Our Little Cutie Pie

I'm just posting this photo because I think it's so cute!

And this one, too! 

My Little Stinker!

Today I had to pick up the boys early from school because of the impending snow storm.  I was letting Boone explore and play on his own in the family room while I was in the next room.  I heard something go "Bang!" and went to see what it was.  This is what I found.  He had crawled over to the bookshelf and pulled off a photo of Petey.  Somehow the back of the frame had opened and everything had fallen out.  And Boone was chewing on the photo!  Guess it's time to babyproof a few areas again.  Although I don't like to do too much babyproofing, because I would rather teach them what is okay to play with and what is not okay to play with.  {The quality of this photo is horrible, but I had to snap it fast to catch the shot!}

Big Brother, Little Brother

Just thought I would do a quick post with these photos.  I thought the first one was so cute because of how Boone is peeking over the ottoman at me.

And I like the 2nd photo even though Fenn's eyes are closed.  They were being so sweet sitting there next to each other.

Just a Little Off the Top! {actually, the side}

I just couldn't take it any longer.  Boone has had this one little section of really long hair above his left ear.  It just hangs down and looks awful.  I was trying my best to wait until time for his first real haircut.  I kept trying to tuck it behind his ear, but it just wouldn't stay.  It always had to rear its ugly head.  So I finally broke down and had to cut that one little piece.  It's a Saturday afternoon.  Dan is at work.  Fenn is napping.  And Boone and I are playing in the family room.  It's a good time for a little mini haircut session.

Check out those teeth!   

Our Little Beast

Back in November, I decided to sign Fenn up for a class at The Little Gym.  They call his age group 'Beasts'.  I'm going to keep this simple and just say this child absolutely loves going to The Little Gym.  And to make it even better, his friend from school, Ella Kate, is in the same class.  He seems to talk about Ella Kate much more than any other friend from school.  Whenever we say something about going to Little Gym, Fenn says, "EK go Little Gym."  {Somewhere along the way, the teachers at school started calling Ella Kate 'EK' to simplify it for the other kids.  But I have been trying really hard to break Fenn of that habit.  I know Ella Kate's mom really wants her to be called by her actual name instead of it being shortened to initials.}  And Fenn can say her name quite well!
.: Swinging on the bar.

.: Nice dismount!

.: Playing with his friend, Ella Kate.

We even have our own song about Little Gym.  Dan made it up to the tune of 'Jingle Bells'.  And Fenn sings it all the time.  It goes...

Little Gym, Little Gym, we like Little Gym...
We get to tummmm-ble and do somersaults, Hey!
Little Gym, Little Gym, we like Little Gym...
We get to tummmm-ble and do somersaults.

Climbing the rock wall, sliding down the back...
Unnnn-even bars, jumping on the mat...
Playing with our friends...
Hanging from the rings...
What fun it is to jump and play at Little Gym today...
Ohhhh....

Little Gym, Little Gym... we like Little Gym...
We get to tummmm-ble and do somersaults, Hey!
Little Gym, Little Gym... we like Little Gym...
We get to tummmm-ble and do soooo-merrrrr-saultssssss!  {big ending there!}

.: This next series of photos is from the uneven bars with the teacher, Mr. Todd.  Fenn loved doing this!

.: Check out Ella Kate in the background {pink shirt} of this next one.  She's airborne!  She's fearless... that's why Fenn likes her so much.  Well... one of the reasons.  She's pretty cute, too!

.: Future little 'Beast'.

.: If you'll notice, Fenn is swinging his arms side to side here.  Right after I took this photo, Fenn knocked Boone up-side the head.  Boone didn't even flinch!  Guess he's getting used to it.

So anyway, last night was their 'graduation' and that meant Dan and Boone got to come along and watch.  The kids got to demonstrate some of their new skills.  And at the end of the night, they had a little ribbon ceremony.  {Sorry for some of the bad photos.  I was using my "not so great" zoom lens that I would like to replace with a better one.  This one doesn't do so great in low-light/bad-light situations.}

It has been lots of fun taking Fenn to Little Gym, just the two of us.  It is our special thing we do together one night a week.  He loved it so much that we signed up for the new semester.  And Ella Kate is in this class, too.  Fenn calls her "My EK!".  So sweet!  {Her mommy might have something to say about that.}

We Have a Crawler... Let the Fun Begin!

We now have a full-fledged crawler on our hands.  He's been threatening to crawl for a few weeks now.  And a couple of times, he has even managed to move a few inches.  But now it's a real crawl.  I took these photos last night.  Elmo Live was enough incentive to make him move.  Good thing Elmo is pretty tough because Boone thinks it is fun to tackle him and listen to him say, "Uh oh... Elmo fell down.  Can you help Elmo up please?"

He can also do this now.  Won't be long until he figures out how to pull up to a stand.

Boone at Eight Months Old

This is Boone at Eight Months.  This is the eighth installment in the "12-month onesie" series.  Boone continues to learn and grow at lightning speed.  He's not quite  crawling yet... but oh so close!  He figured out how to get from a lying down position to a sitting up position.  And that lead to being able to grab onto the rail of the crib, pull up on his knees, and look over the top.  He has been pretty proud of that accomplishment, too!  He also got his first two teeth on January 1st and 2nd.  Just like Fenn... one came in one day, and the other one came in the next day.

As usual, you can see all the "12-month onesie" photos by looking over in the right-hand column under "More Photos of Fenn and Boone" and clicking on the link to "Boone's 12-Month Onesie Photos".

Here's one more photo.  Taking these monthly photos is not so easy any more.  While I'm up on the ladder, Boone decides he doesn't want to lie on his back any longer and rolls over.  Then I have to get down, put him back on his back, climb back up the ladder, and try to take more photos.

What's Going on with Fenn?

On the 6th of this month, Fenn went in for his 2 Year Visit with his Pediatrician.
These are his stats at 2 Years Old (really 25 months):
Weight: 28 lbs. 10 oz. (55th %)
Length: 35.75" (85th %)
Head: 49.5 cm (70th %)

Compare this to his stats at 18 Months Old:
Weight: 26 lbs. 11 oz. (59th %)
Length: 33" (67th %)
Head: 48.4 cm (66th %)

If you'll notice, he's undergone quite a growth spurt since June.  He grew almost 3 inches in 7 months and is now in the 85th percentile!  Here's some more stuff about what's going on with Fenn these days:

:: He has known his colors for several months now... and I mean all of them.  Even shades of a color {like light blue vs. dark blue}.  Blue is 'boo', orange is now 'oh wange' (quite an improvement from 'onnkph' from a few months ago), green is 'geen', purple is 'puh puhl'.

:: He knows many of his shapes, including pentagon, oval, rectangle, and diamond.

:: He knows his right from his left... most of the time.

:: He likes saying the blessing before meals.  His version is "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food... Amen!"

:: He regularly exclaims "I did it" or "I made that" in reference to something he drew, colored, or made at school.

:: He loves to color and play with Play-Doh.

:: A favorite thing to do at the moment is to move piles of toys (cars, trucks, airplanes, stuffed animals) from one room to another or from one spot to another spot.  Then he'll move them again.  In December, he moved every single ball out of his inflatable castle ball pit to his pop-up tent... one at a time.  I was exhausted just watching him.  But at least it kept him occupied for a while and all I had to do was sit there and watch.  Hey, I'll take a break anyway I can get it!

:: Which brings me to his love of playing with all things 'transportation' related:  cars, trucks, airplanes, tractors, trains, etc.

:: He is becoming more and more independent these days.  Sometimes he won't let us read a book to him.  He'll take it and say, "I read it."  Then he'll sit down with it and start flipping through the pages, talking about what he sees on each page.  He has also started picking out his clothes or his shoes occasionally.  He even tries to dress himself sometimes, mostly limited to pulling up his pants or putting on his jacket or shoes.  And, he likes to brush his teeth himself.  Oh, and he likes to climb up into his high chair and carseat himself.  We actually bought him a booster seat to use at the table, but he still prefers to sit in the high chair (which we need for Boone) for some strange reason.

:: We started taking him to The Little Gym on Wednesday nights back in November.  That is by far one of his favorite things to do ever!  Sometimes when he wakes up, the first thing he says is "Fenn go to Little Gym".  They were closed for 2 weeks over the holidays and he almost drove us crazy talking about going again.

:: He loves to sing and knows several songs.  Over the holidays, his favorites were 'Jingle Bells', 'Frosty the Snowman', and 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.  Then daddy made up a song about Little Gym to the tune of Jingle Bells (Little Gym, Little Gym, we like Little Gym.  We get to tum-ble and do somersaults, Hey!...).  Now he sings that all the time, and he sometimes blends together the words from both songs.  Poor kid... he's going to be so confused about what the real words are to so many songs because his daddy is constantly making up new words to common tunes.

:: His favorite shows are Little Einsteins, Barney and Friends, and a new one called Chuggington.

:: Some favorite books at the moment are Raindrop, Plop, Momma, Will You?, Llama Llama Misses Momma, Little Loon and Papa, Your Kind of Mommy, and My First Read and Learn Bible.  Ironically, most of those books were sent to Fenn courtesy of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, an awesome program we have here in Knoxville that sends a book to each child every month from birth to age 5.  All you have to do is sign them up for the program.

:: And he has recently started asking questions like "What that?", "What are you doing?" and "Where did ____ go?"  {A recent example of that last one occurred when we got to The Little Gym one night and the first thing he said was, "Where rock wall go?"  They change out the equipment and props each week and he doesn't understand why the rock wall is not always out.}

Sorry for the multitude of bullet points.  If I were a better writer, I would have figured out how to weave all of that into a cute and clever little story.

Still trying to Catch Up the Blog!

I am still working on catching up my blog.  I had gotten so far behind starting back in mid-November, and then it kept getting worse.  I thought I would have it caught up by now, but once I started going back through all my photos, I realized I had more I wanted to include on the blog than I thought.  I realize most people won't take the time to go back and read or look at the posts.  But that's really not what it's about for me anyway.  This is where I document our lives.  This is Fenn's baby book.  This is Boone's baby book.  And one day I'm actually going to find time to convert the blog into a hardbound book using Blurb.com.  My plan is to do a Volume 1 that starts right before Fenn's birth and cuts off right before Boone's birth.  That's about a year and a half of our lives.  Then I'll have a Volume 2 that begins with Boone's birth in May 2009 and cuts off at the end of 2010.  After that, I'll cut them off at the end of each calendar year.

So anyway, I finally got November caught up.  There are several new posts interspersed throughout the month, going all the way back to November 8th.  And keep checking back for several posts I intend to do for the month of December (including Fenn's birthday party, Christmas, and a few more).  In the meantime, here's a funny picture of Fenn from this morning before school.  He woke up a little after 6:00 a.m. and the first thing he did was sit down on the floor and start trying to put on his shoes.  His dad helped him.  A little later when I came into the room, this is what I found....  Fenn sitting on the sofa watching Imagination Mover's in his PJs, his sneakers, and a plastic fireman's hat.

Boone Figures It Out

Boone is changing so fast these days.  During dinner tonight, I put Boone in his crib on his back to play.  Afterward, I went back to check on him and found him sitting up.  Yes, he's been sitting up for a while now.  And yes, he's been getting in the "all fours" position and rocking back and forth for a while.  And he's been coming really close to getting from the "all fours" position to the sitting position.  Well tonight he finally figured it out.  And he was really proud of it, too!  He was grinning ear-to-ear when I walked in the room and realized what he had done.  I'm pretty sure he'll be crawling within the next couple of weeks.  I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in a matter of days.  Oh, and he can also hold himself up in a standing position for several seconds.  He's obviously holding onto something when he does it, but he can definitely do it.  He just needs help because he can't pull himself up yet.  But it's just a matter of time...

If you look really closely at these 2 photos, you can see his teeth.  I blogged about his first tooth coming in on January 1st (the left lower central incisor).  Well, the right lower central incisor came in on January 2nd.  So he has TWO teeth now.

I have a feeling January is going to be a big month of "firsts" for Boone.  He's changing so fast right now.  I think it's time to lower the mattress in his crib.

All I Want for the New Year is My Very First Tooth!

Boone has his very first tooth.  It is the lower left central incisor.  You really can't see it unless you're looking really closely.  It is barely poking through, but you can definitely feel a little sharp ridge on top of his gum.  His lower gums have been very swollen the last week or two, so I've been expecting a tooth (or two) to finally pop through.  And for some reason, I half expected it to happen today.  The lower right tooth will probably makes its appearance soon.

Oh, and that big red spot you see between Boone's eyes... That's a funny story.  Fenn had on his cowboy hat this morning (a birthday gift from his Aunt Angie and Uncle Todd) and decided he wanted to hug Boone.  When he leaned down, the brim of the hat caught Boone right between the eyes.  But he's okay!

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year!  Just thought I would share a little bit of Fenn's artwork.  He obviously didn't do the '2010' part.  But he did color the background colors.

In my spare time {snicker.... "I have lots of that!".... snicker...}, I plan to start scanning all (*) of the boys' artwork and then create a photo album to store it all.  I'll put a link to it somewhere over in the right-hand column of the blog.  I'm not sure of when I'll actually get the link set up, but hopefully I'll have it within the next few weeks.  But it may take me a while to go back and scan the artwork.  I have a basket in the office full of it.
* When I say 'all', I don't mean every single piece that comes home from school.  I haven't kept every "picture" with scribbles on it.  But I do keep a few of those.  And I keep everything that involves a handprint or a footprint.

And I am still trying to find time to go through the hundreds of photos I've taken over the last few weeks and then do a few blog posts about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fenn's birthday party, etc.  But they will be coming eventually.  They'll just be backdated so they stay in chronological order.  I'm OCD that way!  A post like this only takes a few minutes to do.  But a big post about a big event with multiple photos takes some time.  And we've just been really busy here lately with Thanksgiving, then Boone's surgery, then Fenn's party, then my surgery, and then the mad dash to get ready for Christmas.  Hopefully, things will settle down a little... at least until tax season gets in full swing and Dan starts working 6 and 7 days a week.  I'm not looking forward to that!  This will be my first year with TWO babies to keep up with on my own.  But I know I'll manage... just like millions of other moms.

Christmas Eve 2009 - Boone's First

This year, it is just the four of us for Christmas.  We don't have any of the grandparents coming to spend it with us.  Although we miss them, it is sort of nice this year.  This is our first Christmas as a complete family.  We won't be having anymore babies.  So this is a special one.
{Since we were alone, we had to use the tripod to take a family photo.  For some reason, the camera focused on the tree instead of us.  But at least we have a family photo to document the occasion.  Lesson learned!}

We spent Christmas Eve by going to an early candlelight service at church.  Then off to our family tradition of eating mexican.  Since moving to Knoxville 4 years ago, we have always gone to Pelancho's.  Pelancho's is also the place Dan and I had lunch right after we closed on our house in August 2005.

Fenn was trying to feed Boone a chip.  He's not quite ready for them, but I have a feeling he'll love them this time next year.

After dinner, Fenn made some cookies for Santa Claus with his daddy.

And then the boys got to open one present each.  Shhh.... don't tell them, but it will always be new pajamas.
{Not sure what I'm doing with my mouth in this photo!}

Waiting on His Very First Christmas {Boone}

Boone is waiting on his very first Christmas.  He's not really excited because he has no idea what it is all about.  But give it a year or so, and he will be.  His mommy and daddy are excited that he's here and we're about to spend our very first Christmas together as a complete family.

We'll go to Christmas Eve candlelight service at church this afternoon. And then we'll go eat mexican, which is our family tradition for Christmas Eve.  And then I think we'll bake some cookies for Santa Claus.

Ho! Ho! Ho!... A Visit with Santa Claus

Yesterday, we finally found time to go visit Santa Claus at West Town Mall.  Santa had already dropped in to see the boys at school on Friday, but I wasn't sure if Fenn remembered to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  So we thought we'd go again just to make sure Santa got the message.  I don't have a photo of the boys' encounter with Santa on Friday yet, but I heard it went pretty well.  At least Fenn didn't cry and wasn't terrified of Santa this time.  {If you want to see last year's Santa photo, click here.}  We were told Fenn wouldn't smile at first, but then they brought Boone into the room and he gave them a little bashful smile.  My guess is that it was similar to the smile he has in the first photo above.

We headed over to the mall around 5:00 p.m.  It was a little later than we had hoped, so we knew we were going to have a limited time to stand in line before having to possibly give up and try again another day.  Luckily, even though the line was long, it seemed to be moving somewhat quickly.  Here are a couple of photos taken while waiting in line.

To help pass the time, Dan pushed Fenn around the mall for a while.  And I stayed in line with Boone.  Boone was happy the whole time and was enjoying being entertained by the kids standing in line with us.  I think we made it up to the front of the line around 6:20 p.m. and we were getting in the car by 6:40.  Fenn did great and didn't seem scared of Santa at all.  He sat there very sweetly and even talked to him a little.  I think he said "bicycle" to him.... he doesn't quite know how to say "I want a bicycle."  Just like at school, he wouldn't really smile.  I think he was distracted by all the lights, people, and the camera flash.  Boone was his nomal, happy self.  No real reaction to Santa.  He just sat on his lap with his fingers in his mouth most of the time.  Santa commented about what a good baby he was.  When we were about to leave, Fenn gave Santa a high-five and even gave him a little hug.  All in all, our first experience standing in line to see Santa was a good one.  Here's another photo with Santa.

And here are a couple of photos of Boone from yesterday morning.  He was pushing up into the "all-fours" position and rocking back and forth.  I definitely think he'll be crawling soon.  He's really strong and very determined to become mobile.