I'm Back
11 years ago
We celebrated our first holiday in our new home by having our friends, the Khans, come down to hang out. They arrived late Thursday night and so on Friday we played at the house and took naps. Later that afternoon we had our new friends (and back door neighbors), the Ramages and the Kitsteiners (our across the street neighbors) come over for a cookout. After dinner we bathed the boys, who were filthy from playing in the dirt all day, and loaded up wagons and strollers to go down to the water to watch the fireworks across the bay. On Saturday morning we got ready to head to the beach. We loaded up the kids and all of the stuff we'd need to stay through lunch. Unfortunately the power had gone out the day before at the base beach area and so the water wasn't working and when it was time to go home we had to rinse off in the ocean and carry the kids up to the covered area. Wasn't very effective, but you do what you have to. That night we had the Ramages over again to help eat up our leftovers from the day before. It was great having all the kids playing together! On Sunday we went to the splash pad on base to let the boys run around in the water and at the playground. The dads had a blast taking tons of photos and I'm going to do my best to put as many on here as I can. (You can always check Burt and Melissa's blog for more photos.)
The crazy and exciting things with our kids that happened this weekend are that Sophie has started sitting up. She still wobbles a little, but she has been working on it all week and finally was able to balance herself for extended periods of time. She has grown so much lately and eating like crazy that we decided to weigh her and found out she weighs 19 pounds!!!! That is what I weighed at one year! But I think we all realize that she's not your typical petite little girl. We love our chubs though! As for Christopher he decided he wanted to shave his head like Uncle Burt. Brandon pulled the clippers out and asked him which number he wanted and Christopher told him. What surprised me even more was that Brandon was ok with it, he's the one who would never let me cut it before. The boys had a great time cutting each other's hair and getting all cleaned up. It was really cute! Christopher actually cut about half of Brandon's hair for him. He might be taking over for me soon!
The crazy and exciting things with our kids that happened this weekend are that Sophie has started sitting up. She still wobbles a little, but she has been working on it all week and finally was able to balance herself for extended periods of time. She has grown so much lately and eating like crazy that we decided to weigh her and found out she weighs 19 pounds!!!! That is what I weighed at one year! But I think we all realize that she's not your typical petite little girl. We love our chubs though! As for Christopher he decided he wanted to shave his head like Uncle Burt. Brandon pulled the clippers out and asked him which number he wanted and Christopher told him. What surprised me even more was that Brandon was ok with it, he's the one who would never let me cut it before. The boys had a great time cutting each other's hair and getting all cleaned up. It was really cute! Christopher actually cut about half of Brandon's hair for him. He might be taking over for me soon!
Christopher and Nicholas going for an early morning dig.
Burt giving the boys a good swing.
Sophie and Joshua sitting and playing together.
A day at the beach with the kids.
Christopher getting his head shaved.
The boys playing at the waterpark and playground.
Our pretty little girl showing off that beautiful smile of hers.
I feel like we still put more on here about Christopher than of Sophie, but he can do more than she does right now so there is more to talk about. (Just being honest!) Not to say that she isn't trying. She rolls over both ways, but once onto her belly she hates rolling back over. You'd think she wouldn't mind because anytime you put her on her back within seconds she's over. Why don't they see it as a game and just keep going? Maybe it's good she doesn't. Who knows where she'd end up!
I know I've mentioned in the past about how in love she is with her Daddy and her brother. You can't hold her without her trying to spin around and see what one or both of them are doing. It's really sweet! Lately she has been trying to sit up. I'm trying to make myself sit on the floor with her and have some new tummy time by working those abs. I'll hold a burp cloth up and let her grab it and she wobbles back and forth trying to stabilize herself. She does pretty well. I think she'll be sitting on her own very soon. She also loves swinging. She started grabbing the ropes the other day and thought it was fun to try to hang on while going back and forth. I posted some photos so you can see her cute little smile.
She is also trying to scoot around while on her belly. I figured, why not help her out some? She's going to crawl eventually, so I just put a hand back there and let her see what she can do. Just like any other younger sibling she can't wait to do what her brother is doing. Let's just hope they love each other then as much as they do now!
So, we all know how much Christopher loves to dig. Well, we told him that when we moved we'd get him a sandbox. Little did we know that we'd be living in one. No, not the beach, we literally have sand as our yard. With some weeds thrown in, but Brandon's working on that. The day after Brandon and his classmates put up our fence I looked out the window and saw him digging along the fence. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was making a digging area for Christopher. I wish that I had caught the joy on Christopher's face because it was priceless. Since that day he will sit out there for hours (seriously, hours) and play with all of his diggers in the sand. We found him a shovel the other day and that has made it even more fun for him. I finally got some photos so you could see what he looks like after just 10 minutes of playing in his dirt pile. They are from different days, but he just has so much fun it's hard not to want to capture them all! On a typical day at home he will spend about an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon just playing. Sometimes it's longer. Needless to say, sometimes we get two baths a day. Eventually we want to frame it out and I want to find a contruction sign to hang on the fence. We'll let you know if any of that happens. Just know that if you have a little boy that likes to dig and you ever come to our house, make sure you bring a change of clothes!
Today was Brandon's first official day as a doctor and he starts his rotations with OB/GYN. I got a text message around 11:30 this morning that he had already delivered a baby. They are set to have about 120 deliveries this month, which would be a record if it happens. We'll just have to see! The next few months are going to be long and busy for him, but he's looking forward to it.
It was also mine and the kids first day alone with Brandon at work. I was prepared for a really long, hard day since it was supposed to rain all day. (I've learned sometimes it's better to expect things to be really hard or bad and then whatever happens seems great.) Thankfully we had a really great day. I thought I'd share some of the particularly funny things that happened:
Christopher wanted to go for a walk when the rained stopped briefly and once we got around the corner 2 jets flew overhead. He gets VERY excited about this and always jumps up and down trying to catch them and yells, "Gotcha!!!!" It is hilarious to see and difficult to not laugh out loud. While I was laughing I said, "I love it!" to which Christopher followed with, "I love it too!"
Later, while I was doing the many piles of laundry that had piled up we found a dead roach under the cabinet. Christopher sees it and I tell him to not touch it. Next thing I know he has gone to get his shoe and starts to hit it over and over again trying to kill a bug that is already dead. This happens again hours later when we find a beetle that has also already died, but he doesn't realize it. If I can only get him to do that to the live ones.
Hopefully the next few days will go just as smoothly and with just as much humor.
This week we tried another vegetable. I thought I'd stick with vegetables for a while before introducing fruits, just in case we like the sweets too much. I did that with Christopher and it worked. So go with what works, right??? Although Christopher did help me blend up some bananas for when we are ready. Sorry there's no photo this week. Too bad though because we had it everywhere!
Food: Peas
Result: Liked it, but only mixed with rice cereal.
Check back later to see what else we experiment with!
Yesterday I was sitting on the floor playing with the kids and Christopher found a soft toy and started to throw it at my head. We are trying to explain to him which toys you can throw and which you can't. I feel like most of the time he can't, so I thought we'd go with this one since it was so light it couldn't do any damage. Well, he got to laughing so hard at me trying to hit it away every time he threw it that he started to try hitting it when I would throw it back. Sophie is trying to sit up and so I had her propped up in my lap and she thought the whole thing was hilarious and she started to belly laugh. She's kind of done this before, but only when I'd tickle her, which soon turned to crying. She is completely in love with her brother and this was just perfection in her eyes. She was just staring at him in awe and shaking with laughter. I tried to get Brandon to catch it, but by then the game wasn't as new and funny anymore. Maybe next time.
The other day it was time to feed Sophie and Christopher jumped at the chance to do it himself. ("Me do it, by self.") He pulled the chair up to her booster seat and climbed up waiting for me to hand him the bowl and spoon. He did a very good job and actually got the spoon of rice cereal in Sophie's mouth no problem. After a few bites he decided he was done. It was adorable!!! Every now and then he has his moments with her, but overall, I think he really loves his little sis!
It's all in how you look at it. Our last house didn't have a fence, which we loved at first, but once Christopher started running around and refused to stay still, it became a challenge. We decided that our next house we would have a fence, no matter what it took to get it. Thankfully it didn't take much. Unfortunately on base you can only have a chain link fence. Ugly, yes. But it still works.
Brandon has been awesome and very excited about starting a yard and building a fence. He put weed and feed followed by grass seed (yes, we have to use seed to grow our own grass) in the front yard. He's been working very hard to water it and rake up the pine straw to help it out. So, we'll just have to sit back and watch to see what happens.
Last weekend he wanted to start on the fence. He asked some of his classmates to come help and two of the guys willingly offered. We invited the wives and kids over to come play and while they were working and all of a sudden two cars pull up in the driveway and it's two more families from his class coming to help out. They thought it would be fun to surprise us. The fence was done in no time and we ordered pizzas for everyone. The kids played for hours, some napped, the guys played Wii and the wives got to know each other even more.
Christopher is having so much fun getting to know his new friends and I'm enjoying the new relationships I'm building as well. I think we're really going to like it here.
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