Ian's 4th birthday!!

We can't believe our little boy turned four today! Here are some pictures of the festivities!

Ian's birthday tree

New lightsaber

Clone trooper

With his sidekick and cousin, Emma

A big boy bike

New jersey (to replace the one he wore out!)

Car cake

The family (One boy: 4 years, Two boys: 4 months!)

Happy Boys

I have to tell you that these are good days! All the feedings, diapers and laundry are worth it when you get paid with grins and giggles!

Happy brothers


Brennan giggling

The Night Before Christmas

The Grinch

Ian called me in his room this morning to tell me, "Mommy, I have a Grinch in my heart, and it's making my throat hurt."

Ian was watching The Grinch (the Jim Carey one) at Nana and Papa's house last week, and asked them to turn it off because he was scared. He thinks he'll watch it when he's 5 or 6.

Giggles!

Brennan laughed yesterday! What a sweet sound!

Our almost-4-year-old

Have I said lately how much I love this age? Here are some reasons why:

1. Cream corn = "soup corn"

2. Egg nog = "egg bake" (I think we have this straight now, but only after a very frustrating conversation between Ian and Daddy.)

3. Apparently one of his preschool classmates keeps hugging him. He told me at lunch the other day that he didn't want him to hug him. When I asked why not, he said, "Because I don't know his address or phone number!"

4. Ian is absolutely loving to read The Night Before Christmas. On Friday morning, I heard him reading it in his bed before he even let me know he was awake. I went in and sat with him on his bed. After he finished the story he said, "Mommy, let's snug. You snug on that side," pointing next to him on his bed, "And I'll snug on this side." He covered us up with his blanket while I tried to soak in the moment!

5. Ian has really been enjoying drawing and writing lately. He has begun to draw things that are recognizable, but may still need some explanation. Here is a nativity scene he drew earlier this week. See if you can find these things: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, a pig, two monkeys, a cow, a leaf and a star.

Christmas Fun

Christmas is coming, and we're having fun talking about it and preparing for it. We decorated our tree last night, and Ian had the honor of putting the angel on top. Today was our MOPS Christmas Brunch, and Ian had his first performance in front of a live audience. He did a great job singing and dancing. As you can see from the short clip, he was "all business" with the dancing!! (He's in the middle wearing the gray sweatshirt and jeans.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our little turkey!

Sleep is a wonderful thing!

The boys have been sleeping so well lately! We've had a 7, 9 and 11 hour stretch each of the last 3 days. I hesitate to say they are "sleeping through the night" because we all know that can change in an instant, but we sure are enjoying it while it lasts! (Unfortunately, our excellent sleeper Ian has been awake once a night with cold symptoms! Oh, well!)

The boys are still sharing a crib for now. Garrett is on the move, though, so it may soon change. I know there will come a day soon that I won't remember them being small enough to lay the "short way" in the crib.



It's official. Brennan is a thumb sucker.

2044 Election Photo

Can you commit to vote for Garrett and Brennan in 2044? Depending on their party affiliation, wouldn't you be able to cross party lines to vote for these cuties?

Which picture should we save for the campaign? This one?

Or the one with the spit up?

Pictured with their Chief of Staff

Thanks, Aung Marge, for the onesies!

Halloween and Preschool Politics

I think Ian knew what he wanted to be for Halloween 2008 on November 1, 2007. I did my best to persuade him in other directions, but finally decided to reward him for his decisiveness! He was Spiderman, and enjoyed every minute of it! Halloween started on Tuesday this week with a party at preschool, continued on Thursday night with trick-or-treating at "Daddy's school," and finished tonight with trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

Ian's preschool class

Ian's friend and classmate, Dalton... the other Spiderman!

Garrett the ghost, Brennan the pumpkin

Spiderman and his friend Megan in front of our house.

We had pizza with Megan and her family before trick-or-treating this evening. They ate together at Ian's little table and chairs, and even had their own impromptu political discussion. This is how it went:
"I'm voting for John McCain," said Megan.
"I'm cheering for Obama," said Ian.
So cute! Their choices may or may not represent their parents' choices, but I'm just impressed they both knew the names of the candidates, and chose to discuss it over dinner. Two very well-informed future voters! (Please don't comment with your political opinions... not the purpose of this post!! Just a cute little exchange between preschoolers!:)

See Ian read. Read, Ian, read.

Over the last couple of weeks, Ian has made great strides in his reading. He has been working on sounding out words for quite a while, but has now mastered many sight words, too. We decided to introduce the classic, Dick and Jane, and he is doing great! We are very proud of him!!

The Pledge

Halloween Fun!

Ian learned this at preschool!

Omnipresence

I was heading upstairs to our bedroom to feed the babies this morning. I invited Ian to come up there with me so that he wouldn't be by himself downstairs. His response was, "Mommy, I'll know you're with me." I couldn't help but think how profound that was... it just seemed to be such a great metaphor of God's omnipresence.

(In my hormonal, sleep-deprived, fuzzy state-of-mind, I'm just impressed I remembered what he said long enough to be able to blog about it tonight, let alone use a word like "omnipresence!")

A Great Weekend

We had a great weekend visit from Uncle Andy, Aunt Kathy and Emma. Andy and Kathy met the boys in the NICU, but this was cousin Emma's first time to meet the babies. Thanks for coming, Andy, Kathy and Emma!

A full couch!

Emma holding Brennan for the first time!

Ian and Emma had a great time playing together in Ian's playroom!

Ian's Halloween Cake

He's very proud of his creation, and can't wait to eat it with his cousin Emma tonight!

Say cheese, Garrett!

All smiles!

Brennan smiled today!!! I thought I saw it this morning, Nana thought she saw it this afternoon, and Daddy and I KNOW we saw it this evening!

October pictures

Uncle Neil and Aunt Heather came on October 1st, and stayed with us for a few days. They were a huge help, enjoyed meeting Garrett and Brennan, and had a lot of fun with Ian.



Brennan has been finding his thumb quite a bit lately. We're not jumping to any conclusions about this, other than the fact that we think it's very cute for now!


Ian is getting used to having two babies around, and likes to be near them. (In fact a couple of weeks ago, he was near them a little too much. Both babies had a cold, and Brennan had his first ear infection! Poor babies!) I was debating which of these pictures to post, but I think I like the progression of the three together. I love Ian's expressions, and look carefully at the last one... screaming and spit up at the same time. Pretty funny, but a true snapshot of our lives right now! (Brennan on the left, Garrett on the right.)

The State of the House Address

Good morning, fellow Americans. As you all know, this has been a very busy time for our family. As I sit here in the rectangular family room, it pains me to know that many of you are anxiously awaiting more posts to this blog. I understand your disappointment, and I'm doing everything in my power to deal with this recent crisis. I promise to post when I can, and make the entries as meaningful and picture-filled as possible. In between posts, please know I am spending the majority of my time trying to care for the newest citizens, striving to be the best diaper changer, feeder, dishwasher, launderer, daughter, sister, friend, wife and mother I can be. In the meantime, let's band together as citizens and blog readers, praying for better days ahead.

Garrett's "firsts"

The boys are growing and developing, and it is so exciting to see! The fact that they were born 7 weeks early means that their developmental milestones will be adjusted, at least that's what the doctor tells us. In some cases, yes, in others, NO!

On October 3rd, Garrett ROLLED OVER! At first we thought it was a fluke, but as we kept flipping him back onto his tummy, he would just roll to his back again. He probably did it four times in a row that evening, and has done it several times since. "Normally" a baby does this at 3-5 months of age, so we are very proud of our over-achiever. In general, Garrett's personality is the "fiestier" of the two boys, starting with his broken bag of water at 32 weeks gestation!



On October 7th, Garrett SMILED! Up until this point, both boys have had very happy looks, but no all-out grins. Our friend and babysitter-extraordinaire, Stephanie, came on the 7th, and was holding Garrett after a feeding. He had his first huge grins, and we were so excited! I called Daddy and left him a message to tell him the exciting news! I regret the fact that I didn't grab the camera, so no smile pics yet. Sorry!

I love 3 3/4 year olds!

Here are three things Ian said just yesterday that made us crack up! I LOVE this age!

* Ian was reviewing his calendar on the refrigerator with Nana yesterday afternoon. (He is VERY busy, you know!) He was saying several dates like "the 7th" and "the 13th." Then he said, "Today is the twenty-twoth!"

* We went on a walk after dinner this evening. He likes to walk right next to the stroller and talk to the babies, which involves a lot of foot-hit-by-the-wheels incidents! It must not have been too painful because he continued to do it for the entire walk. At one point he leaned over the stroller and said, "What's your status babies?"

* We were watching Dancing with the Stars before bedtime. The 82-year-old actress, Cloris Leachman, was dancing with her partner, and it caught Ian's attention. I'm pretty sure he thought we were watching old home movies because his response was, "Is that when GG got married?" He calls my 88-year-old grandma "GG" (Great-Grandma), and I don't think Cloris would take it as a compliment!

A List of Firsts

We've had a lot of "firsts" over the last couple of days.

1. IAN'S FIRST WATCH - Daddy bought Ian a new Spiderman watch, and it has left his arm only once to take a bath. We have been very punctual lately because we are getting updates on the time every 2-3 minutes (on average - we may have gone as long as 10 minutes at times!). In the picture below, he's also showing off his new jammies and a fresh haircut. Mommy is back as the hairdresser!


2. IAN'S FIRST HOMEWORK - Ian filled out an "All About Me" page for his preschool class. He used markers, scissors and a glue stick, and loved every minute of it. When we're working on pre-calculus in high school, I'm going to try to remember this happy day!




3. IAN'S FIRST SELF-PORTRAIT - Ian came home from preschool today ready to draw a picture of himself. He said they drew them at school today, and he wanted to do another one to show me. I was so impressed, and it's on the refrigerator waiting for oohs and aahs from Daddy when he gets home from work!


4. GARRETT AND BRENNAN'S FIRST BATHS - We finally got around to tub baths for our baby boys! They were clean up until this point, I promise! Nana and Mommy accomplished this while Ian was at school. It's definitely a 2 person job! I washed Brennan first, wrapped him in his towel, then handed him over to be dried off. Then, I grabbed Garrett and did it all over again! As I was shampooing, I realized I was giving new meaning to the back-of-the-bottle directions that say, "Lather, rinse, and repeat if necessary." In this case, it's definitely necessary!

A week with Aunt Helen

We all had a great time with Aunt Helen. It was so nice of her to leave work and her family for a week so that she could help us out. (Just ask her... we need all the help we can get!) Doesn't she look comfortable with 2 babies?


She brought with her some great ideas and interesting food choices. Ian was excited to eat an octopus, spiders, a caterpillar and a fire engine. Mmmmmmmmm! Tavia came for a night at the end of the week, and she and Ian had fun decorating with and eating icing!

Packing on the pounds...

...or at least the ounces!! We checked in with the pediatrician yesterday, and I think he couldn't believe the scale! Garrett now weighs 6 lbs. 11 oz., and Brennan weighs 7 lbs. 6 oz.! The HOPE was that in 10 days they would have gained 5-10 ounces, but they blew that goal out of the water! Garrett gained 18 ounces and Brennan gained 20. They are now the size of average newborns, and we are excited to have made this progress! Grow boys, grow!! I'll try to get some double chin pictures taken to post later! :)

Pictures!

Days (and nights, for that matter) are busy here! Here are some snapshots from the past week.

Our three sons!

They are beginning to have some "wake time" together.

Personalities are emerging... Garrett likes to be held and Brennan is very easy going.

Brennan immediately after removing the screaming Garrett from the swing. He wasn't phased a bit.