Brooks - 11 Months

Brooks was 11 months old on Christmas Eve. It's hard to believe in just a few short weeks, he will be one! With Christmas and New Year's keeping us busy the last few months have flown by and suddenly I'm frantically planning his first birthday party!!

Brooks is doing great, let's see, recent updates.....

- he has six teeth
- crawls super fast
- pulls up on furniture and can balance with one hand
- furniture walks, especially on the hearth (we had to move all decorations)
- says "mama, dada, eat, indy" he's trying to say Carter, but it's a little tricky.
- points
- finger walks, but would much rather crawl
- loves to splash in the bathtub
- gets really mad when you change his diaper
- suddenly not thrilled with the car seat either. I think we're getting close to transferring him to upright seat
- eating everything but honey. we started peanut butter early and he's going crazy for it!
- I beef up his bottles with one extra scoop of formula each time. He only drinks about 4 oz at a time so this way I can get some extra calories into him....seems to be working
- He loves Daddy and books it for the door when he gets home from work. Jeremy picks him up first and he looks down at the other kids as if to say, "Beat Ya!"...really cute.
- Brooks is taking two naps per day, sometimes one if I'm out running errands during pre-school. He's somewhat flexible as long as he gets the afternoon nap and several morning naps each week. No longer will he sleep in the car seat.
- Favorite toys: race-car (old toy of Carter's) He can crawl while he pushes it since it's easy to grab, plastic balls, activity table, vacuum cleaner cord unfortunately! - he unplugs it every time I'm vacuuming., the Christmas tree was a huge hit too - I could not wait to take it down this year!
- he sucks his index and middle fingers to go to sleep, similar to Leah, but different fingers.
- Brooks has a few nicknames including: Brooksie, Brookster, Brooksandrus (all one word), Brooksie Baby...kind of reminds me of the SNL skit in the copy room.

This was taken Christmas morning. Brooks, wearing his new mud boots and riding the pony from Santa.

Here he is playing at the activity table with a big smile

Another favorite activity is spitting to make Carter and Leah laugh. he sucks his top lip and spits everywhere (shown below), funny the first time, then not good especially in the middle of church.

This was a recent video of him standing at the table....also shows the other kids playing hide-n-seek with Jer. They play hide-n-seek all the time. Another favorite game is "Brooksie Monster". Jeremy carries Brooks around like he's flying and chases the kids. Brooks howls laughing and the kids think it's hillarious to run away from him!

Leah and Elliot Pre-school Christmas Show

Elliot and his two cousins Paul and Oliver all are in two year old class. The teachers are still trying to figure out our family tree, but were kind enough to put them all in a row together....so nice for pictures.

from left...Elliot (black overalls holding his ear), Oliver, Paul

Here's Leah with her best buddy and classmate in the 4's class, Trenton (also her cousin!)

Hugs after the show

The three boys....love how Elliot sucks his thumb at the end.



Leah, in the black sweater staring down the camera. She rolls her eyes at the end, as if to say, "Mom stop filming!!"


Love Elliot's shout-out and little dance at the end! He's in the front row. Leah's towards the back left.

Carter's Christmas Show

Carter had his Christmas music program earlier in December. We had the best time watching him sing with his class. The Kindergarten and 1st grade did a smaller program with coreography and Carter even had his own line! "I said the dove from the rafters high!". He did great and sang all the words . Then, the 2nd and 3rd graders put on a show that was a bit more involved while the K&1st grade sang back-up below the stage. It was impressive, lots of coreography and characters. Back in the day, we just stood in the rafters and sang Christmas carols, which would have also been nice. But, it was cute to see a little show on top of some nice music. I think the grandparents and Aunt Maggie had fun too! Jer's dad and sister, Maggie as well as my mom joined us. Carter loved showing us his room and the tree he made to decorate the hall (shown below). He looked so grown up wearing his first neck tie, new dress pants and a black belt to match the shoes. What a dude!!!

Carter and Aunt Maggie home from The University of Cincinatti

Pop-pop with Carter after the show.

Grandma and Carter

Here we are back at the house afterwards.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any still pics during the show as I was videotaping with the camcorder. I'll do more of that next time.

Fun in the Mud

There's several feet of snow outside at the moment. School was cancelled for the second Monday in a row! Last Monday Carter was almost in tears when I told him he didn't have school, which kind of broke my heart. I remember how much we used to love snow days as a kid and hearing he'd rather go to school bummed me out. However, we had spent most of the weekend at home so it was understandable that he was in need of a change in scenery Monday morning. Today was a bit different. He seemed excited to be home for the day and we've had a lot of fun hanging out playing games. Carter and Leah even cleaned the basement (without being asked!). There is hope!!

I spent some time finally downloading pictures from the past month and a half and found all these fun pics from a November rain storm we had.....I don't know why I get such a kick out of them getting muddy. It just seems like good pure fun and the way they laugh doing it is a joy to listen to.

So, rather than post about snow I'm posting mud pictures where you can actually still see the grass in our yard, a reminder that the warm weather will eventually return!

I finally got the video link to work....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-LLexStY1Y

Tooth Fairy Time

Carter lost his first tooth on 10/22/10, one month after he turned 6. His big milestone was topped off with a visit from the Tooth Fairy. She brought him one dollar and a blow-pop...He also somehow found a ball in the morning that he already owned (probably near his bed) and he said that was from her too. Glad to know we can re-gift in this house...it will make Christmas a lot easier. :-) Congratulations Carter!

Fall Photo Party

http://metzger.zenfolio.com/p558775523

We recently hosted a photo party in our back yard. This local husband/wife team took the pictures. It's the same people that took pictures of Brooks over the summer (brother and wife of a friend). Anyhow, if you host, there's no sitting fee. Two other families plus my parents came and had pictures taken. I finally just ordered my prints. One website that was recommended to us was mpix.net if anyone is in need of a print shop. I haven't received the prints yet, but the prices were really great, much less than zenfolio and they supposedly have a good reputation. We'll see.....I'm excited to finally get some good pictures on the wall!!

My favorite is the one of Carter and Leah sitting on the stone wall. Other highlights are the swing shots and Brooks in the wheelbarrow. Thanks for viewing.

Brooks - 9 Months

Brooks is now 9 months old and crawls all directions. I uploaded a video below. He's very excited about being mobile. He's starting to babble a bit with one syllable sounds. Lots of teeth, I think he's up to 6. His personality comes out more and more. I really enjoy seeing him interact with the other kids. He's trying so hard to play with them and he's always watching what they're doing. I'm sure this is good and bad since he's picking up all there little tricks.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEqqlkUers

Grandpa Williams

My grandfather passed away on Saturday in NC, where he lives. He fell a few weeks ago and broke his hip. From there, he never really recovered, eventually getting pneumonia. His death was so peaceful it sounds. Several of his seven kids were with him as well as my brother and his wife Kel. They prayed together next to his bed after the priest gave him communion and his last rights. When they finished praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, my grandmother kissed him and he died about a minute later.

He'll be buried here in Cleveland near his parents. Please say a little prayer for the family who will all be converging here over the next few days...should be around 60 people. We're all praying for a peaceful gathering, fun filled togetherness and a celebration of my grandfather's life. Hoping for no drama. Is it possible?? The funeral and wake will be Thursday and Friday. I can't wait to see my Grandma!! Here's a picture from our visit with them back in January 2009. I saw him last this summer, but didn't have any pictures.

Ugly Wallpaper

When we moved into this house just over two years ago, we'd always planned to redo the kitchen and family room. This included moving at least one wall and tearing out the cabinets. The blue wallpaper is a blue floral print and has pretty much been the joke of the house since we moved in.

We have the plans drawn for the remodel. Now we just need the cash! We've been saving as much as possible but it's looking like it will be at least spring till we get started. I woke up Sunday morning and all I could think about was stripping the wallpaper. Brooks is getting easier and I'm getting more sleep. Now with the kids in school, I kind of figure a project here or there could get done.

I called my mom Sunday night for reinforcement. She said she'd only do it if Jeremy was on board. Up until now, he was completely against it, simply b/c it meant doing the work twice...stripping the wallpaper and painting only to have to paint again after the remodel occurs. I completely understand and said he wouldn't have to help (since now I'm not prego and can actually do some of the work!).

My mom came over Monday morning after I dropped everyone but Brooks at school. He thankfully had a good nap day and we made some big time progress. The wallpaper was completely down by 5pm. I spackled that night, sanded Tue am and then stripped the bathroom Tue afternoon. When I told my friend Debbie I was stripping the kitchen, she replied, "Can you do the bathroom too?!" It was the easy part, only about 40 mins.

I was able to use our bedroom color for the bathroom, which is brown. Then for the kitchen, I had planned to use a leftover green color as I was avoiding spending any money on the project. Because the cabinets are so dark, the green wouldn't have worked so I did buy one gallon of paint for the kitchen. We were able to do it in one coat. So, for around 25 bucks, we got the whole thing done and it's much more comfortable.

Here's my helper!! It was so nice to have the company during such a tedious job. Plus it cut the labor time in half! We just used hot water and a little dish soap....came off pretty easily.

Here's Elliot, my other helper.

The final piece behind the fridge!

This is the light green color after we finished painting. Jeremy was a good sport and did the rolling after I cut it all in.

Carter Turns 6

Carter turned 6 on September 22nd. He's getting so tall. I can't get over how much he grew this summer so I was relieved when the grandparents all bought him pants! He's got more camo pants than any kid I know. We had cake on his birthday with the grandparents and then had a cousins/friends party over the weekend. This was our first destination birthday party. I loved the fact that the house didn't need to be cleaned only for it to get trashed by little dirty feet, not that I mind all the little feet. It just gets to be a lot of work. So, we hit the bowling alley. The kids had a super fun time, even Paul and Elliot. They set up a metal rack in one of the lanes so they didn't have to carry around the ball. It simply rolled right off. No wonder they had the best scores, a straight shot every time.

Let's see...Carter updates. He's now a big Kindergartener. Jeremy and I had teacher conferences this past week. I gotta say she was straight with us. Sometimes I have a glorified view of Carter ;-) , thinking he rarely gets into mischief (I'm thinking this is a first born thing). Anyhow, she said he's empathetic with others and very nice to the kids. She called him Happy Carter, makes friends easily. However....(this is when you know it's not all good news) he also likes to join in when someone is getting out of line. She said he's curious and gets distracted by things that look fun, even though it's not what they're supposed to be doing. She of course said it in a nice way, but we got the message. So, we'll have to work on the leadership skills. :-) All in all, the reading and writing skills are fine, but she doesn't want him to fall behind. It definitely was a helpful conference, but I left thinking, what about "Carter is my favorite kid in class!" b/c obviously he's mine. Every mom thinks so.

He's been a little different at home, a little more rough housing going on, which I gather he's picking up playing football on the playground. He still loves to ride his bike and go on the swings. He recently made it across the monkey bars, one at a time. He's working on alternating. Carter's starting to read a bit. Her philosophy is using fundamentals and phonics (I almost spelled that wrong!), so sort of old school since I had been hearing so much about sight words. I don't know which is better. Any thoughts out there, school teachers? He does seem to be picking it up. He's very interested in science and how things work. He likes the shows "Factory Made" and "How Do They Do It?" on the Science Channel. We make him fast-forward the commercials, since they're not always kid friendly.

He wanted a fishing cake so this is my lame attempt, once again. I used a lego man and made a blue pond out of frosting, a fishing line out of kitchen twine.

Here are Leah, Elliot and Carter warming up before the other kids arrived.

Showing off his "6" candle

All the kiddos from left, Crawford, Hayden Bridget, Lane, Carter, Madeleine, Leah, Kate, James, Trenton and Molly
Right from the party, we headed to Middle Bass to spend the rest of the weekend with Jeremy's parents. We hadn't been all summer. Mike was so good about the cold weather since the kids really wanted to get in the water. He improvised and instead of tubing behind the jetski, he tied a board to the back of the golf cart. Good times!!

Even Ginger had to try it

Here they are in the loft, which they can not wait to sleep in someday.

Sunday afternoon before we headed back, Carter begged Pop-pop to put the skis in water. It was freezing, but they did it! Here they are backing off the trailer.

Carter had a great birthday and great birthday weekend. We enjoyed it too. It's fun watching him have fun. He can be kind of serious at times, but also knows how to have a good time. Happy 6th birthday Carter!!! We love you.