Houston's Birthday

So this is what a 5-year-old looks like ...

I love the love!

We headed to the river for a bit in the afternoon.

Learning to drive the boat...

... and little brother too.

The slide at the sandbar ... good times!

One of his birthday presents. Big boy in kindergarten needs his own alarm clock.

Brownies for the birthday boy!

Birthday Weekend Fun

More pictures to come. We're off to Gainesville for Brody's one year check-up.

Little Squirt

Brody Forrest is 11 months old ...

Where did the time go? I can't believe he's going to be a year old in only one short month! I took this picture on monday when we were running errands. Houston was sleeping and Brody kept pitching a fit. I was afraid he was going to wake Houston up so I gave him the only thing there was to eat in the car until I could stop and get something else. There was part of a chocolate chip cookie that Brett got when we stopped for sandwiches on the way home from Amelia Island the day before. I gave Brody one little piece of it and he managed to get it all over his face and not even eat the piece of cookie. (you can see the piece of cookie on his seat buckle) I don't know how they manage to make such a mess with such a small amount of food ...

He is such a sweetie pie. He is so different than Houston in so many ways but then the same in others. I call him my little snuggle bug because he loves, loves, loves to snuggle. He thinks everything is funny and he takes about anything that Houston does to him without much fuss at all. He's very strong willed too. If he wants something or doesn't like something you'll surely know about it. Not because he cries ... nope ... it's more of a scream to get your attention with a flailing of the arms just in case you were not sure that he wasn't happy about something. He's almost walking. He stands up all over the place and walks along the furniture and around the kitchen with his hands on the cabinets. I'm sure he could walk if he just let go but he hasn't done it yet. Sometimes if he is really into something you hand him he will let go of what he was holding onto and doesn't even seem to realize that he's standing there on his own. If you try to make him stand on his own though he will throw one of those ear-piercing Brody screams your way. He waves bye-bye and he eats like a champ. I can hand him a whole banana and he holds it and takes bites like he's been doing it forever. And I have no idea how this happened but he is apparently a morning person. When Houston was a baby we would sleep in until nine-thirty or even ten some days. Not Brody though. He's up at seven-thirty every day. Doesn't matter what time he went to bed the night before. And not only is he up ... he's rarin' to go. I'm talking serious amounts of energy and squeels and laughter ... and screams if I don't get up with him. It's actually kind of nice because we have close to two hours together in the morning before Houston wakes up. Houston, like Brett and I, is a true night owl. And when he gets up he has about an hour or so of laying around before he really gets going. Brody is also way more vocal than Houston ever was. (which plays into the speech delay thing) He talks all the time. If he's awake, he's making noise. We joke around that Brody is going to learn how to talk and teach Houston. Speaking of which, Houston is making a lot of progress. Just in the past two weeks he's added a lot of words and they are much more well-pronounced too. He's started asking "why" all the time too which is cute at first and then just plain annoying. I ask him "why do you think" and he looks at me like i've got something sticking out of my forehead. It's pretty funny. He's also just started saying "mine", "you", "me" and "i do".

The Boys

Morning hair!

Nap time!

Little Mozart

Pooltime fun. Brody loved floating around in the pool!

Toys!!!

Look Ma, brother's in the tub!

Brothers ... can you tell? :)

The Boys

The Boys

I realize i've been posting a lot about knitting and spring cleaning and various other things but haven't given an update on the boys in a while. So on that note ......

As some of you know, we brought Houston to a speech pathologist back in January because we (and his pediatrician) were concerned that he wasn't talking much yet. He says a lot but most people don't understand him and it's frustrating for everyone. And because he is so much bigger than the average two-year-old, people think he is older and expect more from him. (if he keeps this up he is going to be VERY tall) She basically said he's a delayed talker and will probably need some articulation therapy when he gets a little closer to his 3rd birthday. Apparently he tries to use his lips to make sounds instead of using his tongue. She gave us some things to do at home to excercise his speaking muscles. My favorite is putting peanut butter on the roof of his mouth and watching him lick it off. Fun stuff! So now that you have the background .... here's the update: He is speaking much, much better. He's made amazing progress just in the past two weeks. People other than myself are finally starting to understand what he is saying and that is great stuff. He knows his colors now too, which I am very proud of. Part of his home therapy is to ask him lots of questions all the time that don't have just yes or no answers. So we talk about colors a lot and he has picked up on them very well. He knows pink, red, green, blue, purple, brown, yellow, orange and white. He can almost count to ten and he is getting pretty good at the alphabet. Oh yeah ... and he can do the Gator Chomp with the best of them. That's my boy! :)

Brody is 9-1/2 months old and weighs about 20 pounds now. For a baby who was 12 pounds at birth, he has ended up being pretty average as far as size goes ... but physical development has been a different story. He's been crawling all over the place since he was only six months old. He is pulling up on everything and he will walk across the room if someone is holding his hands. He is getting more and more confident each day and has started to pull up and then let go to stand on his own. He and his brother both love music. It's the cutest darn thing, I tell ya ... as soon as I turn on music Brody starts bopping up and down. He's loves to dance! And so does Houston. I'm looking forward to them being old enough to take some music lessons. We have a lot of instruments in the house and they both love them better than any of thier toys. Houston's favorite is definitely the drums but he also "plays" the keyboard and guitar just about every day. Brody loves the keyboard because it is easy for him to "play" some music on and he is oh so proud of himself when he does. He pushes the demo button on the keyboard which plays song for him and he sits there bopping up and down and clapping his hands. Too cute!

And speaking of the boys .... Brett is going to have his first night alone with them on saturday. It will also be the first night i've spent away from Brody and only the second night i've spent away from Houston. Don't tell him I said so, but I think Brett is in for a rough night. I feel a little guilty about leaving Brody since he is still nursing but I know he'll be okay. He eats plenty and really doesn't nurse that often. He does like to have his milk in the middle of the night though ... which is where it's going to be tough for Brett. He doesn't nurse to sleep though, he prefers to rock, so that makes it easier for me to leave him. Houston always nursed to sleep so for anyone else to get him down for the night, or even for a nap, was quite a chore. You may be wondering where i'm going without my family in tow so I suppose i'll fill you in on that as well. I'm going to a knitters slumber party! How cool is that? (i'm easily amused, can you tell?) Knitting, wine, chick flicks and female friendship ... does it get any better than that??? Oh yeah ... and add some Gator Basketball Final Four action! :)

Yee-Haw!!!

Morning Hair

Undies!!!

Houston wore underwear all day long yesterday without having any accidents! (and i'm sure he would be thrilled that i'm blogging about this) After some reverse progress in potting training he has now decided that he is too big for his pull-ups and wants to wear underwear and use the potty all by himself. I'm so proud.
He also wants to pick out his clothes, dress himself and put on his shoes without anyone so much as touching anything to even think about helping him. He will firmly tell you "No, I do" and run away from you. And aside from occasionally having his shirt turned backwards, he does a really good job. I told him to make sure the tag of his pants is in the back and that was all he needed. He gets it right pretty much every time. His shirt sometimes gets turned around as he is trying to find the armholes but then he won't let me touch him to fix it. He even picks out matching colored tops and bottoms. Does this mean he will have good fashion sense later on? Hmmm...