pajama picture.

I know it is a little weird that we get professional* pics made of our kids in their pajamas, but it cannot surprise you that much. I will say it was hilarious to play, 'Which one of these is not like the others?' while spotting the one kid in footie pajamas amongst all of the kids in their really nice holiday clothes.

*Portrait Innovations has a background, which I think makes them professional. They are also $7 for 9 million pics, which is why we go. We have about 8 million copies left if anyone wants one. or 50.

A visit from Aunt Manda resulted in new outfits for these guys. Aunt Manda is always on the lookout for the perfect treat and always ends up something so genius.

Max does not love to eat or nap with me, but he will rock star with his Noni.

The real cousin pajama picture. LOVE my nephews for being the greatest troopers ever. I mean, ever. They wore these pajamas that we literally just bought them at Target before this and agreed to hold wiggly, sticky little people for a picture that we were probably going to tag them in on social media. They are troopers, for sure.

Please note who Max is looking at and what reaction that is causing....

Seriously, the boy hated Noah. Screamed his head off when Noah looked at him or projectile style spit up in his direction if he was close to him. It was seriously hilarious and we kept making Noah hold him because Max's reaction made us laugh. It is funny because it is just a matter of time before Big Cousin Noah is the boy's favorite. Everyone loves Big Cousin Noah!

And, everyone loves Aunt Manda because she has tea parties. Sissa does not really step it up to the aunt plate with this activity.

We went to Birmingham for Anderson's eye and missed the Buddy's Race, but TEAM JACK was still represented! 

We made up for missing the race by letting GG & JPa get some Max snuggles. *At dinner that night, the fortune cookies set us up for some pretty awesome news a few days later! We are SO beyond proud of JPa for continuing to be determined and hard working and inspirational and all of those characteristics that define who he is!

Since we did not make it to any playoff games, I was able to be home for 2 Friday nights in a row before basketball season started! On this particular one, we played tic tac toe on the kitchen floor and it was WAY better than standing for hours in the cold!

I really struggle with the Friday night shift of my job because nobody wants the last day of their week to be a 16 hour day and nobody with kids this cute wants to basically miss them for an entire day. But, I am lucky that I don't have to work weekends and that my mom is my hero and my husband is literally amazing.

We made a visit to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop! I realize it is not yet Thanksgiving, but this was free, we were near the store and, most obviously, I am a hoarder of all things, including Santa pics.

Anderson's thoughts.

I am trying to document Anderson's cute little voice and his CONSTANT questioning. I never remember to actually write anything down when it is happening, but here are a few things that I remember.

Anderson tells me all of the time, "Bobble, you are the only girl person in this house. You must be lonely." Such observation skills.

I try to tell him 1 or 2 stories at night & I let him pick 3 things. It is always some grouping like, "snot, an alien and the ocean" or " a spider, a monster and blood."


We were driving home at night and he asked , "Is someone driving the moon? How does it keep moving?"


I am afraid that my fast talking has made his brain have to work a bit harder to keep up. We actually had him in speech therapy for awhile because his brain was faster than his words and he was stumbling/stuttering a bit. One day as he struggled to say his thoughts, he said "I can't talk. I get frustrated when I try to say something. I hate being little!" :(


The boy is ALWAYS asking me some questions. And, I do not remember 5th grade and am really bad at answering them, so thank goodness he figures out his own answers.  "How do leaves fall off trees when they have stems? Oh, I know!  It's like when we cut our toenail and a new one grows back."

"How do we get cigarettes?"

 I explained tobacco is a plant...."Oh, I know..we add a bad plant like poison ivy to it."
*And, yes, he has already had poison ivy because he was within a mile of it at one point. His skin is what we call, "special".


He has one of those starry pets or pillow pet things, whatever they are called. It is a penguin and he has it for about a year (You might remember the tale called, Anderson-never-sleeps-so-we-are-desperate-and-will-buy-every-night-light-we-can-find.Anyway, for the last few nights he has not wanted me to turn it on and I finally asked why. "I am afraid that his face might come alive." He proceeded to question the ability of the toys in Toy Story to move around  & talk. So, then I felt awesome since I  was really feeling like an awesome mom for giving him a night light &, turns out, he has been traumatized about it coming to life. Sort of funny, really.

I told him that I cannot wrestle/play football as well as Daddy can because I am not that strong. ( I am all about teaching him that women are equal, but he is a bit painful at times. The boy is intense.) A few days later, I was moving his plastic picnic table off the deck and he looked at me & asked, "How are you strong enough to lift the table, but not strong enough to wrestle with me?"

#ofcoursetheydid

In her last blog post, Nicole made a reference to my parents' latest project with the hashtag, #ofcoursetheydid and it totally sums them up. Just in general. 

Learning to climb trees at Noni's house. 

Pops decided to build a playhouse in their backyard for the kids. It sort of took on a life of it's own. 

A ladder, a rope, a bucket to pull stuff up, windows that shut, a telescope, binoculars...just a lot of fun stuff. 

Princess lily climbing up to her castle.

Do our kids even realize how lucky they are??

And, a leaf fight, just for fun.

Eye spy something green...

Max-6 months

 

 It's official. We made it to 6 months! And, I agree with what you are thinking-he is SO cute:)

 Anderson & Lily were my helpers for the monthly picture. Despite our numbers, we were not super successful.

But, we got this pic, so I considered it a success. 

We took the younger cousins to get their pajama pic and I could not help but get one of this guy just sitting up on his own!

How snuggly is this boy? We had to get the bumper pad thing (thanks Bobble Cole) because his chubby thighs kept getting stuck in the crib slats. I love, love footie sleepers. 

 I will never get tired of seeing his precious name. He is definitely bigger than Bug was at this point.

He has been making this hilarious sideways face all of the time and it is too precious. 

Really super, high quality pic. You're welcome. 

No really, the boy is a spit up machine. Lots of laundry and scrubbing of carpets around here. Clare gave us some spit up formula that helps some, but he just seems pretty content to share his food with us because he is just a thoughtful kind of guy. 

First time in the cart! At Target, of course. (I think he maybe has been in the cart with Noni, but she let me pretend this was the first time)

One of his (our) favorite games is silly faces/giggling in the mirror.  I will make silly faces at him and he cracks up. Now, he starts giggling as soon as we walk into the bathroom. Since there is truly nothing greater in the world than a Max giggle, we spend a lot of time in there. 

Sitting up on his own is totally a game changer. Anderson crawled and pulled up on things before he was sitting up on his own, so we never had a stationary kid and I really like it.

A snuggle with JPa!

6 months-

-He eats like a champ...when he is with the grandmas. Noni said he demands to eat a bottle every 3 hours, but I am lucky if I can get the boy to take 6oz total all day. Still nursing just a bit at night, but we are really phasing that out. Hallelujah to the day I stopped carrying the pump with me! Holy vacation now. He eats cereal, baby food in the morning and evening and we are starting lunch. He LOVES mum mums and almost choked on a cheerio the other day. He does love fruit in the little net thing, too.

-He goes to sleep between 7-8 and falls asleep really well because crying it out totally worked at bedtime. I much prefer that version of the crying it out over it's awful, evil cousin-Middle of the Night, CIO. We let him cry during the night, but, despite my earplugs, I just can't sleep. I don't know if it is the fact that I hear Max or the 3 year old who appears next to my bed and tells me Max is awake. Either way, we are working on the middle of the night thing and the one glorious day that I get 4 hours of sleep in one stretch, I promise you will hear about it. He wakes up multiple times in the middle of the night and then wakes up for good between 5-6:30. He does not really have a nap time at home, but sort of cat naps in the car. He does nap with the grandmas, which does not surprise me. The fact that he doesn't nap doesn't bother me because it has been SO long since I have had a kid nap, I have zero expectations for time without little people clinging to me as I vacuum.

-He sits like a champ, rolls everywhere, tries to crawl by lunging forward and loves his jumperoo!. He loves, loves, loves putting a blanket on his head and giggling uncontrollably underneath it.

-He has just started to have a little separation anxiety and reached for me the first time the other day.

-He has had 3 ear infections and been on 2 antibiotics, which makes me hate every lactation person who promotes nursing. Seriously, I found out about the double ear infection at his well visit when they said he can't get his shots because he has 2 ear infections. #momoftheyear  But, the perk was that checkups are free, so I didm/t have to pay for the diagnosis! 

I love how squishy and perfect he is!

2 videos:

a little video of him playing

the best day with Bobble Cole

My boys. Or, Why I am NOT, in fact trying for a girl

"Take a picture of me with my brother, Bobble!"

First and foremost, there are ZERO plans to "try" for either gender. We are a very happy family of 4.  

Happy. We are a really, super happy family of 4. 3 boys & 1 girl person surrounded by lots and lots of dog hair from 2 girl dogs.

I just cannot get over how lucky I am to have these boys in my life. I was always supposed to be a mom of boys. The only doll I really remember having was a boy doll named John Michael. He had blue eyes. Ahem. 

In my time capsule that I read at our 10 year high school reunion, my #1 prediction for myself was that I would be a mom of boys.  Possibly I had boys just to prove myself right, but whatever the reason, I am so happy that fate came through for me. 

I was so happy when we found out Bug was a boy. And, I just knew after I had him that I was right and boys are totally the way to go. The entire time I was pregnant with Max, people were concerned about 2 things. First, that his name was going to be Just Max. Second, that I had one boy and was having another one. "Try for a girl, next time" they would say. I would nod because having a discussion about fate and love and being a Bobble to boys is not really appropriate in the middle of Kohl's. 

But, the rare mom of just boys would always nod at me when I said, "Another BOY!" A nod, with a little smile. Now, I know what that nod means and I feel beyond psyched to be a part of the club of a houseful of boys. The exhausted, entertained, confused club of a houseful of boys. 

I am sure that girls have their place in hearts. I  know I love my nieces and Goddaughter, but I am just really, really supposed to be a Bobble to these boys. 

 A Bobble needs a boy to create a trap for the mouse in her office because I, for sure, am not trying to catch the thing myself. We walked into my office for the football game and there was a mouse perched on my garbage can. (It really was perched on it's back legs, just sitting here having a snack) It saw us and jumped beside my desk. Anderson was traumatized that he missed it and said, "I love mouses and lizards! I think they are beautiful." What on earth.

All my boys in one room. The older 2 are trying to teach the baby to crawl and I am not a fan.

I could not pick just one of these awesome pics that Mom sent me one day. 

Are you kidding me??? What is not to love about these baby boys? I love when fate works to my favor. 

The Return of Voldemort

Not really. Sigh. (Not that I want him to return, but that would all of it real, right?) As all true Harry fans know Oct. 31 is the date of Voldemort's return, but we did not see him anywhere, so I guess he really is gone for good.

Many, many reasons that I love my husband, but topping my list might be how great he looks in a wig. Followed closely by the fact that he is willing to wear it. of course. 

 On the morning of Halloween, Anderson requested that we wear costumes, too. Well....all we had was  a clearance wig (see above) and a few dog costumes (also bought on clearance a few years ago, because everyone needs a few dog costumes). I feel like the fact that Gabbi & I can share costumes is a pretty cool perk of having a giant dog. And, I looked mighty nice as a bunch of grapes, too.

 Festive Halloween table! We always* have chili on Halloween and this year we also invited Noni over to Trick or Treat and hand out candy with Max.

*Except for last year when we ate Pei Wei on our porch because we didn't have floors, furniture, breathable air in our house due to the washing machine flooding. #memories

 These 2 boys. Just love. That is all.

It is safe to say that we will not be winning any costume contests in our gear. Unless it is from "Awkward Family Photos"

 And...I found another wig in the Halloween bin for Uncle Curtis! Klassy.

 He is basically a robot in disguise.


(That is part of the theme song for all of you moms of girls...ie:Nicole)

 Because one day this boy is not going to want to hold his Bobble's hand, I am going to take as many pics of it as I can.

An 80's rocker, a Autobot and some grapes. Just living the life.

We really did have a great time & Anderson got SO much candy. He only wanted to trick or treat for about an hour and then he wanted to go home and hand out candy/play in the couch cushions.

I just love, love Halloween and am so excited to see what future costumes are in store for us. I am not sure if there are any more fruit themed dog costumes, but I will try to be on the look out. Stay tuned.