What happened to Fall???????

I feel like I have let an entire month go by with no updates...and realized, I have!  It has been a busy month and we are embarking on an even busier December.  We spent November going to the kite festival, "Touch a Truck," finishing up with Kindermusik and hosting Thanksgiving in Wilmington.  George saw, and refused, Santa for the first time this season and went to a birthday party (as parties have become very exciting to him).

Ruth is big enough to sit in the seat of the stroller!

Ruth has continued to grow and we can hardly believe that she will be 6 MONTHS old next week!  I guess I need to start planning for her first birthday celebration!  She is sitting up on her own, not completely upright, but can hold herself up with her arms in front.  She loves her exersaucer, can hold her bottle, gobbles up rice cereal (she will be an eater like her big bro) and still lights up a room with her sweet smile! I also think she is getting some sprouts of hair on her head and I attempt hair bows every once in a while.


We have had to start using some discipline techniques with George.  I borrowed the book 1-2-3 Magic from a friend and is has been a lifesaver.  He rarely makes it to 3, however, when he does he sometimes will walk me to his time out.  It makes me laugh inside when he does this, but I keep my neutral face and wait to smile when he is out of sight.  It seems to be working well so far, so hopefully it will help limit the naughty behaviors.  George talks more as each day passes.  He is still really big on people's names, and loves greeting them when he sees them.  He also has a keen memory for what car they have, their neightborhood/house, or where he knows them from.  He often gets excited driving down the road and thinks he sees "Mikes/Ellie's/Maddies/Skyler's" car.  He still loves his cars, loves fire trucks, motorcycles (aka Boy Daddy or Morning Crackers).  He loves to say his name, and just this past week has started to say his sister's name, "Poof."  He no longer limits his music to Lady Gaga, he now also likes Flo Rida (aka Porida).  He did not eat Thanksgiving dinner quite like I thought he would, but did like the pumpkin ice cream.  He had a great visit with Mimi, Grampy (aka DaDa Ga), Aunt Tobi, but his favorite visitor was his cousin Owen.  He even skipped breakfast one morning because he would rather play with Owen.  These two are going to be best buds growing up!

George and Ruth at the Kite Festival in Wrightsville Beach

Driving the tow truck

Ruth enjoying some rice cereal

At the WB Christmas Tree lighting....

Andy joined us on our final day of Kindermusik

October Fun!

It has been a busy month of October fun with lots of celebrating.  George had his Noah's Ark party at school.  He was our "little stinker" and did really well with keeping his costume on.  We also had our annual get together with some of our friends and their children for some playing and snacking on treats.  A fun time was had by all.

At the schools Noah's Ark Party

Everlee, Daniel, George, Ruth, Stella, Madelyn and Kaia

We don't think George really understood the idea of Halloween or Trick-or-Treat, so we practiced with our friend Larry.  Once George realized that saying trick or treat at someone's door produced a piece of candy, he was in.  Meanwhile, this was his first try at candy, he ate an M&M and had the melted candy on his face the rest of the night.  I think our "Lil Stinker" had a great Halloween and will be ready for next year!

So this is what Trick or Treat means...

One house down...

But I don't want to be finished!

come on...you're holding me up!

Sweet Brother

I love that George is so in love with his sister!  Tonight he let her sit on the chair with while they watched jeopardy!  They are going to be such little buddies.

Onery...but I sure do love him

George is in what I call a "trying phase."  He seems to very deliberately be testing the limits and trying my patience.  Sometimes I wonder how such an angelic looking child can be such a stinker!  He has been a bit of a grump the past couple days and I was feeling like I needed to take a quickfire parenting class to learn how to get him to mind, have good manners, and stop hitting and kicking at me.  Well, then I picked him up from school today and learned two things:

1.  "It was so cute today.  One of his classmates fell asleep on the floor and George just went over and started rubbing his back," says his teacher.
2.  A mom stopped me and shared, "I've been meaning to tell you.  When I ask Lane who her friends are at school, she says, 'I really like George.  He is a sweet boy.'"

With my head between my knees I was quickly brought back to reality that I do have a sweet son, and no, he is not turning into a bad kid, just developmentally going through what he needs to.

Maybe I need a time out....

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend to pick out pumpkins and hope for some cute photos of our sweet babies!  It went alright, but George did much better last year before he could walk around and try to run away from us or find the wagon to pull around (again, away from us).  But the end result was some cute shots, learning that Ruth likes to stick her tongue out, a lot, and we found two pumpkins to carve.

Smiling in the first halloween hat that George wore the first time he came to the pumpkin patch.

Happy 4 Month Birthday!

Today our sweet little girl is 4 months old!  We can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by.  We had our well check today and the results are in:

Ruth is a whopping 10 lb 7 oz and is 22 1/4" long.  She is riding nice and steady on the 3rd percentile curve.  This was such awesome news.

Now, if you know me, I went into the appointment neurotic and worried that Ruth is not using her voice, has weak leg strength and is falling behind the curve for these developmental marks.  I write this down on the sheet and hope that the doc will give me some insight or tell me that my little lady is "just fine."  Of course, since she is like her brother, after filling out the form, she decides to prove me wrong and cooed and caaed the entire time we were in the waiting room, and while waiting in the exam room was pushing up with her legs like she was working out!  George does this to me all the time, just when I am so worried he pulls out and shows me that things are "just fine."  I wonder sometimes if the two of them sit and silently plan how to make mommy "freak out."  Ha Ha

What do you want to listen to?

So, if you know Andy and I well, you are aware that we have very different tastes in music.  I must say I am pretty much a fan of pop music, like the beat, and really like the versions of songs that have an even faster beat (tends to help me motivate to run faster or work harder during a workout).  Since I am usually driving around with George he has become familiar with my music.  This always drives Andy nuts. :-)

Well...in the last several days I think what has occurred has caused Andy to begin plotting his revenge on my.  I had taped the VMA's for George and I to watch to see if any of his "favorite songs" were performed.  As we saw Lady Gaga win I let him hear the song in the background and let him know that was who sings the song he likes.  George then started saying "lady gaga" as he walked around or when he wanted to hear music.  A few nights ago he brought us the ipod doc and said he wanted to listen to lady gaga.  As I put on Bad Romance, George began to jump and dance in excitement with Freddy and then began to sing "Ra ra, ra ra ra, la la la la la" as Andy and I stared in amazement that he knew the words.  I promise, Andy, I did not teach this to him!  We are attempting to get video of this and will post if he performs for us!