11 months...

Eleven months ago I brought home this little baby:and it seems like only yesterday. And yet, tonight I tucked in this little boy:

I thought the 1st eleven months of Zach's life flew by, until I had Matt. Then I realized those months were slow in comparison to Matt's 1st eleven! Matt is such a joy! Don't get me wrong he is head strong like his momma, and does his own thing like his daddy, but he is adventurous and brave. He is rarely rattled and often times is content to just be in the mix. He loves to be loved, and really gets a kick out of his brother's costumes and constant motion. I love when I find Matt standing and playing at the train table, or see him rolling balls all around the kitchen floor and laughing at himself. His favorite things these days are getting his brother's sippy cups, and standing at the stairs. He is fascinated by climbing, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if there is a daredevil streak in this boy.

Matt is a great eater, sleeps pretty well(damn those top teeth for taking 4 months to come through) and giggles and laughs often. He is a master crawler, loves to pull up on everything, and is on the verge of putting steps together and walking. Verbally Matt doesn't really say much. He can say "hiiiii" and he will sing with you. He loves to wave and he sometimes says Mama or Dada, but usually is just rambling. I was amazed to find that he can point out some objects in books, like a dog, or the moon. I have a feeling in the next 11 months, Matt will be talking up a storm. I am sure he will want to try to tell his brother what to do one of these days.

Matthew, we love you so much, and I couldn't be happier that you are in our lives. I can't wait to celebrate your 1st year in a few weeks, and I can't wait to see hopefully many many more of them unfold.

My children make me laugh...

I am sure all parents think their children are the most clever little beings they know. I guess its the fact that we've seen them through all their stages. We've marveled at their first smile, giggle, roll over. We've fixated on their attempts at mobility, applauded their first efforts of communication, be it a clap, a wave of the hand, or a word. Kids are a lot of work, but they are also captivating in how entertaining they are.

At nearly 11 months, Matt's personality is shining through. Generally, he is an easy-going kid, smiling at anyone who talks to him, but he also can get cranky fast, be a bit lazy(he still hates to hold his own bottle) and he absolutely loves to be held. That last one would be a lot easier if he didn't weigh 28 lbs! Matt loves to get into things he shouldn't-the dog's water bowl, the bathroom to climb on the toilet, the stairs ect. He loves to explore on his own, but loves attention. He does not understand "NO" even though sometimes I think he does and just ignores me anyways. He does get this devilish grin on his face when I tell him "NO", he smiles/laughs and then proceeds to do whatever it was he intended on doing in the first place. I think he will give me many gray hairs, especially in his teen years. Matt has one of the most infectious laughs, I can be so agitated at him, and he'll smile at me, giggle and my heart will melt. My Matt is a beautiful little being who is going to keep me on my toes. One of the funniest thing Matt does is make this face at people. I call it the "Popeye" face. It is a cross between a smile and a sneer. He usually uses it when people talk to him and he isn't quite sure what to make of them. We were able to capture it the other day at the Halloween parade(more to come on that in a different post) while Matt sported Papa's hat:

Whatever face he makes this kid is just funny to watch. He can be completely "chill" one minute:

And unstoppable the next:

Matt is on the verge of toddler hood, and I am sure that this next year is going to bring me many more laughs.

Speaking of laughs...Zach is one of the most comical kids I know. Listening to him throughout the day as he plays independently or creates games for us to play together is so entertaining. He does voices, deep ones, high squeaky ones, all sorts and it is funny. Why just last night, Zach was helping me make french fries for dinner, when he said, "Mom look at my moustache" I looked up to see him holding a french fry to his lip:

As I'm taking this shot, he was talking in his deep man voice, saying "Do you like my moustache?" I mean he is a riot.

He is also now big into the superheroes. As much as I wanted to keep him a baby, he's become a boy. He will say "I am the Hulk!" and roar at you, and then say "I'm going to fight the bad guys" And even though this phase is funny, sometimes I worry that Zach is getting a little too physical. Some days Z finds his superhero self in time out because he's punch someone (Mom or Dad or Lennie usually) or tackled his little brother. In some way this phase is interesting because as lovable as Zach is, he does have a whiny streak, so when he is his superhero self, he often times acts invincible:

(This also is his Halloween costume- I found one without a full mask) Yes, he does ask to wear it almost every day, No I do not always let him, but sometimes I just feel a little safer having Spiderman around. Plus, as Spiderman, Zach "pisses" at the bad guys. When he says that I can't help but chuckle. You know, the webs sound like "pst" so in Zach's world when he is pretend web slinging, he's and I quote, "pissing". So funny.

The truth is that the more Zach talks the more humorous he becomes. He is a gentle soul for the most part, well mannered,charming, outgoing, and a total ham. As he gets older though, he is totally showing his all boy humor. The other day as I was taking a picture of his new hair cut, he let out a "farty marty". Instead of feeling embarrassed or saying excuse me, he laughed:

Of course he did, he is after all a 2 almost 3 year old boy, who finds farts and superheroes fascinating. Funny stuff for him... and me.

Rainbows...

Yesterday morning I caught a glimpse of the sunrise from my downstairs window. I hurried outside to capture the beauty of the skies:

When I turned around to head back towards home, I didn't expect to see this:

It was a beautiful rainbow that arched the entire sky. I love rainbows. I think it comes from the fact that once when I was studying the Bible I cried reading the explanation for rainbows given in Genesis. I am by no means a person who rattles off scripture by heart, but the explanation was basically that God sent a rainbow to Noah following the flood. It went on to say that rainbows are God's promise to man that he will never again flood the entire Earth. Something about that struck a chord, and ever since I always smile at rainbows. Needless to say it was a wonderful surprise waking up to see not only the gorgeous sunrise, but the striking rainbow as well. It also made me chuckle because at the end of that rainbow(at least from my vantage point) was my very own pot of "gold":
Even though the rest of the day was dreary and rainy...you know that old adage "Red sky at morning sailor's take warning, red sky at night sailor's delight" I had to smile thinking of nature and all the beauty it brings, especially in Autumn.

My kind of fall weekend...

As a teacher I usually have Columbus day weekend circled on my calendar ten times. Somehow this year I wasn't even aware that there was a 3 day weekend headed my way, probably because most days just roll into the next.

The weather was warm and beautiful, with temperatures rising into the 70's here. It was the sort of weekend that begged for an outing. We choose to head to a pumkin farm with the boys and my BF Jenn and her family. We had a lot of fun looking at huge pumpkins, crafts, and animals.

Zach had the most fun riding the kiddie rides. (Mom and Dad were able to get in on the fun too!):

But on of Z's favorite parts of the day was riding on the ponies. Zach was able to ride "Cocoa" again...he was so excited!:

As for the "babies" (I use that term loosely with Matt) they found ways to enjoy the day. Averie enjoyed being pushed around, and find time to take a nap.

Matt on the other hand, took in the sights, enjoyed snacks, and was excited that his brother won him a prize.

Even the adults got in on the action. Dan really enjoyed visiting with all the animals, especially the camel. Wayne went on a super slide with Z, and claims he will never go again, while the 2 year old raced to try to get back on.

Jenn and I entertained ourselves by showing off our witchy side

And then we posed(some of us did) for some group/family shots:

All in all it was a beautiful day, and the fun continued yesterday at an impromptu pizza gathering at my sis' house. It was great to see my fam and watch Jack and Zach reunite. With Jack in school, Z is missing his cousin something fierce, so it was nice to see the boys enjoying their cousin time. Both the boys really enjoyed putting on their costumes and being two sides to the same superhero.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did.

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

To steal a line from a BareNaked Ladies song...Yes!

I have always thought babies dressed like monkeys are adorable. I think it is the fact that I loved my Munchichi a bunch as a kid. For whatever reason, I decided that for Matt's 1st Halloween he was going to be a monkey. (I love the Halloween's where I get to pick!)

I am so glad I picked this costume, because he is the cutest little monkey I've ever seen:

What Zach isn't being for Halloween...

Getting a Halloween costume for Z has been so easy the last few years. I just saw something I liked and bought it. Well...those days are over. At 2 1/2 Zach has very definite opinions on what he does and does not want to be. I am blaming my mother, since she is the one who spent hours(ok, more like an hour) looking online with Jack and Zach and talking about what they were going to be. (Isn't it great that at 32 I can still use that line :) )

After Matt's costume arrived in the mail a few weeks ago, Zach really stepped up his game. He asked, "Where's my costume Mommy?" and "Is the guy bringing it?" I tried to explain we hadn't picked one out. I asked him what he wanted to be and he said "Wolverine". Try as I might to convince him to be a very cute Captain America, he wasn't interested. He had said Wolverine and that was it. I ordered the costume that day, and a few days later it arrived. He was so excited to put it on, I was a bit more terrified of the "kid" claws that arrived with it. I just kept thinking, claws on a sometimes klutzy 2 year old is probably not the best idea. Zach loved being Wolverine, and he was adorable dressed in his blue and yellow muscle suit. I even started to think it was the perfect costume.

Of course the joy was short lived when I took off the costume and realized that those claws I had dreaded had left a scratch under Z's left eye.

I explained to Zach that Wolverine was out because he had hurt himself with the claws and they were too dangerous. He could be another superhero...a better, less machete like one!

So on to our next pick...SPIDERMAN. Now this was a choice I liked, he doesn't come with hands like cutlery! Unfortunately, Zach hated having a full mask on. I just knew we would never make it Trick or Treating, and so it was on to our next superhero.

On a trip to Target Zach selected Batman the Dark Knight. I hated the costume, it was all black, which just screamed danger to me, but he was pretty insistent that he wanted to be Batman. I bought the costume. After a day or two, I finally tried it on Z, and guess what... it was huge on him. Back to the store it went.

I almost gave up...Zach was running out of his favorite superheroes, but fate was on our side...

(Stay tuned to find out what costume Zach ended up getting to wear on his 3rd Halloween!)

Picture Time...

I was going to wait to reveal these pictures till after I made a cute new blog header, but I think that after almost a month of no picture posts, it was about darn time.

Last week I took the boys to get their pictures taken. I had not had professional pics of Matt done since he was 2 weeks old, so it was a long overdue trip. I wanted some updated photos to eventually frame and hang in my house, because after 2 1/2 months I think I should try to hang at least something on the walls! The boys did pretty well, thank God my Mom and sis were there to help, and we were able to capture some cute photos even though they both were a little under the weather with a case of the sniffles.

Just look at my beautiful sons:

I just love these two sweet little guys so much! I am so glad that I finally was able to get some professional shots of the two of them together and individually, because one day they will treasure pics from their childhood like these. I know I do:

I just have to say I think the last picture of me, proves that Matt resembles me, even though people tell me all the time he looks just like his father...its the dimples and the nose people, the rest is me!

Mom, I just want to say, thank you, for taking me to get my pictures done solo, even though I was the third child. I am pretty sure if I ever had a third they wouldn't have pictures alone till they were graduating from high school!