Just the two of us

It seems like a lot of my posts lately center around Alex so here's a Brendan post.

I decided that Brendan and I were going to have a special outing just the two of us- no Alex allowed! Luckily, this happened before school started so I could snag one of the young women to babysit for me during the day for a few hours while Brendan and I headed out to see Cars 2. He loved the fact that it was just mommy and Brendan and he ended up loving the movie. He might have been the loudest laugher and gasper in the crowd- he was so into it! And I loved that it was a great bonding time for me and him. I don't think a mom has ever loved her little boy more.

We snapped a picture of us before we headed home and while it's not the most flattering picture of us, I absolutely love it. I'm glad I have it to remember the day by. Definitely something I plan on doing again in the future.

Still his favorite place to hang out

Whenever the dishwasher is open, Alex comes charging. He loves it and since he's discovered climbing, he loves it even more since he can climb up top and reach everything much more easily.

It's too cute so I do feel a little bad when I have to pull him off and close it so he can't pull out any more knives- which is oddly the first thing he goes for. Why?! I think it's a boy thing to be attracted to anything and everything dangerous. This one keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

Just a happy picture of my youngest

I snapped this picture the other day while the boys were playing in the basement. Alex was so proud of himself for climbing up the little table we have down there for them.

This munchkin has definitely turned into a climber and it's making my life very difficult right now. But I still love my Goober. And with a smile and dimples like those, who can resist him?!

And on September 14th, he'll turn 1. I still can't believe it!

Tippy Toes

Alex is rarely flat on his feet and this picture captures his tippy toes perfectly. He looks like he could be a ballet dancer!

I did manage to catch him flat footed, which only lasted a second though.

And then it was right back on his toes.

I think he might have ballet dancing in his future.

Our trip to Colorado

Alright, it's time to catch up! We had a blast when we were in Colorado last month. The plane ride went better than expected (despite delays and having to run to catch our connecting flight) and both kids were as well behaved as we could have hoped for. Brendan woke up the first morning and immediately wanted to find Grandpa and Grandma. He was so excited to be there. And then when the cousins showed up, he was in heaven.

 Brendan and Spencer hit it off, which was too cute for words. Brendan saw Spencer reading a book on the couch one evening and got right up next to him with his own book and pretended to be reading it aloud too. He definitely looks up to his older cousin.

Alex loved meeting his cousins too. He was especially smitten with Marisa and Leila (so was I!). Those two girls are the sweetest, cutest and funniest girls and I wanted to take them home with me. I need to even out the girl-boy ratio in our house!

We did lots of fun things while in Colorado and enjoyed being with family that we don't often get to see. It was a nice treat for us to be there a whole week too!

We took a train ride and enjoyed a beautiful park.

Visited the donut factory, aka Krispy Kreme.

And stuffed our faces.

  Watched Grandpa fly his planes.

 And spent lots of quality time together as a family. It was nice to just sit around, talk and laugh. Lots of laughs when it comes to Chris and Carrie sharing stories.

 Alex definitely loved having so many people around to play with him. He took a shining to his grandpa and I think the feeling was mutual, even though Alex did managed to break one or two things around their house.

And these two boys are just a few weeks apart. Andrew is a pro at walking and I think it seriously impressed Alex, who still shows no signs of being interested in walking himself.

If Brendan didn't already adore his grandma, he certainly did after she got the kids a Slip n' Slide for the back yard. It was love at first sight.

He couldn't wait until the cousin arrived or even to change into his swimsuit- he striped down to his undies the second he saw it and got right in. That's my boy!

It's memories like this (and all the others) that I am so grateful for. We don't get a chance to see Chris's family very often, but when we do, it's the best feeling in the world. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome family and I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. Brendan was so sad to leave and there were definitely some tears when we had to get on the airplane.

Brendan was so exhausted from our trip that he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport in the middle of eating his snack. We all felt the same way and I take that as a sign of a good trip. We enjoyed every moment of it and I'm looking forward to the next time we all can get together. (But John, Erin and Sophia- you guys better be there! We missed you guys!)

A quick hello

I have sooooo much to post but I wanted to really quickly put this picture up because it cracks me up. Can you believe that Alex is 3 months older than the handsome fellow sitting next to him? I love my tiny baby.

And can you also believe that Alex is the one with the Hispanic heritage? Alex is so white he's almost glowing! Neither of my kids tan... poor boys.

Stay tuned for lots of posts coming soon... if I can ever find the time to get everything ready and done!

I usually hate posts like this

I have so much to catch up on that I just don’t have the time to sit down and write everything out into individual posts, so instead I am going to dump it all out in one giant post. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

We visited the Library of Congress and saw the Capital bldg from afar. It wasn’t too hot or humid that day and we enjoyed being out in D.C. for the afternoon.

While we were in the city, we walked around a Farmer’s Market and then got some pupusas from an El Salvador restaurant. It just happened to be Chris’s birthday that day, so we had to do something special for him. I asked if these resembled the kind he ate on his mission, and he said they did. They were quite tasty and both Brendan and Alex ate some as well.

I didn’t mention this before but Alex finally got the hang of crawling while we were in Illinois (he barely got that milestone in under 10 months!) and a week later, he was pulling himself up and cruising along furniture. One of his favorite hangouts in the dishwasher. It’s so fun to watch him move around more and explore things in ways that he couldn’t before…

…until he pulls a knife on his mom. Yikes! I had forgotten how mischievous a mobile baby is. Lesson learned though. We now take the silverware caddy out when Alex is nearby. We have also finally baby-proofed the house so that the little stinker can’t get into anything dangerous but he still manages to find stray marbles that I’ve missed. I seriously throw a handful of marbles away every day and he still finds more! It is infuriating. I think Brendan is the culprit though because he thinks it’s hilarious that Alex pops them straight into his mouth and then I freak out and chase after Alex who is furiously crawling away to avoid his mean mommy who won’t let him eat marbles. The little guy is fast!

Even though we’ve baby-proofed things, Alex still manages to get into trouble. Last week he ate my deoderant- well, more like he chewed it up until he realized that it was disgusting and then started crying until I had wiped out every single fleck from him mouth. Just to be safe, I checked the packaging and sure enough, the container says “If swallowed, call Poison Control immediately.” Ummmm, can we just say that I had a major freak out right then. I was pretty sure he hadn’t swallowed any but I couldn’t be sure so I had my first experience calling Poison Control. Luckily they were nice and it turns out it really wasn’t a big deal. I never want to have to do that again though.

Alex also got his first haircut! Here’s a before:

It’s kind of hard to see the wings he’s got by his ears so here’s a second shot:

And this is now:

He was not happy that I interrupted his eating to take some pictures of him. I can’t believe that he’s getting so big. In just a month and a half, he will turn 1. The thought of that makes me get a little teary eyed.

Brendan also seems so grown up and sometimes I look at him and have to do a double take. When did this happen!?! We’ve been working on our writing lately and he doesn’t enjoy it. He’d much rather be outside playing or chasing after Alex but we’ve been slacking this summer and it’s time to get back on track.

It’s odd to think that summer will be over so soon but luckily we still have some fun things planned to make the most of what we have left. In a couple weeks we head to Colorado to visit Chris’s family and we cannot wait! Although every time we talk about it, Brendan starts crying and saying he doesn’t want to go on an airplane. I wonder what he’ll do when we actually get to the airport. I’m hoping he changes his tune. And I know that once we’re in Colorado and he sees his Grandma and Grandpa and cousins (and aunt and uncle too!) he will be over the moon.

So that’s about it. For now!