Look How Much I've Grown - 6 months

It was bound to happen sooner or later; I forgot to take a picture of Bear at six months with his big number six that the boys so awesomely colored. Here's a cute picture of him anyway. Big milestones for Bear at six months include getting his first tooth and sitting up! He is also rapidly becoming mobile. I don't know that he's officially crawling yet, but he can get from point A to point B pretty quickly - especially if he's after the remote control. Bear smiles, laughs, and yells pretty loud. Sometimes he likes to chat too. He loves toys and books and brothers. I tried to feed him a little banana the other day and he was not impressed. He is still a terrible sleeper at night, but we're holding out hope. At his six-month checkup he weighed 15 lbs 14 oz and was 26.5" tall - still the biggest but not quite as far in the lead as he has been! Kodiak attack!

Boss paints

Boss had fun trying out the new fingerpaint he got for his birthday...silly boy!

Five months!

I tried - I really did - to choose just one picture, but since there were 52 from my photo shoot that I decided were worth keeping, there was no way I could only share one.

At five months old, Bear still has blue eyes! I think by now all the other kids were decidedly brown, so I might have a blue-eyed boy after all! His monumental five-month accomplishment was rolling over from tummy to back. (And he figured out the reverse roll pretty quickly after that.) He is very interested in toys now, you know, like empty boxes, nose drops, tissues, sunglasses... He loves his brothers and is always watching them to see what they are doing. And he's just the happiest little guy (except between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.) and is so sweet. Love you little Bear!

The big three

Nono turned three! We looked forward to that little guy's birthday for a good month. He chose to have a froggy party, which I was grateful for because that meant no crazy cake to try to make. Ain't nobody got time for that! Since his birthday was on a Sunday, his celebration started early with the traditional Toys 'R' Us trip on Saturday so he could cash in his three dollar gift card from Geoffrey the Giraffe. He picked himself up a nice purple bouncy ball along with the customary birthday balloon and crown. While that probably would've been enough celebrating for Nono, we went ahead and had more partying on his actual birthday. We had games, food, presents, fun, and family - all the things necessary for a great third birthday!

We played pin the fly on the frog...

Even the grown-ups (and their mustaches) had a go!

Nono was not a fan of having his eyes covered up. So he cried. 

And then he pinned his fly on the frog with the blindfold tied just above his eyes!

We also did an origami frog game. But where's Nono...?

Oh right, he didn't want anything to do with the origami frog game and set about assembling a Hot Wheels track himself. Stubborn!

He got back on board the party train though when we had a lily pad relay race outside.

I think he likes his froggy cupcakes! Whew!

One of my favorite pictures - whose birthday is it???

Opening presents was so exciting - for all of the kids! Star Wars t-shirt!

Look at that little face!

There's some good paper-ripping action!

I just like this picture because of the cascade of little faces trying to see what's inside!

Most appropriate gift since we call Nono "Boss" half of the time.

And this was probably the most popular gift. We had over 20 airplanes made in the first three days.

Nono, you are still, and probably always will be, the boss. You are a sweet little ray of sunshine and also a sassy little ball of emotions. You love to copy what your brothers are saying and doing, which is hilarious. You wrestle with everybody. You start a lot of "fights" and know how to push your big brother's buttons. You are happy and have the cutest little voice and inflection when you talk. Even though your meltdowns are more frequent than not lately, you are a happy little guy. You love to snuggle and hug. You are a good big brother to Bear. You have an independent streak and like to do as much as you can by yourself. You are very sensitive and get your feelings hurt quite easily. You are very afraid of bugs and thunder and fireworks. You sleep sideways entirely on your pillow (as if it were a little mattress). You aren't a great eater, but are often more willing than your brothers to try something new. You are a little monkey and we love you so, so much little man! Happy birthday!

All righty, then

What a wild hairdo! But the Ace Ventura look fits this little animal lover perfectly!

Dad's day

Just a little shout out to the best dad four little boys could have - Happy Father's Day!

It always ends like this....

Pals

The key of D

D had another piano recital in June. I love recitals even though it is probably more stressful for me than D! He played Musette by Bach and The Imperial March from Star Wars and did a really good job!

 On our way to the recital

D busting out some major Star Wars music

All of the kids who performed with D

T-ball '13

This was Lt's first year of t-ball! He's our little lefty (hitter) and he had some big hits! He wasn't quite as into the games as D was, but I think he still had a fun season.

In the outfield he wasn't very aggressive - t-ball tends to be a contact sport in the outfield!

Every chance he got he was sitting with us, eating snacks, watching the game he was supposed to be playing in (while D kept asking if he could go play on Lt's team)!! We had to force him to get back in the game!

Waiting...wishing he had a snack...waiting...wishing he had a snack...waiting...

My favorite t-ball picture of the season - look at that smile!!

Baseball '13

This was D's first year of machine pitch baseball - no more t-ball! I think he liked it a ton more than t-ball but would've liked it even better if his dad had been pitching to him! We took about 500 pictures of his games, so here are the highlights for the season. He batted 1.000!

 

 

 

 

When you gotta go, you gotta go...