Backyard Fun

Matt surprised all of us tonight when he showed up in the backyard with his bathing suit on! Swimming was a nightly ritual for us at the old house, so we are always looking for new ways to fill the evening with the boys before the sun goes down. Tonight they got their second round of playing in the hose, but this time it was Matt providing all the entertainment!

This one is my favorite, Ollie was practically recreating the Tommy Boy scene of "I'm a maniac!" He was already waving his arms all around so we got him to shout "I'm a maniac" and he didn't mind at all because it got us all laughing...

Ollie would only let Matt control the water for so long before it was his turn...

One of his favorites is drinking out of the hose, and I love all his expressions!

He is a boy through and through!

One of Ollie's chores is watering the potted plants, this poor little tree is slowly making its way back to life. This tree is special because it's a pomegranate tree that we got shortly after he was born. Pomegranate is Jess's favorite fruit and it used to sit outside the casita bedroom window where she stays when she comes to visit. I think of her every time I see it and can't wait till we can plant it at our permanent home so Ollie can eat pomegranates from it some day. It's had a rough time with the move but there are still green leaves and now Ollie gets to take care of it every day.

Once the yard was soaked it was time to run the water off and play a little backyard basketball!

 This is his proud look back to me to make sure I saw him make a basket...

Won't be long before Jed is giving him a real run for the ball...

 For now he loves watching his big brother play...

A Slam Dunk!

Jed really does have an obsession for balls, looks like he is already posing for a team picture ;)

Fun in the Mud

Today the boys and I got stranded outside for an hour in 100 degree weather while Dadee took care of an issue with the house. The only way to make it bearable was to strip them down and let them play in the hose. Ollie was happy to make some mud and Jed couldn't resist joining in! I'm not sure why mud is so much fun but I always loved playing in the mud too. That was one of the reasons for my obsession with ceramics- I loved getting my hands dirty in the mud to make something beautiful. I know the shadows are horrible for taking pictures, but I couldn't change where they made their muddle puddle so I took pictures anyway...

Jed liked climbing right in and sitting in the middle of it and splashing around (I was not looking forward to changing that diaper!)

Ollie likes to gather the rocks and dump them...all over the patio (I had just helped him clean up the patio this morning to remove all of the rocks he dumped on it yesterday)

 

We're definitely missing the pool, but they seem to be enjoying all the new adventures :)

Brothers and Bottles

Other than watching Matt with the boys, there is nothing else that makes my heart swell to point of nearly bursting than seeing these two best buddies together! 

Ollie is finally sleeping in his own bed in his own room (that has been an ongoing saga since he discovered how to climb out of his crib shortly after Jed was born). The next habit to break is "tinsy bottle." If I would admit to my pediatrician that he still drinks from a bottle he would probably strangle me (he stopped asking like a year ago!) Ollie knows he is too old for it, I laughed one day when his cousins were coming over to swim and he heard them at the door and all of the sudden he took the bottle out of his mouth and wanted me to hide it! (He didn't want them to know he was still a baby.) If I tell him he's a big boy though when he wants "tinsy bottle" he nearly cries back "No! I'm not a big boy!" And then there is tinsy bottle itself. He refuses to drink milk out of anything but a bottle, and that was bad enough but now he refuses to drink any bottle other than "tinsy bottle." About a month ago he must have decided that it wasn't okay for him and Jed to share the same bottles and we have just one bottle that is different from all the rest, it is smaller so when asking for it I guess it made sense for him to describe it to me as "tinsy bottle" and he has called it that ever since. 

Tonight Ollie wanted to lay in his bed and have tinsy bottle, but that wasn't enough, when he saw me bring Jed in with his bottle he insisted that I lay him down with him. The lights were out and they were nestled in Ollie's bed watching a movie, but I couldn't help interrupting them with a few flash pictures so they will always know they were buds from the start (and so I can tease him about tinsy bottle some day!)

Wrestling Match

I was in the boys room starting to get them ready for bed when Dadee showed up. He always gets these boys going and I get to sit back and enjoy the show. How is hearing them squeal and scream with laughter music to my ears, my heart and my soul?! It started with Matt swinging Jed upside down...

Ollie of course thought that looked so fun that he had to have a turn...

While Jed was getting another turn in the air Ollie started dumping all his stuffed animals on Dadee. 

"That's it!... You're gonna get it now!!"

But Ollie wouldn't let Dadee conquer, he had to pull out his secret weapon...

"The People's Elbow!"

Dadee had to beg for mercy...

and then he threw in a few punches too...

Jed thought he mind as well get him while he was down ;)

Thanks to Dadee they are (no longer) ready for bed...Love my boys!

Cherries

I LOVE cherries! I hate fake cherry flavoring but every summer I can't wait till they are in season. Tonight while I enjoying some cherries Jed seemed eager to have a bite so we let him have his first taste...

and they were a winner! He couldn't get enough of them, loved his bare body little self letting the juice drip down his belly :)

Ten Months Old Baby Jed

 

Still working without my good flash so I'm trying to overlook all the lighting/color/flash shadow issues in these pics, seeing through all that I can see our happy little man at ten months old!

His favorite things right now are speed crawling all over the house. It really is amazing how fast he is, I will walk from one end of the house to the other and he is at my heels the whole time. He also loves this tiny book, I think he just likes that it is his size and that he can open it up and look at the pictures all on his own. Ollie loves to crawl into his crib first thing in the morning, and he has gotten in trouble enough times for getting into wrestle Jed, so now he likes to crawl in there with books to read to him. Those are happy moments, hearing Ollie in the other room saying "Once upon a time..." and making up little stories while Jed slaps around on the pages or looks at his tiny book instead.

The boys seem to be turning a corner now where Jed is old enough to interact to some extent and it is so fun to see them actually playing together. Jed is getting a lot more vocal too. He has always been so calm and quiet that it has come as somewhat of a surprise to hear him yell back at Ollie and squeal loudly. Ollie loves to play "Come and get me!" and then Jed and I, or Jed and Dad get to chase him around the house- Ollie screams at the top of his lungs in delight the whole time, and sometimes it's hard to keep a hold of Jed because he kicks his little legs as hard as he can as if that will make us run faster and he squeals with joy every time we actually get close enough to Ollie in the chase that he can touch him. We've played this game since he was little, but now before he was mostly just smiles while we chased Ollie, now Jed comes to life and seems to love it just as much as Ollie does!

The other surprise with Jed is just how stubborn he is. I say that with a grin because I'm the second child and my Dad loves to tell me how stubborn I was(am) too. We've been signing to Jed for months and he finally broke through and started signing back to us for a 3-4 days, but then he decided that he hates it and therefore refuses to do it now. It is the silliest thing. I will sit there in front of him with food and sign food to him waiting for him to sign to me to let me know he wants it and instead of signing he will sit there and start slapping the tray on the high chair, and when that doesn't get him food he starts pulling his ears and his chin gets that little pout, that turns to a quiver until he can't stand it any more and he starts to cry. And then he lets his big crocodile tears roll down his cheeks making me look like the bad guy! The second I give in and give it to him he is instantly smiles. Since I'm a bit stubborn too we get in these little stand offs and I sit there and laugh over the fact that he is so tortured when all he has to do is sign. And that is not the only thing he is stubborn about, if he doesn't like the taste of something I'm feeding him he flat out refuses to eat it, he pierces his lips together tight and moves his head side to side and no airplane or anything like it will get him to open his mouth to sneak food in. And there I am all huffy because I just ordered like 10 pouches online of this food he is refusing to eat and all I can think is money down the drain so I'm not giving up easy- sometimes I win and sometimes he wins, and there have been a time or two that Ollie has won because after I give up he has eaten the rest of the food! Luckily it is only a few of like 20 different flavors that he doesn't like so we are picking our battles.

The very best thing about Jed right now is that he is finally getting snuggly again. I thought the days were over, he has always been so independent, always wanting to be held looking out, just wanting to lay in his bed to sleep instead of being rocked or cuddled. Now when I lay him down to sleep he wants me to pick him up and he will lay his head on my shoulder and let me sing to him while he snuggles me, and for the first time in forever he actually fell asleep snuggled on my shoulder at church (I usually have to put him in his car seat and cover it up so it's nice and dark like his room for him to fall asleep at church). Those little moments have been a piece of heaven and I hold onto him as long as I can. Love this little man with all my heart!

Some of the other pictures from his photo shoot- showing off his personality...