A New Year in Pictures

My New Year's resolution is to try to require fewer naps and do more blog postings than I have been since Benjamin George came along. Here are a few pictures from today in the playroom. The last few are after bath. Jack ended 2009 being a fantastic big brother. He always wants to help Ben feel better, make him laugh, play with him, just be with him. He tells me all the time that he is going to get along with Ben when they are older.

Sittin' on the Diego chair in the playroom.

I love this picture.

...and this one...

....this looks like one from above, but it's different...

Oh my, Ben has his mouth open - never seen that before!

After bath, looking tired.

Jack got a new, New Year's haircut. He's slowly losing his curls and his hair is getting darker and darker :(

Santa is the coolest

Santa came to see the boys and the word of the morning from Jack was, "cool". Everything he saw, he said, "COOOOL"! I took more video of everything than actual pictures. Here is what the living room looked like when Jack came down the stairs. Ben's Christmas was there, too, but he was still in bed. He came down later and was only interested in toys after he had his breakfast. Unlike Jack, who hardly ate or drank anything all day because he was so "busy".

I had to add this picture. Sam spent over 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get this transformer changed into a car. I called it his nemesis

Tootin' my horn

I forgot to take a picture at Thanksgiving of my first turkey, so I made sure to take some shots of my Christmas meal. One thing that being home for both major Holidays has taught me; to cook poultry - whole birds. In addition, side dishes like mash potatoes, homeade cranberry sauce, green beans, dressing and, for Christmas, homeade pecan pie. I did it all by myself and it was all done at dinner time. Yeh me.

My Christmas "young" chickens (they were called -poor little fellas).
My homeade cranberry sauce in the process. I love the color.

Christmas with Granny and Grandpa Eugene

Can we just say, slacker. That is me. Granny and Grandpa Eugene came to visit two weeks ago and brought the boys their Christmas gifts. Ben got a ton of bath toys and sleepers and two outfits. Jack got the Shake n go Extreme. We had a great visit with them and the boys love their stuff. Here they are opening up their gifts.

New tug boats

And of course Ben was way more interested in the wrapping paper than the toys.

Jack's Artwork

I know it's not monumental, but I just loved this drawing Jack made of our family. What is so funny to me is I'm the biggest one on the page. He's the second biggest and Sam and Ben are the little, itty-bitty ones. I think it means that I'm the most important in his life right now....perhaps?

Daddy's baby

It's clear that I'm not the only one smitten with Ben. He has Sam wrapped. We both are so aware that he is growing so fast and won't be a baby much longer. He's such a snuggler and loves to grab anything on your face he can get a hold of and pull you close for an open mouth slurp. We enjoy it.



This is the cheek/neck grab. Not fun as he has quite a grip.

This video shows how he likes to hug.

Christmas card picture-attempt

Last Sunday, I attempted to dress-up both boys for church in hopes of getting some cute pictures by the tree to use for our Christmas card. It was alot harder than I thought it'd be. Ben wanted to hang his mouth open for every picture. Jack wanted to pout for the first 20 shots, and it goes on and on. We finally got a few that made it into a Christmas card. Here are the other attempts.

This is my favorite of them

This one makes me laugh.

Ben was sick of it by this point; falling back and squirming around.

Putting the tree Up - sort of

I really slacked this year and didn't take one picture of Jack decorating the tree. I took plenty of pictures after the fact with Jack and Ben in front of the tree and then later playing in their jammies.


Tree-trimming evening:
Trying to get them to pose together
A kiss from big brother.

Parallel play. Well, Jack is actually just laying, not playing.

Much to be Thankful For:

This year we spent our first Thanksgiving as a family of four. Sam is on-call so we had no company and couldn't travel. I made my first turkey and it was a great evening. Jack ate turkey like a champ, but didn't care for the mashed potatoes and dressing. Go figure.

Ben has the open-mouth look in most of these shots.

This is my favorite.

Sweet, sweet Jack

Once again, it's a Jack story. I heard 4-years-old was precious. I knew from personal experience that whatever goes through their minds, comes out of their mouth. So true with Samuel Jack.

Last night, I am sitting on the couch with Ben and my mood is downcast and quiet. I had just finished feeding him and it was a struggle. He is teething - again. The night before he'd been up on and off through the night crying and moaning, fussy all day and then topped it off with an extremely short nap in the afternoon (my break time). Jack notices right away that something is wrong and he asks, "Mommy, why are you sad? What's wrong with you?". I said, "honey, I'm just tired." He said, "Why don't you go lay down?". "I can't", I say. "Someone has to take care of the kids, especially Ben." He says, "I'll watch Ben for you. You go lay down and I'll watch Ben." God love his sweet little heart. He was so sincere wanting to give me a break. I love that boy.

More Bath Pictures

Ben has graduated from the baby bathtub and now sits like Jack. He loves smacking his hands down and splashing. He loves watching Jack, who is great to share all of his bath toys.

Ben's got little man boobs.

This is his, "I'm so cool" look.

I'm so dag-on cute and chunky.

Am I too big for this?

I had to run something across the street the other night and Sam was upstairs feeding Ben. I walk back in the house and find Jack buckling himself in to the bouncy seat. He had the insight to pull it over by the couch so that he wouldn't break it and it would support his weight.

Obviously he seems quite proud of himself.

Another Funny Jack Story

I'm volunteering in Jack's classroom yesterday and one of the teacher aides asks me if anyone told me about what Jack said at the fire station on Friday (a field trip to the Base fire station). I say, "no, I haven't heard". She then describes to me that the classes were all listening to a fireman talk and lots of other firemen were standing around. He asked, "Who would like to be a fireman when they grow up?" She said lots of little hands go up, but not Jack. After it quiets down a bit, he pipes up and says, "When I grow up I want to be a stay-at-home-dad!" Apparently he said it with lots of gusto. She said the firemen were shocked and then tickled to death. That's my boy.

8-months-old

Ben is 8-months-old and it just doesn't seem possible. Time is going so fast, only four short months and he's 1! He is doing great with fine motor skills and problem solving. He doesn't have any interest in crawling and he still doesn't seem to realize he can't throw himself backwards when sitting up. The paranoid mama I am still puts pillows behind and beside him when he's sitting and playing. Below, there's a video of his great fine motor skills. He has a nice pointer and thumb grasp and gets puffs in his mouth about 90% of the time. He has been so happy lately, no teeth currently working their way in...but we know they're coming. No rest for the weary.

Happy Ben - flying through the air!

(Thanks Shesha for emailing it to me:)