Happy Memorial Day!

It was another busy weekend at our house, but a nice way to kick off summer.  On Friday, we spent the majority of the day at Boone's 12-month photo session.  Saturday was mostly a day of chores, plus we cooked a nice dinner for us and also for some friends down the street who just had their first baby.  On Sunday, we hit the pool at the YMCA for the first time.  It was opening weekend, and it was Boone's very first time in the Y pool.  He went to the pool tons of times last summer, but since he was a newborn, he was never able to get in the pool.  So the two of us watched Fenn and daddy from the shade.  Anyway, Boone loved it and enjoyed practicing the skills he learned in his swim lessons.  He did pretty good walking around the baby pool, but still needs a little help keeping his balance.  And Fenn loved it, too.  He actually wanted to spend most of his time in the big pool, so he and daddy practiced his swimming skills quite a bit.  The first photo above was taken right after we got the boys out of the pool.  Check out their shriveled up feet!  And here are a few more photos from the afternoon.

Boone walking around in one of those 'blue jean' diapers... so cute!

Fenn playing tug-of-war with daddy and a 'noodle'.

And on Monday, we had thought about going hiking.  But it ended up raining for about half the day.  So we went to Waffle House for breakfast and rode around for a while so Boone could get a little cat nap.  Later in the day, I took the boys for a walk while daddy cut the grass.  And then we headed to the backyard to play for a little while before dinner.

For some odd reason, Boone really loves getting on the dog beds.  Here he is on one of the dog beds outside.  {But he also loves climbing up on Petey's bed in our bedroom.  When Petey sees / hears Boone coming, he'll get up and out of the way.  Then he'll sit on the floor staring at Boone as if he's trying to will him off of his bed.}

And Fenn started doing this very strange thing.  He would turn around and lean over while saying, "booty, booty, booty".  And he would giggle with delight afterward. 

Celebrating Five Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our 5th anniversary.  To say we've been busy is an understatement.  We started off by getting married less than a year and a half after starting to date.  Before we even got married, we were working on a minor remodel of my house in Georgia.  And right before we got married, we decided to embark on an adventure in Knoxville, TN.  Dan had worked for WestPoint Stevens textile manufacturing company (where we met) for approximately 15 years in various accounting positions (tax, internal audit, assistant controller, etc.).  And the time had come to get out of textiles.  So Dan had started interviewing some.  He also started entertaining the idea of taking up an old friend on a standing-offer of being her partner in her accounting firm in Knoxville.  He was extremely interested in the thought of being his own boss and being a business owner... and never having to go through the interview process again.
** Yes, that's a coconut in my hands!

Knoxville, here we come!  We listed the house with a real estate agent in early July and headed to Knoxville to look at houses.  Within an hour of putting a sign in our front yard, our agent had an offer and called us while we were looking at houses in Knoxville!  By the end of August, we had closed the deal on yet another fixer-upper, which we did not want.  But we tried and tried to find a newer house that would work for us and just couldn't find it in the area where we were looking.  So we immediately started work on remodeling our 1959 basement rancher.  And 5 years later, we're still working on it.  But things have slowed down a bit due to babies, lack of time, and lack of money!

In the midst of everything we had going on, such as being newlyweds, living in a new city, Dan essentially starting a new career, me adjusting to life away from family and friends and working from home, we decided to start a family.  Due to our ages, we really didn't have the luxury of waiting and just enjoying being married for a while.  Sadly, our first two pregnancies ended in early miscarriages.  So we started seeing a great fertility specialist and found out the problem ~ I have a blood clotting disorder.  Or in medical terms, I have one of the causes (PAI-1 - Homozygote (4G/4G)) of thrombophilia, which is a disorder of the blood coagulation (clotting) mechanism which tilts the balance toward too much tendency to form or maintain blood clots.  And it is a cause of recurrent miscarriage {which doctors just discovered in the last 7 or 8 years}.  Anyway, I'm talking about this in case anyone experiencing recurrent miscarriages happens to come across this.  We consider ourselves very fortunate because my condition is highly treatable.  I can get pregnant without a problem.  In fact, for all 4 pregnancies, I got pregnant the 2nd month we tried.  My problem is that I can't stay pregnant without some help.  In the early part of the pregnancy, I have to take progesterone.  And I also have to do blood thinner injections in my belly (Lovenox shots) throughout my entire pregnancy.  But again, we consider ourselves very fortunate that's all we have to do to be blessed with a baby.  And now we have two beautiful baby boys.  And they are worth everything I had to go through to get them.

So here we are 5 years later... parents to a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 year old.  Happy 5th Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Dan!  Further proof as to how busy we are is the fact that I forgot to buy an anniversary card for my husband.  A couple of weeks ago, I went shopping for the many, many cards I needed for all the occasions we have in the month of May and somehow I forgot an anniversary card!  So I found a 'backup' Valentine's Day card I've had in a drawer for a couple of years and used that.  Sorry honey!  But as Dan said, it is fitting in regards to where we are in our lives right now.       

And to Peter Island Resort, British Virgin Islands... we'll see you again in 5 years for our 10th anniversary!  One way or another, we're getting back there.  Oh, and to those who remember the contest where I was trying to win a Signe Grushovenko painting of me with my two brothers.  I didn't win the contest... someone else's painting got more votes.  But my very sweet husband did buy the painting for me as an anniversary present.  So now I'm the proud owner of a Signe painting.  And believe me, it is much prettier in person.  But here's a photo of it.  Thank you honey!  Now I want another one of her paintings.  {Signe and her husband, Genna, own 'Artists in Residence' in LaGrange, GA.  Check out their website by clicking here.}

Boone at Twelve Months Old

This is Boone at Twelve Months.  This is the twelfth (and last) installment in the "12-month onesie" series.  Hooray!  Now I can go back and edit / clean up all the photos of Fenn and Boone and get them framed.  I'm pretty proud of myself for seeing this project through to the end.  If you would like to see all twelve of Boone's photos, look over in the right-hand column of the blog under 'More Photos of Fenn and Boone' and click on 'Boone's 12-Month Onesie Photos'.

Wow!  It has been a busy month for Boone.  First of all the obvious... he turned ONE!  And he is a full-fledged walker now.  He was starting to take a couple of steps last month.  By late April, he was taking 8 or 9 steps at a time.  And by the time of his birthday party on May 8th, he was walking all through the house.  So he was just a little ahead of Fenn with his walking, because Fenn was only walking a little by the time he turned one, but was a full-fledged walker by Christmas a couple of weeks later.

Something kind of funny that he does is when we put him in the Johnny Jump Up bouncer thingy, he will get the thing spinning around and around and around.  The whole time, he'll be looking down at the floor.  And when he gets it to stop, you can tell he's dizzy!  I really need to get that on video sometime before he stops doing it.

We're having major issues with real food.  He is just not interested in eating anything with any kind of texture... no lumps or bumps.  So we're still having to feed him baby food.  Even some of the stage 3 baby foods have too much texture for him.  And it is driving us crazy because trying to feed him textured foods is miserable.  He shakes his head and bats his hands at the spoon the whole time.  It ends up being a big 'ole mess!  And we're really ready to get rid of all the baby food.  We are starting to have a little luck with teething biscuits, though.  Oh, and strangely enough, he doesn't seem to have a problem picking up a doggie treat from Petey's bowl and putting that up to his mouth!  Of course, they do look very similar to his teething biscuits!

On the other hand, things are progressing when it comes to getting rid of formula and bottles.  We're on our last container of formula and when it's gone, he'll be on 100% organic whole milk and drinking it cold from a sippy cup versus warm from a bottle.  We've been gradually increasing the proportion of milk to formula for several weeks now.

Boone did have his first taste of ice cream over the weekend.  And he apparently liked it because he kept coming back for more!

As far as playing, he has started stacking things like blocks and cups.  However, he seems to get more joy out of knocking things over... especially when it is something Fenn is trying to build.  He also likes throwing things... anything he can get his hands on.  And he actually has a pretty good throwing arm.  Maybe his cousin Jesse can teach him a thing or two about pitching.  One funny thing he does is when he's about to get his nighttime bottle.  If he has a paci in his mouth as I'm about to sit down to give him his bottle, and he sees his bottle, he'll yank the paci out of his mouth and throw it across the room.  Once he sees his bottle, that's it!

I don't have his 12-month pediatrician stats yet.  That appointment is not until next week.  But he weighs just over 23 lbs. now.  I know this because I have taken him to the doctor once a week for the past 3 or 4 weeks now.  We've had 2 bouts of pink eye and another ear infection.

Lastly, Boone completed his first swim lessons.  Well, sort of.  He did great and loves the water.  Just like Fenn last year, he never cried one time.  He was going under water during the very first lesson.  But, he missed 2 out of 5 lessons.  The first one he missed because of his birthday party.  Then we were going to make it up another day, but he had pink eye.  Then he missed the last lesson over the weekend because of having pink eye again and an ear infection.  So I only have photos from the very first lesson.  But I'll be sure to get lots of photos of him at the pool this summer. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Boone!

Since Boone's birthday party was last weekend, we only had a mini celebration today.  Fenn had a swim lesson this morning and then Boone had one this afternoon.  So that, along with naps, took up most of the day.  At 1:08 p.m., I was holding Boone in my lap as he was about to fall asleep for his afternoon nap, and we were listening to 'Georgia On My Mind' from the Ray soundtrack.  That's what was playing when Boone was born at 1:08 p.m. a year ago. 

But right before that, Fenn was napping and Dan and I were eating lunch in the family room while Boone was jumping in his Johnny Jump Up.  I noticed it got quiet all of a sudden, and when I turned to look at him, this is what I found.  And he rarely ever falls asleep like this... 

He must have really been tired.  So it was right after this that we gave Boone a bottle and listened to his special song.  And then he went down for his afternoon nap.  Once he got up, it was time for his swim lesson.  When we got home, it was bath time, dinner time, and then cupcakes and presents.  By the time all of that was over, it was bedtime.  But of course, Boone had to play with his new giraffe ride-on toy for a few minutes.  I actually tried to get a decent picture of him riding it in the house, but between our horrible lighting and Fenn trying to take the giraffe from Boone, it wasn't happening.  So I picked up Boone and took him outside for a quick photo.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Boone!  Mommy, Daddy, Fenn, and Petey love you very much! 

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub... Two Boys in a Tub

On Mother's Day night, we decided it was time to let the boys take a bath together for the first time.  I'll just let the photos do the talking.

Fenn would do this...

And Boone would do this...

And then Fenn would do this...

A little round of 'tub wrestling'...

And lots of splashing...

And then Fenn tried on big boy underwear for the first time.

My Third Mother's Day

Our big weekend continued today, first with Mother's Day presents from Fenn, Boone, and Dan.  Hard to believe it is only my 3rd Mother's Day and I already have 2 precious little boys.  Dan and Fenn went to Dunkin Donuts to pick up some 'treats' because Fenn loves donut holes.  They also brought me one of those yummy egg white and turkey sausage breakfast sandwiches.  The boys got me a reed diffuser from Pier One Imports.  Dan said Fenn picked out the scent, Island Orchard.  And Dan gave me this necklace (click on the link to see a photo), except of course the charms are engraved with 'Fenn' and 'Boone'.

We didn't take the time to cook a big breakfast because we had to get busy building the new playground set, generously donated to us by Debbie and Mark (Dan's sister and brother-in-law).  Dan's dad and Mark were coming over early to start working on it.  It ended up taking a little longer than we had anticipated because the ground wasn't as level as it needed to be.  Darn those east Tennessee hilly yards!  They got most of it done, but the rest will have to wait because everyone needed to get on the road.  Dan can finish it next weekend.  They got enough done to allow the kids to play on it for a while.  Fenn was so excited.  Ever since we told him about it, he's been talking about it almost non-stop.  He would wake up in the mornings and the first thing out of his mouth when we walked in his room would be "I get playground set."  He would even ask for the catalog with the picture of it and walk around all over the house with it.  And once we started working on leveling a spot for the playground, he wanted to walk outside and look at it all the time.

After everyone left, we did our annual Mother's Day photos by the sugar maple tree in our front yard.  We planted it when we re-landscaped the front a  few years ago and plan to do a photo each year on Mother's Day.  It should be interesting to see how fast the boys grow and how fast (or slow) the tree grows.

Then it was time to head inside for bath time.  I'll be doing a post about that next.  We let the boys take a bath together for the first time.  Let's just say there was a lot of splashing and a lot of giggling!  And watching them have so much fun was the perfect ending to a very special Mother's Day and a very fun birthday party weekend spent with our family. 

Boone's 1st Birthday Party

Today, we celebrated Boone's 1st birthday a week early.  His actual birthday is the 15th.  But I think I've decided to always have the party BEFORE the actual birthday as opposed to having it on whatever weekend falls AFTER the actual birthday.  Because what I've found is if the party is after the actual birthday, the actual 'day' comes and goes without much fanfare because we're so busy getting ready for the party (last minute preparations, cleaning the house, running errands, shopping, etc.).  This way, the party is out of the way, and we can enjoy the actual birthday as a family and make a really big deal of the whole day.

The theme of the party was giraffes.  I kept it simple since only family would be attending.  We had cake, ice cream, nuts, chips, pretzels, and M&M's (or as Fenn says, 'yummy yums').  {I actually think Fenn ate the majority of that bag of 'yummy yums'... I think that's his favorite candy ever since he discovered them at his 2nd birthday party.}  And then later, we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs.  The 'fixin's' included baked beans and a strawberry salad with sugared pecans.

We had lots of family here, including both sets of grandparents (Grami & Poppy and Grandma & Granddad).  My brother, Greg, and his whole family drove up from Birmingham for the day.  Tucker and Griffin even skipped their games so they could come to the party.  Dan's sister, Debbie, and her whole family came from Mooresville, NC.  We were so happy to have so much family here and know it will mean so much to Boone one day when he looks back at the photos of his party.  Thank you all so much for making the trip!  We had so much fun having you here.

Boone just got changed into his special birthday outfit and is walking down the hall to make his grand entrance.

A photo outside before getting his outfit dirty.

Getting ready to blow out the candle.  Fenn actually blew it out for him.

And then Fenn put his face in Boone's smash cake.  All he wanted was the icing.

Trying one of the giraffe's ears.

Family shot.

Funny face.

He didn't get very messy with the cake.  He did put his hands in it a little, but I don't think he ever got any in his mouth.  For some reason, we cannot get him to eat real food... basically anything with texture.  If we put anything in his mouth besides pureed baby food, he makes himself gag and spits it out of his mouth.  I sure hope he isn't going to be one of those babies with texture issues.  We're ready for him to start eating some big people food.

Opening presents with a little help from his big brother.

We got him a Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair to match Fenn's.  He immediately crawled up and sat down, grabbed his TV remote, and was ready to watch some TV... snotty nose and drool covered chin and all.

Cousins from Birmingham ~ Polly, Griffin, and Audrey.  They had been playing ball out in the front yard. Sort of a glimpse into our future... watching Fenn and Boone play ball out there someday.

The boys with the Osborne's from Birmingham (L to R):  Tucker, Fenn, Griffin, Greg, Boone, Tanya.  And on front row:  Audrey and Polly.

The boys with Grandma and Granddad.

The boys with Grami and Poppy and also cousins, Piper and Sydney.

The boys with the Loebach's from Mooresville (L to R): Piper, Debbie, Mark, Boone.  And on the front row:  Fenn and Sydney.

And one last photo before we called it a day.  It was past Boone's dinnertime and approaching his bedtime so he was tired and hungry.  And he did not want to be put down on the grass.  But I still think it's a cute photo... even with him crying.  And look at Fenn's bright blue eyes!

There are tons more photos from the party if you want to see them.  Look over in the right-hand column of the blog under 'More Photos of Fenn and Boone' and then click on the link to 'Boone's 1st Birthday Party'.   

Looking Forward

Today, we installed the new carseats in mommy's car and Boone got his first ride facing forward.  We actually moved Fenn's seat to daddy's car so that both cars will have matching seats.  We're a little early since he's not quite 1 yet, but he weighs about 23 lbs.  We think he was a little stunned and confused at first.  When we first started riding, he seemed to be taking it all in.  He was very quiet, just looking out the window.  Eventually, he started smiling and talking like his usual self, which prompted Fenn to talk even more and even louder.  Uh oh... we're thinking the days of a quiet ride are completely over now.  By the time we got home, we couldn't even hear each other over the voices of our two little beans.