Not Exactly a Team Player

Liam got out the Uno Attack game, but after the initial fun of pressing the button and having the cards shoot out at him wore off, he informed me that he wanted to play cards with Aiden.
Well, actually, it was more like,

"baby brother. cards. baby go? share. cards. baby brother."

I kind of ignored him for a bit, but then I figured I better make sure he didn't attack his napping little brother. Luckily the camera was still upstairs from my earlier post, because this is what I saw. 

 Unfortunately for Liam, his brother wasn't as interested in playing at the time. Liam soon got bored, took the cards back, and gave them to me instead, and we had a fun time naming off colors and numbers, before he decided Mommy reading him books was a lot more fun then her quizzing him on his numbers (which he doesn't recognize too well, besides 2,4, and 8) and colors (which he pretty much has down now, besides pink which he thinks is just a lighter version of purple). :)

Crab Overload

My son decided to pick out his own clothes to wear today. Kudos to him for getting a shirt that matched the shorts. But I'm not sure about his decision to have a blue "crab" hat (aka lobster) to match his blue "crab" (aka lobster) shirt.  Good thing he decided to ditch the hat before we went to the park! :)

In other news, the wee one is 1 month old today. Can you believe it?! Wow, time has flown by! He's gaining a bit of head control, still is determined to nurse almost every 2 hours (though he did give me a 6 hour time stretch last night, praise God... because I needed it!) and continues to surprise me with his spit up. Though not colicky, he is prone to start crying hysterically at any given time- but usually the moment you pick him up (or soon thereafter), he burps and then is content. He still has blue eyes, and I will find out his weight/height at his 1 mo checkup which I think is this Thursday (I'll post an update once I get them). 

His brother still continues to love on him, laments when "baby sad" (but informs me that "Liam happy"), has gotten more clingy to Joel and I (don't ask Joel though :) and will sometimes test his Mama's desire to discipline by being unruly while I'm nursing. He's usually quick to share his toys (how long will that last?!) and give full body press kisses- much to his brother's dismay. Though Aiden may not like getting squashed by his brother's love, he does love his brother, and if he's crying and Liam comes up to him chattering away, Aiden will usually stop until Liam runs off again. :)

Daddy Dates

3 days a week, different areas within a 5 min drive of our house have concert series during the summer. Last night it was raining though, so it was moved indoors. Joel knew Liam would like the music, so he took him to the concert on a little "daddy date", giving me a break of only having to watch Aiden, and letting me have a free evening to hull strawberries and make jam all night long. I think they had more fun... :)

I was worried that Liam would get bored, but apparently not. This is only a short version. I'll try to remember (for my parents) to put the long version up as soon as Joel puts it on the comp. I guess he pretty much did this the full hour+ they were there. And he melted the hearts of all the old people around- they didn't realize they'd get to hear AND see entertainment that night!

Afterwards, the daddy date took them to walgreens, where Joel wanted to quick print off a picture. While they were waiting they browsed the card section. Apparently Liam liked one of the cards and kept opening up that card (a hoops and yoyo talking card about bff's). Joel bought it figuring he'd give it to me sometime. Well, when they came in the house and Joel shut the garage door, Liam freaked out and kept saying "B" over and over. We could not figure out what he wanted, and finally Joel said "show me". Well, Liam took him out into the garage, and indicated he wanted Joel to open the garage door and go out to his car. Then Liam climbed in and got the "B"FF card that he figured Joel forgot! So I got my card a little earlier then planned :)

Joel's hoping to have more "daddy dates" with the boys (Liam for now), so hopefully with the start of a new year next week, we will have more free evenings!

Nana and Papa

So it's been less then 24hrs since my parents left and already they are sorely missed! Although Liam cared more about a worm when they left for the airport, he soon realized that his papa and nana were gone. Although I told him, and he kept saying they went to the airport to fly on an airplane, he must have thought they were just going on a joyride, because he expected both of them to read him books later on yesterday, nana to give him more snacks and take him to the "smoothie store", and papa to leaf blow the yard. It got to the point that when he heard the door open from Joel coming home, he went down the stairs all excited, saying "papa papa" only to discover that it was his Daddy. Let's just say he was a little disappointed.

...yeah, we sure feel the love coming from his end. ;)

So here's just a few random pictures of papa and nana with the boys. Other upcoming posts I'm sure will have more of what he did with them, but who knows how many pictures I may be taking these next few days as I adjust to being by myself, so I have to save a few so you guys don't yell at me again! :)

Life of the Wee One

 My sister informed me that I'm not posting enough pictures of our wee one and it's mostly been Liam, even though Aiden has been around for the past 3 weeks. It's probably because most of the time, this is all I see...

 

 ...pretty exciting, huh?!

Now, the question is, who does he get it from?

His big brother...

Or his dad...

... 'cuz any mother knows it won't come from her :)

A Careful Man

A careful man I must be

A little fellow follows me

I do not dare to go astray

For fear he'd go the selfsame way.

Whatever he sees me do he tries

Not one thing escapes his eyes

Like me he says he's going to be

This lil' chap that follows me.

I must remember as I go

Thru summer sun and winter woe

I'm molding for the years to be

That little chap that follows me.

(a poem that Joel's Grandpa Bahler
used to pass out to various people on business cards)

To the father of my two lovable, rambunctious boys...

... Happy Father's Day!

Thank you for not only being this careful man described in the poem, but a loving, godly father and role model for our children! You may not be home a lot, as you work hard in the vocation God has called you to do, but the moments you spend with our children are the ones they treasure and look forward to the most each day- and the ones I do too! We love you!!

And it was also a blessing having my father here  for father's day as well! What a wonderful way to spend this special day with the two most important men in my life hanging out with me, my mom, and the boys! We tried to get a picture for the occasion. Yeah, I'm learning that trying to include more then one person in the picture exponentially decreases the odds of success. (out of about 20 shots, these were a couple of the best)... :)

The Wheels on the Bus

Liam loves music. 

The word "love" is actually probably a major understatement. He constantly has to have it playing, and has taken after his father in volume level. The nice thing is, he doesn't currently mind whether we are listening to Mommy's music or his music, so at least this Mama gets a break sometimes :)  He knows some hymns from BSF, but his current favorites are Deep and Wide (he will sing this a cappella in the car or late at night in his crib), Jesus Loves Me, Sunbeam, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Wheels on the Bus... 

Papa's Here

My dad came into town on Wednesday evening. As is typical, no time was wasted before he had taken Liam on a trip to the hardware store, had come home and had installed a new garbage disposal (yay!), fixed the leaking bathroom faucet, replaced a sparking light switch that I didn't know even existed, fixed my husband's pneumatic desk chair (a week too late, as Joel replaced just replaced it!) and helped make Liam's choo choo bike fit him better! And that was just Day 1!

Don't worry, he would have done more (not that I can even think of thing's for him to do), except he had to spend time with his grandchildren :)

Not this Again...

Seriously, do we have to burp after every feeding?!

Days Gone By

 So I bought this fold up chair for Liam, because previously he had been using a bouncer as his chair that my cousin had bought for me when he was a baby. I figure now that Aiden's around, I may need it. Well, he immediately set it up and put it right by the back screen door. He then asked for a drink to put in his chair.

 
And then he just sat there.

Staring out the window.

I asked him what he was watching.

He pointed to the ground and said "ants".

Isn't that exciting?!

Apparently that's the best this Mama can do when his Grandma and Aunt Jane leave.

I'm not sure about the ant part, but it did remind me of the elderly people that love to sit outside and just kind of watch life float by each day after they retire.

I guess now that Aiden is around, Liam is practicing and getting ready for an early retirement.

watching the ants.

(It did make me feel slightly better that least later on he chose to watch more then just ants and instead watched the squirrels, birds and the rabbit that should not be in my yard).

can you get any more comfy then that?

Strawberry Picking

Although my son has felt love from everyone around him, he has understandably been feeling a lil' neglected by his Mommy lately. I thought I'd change that a wee bit, and with my mom out, we would go on an "excursion". You see, I had gotten an email from an orchard that I visited a couple years ago, and it mentioned that strawberry season was starting. Now last year, raspberry picking had been a huge success. Actually, huge is probably an understatement. Liam loved it. So I thought, why not strawberries? It wasn't going to be hot so the bees wouldn't be out, and there are no thorns to contend with!

Let's just conclude that unlike the raspberries that he couldn't get enough of, he much preferred popping the strawberries in his hand and watching the juice fly everywhere as he squished them. He also liked to taste test the strawberries and then throw them back in the flat. I did learn a new meaning for "strawberry blonde". All you had to do was see my son's hair and the juices attached to it to understand :) He literally was covered from head to toe in juices by the end of the trip.

I think that will be our last trip to the strawberry patch this summer :)

 Squish!

 This is kind of cool...

 Maybe not...

 Trying to give Aiden strawberry flavored kisses :)

The strawberries that my mom pretty much picked all by herself