eleven!

I'll admit it.  I cried when I finished this little photo shoot.  11 months.  Only 1 more to go until he's no longer a baby.  I waited for years for this baby to join our family, and I was so happy when I was finally holding this tiny baby in my arms.  Then I blinked and he turned 11 months old.  Each day these past two weeks, as we get closer to his birthday, I feel like I have to hold on a little tighter to his "babyhood," as if his first birthday somehow is an end.  But then I remember that while he won't be a baby much longer, he will always be mine, and I know that the next stage is awesome.  And so is the one after that.  And the one after that.

This next picture is so funny.  He always makes this cute little face where he puts is chin down and looks up from under his eyelids.  It's usually accompanied by some pretty awesome babbling.

He also makes this face.  A. Lot.  His huge, wide-mouthed smile.   He is such a happy baby, and he just couldn't possibly smile any bigger!

Some fun things about Krew at 11 months:

~He took his first step the day before he turned 11 months.  I stood him up, and let go of his hands, and he stepped toward me.  He actually did this same thing four times that day. He was pretty proud of himself!
~When he nurses, he likes to play with my eyelashes, or pat me on the cheek
~He has become quite attached to his Mickey Mouse doll, and wants to snuggle him when he wakes up.  It's too cute!
~He has been saying "dada" for a while.  And I finally got a "Mom" out of him as he was calling for me down the hall.  But he still says "dada" all the time, and rarely says "mama."
~He likes to pick up my phone, or a calculator or remote control, hold it up by his ear and jabber away.  I wonder who he's calling!
~He's very good at animal sounds.  He's been growling when asked, "What does a lion say?" for quite a while, but now he also knows what a puppy dog says, what a duck says, what a sheep says, what a cow says, and what Krew says (Krew says "ha, ha, ha")
~We love Krew's laugh.  It often sounds fake or forced, even when it's not.
~He can clap his hands!
~He points to things he wants now, or the direction he wants to be taken
~He loves turning on and off the lights with the light switches

soapy hair

Because my baby has such a full head of long, handsome hair, I get to do fun things with it like style it with soap suds during bath time.  Last week we got extra creative.

I call this one "the tidal wave":

Look at that curl action!

I call this one "the rooster":

This one is knows as "horns":

I refer to this one as "ducktail":

And last, this is what my baby would look like if he had a normal amount of hair for a baby:

I love this sweet, soapy, wet baby!

first day of school-1st grade edition

The day after Labor Day, Kade and Ky started first grade!  To say they were less than excited about their summer break coming to an end would be an understatement!  These boys love to stay home with me and play.  Even if we aren't doing anything exciting.  But, I think they were also a little bit excited to be first graders!  They've been in school a couple of weeks now, and so far, we haven't had any tears about going to school, so I will call that a success.  I also know it just takes my sweet sons a little while to get used to any kind of change.

I couldn't decide which picture of Ky to put on here, because he is a chronic "picture-facer" and I'm not sure which one looks more like a smile!

 The boys were happy to see some of their kindergarten friends when they got to school that morning.  Too bad only one other boy from their kindergarten class is in their class this year.  Oh well, they are good at making friends, and they have each other!

 These two are best buds!  I'm happy that they are in the same class again this year.  It makes me feel better knowing that they can look out for one another while they are away from me.

 When their teacher told them it was time to go into the school, they waved good-bye without hardly even looking back at me.  Which is probably good because I didn't want them to see the tears that were welling up in my eyes.  Does it ever get any easier to drop your kids off on their first day of school?

Krew and I went home to get ready for a fun luncheon we were invited to, and had only been home for about 10 minutes when I decided that the house was too quiet and I missed Kade and Ky already!

We were both excited when they got off the bus that afternoon!

a perfect late-summer evening!

We've had some great weather this summer.  There have been weeks where it has been hot and dry, and some fairly rainy weeks, but for the most part, it's been great.  One of my favorite things to do this summer has been to spend the evening outside together as a family.  We don't do anything fancy, just play on the swing set, play baseball, football, golf, or soccer, and spend time together.  Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago when we were enjoying one such evening.

happy 10 months!

This little charmer is 10 months old already!  I have been loving this stage (didn't I say that about the last stage, and the one before that?)!  He is so much fun and has such a big personality!  He is just the sweetest baby and I love being his mom!

Now that he is moving all over the house (he finally mastered the high crawl, although he still low crawls when he's in a hurry), he has slimmed down quite a lot.  He weighs 20 lbs. 9 oz, which is the 53rd percentile, a big change from when he was 2 months and in the 95th percentile! He's still quite tall for his age, in the 93rd percentile. Oh, and he has a big head too!

He's learned lots of new tricks this month, including:
       ~ Sleeping through the night!  (yay!)
       ~ Giving high fives
       ~  He gives "noggin"  (bumps his forehead to yours, like the sea turtles in Finding Nemo)
       ~ Can get himself down from standing at the furniture
       ~ When asked, "what does a lion say?" he growls
       ~ Loves to mimic sounds
And, he finally got a tooth.  One tiny little tooth.  I think it's adorable!

He still eats like a champion.  He'll eat almost anything I give him, except for the days at a time when he decides he won't eat anything pureed and then he'll only eat finger foods.  However, his favorite food is definitely pancakes.  He can really take those down.  Several weeks ago, I nursed him, then he ate half a banana and 6 pancakes! Granted they weren't huge pancakes, but still...

Krew has been given lots of nicknames by this point.  We all call him Krewbee a lot.  Bart often shortens that to B.  Kade and Ky lengthen it and call him Kerbopperee, or Bopperee, or Bopper, or Bapper.  I usually call him Stonkerton, or some variation of that.  (Any Office fans out there remember flonkerton?  I think that must be where Stonkerton came from).  Variations of that include: Bonk-flonkerton, Krewserton, Snuggleton, Stinkerton, etc.  I also call him Mommy's baby, or Mommy's Bear, or just Bear.  Kade and Ky often call him Neemee, or Neemee-do. No idea where that came from.

Krew, your whole family is in love with you!  You bring such a happy spirit into our home and we can't imagine our family without you in it!