This weekend.

**way too many pics...sorry**

One of my absolute favorite things about Anderson right now is when he says, "This weekend?" in reference to today. Every morning he asks, "What are we doing this weekend?" in sort of a frantic voice (he loves his school, but prefers not to go...) Or, he will ask, can we _____(have a cupcake, go to Hobbytown, see Lily) this weekend? And, it took me a while to realize he meant today. It is really sort of hilarious. Whenever I would talk about stuff we had planned, generally it was on the weekend, so I would say, "We are going to do ___this weekend" or "Maybe we can go this weekend". I guess all of the fun stuff happened "this weekend" so he has turned that into his everyday. ha ha. Anyway, we are always on a quest for something fun (and preferably free), so here are a few pics of "this weekend", really the last few weeks. 

 We (Clare & I, of course) hit up the East TN Discovery Center on a rainy Tuesday. It was raining here, imagine that... Anyway, it was pretty fun and definitely perfect for a few hours for a couple of 3 year old boys. Anderson is in a space phase now, so the space shuttle, planetarium and astronaut suit were perfect. He is clutching his space shuttle if you will notice his right hand. Max & Lucy made the trip to observe their brothers.

 Every day, we go through HUNDREDS* of patches.... *Not actually hundreds, but it seemed like a lot.

imoms: HOW TERRIBLE IS SUMMER WITH THE PATCHING?? AAAGH! In addition to the normal inconvenience/hatred of the patch, he is sweating like crazy or wet from the pool/sprinkler/etc. Ortopad better be developing a waterproof/sweatproof/air condistioned one pronto.

 We colored the new rocket that landed in our house courtesy of Bobble's clearance CVS hoarding ($2) and Daddy's ability to, "hey, can you put this together really quickly?"

Bobble FINALLY gave in to Bug's request to paint my toenails green. 

 One of the most fun things of the summer was the discovery of the Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge. This was by far the greatest of the free event hoarding that we've ever done. I cannot include pics of everything we did because it really was too much. Of course, Anderson & Jack played in the sandbox since we don't have one in our backyard...

 There was a designated toddler area with FOUR moon bounces, a playground, sandbox, dino dig, a bunch of craft tents, awesome face painting, train rides, shooting of real fire houses, laser tag (he LOVED that part), a zip line (line was too long, but he wanted to do it!), a trampoline bounce thing, make a race car craft, petting zoo, etc, etc. And...IT WAS ALL FREE!!

 We, of course, brought Noni with us. Thank goodness because it was HOT and poor Max was miserable and she hung out with him. I did buy a snow cone and a lemonade, so I guess we did spend $8 on the event, but overall it really was free!

 I was not at all surprised when this kid LOVED jumping. How do I go about getting this in my backyard?

A jumping video

 Because it was so much fun, we went back for a second day with Sunny! Batman & Batgirl! (I was folding clothes before we left and he insisted on wearing the same shirt again. It was clean. Whatever.)

                                            
*I made a total rookie imom mistake and let my kid his face painted around his eye. Face paint+sweat+a kid who doesn't really want to wear an eyepatch rubbing it all together= a huge, huge mess.

 This was some kind of science experiment...I literally have no idea how to explain it, but he said it was his favorite part. He kept asking me questions about why it grew and why it was rough, etc. and he learned a valuable lesson called, "Bobble was a History teacher for a reason."

We made another trip to see Lily & Reese! (of course we did...) We visited a bounce house that was pretty awesome.

We hit up a park where Noni played with the "older ones" while we fed the babies on a bug infested bench. Seriously, what would we do without our mom??

We found a train AT THE PARK that only cost $1/ride and it lasted 10 minutes! We rode it twice because it was a TRAIN, in a PARK for $1!

See the note about our mom above...

It's nice to see that our kids resemble each other, you know, with that whole twin thing and all. (insert sarcasm)

Lots of fighting/tantrums/driving us crazy. We love them anyway, of course. But seriously, it is a darn good thing that a mother's love is so instinctive sometimes.

Totally crashed Lily's gymnastics class where the 3 little girls in tutus followed directions and Anderson mostly did with the exception of adding a quick sprint, running around in a circle, etc. between each activity. He LOVED it. Mom made the comment, "He is doing so well with only having one eye." And, I LOOKED TO SEE WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT!! Ha ha. But, she, of course, was right. This kid rocked a balance beam using one eye. He's amazing.

Thank goodness for Uncle Hughes setting up a Slip & Slide. Thank goodness for summer (even though it has been rainy/cold both times we were there). Thank goodness, most of all, for cousins.

Family pics from Father's Day!

We had a great Father's Day celebrating all of the wonderful dads and grandfathers in our lives! And, we got some family pictures to prove that we all exist...not just Anderson and Max!

Snuggle time with JPa!!

 Love max's face here...

 Pappaw!

 We all went in and got Pops a tablet for Father's Day and he proceeded to quickly show us his fruit ninja skills. Hilarious.

 The best pic of the smile I can get so far and it is, of course, for Brandon, the smile guru.

Anderson was SO proud of the tomatoes & little carrot he grew in his garden at Bop's house. 

6 weeks

I promise not to do an update every week of his life, but I have a 6 weeks post on Bug and I am really trying to be fair. I realize I have 2 boys who will never, ever look at any of this, but if on the off chance they do, I want them to know I love them both best of all. 

This boy is officially smiling! Well, he is for Brandon anyway and has been for about a week. Anderson got one before I did, too. As did the window. But, I'm not keeping score or anything...

A bit of an unsuccessful first run at the Bumbo. I love his angry face.

These boys. Aunt Manda buys some pretty cute clothes, doesn't she? Anderson wanted to hold his hand, too.

Max & Anderson at the same age for comparison. I think the jury is still out, but I definitely see similarities.

Love the milk drunk times. This one was in the car (lots of car feedings for this boy thanks to attempts at keeping "the older one" entertained) Awesome America shirt courtesy of GG!

Love(Worship/Adore/Owe my life to). the Swaddle. This is a woombie that Nicole gave us and it is the best. I will miss this snuggle worm when he outgrows it!

Anderson has been SO good with Max. He always wants to hold him and will sing to him, "Your Anderson is right here. It's ok, Max..."

** Max really is not on any kind of specific schedule, but is sort of predictable. He wakes up 1-3 times at night, but I only feed him twice. He is pretty good about EAT, AWAKE, SLEEP, but the amount of time for each varies. Usually his naps in the morning are longer and he definitely becomes a bit more fussy pants as the day goes on. He is eating every 2-3 hours during the day and usually will go at least one 5 hour stretch at night, which would be awesome if "the older one" also slept a 5 hour stretch. (Grrrr) He is pretty content as long as he is swaddled/swinging, being held, not having his diaper changed and/or eating. The only time of day that is a bit exhausting is the evening because he can't quite figure out the staying asleep at bedtime thing. He will sleep in these tiny little increments between 7pm-midnight, until he finally stays asleep. He is still on the boppy lounger at night because when he scoots off, I just move him back up on it. I think we are going to  phase that out now because he keeps moving off of it. He is really just so, so good. I mean, he is really good. He takes a pacifier, for goodness sake! He continues to make chill, which I will always be shocked about.

All in all, this baby makes me so happy and I love getting to snuggle him and love on him.

A trip to see the TN cousins!

It is no surprise to anyone that Max's first road trip (at 4 weeks old!) was to visit the TN cousins! ( The Alabama cousins will be visited soon!) Max was pretty good during the driving parts of the trips because of the pacifier gods!

Why did we have to make the trip when Max was so young, you ask? Because of this awesomeness in Lily's backyard! I have always wanted one of these things, but just assumed they were in the Target ad every year for fun...until Nicole bought one!! Anderson loved it, of course, and I definitely took a few turns on it myself.

An Argo ride! I am still not entirely sure what this is, but I know that my boys loved it.

Love this shot of Pads & Pieces. Reese continues to be the cutest thing I have ever seen in.my.life.

Super awesome shot of the cousins.

Being the mom of 2 girls, Nicole has learned the art of making food into craft time...we made our own pizzas,

and decorated ice cream sundaes with about 10 different toppings.

Pictures do not do her justice.

Treats from Bobble Cole.

Yet again, Nicole continues to take better pics with my kids than I do.

Love both of those eyes.

Lily putting her bow on while Anderson attacks the air with the hose in the background. A girl and a boy.

Oh, Mr. Max was there in all of his perfectness, too.

90% of the trip was this..."I'm first...No, I'm first!...That's mine!...No, I had it first!" They really are basically siblings.

Reese thought about going for a drive, but decided she didn't want to miss out on the fun/fighting

We had so much fun and can't wait to visit them again, soon!! 

A video: Anderson swim jumping