Congrats Morgan!

We love the Moore family and were so excited for Morgan to graduate from Kennesaw State University this past week! She is one of our favorite people and the boys love her! I am thankful she is in our lives. So, to show her how much we love her, I decided to take a picture of her two biggest fans all decked out in their KSU Owls gear...

Mother's Day 2011

We spent Mother's Day weekend at my grandmother's house in TN. We had seen Daniel's mom the weekend before for Charlie's birthday party. We really had no intentions of travelling anywhere but my mom called and said she and my dad were going to TN for the weekend so I decided to join them. We drove up on Saturday and just stayed the one night. We had a great visit though and my grandmother seems to be doing well.

Me, my grandmother and my mother...
What better way to celebrate being a mother than to spend time with the great-grands? She adores them!
Don't you just wish sometimes that you could be a kid again...

Philip - 9 months old

Philip turned 9 months old last week. The time just seems to get faster each day as I watch my littlest boy grow. He continues to be such a sweetie. My little chunker is so loving and I love to take advantage of that by getting in as much hugging and kissing as I can while I can. He's ticklish so that makes it even sweeter that he cackles when you kiss him on his cheeks and under his chin.

I weighed Philip recently on the Wii and he's at 22 pounds. He goes in for his 9 month well check-up next week so we'll see then how tall he is. He's in 12 month and 18 month clothes. He's a wiggle worm so throwing that 22 pounds around is tough on the one holding him. Philip does like to be on the floor so that he can practice his new skills at rocking and reaching but if you walk away...you better be ready for the crying fit. :) Or, maybe that's just with me. He is in that separation anxiety phase. If Philip spots me and I don't come and get him, he cries. If he's on the floor playing and I walk by and don't pick him up...crying. Even if I sit down to play with him, he will do his best to get in my lap. Once he's got me, he's fine. :\ Some days are worse than others with this. I think it's dependent on his tiredness. On the bad days, my carrier comes in quite handy! He's also taking a liking to my hair like Charlie did. I'm trying to teach him not to pull but, he's a 9 month old. He's catching on. In the meantime, I'm just grinning and bearing it. Charlie would just get handfuls. Philip gets a handful in his right hand and then grabs a handful with his left and pulls it to his mouth so he can suck his thumb at the same time. People think it's cute til they're the one who's hair he is pulling.

Philip is finding his voice. I've heard a few more consonant sounds here lately but that's about it. He just likes to babble sometimes. And, yes, he is still a thumb sucker. It's a cute thing but I'm afraid it's going to be a hard habit to break him of. For now, I'm not worrying about it. He really on sucks it when he's tired or hungry.

Philip has begun to put less in his mouth. Now granted, this is still his primary way of exploring things but alot of his toys he now just shakes or pushes around. He loves to shake things, especially toys that make noise.

As for putting things in his mouth, during our photo shoot the other day, he definitely explored all the leaves and sticks and bark that were around him. By the handfuls, he picked it up and sampled it all. Yuck, I know. I did keep the majority of it out of his mouth between shots. :) He got a couple pieces of pine straw and they poked him as he went to put them in his mouth...Philip really is a good baby. He's just content with most things. He eats well. He sleeps well. He plays well. I also contribute this quality to the fact that he's not crawling yet. He's apparently just content to sit and watch everything go by. He is beginning to realize though that being mobile has its advantages. Philip will go from sitting up to his belly but hasn't moved much more than that except for pushing backwards. He will roll to try and get to something though. I can tell he wants to be running around with his big brother but we'll see how long it is until he's actually doing that!

Philip is doing well with eating solids. I'm still making all his food except his rice cereal/oatmeal. He doesn't turn his nose up at anything. Peas, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, sweet potatoes, are just to name a few of the veggies he eats. Fruit is a little more limited in that alot of the berries he can't eat until he's a year old. But for now it's apples, pears, peaches, bananas, blueberries, and cantaloupe. I've started him on meats and he seems to really like these. Cheeses have also been added to his diet. Cottage cheese and cubed cheddar cheese are mainly it though. He eats yogurt to round out his dairy food group. He LOVES to eat yogurt. Philip just about can't stay in his high chair if he sees the container and you aren't feeding it to him! He also loves to eat bread and bagels. Philip is down to nursing three times a day. Morning, mid-afternoon and nighttime. He also drinks from a sippy cup very well and can even drink from a straw. Philip was bound and determined one day to get my Chick-Fil-A cup so I handed it over to him. He just put that straw in his mouth and sucked on it until he got a swallow. I had no clue at that point that he could do that!

Sleeping - Philip sleeps about 12 hours each night. He goes to bed around 8:00 pm and wakes at about 7:30 or 8:00 am. The last few days he's been getting up at 6:00 or 6:30 to nurse so that just goes to show you that you can never depend on a schedule with little ones. His naps are still dependant on the day. He catnaps in the car to/from taking and picking up Charlie from school and then will take a good nap in the afternoon - usuallly around 2 or 2.5 hours. Days we are home, he will take a morning nap around 11 am for about and hour or 1.5 hours and then will take a two hour nap in the afternoon around 2 or 3 pm.

Philip continues to love his big brother. Just this morning, Philip and I were laying in my bed just cooing and playing with each other. He heard the door open and whipped that head around to see Charlie come in! He began to kick and bounce. Philip knew it was Charlie. Then when Charlie walked up to Daniel's side of the bed, Philip hurled himself towards him with the biggest grin! I just had to smile. He doesn't quite have this response to Daniel yet but he definitely knows his daddy and will greet him with bouncing and a grin.

Hope you have enjoyed the pics so far. Here are a couple more just for laughs. These give you a better feel of the "real" Philip.

Charlie is 4 years old!

Charlie turned 4 years old today! His party was this past weekend which I'll post later. Today was his actual birthday so I wanted him to enjoy it as well.

He had school this morning and they celebrated there too. I sent a chocolate chip cookie cake for the kids to enjoy. Pics are coming soon. I didn't stay for this part of his day so I'm hoping to get a few pics from his teacher.

After Philip's nap this afternoon, we headed to Toys R Us. We stopped at the customer service desk and they gave Charlie a birthday balloon and a birthday crown. He was all excited over the balloon but wouldn't wear the crown. Later, they made an announcement over the intercom in the store that it was Charlie's birthday, that he was four today, that he was wearing a crown and had a balloon and for everyone to wish him a "Happy Birthday" when they saw him. :) I just thought that was neat. He didn't even pay attention to it though as he was too distracted by all the things in the store.

Charlie spotted the tricycles first so he headed straight for them. He tried out three or four of them and one in particular he told me was his favorite and that it needed to go home with him. He compromised with me by me letting him ride it through the store to look at other things.His favorite aisle was, by far, the power wheels aisle!I think he got in/on every car, truck, tractor and four-wheeler that they had! We looked at books, toyboxes and video games. And then we found the Thomas the train table. We were here a while. It was awful trying to get him to leave but the promise of dinner at Chick-Fil-A helped...a little. He did get to take something home though...
Dinner at Chick-Fil-A was our next stop and then on to the church building for Bible Study. Charlie fell asleep in the car on the way home which is unusual for him so I guess he had a fun birthday!

Happy 4th Birthday my sweet Charlie! We have enjoyed these last four years watching you learn and grow. It is a joy to see how compassionate you are to others and especially to your little brother. You do test us alot but I know that is how you learn. School is a joy for you each time you go and they love you just as much in return. I think you would spend hours playing with your cars and trains if someone was there with you. You are a mama's boy but I am thankful that you love me that much. Your dad is your favorite playmate but you keep telling me that Philip is your best friend. So my prayer is that we have many more wonderful years with you and that you do grow up to be a "faithful Christian". We love you!

I got one, Mommy!

Charlie hunted eggs at school the Friday before Easter! They had to hunt inside since it stormed the night before making anywhere outside soggy. They didn't seem to care. :) The hardest part was convincing the kids after they found them all that they had to hide them for the next class. One would hide an egg and the next would pick it up!
 

swimming lessons

Charlie finished swimming lessons last week. It was the "tadpole" class at West Cobb Aquatic Center. His lessons were on Mondays and Wednesdays for three weeks. And, boy, did he take to it like a fish! He took the class with our next door neighbor, Nathan. Which is good and bad. Those two boys are hard to keep still when they're together.

Charlie got quite comfortable in the water, which was the goal of the class. His teacher had him putting his head in, blowing bubbles, floating (assisted) on his back, jumping to someone in the water and learning to kick his feet. By the end of the course, he was voluntarily dunking himself underwater to retrieve a ring off the bottom.

Here are pics and a video...

teething toy

I found a good teething toy for Philip. It was by accident but he seems to like the coldness of it and the hardness of it. What is it, you ask? A carrot. :) It's big enough that he can hold it in his hand. And, it's big enough that he won't shove it down his throat. Lands on the floor? Just pick it up, wash is off and hand it back!

uninvited guest

We had an uninvited guest in our yard a couple of Saturdays ago...

I know it's always possible that snakes live in the neighborhood but it just give chills down my back to have proof. From everything I've read on the web, it was a black kingsnake...so, non-venomous. It was about 3 to 3.5 feet long. And, even now, a week or so later, just posting about it tonight and seeing the pic again, I'll probably have nightmares...

doglicks

As far as I can tell, Philip has no cowlicks. And, we don't really have many cows around here in the big city but every now and then, he will sport doglicks.
Honestly, I didn't fix it this way. Khaki, our dog, just got in a good lick on Philip's head.