Philip's crawling!

I took this video on Saturday when my parents were in town. It was the first time Philip really took to crawling somewhere. He's still improving but he's getting much faster at it and has realized he can crawl to other rooms. Good thing the house is already baby-proofed!

On another note, Daniel lowered Philip's crib mattress on Saturday morning. It became a necessity. Here's the back story...Friday night, I was home with the kids and Daniel was at band practice. I went through the usual bedtime routine with Philip and put him to bed. However, he apparently wasn't ready to go to sleep so he was crying and fussing which is unusual for him so I got him up. As I walked into his room, he was on his knees with his hands/arms on the rail of the crib. I just thought, "Whoa. Didn't realize he could do that. We need to lower the mattress before he figures out how to pull himself up to his feet." He played a while in the living room with Charlie and me and then began to get fussy again so I put him back to bed. And, again, he began to cry and fuss for a while. I waited a little bit before going in to get him just to see if he would lie down and go on to sleep. But, then...a moment of silence and a thump. It took me a second to determine if that thump was Philip or thunder since it had been thundering and lightning that night. But, the scream I heard next quickly told me the answer. I hop up and go into Philip's room and he is lying on the floor beside the crib. Aaaaah! He had his head up and was looking around and moving around so I scoop him up and take him into the light to examine him. Whew! No broken bones. No bumps on the head. And Philip was, at this point, no longer upset. He did end up with a pretty good bruise on his forehead but honestly, I'm so thankful for that bruise. It could have been much worse. Needless to say, Philip slept the rest of his night in his PackNPlay. :\

Philip clapping

We discovered a week or so ago that Philip has learned how to clap. The first time I saw it, it wasn't prompted. He just started doing it and I was surprised. I've been trying to incorporate it in to Philip learning to sign "more".

 

friends over to play...

Don't you just love having a friend over to your house? Charlie does. This time it was our next door neighbor, Nathan. They had so much fun playing in Charlie's room and outside in the back yard.Charlie is constantly asking if Nathan can come over to play. I love having him over. He keeps Charlie occupied and out from under my feet for a while. :) However, with any fun time, there's always the aftermath...

a quiet house?

There are only two times a day when my house is quiet...both boys are asleep or they are...stuffing their faces... Charlie decided Philip needed to be a big boy and sit at the table with him for lunch. :) We have since started taking the tray off and pushing Philip up to the table.

Charlie's 4th Birthday Party!

All Aboard! On April 30, 2011, we celebrated Charlie's 4th birthday with a Thomas the train party! He was so excited to have Thomas!We had been talking about a Thomas the train cake for weeks! And...it was going to be made by Aunt Laura! :) Once it was here, we had to keep telling Charlie to stop touching Thomas. Laura and I had decided to do a cupcake train with Thomas pulling the cars with cupcakes. It turned out so cute!! Everything was edible except Thomas, which is a train whistle that she found online, and it worked out perfectly. She also made Charlie's Thomas outfit. Both the cake and the outfit were perfect for his party.
Below are some of the other decorations from the party.Katy Larson did most of the printables, i.e. banner, cupcake wrappers, invitations, etc. I just printed what she designed, cut it out and put it all together. The rest of it, I made on my friend's cricut. (Thanks, Kathy!) I love that thing!
Since you probably can't read the pics, here is what each says: "Daniel Ward, Head Conductor"; "Melissa Ward, Station Manager"; "Charlie Ward, Engineer"; and "Philip Ward, Jr. Engineer".As each passenger entered Ward Station, they were given their own engineer's hat and train whistle. Kathy Moore embroidered these for me. Aren't they just the cutest!?!Here is Charlie trying out his whistle...The CW Railways Dining Car was where everyone went to have refreshments.Charlie's big present from Daniel and me was to fill in the sandbox part of his playground. Charlie and the kids loved it! Great friends, a little sand, some bubbles and lots of cake makes for a fantastic party! Charlie had a ball! He had all of his closest buds here for the party: Branson, Connor, Alex, Nathan and Nicholas. Other friends included Jessica, Angela, Benjamin, Michael, Alexis, and Katelyn. And, of course, little brother, Philip, just watched from the sidelines.After the main event and the guests left, Charlie opened presents from family. Everyone except Uncle Michael (who unexpectedly had to stay in AL for work) was here to celebrate Charlie's birthday. Needless to say, Charlie is quite blessed. He got lots of great gifts from garbage trucks and dump trucks to puzzles, a foam blower, video games and tons more! I did good to get a few pictures!

Philip - 10 months old

Is Philip really that close to a year old!?! Wow! He is definitely coming into his own personality and it's such a joy to watch it develop. Philip is still very laid back. Sweet baby. He has always been a wiggle worm but now that he's approaching that being on the move milestone, he's more wiggly than ever! It will exhaust you trying to contain him!

Philip is making small strides towards crawling but that's about the extent of it. He may just skip the crawling thing though and go straight to walking. Until then, I guess Philip is content to roll everywhere. We've had to start the habit of closing the gate to the stairs because you turn your head and Philip is a few feet from where you left him. No longer is he just moving from sitting to his belly...he's rolling across the floor. Philip is trying to pull up to his knees but no success. I have started to get him to stand more so he's gaining some strength in his legs.

Daniel and I are blessed to have a baby who eats and sleeps well. I just don't think I will ever fill up Philip. :) He eats whatever you give him and stops eating when either you make him or the food runs out. I have begun giving him his food as finger foods which means lots of dicing (which I hate to dice but oh well). So mealtime is longer now but I get to eat my food before it gets cold. I'm still spoon feeding him a good bit of his food but he seems to like feeding himself. Philip has also started grabbing the spoon when I feed him. He will put it in his mouth if I let go of it. From there he just chews on it though. I'm thinking the rubber tip on the spoon is a good teething toy on those top two teeth.

As for sleeping, Philip just naps the day away and will then go back to sleep for his 11-12 hour night. I guess he's eating good enough that some days he sleeps right through lunch. I feed him when he gets up in the afternoon but like today, he ate breakfast at around 8 am and it's 3:15 now and he's still asleep and hasn't eaten since bfast. He fell asleep in the car on the way home from the church building so I just let him sleep. Sometimes though he'll combine his am nap and his pm nap into one LONG nap. He did that yesterday as well. Went down for a nap around 10 am and woke up at 2:30 pm.

Philip has technically said his first word...which, to my excitement, was mama! Most of the time it's mamama but I'll take it! Charlie's first sounds were dadada but I'm sure he says mama much more than daddy these days so it's only natural that Philip's would be mama. There are days that I want to change my name. :) He has figured out the bababa sounds too. Philip has discovered that he can make many sounds with his mouth including popping his lips and blowing raspberries. He'll talk some baby talk and it is increasing each day as well as the volume level!

I only have a limited number of pictures of Philip for this month...mainly because the little thang won't sit still and/or won't quit putting dirt/grass/sticks in his mouth. I can't set him on an elevated surface because he lunges forward at me and falls off. I have the wounds to prove it from having to dop to my knees to catch him. So far so good...no wounds on him. I have a bunch of pics from the day I took some but most are blurry. :\ This one needs the caption, "Here Charlie. Want some?"I have just about given up on the bear pics. He just tries to eat it. This is the best one I got.And still my little thumb sucker...I zoomed in on this one so that you can see the little curls. This is how Charlie's curly head started so time will tell...

new teeth

As an addition to the previous post, Philip cut his upper two front teeth yesterday. Yes, he cut both at the same time. Poor thing. No wonder he kept biting me! They are quite visible today so take a peek next time you see him. (but don't get any fingers near them!) :)

Philip's first tooth...well, teeth.

I took this photo on May 19th. I had intended on getting a picture of his first tooth. I kept waiting for it to come in more so you could see it but then when I remembered again, the second one had already cut through. It came fairly quickly after the first one. Philip is now acting like his front top two are bothering him and they look like they are really close to cutting through the gums. We'll see how long it takes...

end of the school year 2011

Charlie's last day of PreK3 was Friday, the 20th. His teachers requested sprinklers and hot dogs to celebrate and that's what they got! Only about half of the kids took to the sprinklers well. Charlie was not one of them. He played in it a little bit but really enjoyed the sidewalk chalk that one of the moms brought. Hot dogs were served for lunch and that wrapped up the day. His teacher, Ms. Juanita, made each of the kids a photo scrapbook and Charlie has enjoyed looking at it and naming all his friends.

The night before, the PreK4 kids went through their graduation ceremony and the younger kids performed a few songs...

The Moores came to see Charlie perform and he was so excited they were there.Here is Charlie with one of his best buds, Connor, at the dessert reception after the ceremony.
Charlie with his teachers, Ms. Emily and Ms. Juanita.