8 Months

Sweet little boy, it blows my mind you’re already 8 months old.  You are a complete joy and I don’t think I could love you any more.  Not much has changed with you sweet Briggs.  You still melt my heart with every flash of your mega watt smile.

You eat baby food about 3 times a day.  Fruit and cereal in the morning, some kind of nasty delicious meat mix at lunch and a veggie at dinner. You nurse every 3-4 hours.  You like eating bits of table food and now get mad if you see food go into my mouth when I’m holding you.  So far the only things you just don’t like are garden veggie blend, and baby turkey or chicken (but you’ll eat those when they’re packaged with something else like veggies or rice).  And instead of turning your head and refusing to eat, you just cry the whole time.  You enjoy mum-mums as a snack and puffs when you can get them into your mouth.

You’ve blessed me with a few 11 hour nights, but last night you reverted to 7-8 hours.  But I’ll take it sweet boy.  You’ll go right back to bed after that first stretch (generally cuddled up by me).  You are like your mommy and sleep on your belly, although unlike your parents, you sleep best when you’re toasty warm.

You STILL love your swing and enjoy lots of time in the jumper and exersaucer.

You have super fine hair like your mommy (Ben’s is super thick like daddy’s)

You’ve mastered getting on all 4’s and will rock back and forth.  You push yourself backwards and slide across the wood floors, but haven’t figured out how to go forward.  Your favorite is to spin in a circle. 

You like to babble and put anything you can reach into your mouth.  But your pacifier is STILL your absolute favorite.  I think 99% of all your baby pictures will have that stinkin’ green plug in your mouth.  There are many nights you’ll keep it in the entire time (these tend to be the ones you sleep the longest through).

When you’re tired you throw your head into anything that can rub your eyes (your brother rubs his head).  You also moan when you’re overtired and try to fall asleep.

I can’t say enough how easy going you are.  Just happy and always smiling.  You love everyone (especially mommy) and everyone loves you!  So excited for another month of watching you become even sweeter and happier.  We love you sweet boy!

 

 

 

 

It’s the Holiday Season

There is something so magical and fun about the Holidays when your children are involved.  We have been having a blast with Ben getting him ready.  We got Charley too late to get her in a kennel for Thanksgiving so we stayed home this year and had a small, but wonderful day. 

The boys played when they weren’t watching (in awe) the Macy’s Parade.  Ben was so excited to see the big balloons and all the dancing.

Ben learning how to prepare a turkey.

We had a yummy dinner of which Ben only ate oranges.  Briggs, on the other hand, had some turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes.  The doctor hasn’t given us the go ahead on table food, but he’s really interested so I thought I’d try.  I think the tryptophan must have worked it’s magic on him because he slept 11 hours that night!  Say What???  I left B to put the boys down for the night and met some friends at Toys R Us for some Black Friday madness.  It was so much fun and went really well.  I love helping Santa out. 

Someone found his blocks and spent time building towers on Friday.  Yesterday I put up the Christmas tree.  I wish I could say it was all merry and bright, but Ben and I clashed all morning long.  It was so bad B had me take Charley to her puppy class so I could get out of the house.  But the tree is up and so far no ornaments have been harmed.  It’s amazing how M&M’s can help.  I do love looking at each ornament as it goes up and remembering when we got it. 

Last night we watched “The Polar Express” and it was a big hit!  Ben woke up asking for “Train Press” today.  I think we will make this a family tradition each year. 

Today it was COLD and Ben helped B mow the grass for the last time this year.  Afterwards it was Christmas lights time!  We’ve been taking the long way through the neighborhood home lately at night so Ben can oooh and ahhh at all the lights.  He gets so excited as we pass all the houses lit up.

Briggs came out for a bit, too.  Grammy sent us this super warm and comfy ‘snow suit’ awhile back.  I laughed because it was SO warm, but man it was great today.  He was toasty in there and we didn’t worry.  He even took an amazing nap afterward while he was still wearing it.

Love this little guy so much! (Today was a much better day for Mommy and Ben)

Break time.  Water time.  Up and down the ladder is tough!

Charley enjoyed the fresh air with us, too.

More break time (Daddy takes many of them).

So I know it’s a blurry picture, but I wanted to show the boys how cool their parents are.  At bath time tonight we broke open glow sticks and threw them on the boys and the tub and turned out the lights.  The camera wouldn’t just let me take the picture in the dark.  It was only after we were done that we bothered to check if what we just poured on them was non toxic (it was).  I know-parents of the year!

Elf Time!  Ben went on a scavenger hunt tonight.  He had so much fun finding his clues and running to the next spot.  We thought we’d do a scavenger hunt each year to kick off the Elf coming to visit.

This clue said “Find the Boxee remote.”

and the last clue said “Where does Daddy keep the weights to exercise?”  When he ran over he found The Elf on the Shelf book.  We read it together as a family, but he was much more interested in his clues or “papers” as he called them.  I think he could have gone many more rounds.  Then we guided him to find the elf. 

We thought we’d let him name the Elf since that’s what the book tells you to do, but he chose the name “Presents” so we are using our parental veto power and calling him “Buddy” from here on out.  To be official though his full name will be “Buddy Presents.”  Ben’s pretty hung up on presents right now since we’re talking up Santa so much.  He does tell us whenever he’s asked that Santa is bringing him a blue boat, Mater, Lightning (both from the Cars movie) and cars and trucks.

So excited to see what the next few weeks bring!  Love these boys so, so much!

A conversation in the car and the cough bucket

I wish I had a video camera on all the time to catch some of the funny things that go on.  This was what I heard as I was driving to the store last week.  I found it hysterical and want to document it.

Briggs: (babbling) “dadadada”

Ben: “don’t say Dada!  Dada’s at work.  Dada’s making money!”

Briggs: (babbling louder and faster) “dadadadadadada”

Ben: (in frustration) “NO DADA!  Dada’s at work making money!  Don’t say dada”

Briggs: (now babbling even faster and louder than before) “dadadadadadadadada!”

Ben: (who is now just super ticked) “BRIGGS!  NO DADA!  He’s at work!  Don’t say Dada!”

Briggs: laughs…

I’m convinced Briggs was put here just to laugh at Ben when it’s wrong for me to

 

Last Saturday I walked in to get Ben in the morning and was greeted with a disturbing ‘aroma’.  Once I saw his pillow I figured out what it was.  Ben seemed happy and I asked if he felt okay.  He told me he coughed and showed me how he bent over to do it.  The rest of that day was Ben feeling perfectly fine and then throwing up in the middle of it.  We grabbed a bucket for him and told him to cough over it so he called it the cough bucket.  We did too when I got SO sick the following night and B the next.  Luckily our sweet little one was spared.  So happy we can all eat and drink like normal now although Ben thinks its fun to tell us his tummy hurts and watch us get paranoid now!

Between the tummy bug and colds/croup it is so nice to be back to normal.  We will forget the ooze coming out of each boy’s nose right now…allergies, right???

No post is complete without a picture of my 3 favorite boys!  They make my heart happy!

Candy, a Cold, Croup, Cake and Charley

 

I think Ben’s going to be like his daddy and LOVE Halloween!  He had a blast trick or treating up and down our street.  Once he figured out he was getting candy he was hooked!  He’d take his candy, say “thank you” and then shout, “Next House!” and off he’d go.  And he had just as much fun helping me pass out candy once we got back home.  Briggs slept most of the time, but did go next door to test out this trick or treating business!

My cute little tiger and stinky skunk!

Happy little guy!

Thank you Ashley for letting us borrow this costume :)

On Tuesday Briggs had a scheduled flu shot booster, but I changed the appt to a sick visit because the poor baby was just screaming and I couldn’t figure out why.  His eyes, ears and throat looked clear so Dr put him on Prevacid to see if that helps.  Later that night he developed sniffles that slowly got worse and were icky by Wednesday.  I took him back in on Thursday and his lungs were pretty congested so Dr put him on breathing treatments every 4 hours for a few days.  It’s a LONG 7 minutes each time for a very unhappy Briggs!

Sadly though his congestion started to sound barky Thursday night so I called the dr on Friday and now Good Baby is on a steroid as well for Croup.  I feel so bad for him.  We are so lucky he’s made it 7 months without any illnesses, but what a way to get sick for the first time!  He sounds like a little boy going through puberty with his voice changing.  Even his loudest cries which normally pierce our eardrums are just a loud whisper.  Briggs is sleeping a little now so he must be getting a little better.  Ben also has a cold, but is handling it like a (whiny) champ. 

Friday was B and Gram’s birthday!  Ben was SOOOO excited to eat birthday cake.  I had to make B’s favorite Rum Cake and Ben loved watching it in the oven and enjoyed eating it even more.  Yesterday B went to get Ben and Ben ran and hugged him shouting, “Happy Birthday Daddy!”  B was so happy (even though it was after his actual bday). 

So remember last time when I wrote that B was researching dogs?  Well guess who has one now?!?!  Charley is our 3 1/2 month old Bouvier.  She is B’s dog and he’s the one taking care of her (my plate is already full).  After Bruiser and Bailey I never thought we’d have another dog, but I guess someone had been longing for one and researched the best fit for our family for HOURS.  Charley is the exact opposite of the other dogs.  She is SO lazy it’s sad.  She started puppy training classes yesterday and she just lays there, doesn’t even care about treats.  The doorbell rang on Friday and I’m used to being trampled on my way.  Charley barely lifted her head…the little princess just couldn’t be bothered!  And I love how she doesn’t shed.  Ben loves her and chases her around and hugs on her.  She is just about perfect except for the potty issue, but she’s learning.  Even the vet couldn’t find anything wrong with her.  When we thought Briggs was a girl we were going to name her Charley so now B has his Charley Girl.  We actually both called her Charley on our own. 

We think she looks like a black Smokey (Tina’s dog).  She’ll be big one day though.

I call her “sweetheart” sometimes so now Ben calls her “Charley Girl Sweetheart” (we call her Charley Girl a lot).  She is a little sweetheart and a great addition to our family.