PS steals my camera

When I got my new camera, we decided we'd give my old camera to PS for Valentine's Day. Then I forgot and bought her a bunch of chapter books. So, shh, she'll probably get my camera in her Easter basket. She asked the other day if she could borrow my camera. This is what I found when I uploaded the pictures. A bunch are some sort of Webkinz club they created. The other pictures are of Buddy's nature center (we'd just gone on a field trip for music class to the nature center in town).

Picture Collage

Just some pictures from the past couple of weeks.
(Click to enlarge.)

Valentine's Day

I keep forgetting to post our Valentine's Day pictures. When we were kids, my mom would buy us Valentine's balloons and a card and she'd tie the balloons to the railings around the atrium in our house and at the base of the balloon would be the card and some other little gift. I've continued the tradition for my kids, minus the atrium. This year Buddy got a Bulldog Webkinz, ($8 from Borders with a coupon) which he's been asking for since PS got two Webkinz for Christmas and he got Lightning McQueen crocs (which he's also wanted) (on clearance at Target for $2.48). Yea for good deals. PS got a stack of chapter books which she's almost done with. Baby X got a race car. They all got some conversational hearts and a little snack bag of Mother's pink and white animal cookies. I got B season one of Arrested Development on dvd and he got me some new glasses for our kitchen (since I've slowly broken all the old ones, replaced them, and then broken those as well). And B took us all swimming at the indoor aquatic center. We made Rhodes Rolls into cinnamon knots shapepd like hearts (sort of).

The artwork was my project from music class. We read The Kissing Hand and made racoons out of hearts (PS and Buddy both did an excellent job gluing and following instructions). We also traced our hands and made a hand signing I LOVE YOU. The other artwork is PS's own Valentine creation. The close up of Baby X is him eating his first animal cookie. He got ahold of one before I'd broken it into littler pieces for him.

A Duck Says Quack

Reupholstery

One of our chair cushions sprung a leak, so we finally replaced the hideous fabric that once was.

BEFORE



AFTER




NOTE: Two chairs are 100% done. One chair cushion just needs to be reattached to the chair frame. Five chairs have had nothing done to them at all.

How Baby X "talks"

This is how Baby X "talks." It's a bit reminiscent of Buddy, who had delayed speech and just grunted for a long time. But Baby X also says a lot of voiced sounds, so hopefully he's not headed down the delayed speech path.






*video is from a week before Baby X turned one. I've just had trouble uploading videos.

Baby X this week

As you can see... Baby X's tongue still prefers to be out of his mouth.





I hate that the best smiles are always with food all over, or perhaps in the mouth.



PS placed Baby X in a regular chair at the table this morning and gave him a pile of Cheerios and a book. Then she sat by him to make sure he didn't fall. They both thought it was pretty cool.

Baby X Loves Being Chased

Baby X's new thing is that he loves being chased. We discovered it because he started trying to run away from us when he had something he wasn't supposed to have and we tried to get it from him.

Dancing Baby X

I've gotten videos from my new digital camera to upload onto our blog, but I've been trying to upload a video of Baby X "talking" for a couple of weeks now and I can't get it to work. But then this one of him dancing worked... so, maybe I'll try again. Here's Baby X dancing. Grandma and Grandpa M sent a musical card to him that sang "Celebrate Good Times" when you opened it. The older kids loved this and insisted on having a "Celebrate Good Times" party, but wanted the whole song, not just the few lines the cared would keep repeating. So we listened to it on cd (B had it) and we danced. Then we noticed that Baby X was "dancing" as well. What a cutie! And when he stares at the screen... it's just blue. Our dvd player is playing a cd but the screen is blank, yet he's still enthralled by it. :)

Superbowl

B was born in Pittsburgh, PA and spent the first few years of his life there. His parents were both born and raise there, so when it comes to a Steeler's Superbowl, things were exciting around here. We don't watch TV (other than churchy videos for the kids) on Sunday, not even sports. But we did watch a the end of the Superbowl this year. Yea Steelers!

When the score got close at the end, I insisted that B go gather up all of his Steeler stuff (which only consisted of a sweatshirt and a beanie) and he dressed the kids in them.

Trailer Trash Truffles

I usually only share recipes on my other blog... but I've already shared this recipe there and I finally actually made them (as opposed to just eating ones that other people had made) and took a picture.

Trailer Trash Truffles aka Oreo Truffles (or as my kids call them, Oreo balls)

Here's how easy this is...

Ingredients:
1 box Oreos
8 oz. cream cheese softened
chocolate for dipping
white chocolate for decorating (optional)

Directions:
Crush Oreos into fine crumbs. Mix with cream cheese (I used a mixer, some use their hands). Roll into about a one inch ball. Freeze for 15 minutes. Melt chocolate, dip to cover and lay on wax paper. Decorate with melted white chocolate if your heart so desires.

AND, you can mix this up with mint Oreos, etc.

Three New Haircuts

B finally cut his hair (and shaved off the mustache!!!!) a week ago. Hooray!



My hair had gotten pretty long (I forgot a before shot) and had gotten to the point where I was just wearing it up every day... which means goodbye long hair.



Baby X got his first real haircut with the clippers and all (before we've just trimmed him with scissors). He looks like a completely different kid to me. I'm not sure if I like it yet or not.

Here are some before, during and after shots. He was super cute afterward... B turned on the clippers to clean them and he came over and had B pick him up and then leaned his head toward B and held really still.

Dogs play Frisbee

Buddy has been pretty obsessed with dogs for the last bit. Not real ones, although he says he wants a dog the kind of dog he wants is one that stays a puppy forever. He's got a collection of stuffed animal dogs that travel around with us frequently and he enjoys playing like he's a dog. B overheard this conversation the other day between Buddy and Princess Sparkley:

Buddy: People don't play frisbee. Dogs play frisbee.

Which prompted B to explain how two people can play frisbee, not just a person and a dog. He's a funny kid.

Baby X: week by week

click picture to enlarge

Here's the final project. Baby X with his alligator each week in a onesie and each month in just a diaper. Week 3 and Month 1 are near the dates they should be and are the same picture, no alligator, in the hospital when he had his heart procedure.

Birthday Monster*

Here's Baby X on his actual birthday. He threw up first thing in the morning and then again in the late afternoon and evening. But in between he had an okay day. It's currently late morning the day after his birthday and he hasn't thrown up since last night. This isn't a huge guarantee though since he's gone an entire day between throwing up. He drank lots of water last night and today and even had some crackers in addition to his little bottles I've been trying to get him to drink every few hours.

*If you didn't notice, the book he's peeking through/chewing on is Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton.

12 months aka 1 year

Birthday Boy

So, technically Baby X's first birthday is tomorrow, January 26th, but we celebrated it with a little family party tonight.

Baby X had carrot cake cupcakes that, just like his big brother on his own first birthday, he didn't want anything to do with.

His big present was a pretend piggy bank that he enjoyed at a friend's house last week so we got him his own. The picture of two pigs having a tea party on the bottom row was PS's idea... it's Buddy's real piggy bank and the new toy one Baby X got.

*note: The flu hit our house this weekend, Buddy Friday night and Baby X Saturday night so he wasn't quite himself for his little birthday celebration. Poor kid.

Baby X at almost a year

Notice his tongue in most of these pictures.

1 week. 52 weeks.

*Once I take his 12 month alligator picture tomorrow,
I'll collage all these in order and you can see how he's grown week to week.

52 Weeks!

My baby boy is 52 weeks old (somehow that I don't want to think too hard about, this is not on his birthday. His one year birthday is Monday, this picture was taken Saturday).