Classic

We were all getting out of the car after church today. I grab the normal pile of stuff out of the car and walk around to the other side where Brookie had gotten out. She was standing all pretty in pink, white shoes and pink hair clip. Her beautiful big brown eyes looked up at me as she pointed to a mutilated bug on the ground below her.

"Mommy, look at that fly. I got him." (May I add it was much bigger than a fly--I'm thinking grasshopper or cockroach)

Thinking she squashed it with her shoe, I said, "eew! How did you get it?"

She sticks her thumb up in the air. "With my thumb, with my little nail. He can't see now. His head is cut off."

Don't let this innocent face fool you. In this house, no head is safe until properly decapitated with a "little nail."

11 Months!

On Sunday my little man turned 11 months old! To me this is a big milestone. It's the last time you'll always be referring to them in "months". I always get very sentimental about my babies growing up. I just can't help it! While I love each stage, it's hard to let time just fly on by without feeling a little disappointed that it hasn't slowed down a bit. Actually, as I get older, time just seems to go faster!

My little guy has a new nick-name: Nuke (or any variation thereof like Nuker, Nuker Duke, Nukie, etc). It is short for "nuclear bomb", because the havoc he causes is about equivalent to one! :) I love his personality though--he is so different from his sister and it's great because he's such a boy! He's already started terrorizing his sister--latest pastime is pulling her hair. :) He's very good natured and I'm blessed with a very happy baby! He just gets into things and is very busy!
Favorites:

Foods: BREAD! He is SUCH a bread lover! He'll eat it plain or as a sandwich....but he definitely loves bread. :) Other than that, he loves just about anything! He ate half an avocado the other day for lunch, broiled fish and brown rice for dinner last night and he goes through lots of bananas. :) I can't really think of anything he doesn't like. He does little happy dances in his high chair just about every time he eats--yes, he takes after his Mother: he loves to eat!

Toys: Right now, he really loves spoons. Which are not toys, but are easily accessible to him when I'm loading the dishwasher.

People: Joe is such a people person. He smiles and waves hi to just about anyone he sees!

Tricks: Has been crawling since just under 6 months, pulling himself up since 6.5 months, walking along furniture since about 7 months, feeds himself finger foods, waves (9.5 months), and recently started clapping. He's also started copying words like "all done," and it's so cute to hear.
He loves to laugh and wrestle with daddy. Daddy loves having a little boy that he can rough up, and Joey just eats it up! He is so loud--hoping that he funnels his loudness into being a preacher someday. :)

These pictures were taken on Sunday, the day he turned 11 months. He wouldn't sit still for even 1 second so I just got him in action. His green shirt is one I just got a Children's Place for $0.70 cents! Woo Hoo!

Happy 11 Months my little Joseph! I love you little man!!

Night's Alone...

I hate them. Nate is at a boy's camping trip this weekend.

It's 105 degrees with about 100% humidity.

WHO, may I ask, goes CAMPING in TX in the middle of August?

My crazy husband.

Because he loves the boys that he works with in the club ministry. It's their last camp out before school begins. You better believe that those kids were super excited to go sleep in tents, play football, go swimming in the lake and eat food cooked over a fire. I'm pretty sure my man would rather be sleeping in his own bed tonight in the cool air conditioning, but he has chose to sacrifice a little (or A LOT in my eyes) to do something the boys love and to be someone they can look up to as a great example.

Oh, and he brought an air conditioning unit for the tent. Who thinks of that but someone who works in engineering?

So, I'm alone on my Friday night and Saturday, but very happy that Nate can do something like this for the boys! And I tend to take after my Mother in the whole my hubby-is-gone-let's-party mode. :) My sweet MIL took me out to lunch, shopping and Starbucks today. Jason's Deli salad bar--the best! The Children's Place had an extra 20% off clearance, plus I had a 20% off coupon on top of that, plus it's tax free weekend. I paid thrift-store prices for brand new, name brand clothes for Joe! YAY!

After that I picked the kids up, made a gourmet dinner of fish sticks and tomatoes with ranch dressing, ran a mile pushing the kids in the jogger (my second work out for the day--still working off that NY pizza!), baths, jammies, bed for the kiddos, and now I'm going to fold laundry while watching a girlie movie.

And very happy that while my husband ministers, I'm ministering to him by "letting" him go and taking care of my children and house while he's gone.

And since any very random post is better with a picture, here's one from when we were in the Chicago Airport Children's Museum on our 3.5 hour layover on the way home a few weeks ago. If you ever have a long layover, try to plan it there! The museum was perfect for the kids to let out lots of energy, and soon after they took a nice nap in the stroller. :) And it was FREE! :)

Boy V Girl

The differences between boys and girls, or any child for that matter, are so amazing to watch day in and day out. Of course as a Mom, I'm always comparing what Brookie did to what Joey is doing now and whoever said that men and women are the same (?) should watch my kids. They would repent of those beliefs quickly, I assure you.

At 10 months, Brookie wasn't quite crawling yet. She was a bit of a late bloomer. ;) She would sit and play quietly, content to let the world buzz around her while she watched. She didn't put anything in her mouth that wasn't food--not one single time. At bed and nap time she laid down silently and didn't make a peep. I would have to check on her every morning to see when she woke up because she hardly ever cried. She was very serious and not at all a "people person". She would sit in her stroller for hours on end while I shopped, and be pretty happy the whole time.

Joe is a totally different story. At 10 months, he's been crawling since before 6 months. He pulls himself up and walks along the furniture. He yells in between bites of food, demanding more food. He pounds on his high chair and laughs at himself. He wiggles out of the seat belts in the shopping cart, stands up and proceeds to tear clothes from off the racks. He smiles and waves at everyone--very much a people person. He is a big helper: empties all the silverware out of the dishwasher-- all over the house. Spoons are a big favorite to play with right now. He empties my dryer--while I'm putting wet clothes in.

He even empties the trash in my bathroom--all over the floor and proceeds to eat the used q-tips all while I'm trying to get ready for church.

So the part about never putting non-food items in the mouth? Yeah, we don't quite have that one down yet.

A Night at the Park

We LOVE taking walks in the summer and sometimes on nights when it's not too hot, we'll stay at the park for a while. This was Joey's first "real" playground experience--he got to climb all over and loved it. :) Just wanted to share some pictures from the evening.

Me and my lil man

My sweet baby girl--who's not so baby anymore! :(

Daddy is always there to help

Loving it! :)

Climbing everywhere...

I am back home now and settling back into a routine. I have more pictures from various things we did on vacation, but I wanted to play a little catch up first. Night's like these are so special and I like to document them!