George's First Holiday Program

Today we were tickled as we watched our little man in his preschool holiday program!  I have been trying to talk to him about what he was doing for the program and if he was singing for weeks and have gotten nothing in return.  Today, we watched as he somewhat rocked baby Jesus for "Away in the Manger" and sucked on his hand and jumped on the bleachers during their song about becoming a Christmas Tree (to the tune of I'm a Little Tea Pot).  It was really cute, of course we felt proud, and I will look forward to seeing him in another program!  Maybe next time we will get some lyrics and can practice the songs with him before the big day!

Half a year down....

Happy 6 month birthday to our little lady.  Big changes have been occurring with our little Ruth.  She has started eating baby food, first up...green beans!  She LOVES it!  She grabs for the spoon, laps it all up with her tongue and shrills with excitement!  It seems she may like food as much as her big bro!

6 Month Stats:  12 lbs 4 oz; 23 inches long...still riding the 3rd percentile for height and weight, but she is steady on her little curve!

MMMMM....green beans!  Give me that spoon mommy!

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.