Last few weeks in Instagram

Summertime catch-up :)

 

Sunday 6/9/13: Team photo

 Sunday 6/9/13: Justin's first selfy :)

 Sunday 6/9/13: New sand in the sandbox.

Much of it ended up in my kitchen.

 Monday 6/10/13: His attempts at crawling are...interesting.

 

Tuesday 6/11/13: Fro-yo time :)

 Thursday 6/13/13: Thunder-thighs barely fits into the bumbo chair...

 Sunday 6/16/13: Stylin' at T-ball

 Sunday 6/16/13: Papa came down to watch a game for Father's Day :)

 Monday 6/17/13: Shenanigans

 Monday 6/17/13: As I posted on Facebook, he gets this from his daddy. :)

Tuesday 6/18/13: Looks like someone's practicing for the team in a few years...

 Thursday 6/20/13: Buddha-belly baby boy in a bubble bath :)

 Thursday 6/20/13: I've suddenly found time to scrapbook again.

Which is great, 'cause I've got A LOT to catch up on...

 Saturday 6/22/13: What I did instead of cleaning my house...

 

Saturday 6/22/13: What we do in Ohio when it's hot and we don't have pool access.

Saturday 6/22/13: Family ice cream date.

The boys were so well-behaved that I started to worry.

Monthly Mumbles, June Edition

Linking up with Megan @ In This Wonderful Life today. I probably won't make mine weekly, but rather just drop by once a month :)

10. Bad, bad blogger!!! Oh well. It's summer. We're busy. More hours of daylight mean fewer to spend in front of my computer in the evenings when the kiddos go to bed. So no apologies. We're just living life. :)

9. One (other) reason in particular that I've been so busy is that I'm pulling single-parent duty in the evenings more often. Yup, the hubster went out and got himself a new j-o-b at THE Ohio State University! You CAN.NOT. imagine how jealous of happy for him I am. It's an excellent opportunity.

8. I can't believe we're more than halfway through Aiden's first season of T-ball already! There are only four games left. He's been making steady progress (well, for a five-year-old), and he seems to be having fun, so I'll put this in the Good Idea column. And if you've never been to a T-ball game with five- and six-year-olds? Picture a bunch of kids playing in the dirt, looking at bugs, picking their noses, and basically doing anything BUT paying attention to the game. Oh, and they're in little uniforms. Adorable. :)

7. I may or may not have started planning both Nolan's and Justin's birthday parties. And I've got 4 and 6 months before each of those. So for those of you that follow me on Pinterest, I'm sorry for all the pumpkin and candy cane stuff. I know it's not even the 4th of July...

6. Looking forward to volunteering for the Second and Seven Foundation's Football FUNdamentals Camp next week. Angie, Abby & I had a blast last year, so I'm expecting more of the same.

5. I've seen two movies so far this summer--which is REALLY good for me--and I loved both of them. I've actually seen Star Trek Into Darkness twice (and you'll be happy to know that Chris Pine was just as gorgeous in 3D as he was in the regular showing) and Man of Steel once (Henry Cavill should NEVER be allowed to wear a shirt). As you can probably tell, I enjoyed both movies for completely different reasons than my husband.

4. I made an appointment to get Nolan's speech evaluated in a few weeks. Might be jumping the gun, but I really think he should be a little more clear in his language this close to three years old. And if they tell me he's fine? I'm good with that, too. But for my own piece of mind, I'd like the evaluation. :)

3. Justin clapped for me last night. Repeatedly, and on demand. Is six months a bit early for that? Seems to be. I can't remember. Time to check his brothers' baby books (I KNEW those things would come in handy!)...

2. Anybody else out there ready for some college football? I'll find out in a week or two if I got OSU tickets in the alumni lottery. I would REALLY like to get a B1G game for once.

1. I actually get to participate in summer hours offered by my company this year (THANK YOU, Mike's job change)!!! It's a little difficult getting up that extra hour early four days a week, but having Friday afternoons completely to myself? H-E-A-V-E-N.

Last week in Instagram

Yeah, I'm late. We've been kind of busy :)

 Monday 6/3/13: Beautiful roses from the hubster for our anniversary. Well played :)

 Tuesday 6/4/13: Curls weren't so annoying. Needed documented.

 

 Thursday 6/6/13: My six-month-old weighed in 

at 18 lbs (75th percentile) at his checkup. Big man :)

 Thursday 6/6/13: Chris Pine makes me squeal like a 12-year-old girl.

 Friday 6/7/13: That midget up to bat is my kid :)

 

Saturday 6/8/13: A lone baby toe sticking through the blanket :)

 

 Saturday 6/8/13: Cheeky :)

 

 Saturday 6/9/13: Piano man

 Saturday 6/8/13: First try at a sippy cup. Ain't no thang.

 Saturday 6/8/13: Our new neighbor, Mr. Caterpillar.

 Saturday 6/8/13: Bubble blowin' on the back porch :)

 

Six Months Old

I thought about titling this post "In Which My Baby Decides He Is Not One."



You think I'm joking. Not even close.

Justin has reached the half-year point. The memory of his birth, though just a short six months ago, already comes to mind with the nostalgic haze of new baby freshness, instead of the more sober reality (thrombocytopenia and preeclampsia set against a backdrop of layoffs at my company).

And yet, I have this baby who wants nothing more than to grow bigger, faster, stronger everyday. He's succeeding.

It's all downhill to his first birthday (SQUEE!) from here on out.

At six months, Justin:

--weighs a scale-tilting 18 lbs even (75th percentile). Though he was my smallest baby at birth, he's my largest at six months, notching a full pound more than runner-up Nolan. And that 75th number has never been mentioned for our family in a doctor visit before :)
--has just moved to size three diapers, and is spilling out of his six-month outfits. Time to bring out the bin of nine-month clothes.
--eagerly eats anything I try with him. Sometimes I get some weird expressions after the first bite of a new food, but after that, it's game on.
--popped out A SECOND TOOTH LAST WEEK (as seen below).



--thinks he's Chewbacca. He has this growly coo that is just hysterical.
--would rather stand. As in all the time. On a whim the other day, I set his little feet on the floor and let him hold onto the coffee table. He stood there for a good three minutes, smiling, screeching and just pleased as punch.
--has mastered rolling. He ends up in some weird spaces in the living room. And I'm not the only one who's noticed; Aiden asked me just this evening, "Did you put him over here, Mom?"

--seems to have some hair coming in. It makes me giggle that when he was born, he had no hair on the top of his head. For the past few months, he's only had hair on top of his head. Now it seems to be returning around the back and sides.
--had his first non-well visit to the doctor over the weekend. Little bugger had pinkeye. But a puffy right eye and some nasty drainage didn't seem to bother him the slightest.
--continues to have the sweetest disposition. He's just so darned nice. The only thing that wrinkles his nose is when I'm not fast enough to get his food ready when he's hungry. And even that is easily remedied.

See how he compares to Aiden and Nolan at six months old. :)

 

The Quilt

I was about 12 weeks pregnant with Justin when my mom passed away last year. We were scheduled to find out the gender of #3 just two weeks later, and then I would have been able to visit my folks, show them the ultrasound photos, and pick out colors, fabric & a design for the baby's quilt.

I believe I've mentioned it here before, but Mom was quite the artist when it came to quilting. The way she could choose colors and patterns and construct a masterpiece mystified me. When I asked her to create an Ohio State quilt for Aiden, she delivered. And Nolan's baby quilt is just as treasured.

Unfortunately, she would be unable to make a quilt for Justin. And as with everything related to her death, that really hurt.

But one of her sisters was not about let Justin be quiltless; my amazing Aunt Annie told me it would be an honor to make his quilt.

I still get teary when I think about how touched I was by her offer. And I know how tickled Mom would have been that she was stepping in.

I enthusiastically accepted, and gave her little more direction than I wanted to use some fabric from Mom's collection, and I wanted an Ohio Star somewhere in the pattern. Aunt Annie did the rest.

And this past weekend, on the one-year anniversary of Mom's passing, she presented me with Justin's gorgeous quilt.

To say that it's perfect just doesn't seem like enough. And saying thank you to Annie seems almost trite.

She connected my mom and my son in a way that I never could, and I will forever be ridiculously grateful.

I'm pretty sure a certain someone feels the same way. :)

Our week in Instagram

We had a pretty busy week. Not everything made it to Instagram, but it was pretty close!

 Monday 5/27/2013: I still can't believe I helped create all these people.

 Monday 5/27/13: Ready for his very first T-ball practice.

 Wednesday 5/29/13: Just cuddlin' with Daddy. 

 Thursday 5/30/13: His smile revealed that Tooth #2 has arrived. Craziness.

 Friday 5/31/13: Daddy antics at the Zoo. 

Apparently he wasn't as exciting as the animals.

 Friday 5/31/13: Oh, you know, just hangin' out next to the leopard.

 Saturday 6/1/13: It's been a year since we lost PooPoo.

These visits just aren't the same.

Sunday 6/2/13: First-ever T-ball game. 

And his XXS pants are still to big. :)