Samuel {7 months}

My dear Samuel is 7 months old.  Life is moving so fast that I never posted or even took official pictures of him at 6 months.  I wish someone could invent a pause button for life...a way to freeze time.  If I could just keep them little for a bit longer. They are only all mine for such short time.  Then I have to share them with the rest of the world...teachers, friends, a wife (OMG, I am not ready for that one) and so on and so on.

But for now here is my sweet Samuel at a mere 7 months old.

 1...2...3...pictures laying down and then...

 "I'm done mama."

 On the go again.

 Now time to stop for a snack.

 "Can  I eat this grass, Mom?"

 "How about this block?"

"I want that camera."

 "Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba!  Did you get that everyone?"

 So adorable!

three handsome boys

high five

my other sweet boy

Dear Samuel,

The last two months with you have been wonderful and challenging.  Two little teeth have been trying to come in for a while now and they are causing you some considerable discomfort.  It is so hard to see you having a hard time. Mamas never want to see their babies suffer.  Plus you are still not sleeping through the night.

So in review...

teething + not sleeping =

unhappy baby

But we have new developments...you are crawling everywhere. You are so happy that you can crawl and get the toys that you want.  We have to be careful though. One day I found you chewing on a lamp cord.  It was a good thing those teeth weren't in yet.  It did not take you long to master crawling. Now you can get to the other side of the house in no time.  You always look for me in the kitchen first. 

You have a lot to say and are talking all of the time.  Ba ba ba, da da da...two of your favorite words.  

Transiting to solid food has been so easy.  If there is a banana in sight you have to have it.  I think they are your favorite.  (They are my favorite too!)  You like all kinds of food...apple cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt, pears, butternut squash, you even tried a saltine cracker, and carrots to name a few.  We tried to feed you some chunkier stage 3 foods but you did not seem to like the taste or texture.  

You love toys and have figured out how to push all of the buttons to make songs and sounds.  And of course all of them are covered with slobber. Matthew calls you to come into his tent and turns on his cd player and the two of you listen to books together. He tells me to go and closes his door. He loves to play with you.

"Can we listen to this one, Matthew?"

You have also graduated to the big bathtub and have so much fun taking a bath with your brother.  I have decided that you are going to be my water baby.  You slip and slide and get water in your face which does not phase you a bit.

 This was your first bath in the big tub.  Since then you have gotten very brave and splash and swim all around.

Well that's all for now...

As always we are thankful that you are part of our family.  We would not be complete without you!

Love Mommy

They never get too big...

Those of you who have children know that they grow up so quickly.  But I have often heard the saying that, "he will always be my baby".  Now that I have two of my own, I completely understand the meaning of this statement.  

This week my oldest baby, Matthew, has been waking up with what seems to be leg pains.  He is also eating like a grown man so I can only assume that he is having a growth spurt.  

Tuesday night at around 10:45, just as Patrick and I were about to turn into bed, here comes Matthew running down the hall crying.  We had a hard time getting him to calm down.  After a trip to the potty he settled into my lap on the couch and fell right to sleep.  I could have held him for eternity, but knowing that our littlest one (who is still not sleeping through the night) would be waking up soon, I had to let go and put him to bed.  

I love when this child lets me hold him.  They never get too big...

Matthew {3 Years}

Happy Birthday Matthew Oliver!!!

We celebrated your 3rd year of life with a party at Cameron Park Zoo.  It is hard to believe that you are 3 already.  

You asked me to make you a papa lion cake.  This is what I came up with.

You were so excited when you saw it.  You knew right away that it was a papa lion.  The lions are definitely your favorite exhibit. 

 Daddy helped you blow out the candle.

Your cake was chocolate with milk chocolate icing.  

We had the party at the Gibbon's exhibit.  It was a cool morning as it had rained the day before.  The animals were very active and put on a good show for us.  

 There were lots of presents.

I wonder what is in the Mickey Mouse bag?

A baseball bat.  Thanks Papa!

 Here you are with Grandmother opening the present she and Grandaddy brought you.

 I wonder what it is?

A bicycle!  Too bad you couldn't ride it in the zoo.  You sure wanted to.

(we take it almost everywhere we go now)

Too much fun for Samuel.  He zonked out.  

Here you are walking hand in hand with sweet Lily.  I found these animal ears at Target.  They had elephant and monkey ears and a lion mane.  Notice Matthew even has a lion on his shirt.  This is a pajama top that I cut the long sleeves out of the morning of the party.  

And Stella was there too of course...

Uncle Dorian and Patrick.  Can you tell they are brothers?!

Some horse play...

This is Matthew's cousin Max.  He will turn 4 on July 10. 

Even Patrick took a turn.

Here are some of the animals at our zoo. 

These were taken by Aunt Rachea.  She has a great eye for pictures.

And then there is the "Papa Lion"

 Isn't he gorgeous.  I can see why he is the king of the jungle and at the top of the food chain.

 That is a brave fly on his nose.

 His eyes are mesmerizing.

When we are at the zoo we always spend the most time at the "Papa Lion" exhibit.  They lions are Matthew's favorite.

This is a video I shot a couple of years ago. The "Papa Lion" literally walked over to us, looked right at Matthew and started talking.  Amazing!

These are the animals that we brought.
Matthew, Max, Stella and Lily (her legs anyways)

We had so much fun with all of our friends and family at the party.

Dear Matthew,

You are growing into a fine young boy.  As parents I should say that we have "survived" through three years of parenting, but with you we have never had to "survive".  You are such a delightful child and we love you dearly.  

This year you have grown and developed into quite the talkative little boy.  You run everywhere you go which accounts for all of the scrapes and bruises you have on your legs.  I think your favorite thing is to ride in your dad's big red truck.  Everytime we go somewhere, you ask if we are getting in it.  

Here are some other things you have grown to love this year...


watching movies: Toy Story II, Mama and the Beast, Nemo and the Fishes, and the Tractor movie. 

There is a whole blog post about this picture.

pushing around your wheel barrow and working in the yard with your dad

Nothing better than working up a sweat and getting dirty along the way!

scooping and grinding coffee beans in the morning

drinking the coffee you made

I finally bought you your own coffee cup for your birthday.  You take your coffee with lots of cream and honey...just the way I do.  Now I don't have to share mine anymore.  Well sometimes I still do. 

digging in the dirt...

You have your own shovels but most of the time you prefer to use your Dad's. 

hats -  you try hats on everywhere we go...

I think we were at Old Navy.

Here you are at Target admiring yourself in the mirror.

blueberries - we even took you to a blueberry farm to pick your own...

We could not get them in the bucket fast enough.  You were picking and eating them right off the bush.

I am surprised you didn't turn blue.

sliding

We got this slide for you last year when you turned 2.  You still love to slide on it and are not partial to any other slides we pass by.  Recently your favorite has become Coco's.  I am sure it will be our favorite all summer long. 

and last but not least...running

You run everywhere you go.  It is hard to get you to slow down.  You are really fast!

We are looking forward to what the next year brings.  Each day is a new day with you.  You keep us on our toes.

We thank God for growing you up to be such a sweet BIG boy.  

Love Mommy