11 months old today

We found out today that Crosby needs to get tubes in his ears. He is scheduled to get them next Tuesday morning. Other than his ear issues, this baby boy is doing great. I think he weighs close to 24 pounds! He's getting heavy to carry around, and he doesn't want to be still for very long. I've seen him stand up on his own in the middle of the floor (not holding onto anything) two or three times. He is eating more and more regular food and losing interest in baby food. He'd rather pick up small pieces to feed himself. He had fresh blueberries for the first time this week, and he seemed to like those. He likes to splash in the bathtub, hammer with the toy hammer, dig in the kitchen drawers/cabinets and dump out Bogart's dogfood and water bowls! He has five teeth--three on the bottom and the two top front. There's a big space between his top front teeth, which I think it so cute. :) He's really ticklish and laughs a lot. He takes two naps and sleeps all night. I still give him a late-night bottle, but I'm cutting back on that. I've been doing only a 4 oz. bottle for about a week now, so I'm trying to eliminate it altogether. I think he'd be fine without it, but I actually like going in his room and holding him while he's asleep every night. He's so busy exploring these days that I don't get to hold him as much any more. He doesn't really wake up, just takes the bottle then sleeps on my shoulder and I don't know that I'm ready to give that up. He's so sweet and cuddly. Two nights ago I kissed his cheek after he had his bottle and he laughed in his sleep. :) He can say "Momma" very clearly now and he can say "Da-da" and something that I think means "Bobo" for Bogart. Can't believe his next milestone post will be his FIRST birthday!

We LOVE you, CGG!

Easter cupcakes

No doubt we are rushing the season a little bit, but as I mentioned previously, we are ready for SPRING around here. We made a quick trip into Hobby Lobby earlier this week to get ribbon for Alexee's curtains (post coming soon) and decided to take a quick look at the Easter goodies. We came home with cupcake picks and a marshmallow bunny kit. We will try to make it to at least the first week of March before we use the bunny kit.

We planned to make the cupcakes after school today, but then our sweet neighbor invited R & A over to play for a little while which they were very excited about. They told me I could go ahead and bake the cupcakes but not decorate them. I decorated just four to take to our neighbor when I went to get the kids, but saved the rest for R & A to do.

Alexee's cupcake :)

She liked doing the sprinkles more than the icing.

Mischievous

This one is sweet, cute, funny...and a little mischievous. This morning we were in R's drop-off line at school, frantically searching for belongings before time for him to hop out of the car. Monday we couldn't find his shoes. Today it was his hat. I was looking under yesterday's mail and sifting through coats and gloves and blankets and diaper bags. Rhett was looking under his booster seat, between the seats, behind the seats, etc. No luck. Alexee wasn't saying a word during all of this. So I told him I'd just zip the lining in his coat and he'd have to wear the hood. He didn't really want to do that, but we were out of time. He hopped out and ran for the school door. He wasn't even out of sight yet when Alexee started giggling and said in a playful voice, "Oh, heeeere's his hat! Under me!" I asked her if she'd had that the whole time and she said, "Yes! I was sitting on it!"

This isn't new news to us though. A while back Rhett was in the living room and Alexee was in the kitchen with me. We were about to make cookies, but R wanted us to wait until he finished whatever he was doing before we started the baking.

Alexee called from the kitchen in that same playful voice: Rheeeett, we're making cookies in here!

Rhett: No, wait! Mom, are you!?

Me: No, Rhett. She's just kidding.

Alexee: Yeees, weee aaaare! (giggle giggle)

Rhett: Really?!

Me: NO! Just hurry in here!

When I picked her up from MDO yesterday, her teacher said, "Let me tell you what she did today." They put her nap mat behind the check-in counter/over beside the door because she never goes to sleep. She was being quieter than usual, so the teacher wondered if she might have fallen asleep. She went to take a closer look and found that Alexee was tearing the foam out of her nap-mat pillow, piece by piece, and tossing it under the crack in the classroom door. Another teacher walked by out in the hallway and saw a little pile of foam and stuck her head in the room to see what was going on. Here's what her pillow looks like now:

___________________________________

Well, things can change so quickly with kids. Before I even finished typing the part of the post above, I heard crying on the monitor and rushed to Alexee's room to find that the stomach bug had hit. She'd thrown up all over herself and her bed, blankets and stuffed animals. Lane stripped her bed and put clean sheets on and went to start the laundry while I gave her a shower, washed her hair and got her back in bed and rested beside her. It was a long night, and she's still not feeling good this morning (Friday). Crosby had his ENT doctor appointment at 10:30 today, and I had to take Alexee with us even though I knew it was not the ideal situation for anyone involved. I didn't want to cancel because I was afraid it would take a long time to get back in and C will be done with his antibiotic in a few days and I knew we'd likely have to start the whole infection process all over again. Crosby needs to get tubes, and he is scheduled for that next week. :( We are back home now and both kids are sleeping. Hopefully no one else will catch the bug. If Lane and I don't after the exposure we had to it last night it will be a miracle!

She just NEVER falls asleep on the couch. Bless her heart.

Wishing for spring

I guess I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately. We've been busy with every day routine type stuff, but nothing big that has really inspired me to take pictures and post. Maybe it's part of the spring fever that has hit our house. I've been SO happy to see Easter candy/etc. on the shelves at Kroger, Target, Fresh Market, etc.. I was in Target today and I think they were clearing out space at the back for their patio furniture and lawn stuff!

So here are just a few recent pictures:

On Sunday, Rhett wanted me to take his picture by the computer for an ID badge that he was planning to make. He asked me if I'd take his picture right after church "while he was still dressed up".

Alexee wanted her picture made by the computer too--just for fun. I don't think she cared anything about an ID badge.

And just for more fun, she arranged the pillows on the floor and jumped off the couch over and over yesterday. She wanted me to jump with her, but I told her I'd be the photographer. (I know--probably not the best/safest thing to let her do, but I did.) She thought her hair was so funny when she looked at this first picture.

Last Friday I could tell that Crosby didn't feel very well. He was fussy and he hadn't taken good naps for two days, which is unusual for him. His nose was running again, and I suspected his ear infection was back. So I took him to the doctor Friday after picking Rhett up from school, and he did have a double ear infection. He started another round of medicine and our pediatrician said it was time to see an ENT doctor. Thankfully, the only health issue C has had at all has been ear infections, but we've been dealing with those since late October. We have an ENT appointment later this week. This picture was a the pediatrician's office--Rhett was pretending to be the doctor and look in C's ears.

He seems to be feeling better now. One of his favorite toys right now is this little hammer. He's so cute "fixing" things. He's trying to stand up by himself in the middle of the floor now, and he did let go of the dishwasher and stand without holding onto anything for just a few seconds last weekend.

Alexee has been coloring and using her Disney princess watercolor set a lot the last few days. Rhett asked if I could get him a new box of crayons and markers for school, so at Target today I bought a few new supplies for him and a new box of twistable crayons for Alexee. They colored together for a long time after school this afternoon (without fighting!). I think they look alike in this picture below. (Alexee is convinced that this purple bow matches this outfit perfectly. She likes to choose her own bows now. I'm glad she likes to wear them because there was a time when she would not leave one in her hair, but I wish she'd take a little bit of matching advice!?)
As a little reminder that spring isn't too far away, I bought a "spring mix" bouquet at the grocery store today. I love fresh flowers--they're so cheerful!
This is Parent/Teacher conference week, and I met with R's teacher yesterday right after school. I packed snacks for all three kids and had them sit in the hallway where I could see (hear) them. Miss J says that R is doing great and is ready for the 1st grade! (I'm not ready for that though!)

Phone Photos #6

Two months of miscellaneous photos:

Alexees doesn't play with dolls very much yet, but she loves to arrange her stuffed animals, tuck them in, give them books (below), etc. I like to see what she comes up with. She told me yesterday that she had to tuck her animals in her bed because they were all "berry berry sleepy".

I'm not sure when this was, but I like the picture of them together! How blessed I am to have this precious family!
We got C this soft, blue coat for Christmas. He is so snuggly in it!

Cute cute cute!

Rhett and Alexee peeking out the playroom window one morning when we woke up to snow.
I found this one day when I opened up a little notepad to get a sheet of paper. I don't know when he wrote it--maybe one night when we had a babysitter or something? It made my day though. :) Sweet boy--I hope he will always write me notes!
R doesn't mind going to the dentist at all. He had an appointment last week for a regular check up. We stayed in the waiting room for most of his visit. Alexee finally got curious and wanted to go see him, but he was almost done. The hygienist said he was really good and talked so big. They let him borrow sunglasses because of the bright light. They also told him that he has a loose tooth, which he was very excited about!
Crosby in one of my favorite pair of PJs (used to be Rhett's). They're so soft and cozy. This was R's wooden train when he was a baby, too. All three kids have enjoyed playing with it.
The quality of this picture is really bad--it was really dark in the restaurant, but it seems like we have very few pictures of us together so I wanted to include this. We celebrated an early Valentine's dinner date last Friday night, and this was while we were waiting for a table. The food was great, as always. We love Loca Luna's cheese dip!
I used the curling iron on A's hair Sunday morning for church. I told her she looked like Cinderella (or "Cinde-gorilla" as she calls her). Although it's out of focus, I love this picture of her laughing with her little curls and painted nails on Valentine's day. What fun to have a little girl!
Sunday afternoon we all played with blocks.
Monday was President's Day, and R & A had school (wasn't originally scheduled as a school day, but they used it as a snow make-up day). Lane did not have school/work (he started a new rotation--psychiatry--on Tuesday), so we were able to spend the day together! Lane's parents actually came to visit, so they even kept Crosby for us. It was a fun day! We ate lunch, I made a quick trip into the fabric store for samples for Alexee's curtains, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a comforter for A's big girl bed, browsed through Best Buy, picked up the kids from school, took them back home to visit with Grammy and Bobba, then we went to Starbucks for an afternoon coffee. It was bitter cold outside, so it was a perfect afternoon treat!
We made one more stop at Fresh Market for a few things. Lane at the coffee bean station:

Here are the samples I brought home for A's curtains. I decided to go with the stripe for the panels and the white dot (fourth sample down on right) for the valance. I'll hopefully get these finished over the weekend.
Today Crosby and I took Bogart in for his 6 wk. post-surgery check-up. Thankfully he's doing great. C was good company to him while we waited for the vet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you have a sweet Valentine's Day!

Rhett's Valentine Party

Rhett's class had their Valentine party yesterday afternoon. Lane had a test in the morning and got home before noon, so he kept A & C. It was a nice little break to get to go alone to celebrate with R's class.

Rhett's class had a create-your-own-Valentine-mailbox competition...and Rhett's monster mailbox won FIRST PRIZE! :) (A special thanks to MK for her idea to check out www.familyfun.com!) Here's his box and valentines:

We had fun at the party!

He won a box of chocolates as his prize.

The also had heart-shaped rice crispy treats, sugar cookies and juice boxes.

The kids gave Miss J her belated birthday gift (her birthday was on one of the snow days), and she asked for a GROUP HUG!!!