Wordless(ish) Wednesday

Just wanted to share a few pictures from last weekend of the boys "playing soccer" in grandma & grandpa's big front yard. Shawn played soccer all through out childhood, so you never know- the boys might want to give it a whirl someday too.

"Camping"

Q has been pretty into the idea of camping, campfires, tents, etc. lately (thank you TV). Since we're still a ways off from being able to go camping around here (COME ON WARM WEATHER!!) we haven't been able to accommodate his desire to go. UNTIL Shawn had a bit of a genius/crazy idea. Sunday he decided we'd drive over to the Leavenworth area where we could hopefully find the sun and maybe find a little campsite and have lunch and a campfire. It stopped raining about 5-10 minutes before we hit Leavenworth, and what do you know- it was sunny! Miracle! I even took my jacket off! We decided to pull into a little park with a playground we've been to before, right as you get into town. We let the kids play and run around for awhile.

 Then we packed back in the car to head to a campground. Well, it was all closed. And there were trees down all over the place. Either there was a terrible storm, or they're taking down trees on purpose. It was a mess. And also, did I mention, closed? Well a little thing like that doesn't stop Shawn. We pulled the car over next to a spot by the road and drug our lunch supplies and such over. We spent about and hour & 1/2 having some pb&j sandwiches (Archer ate at least 1 & 1/2 by himself then just held on to one while he walked around) then roasted a couple marshmallows for a sorta smore (no choco). Q loved it, and it made me so excited to take him camping. Archer on the other hand just liked to get up on the picnic bench, then back down. Then up. Then down. Also, keeping him away from the fire (we even had the huge baby gate up around most of it) was a bit exhausting. And doing something like having a fire at a closed campground makes me all nervous and anxious. BUT, I'm glad Shawn made us do it. If it were up to me we'd never do anything fun.

I think I'm ready for camping this summer. It's going to be so much fun with the kids, if not a little stressful. But I really do love camping so I'm very excited. Anyone else love camping?

Recap: Archer Oliver One Year Old!

(I somehow forgot I had this post almost all ready to go and be posted on Archer's actual birthday, but never finished and hit 'publish'. Whoops! So pretend it's the beginning of December will ya?)

Please excuse the sobbing. I'm fine with my little baby turning one. It's totally cool.

The only somewhat decent picture I got on his birthday, and it's a little bit of a stinkeye

So what's new with Archer? Well he's walking like a mad thing. He still has this stiff legged walk that is just hilarious. The unfortunate thing about his walking is he really likes to get going fast. Which is funny, but dangerous since he's still a bit wobbly.



Trying to get in on Q's food action. (Please ignore my kitchen. This is mid-party prep)

Feeding him is apparently akin to stabbing him with hot pokers, cause home boy won't let me do it anymore. He must feed himself. WHATEVER BIG KID. He currently loves him some pasta (I just do whole wheat elbow noodles with a bit of sauce. Finally someone will eat the whole wheat pasta I buy). He will eat cheese forever if I let him. Clearly Shawn's son after all. He loves yogurt too and would put down a whole container in about 2 seconds I think.

We're still breastfeeding in the morning & before bed, but I ditched the pump. I couldn't keep spending all my breaks at work pumping and coming away with like, 2 oz for the whole day. Forget that noise. Done. Still trying to decide if I'll completely wean him off the boob. I want to keep going but I am also kinda over it.

I think he's probably in 12 month clothes. Except the thing is? I can't find any of Q's 12 month stuff. It all seems to go from 9 mo to 18 mo. Huh.


Oh you think you're just such a big kid now? And you can open doors and walk away from me?!

The clingy-ness has relented a bit. I think his new found independence with walking has helped with that.
He is hitting the stubborned phase full on. He has quite the piercing whine when he doesn't get what he wants. Fun!


"Do NOT take this bag of dinner rolls I stole out of the pantry away from me, or I will cut a bitch. By which I mean you."

He gives sloppy open-mouth kisses, hugs my legs sometimes, leans his forehead against mine when I ask for a kiss sometimes (instead of the open mouth kiss), he claps, shakes his head 'no' and has started bouncing/dancing sometimes to music. Basically he's sweet and cuddly and I love the crap out of him.

You and I both know I won't manage to get an actual birthday party recap post up. So here are some pictures I managed to get with my phone.




 First the bday boy in his Cat in the Hat shirt and Bday crown (Q had a matching shirt, but I'm pretty sure I only have a picture of his back)

Hard to believe, but he kept this on all day.

Next we have some of the food. I tried to do Dr. Seuss themed food, but had trouble comimg up with things besides desert. Thanks PINTEREST for nothing. Well, I did get a couple of ideas.

My version of green eggs and ham. There were green deviled eggs too, but I don't have a picture.

Not Dr Seuss themed, but tasty and cute

Hop on Pop is my favorite

Cat in the Hat cake Shawn made!!



Yink Pink Ink Drink was just pink lemonade from frozen concentrate. Easy Peasy.

 There were some decorations. Mostly balloons & Dr Seuss books strewn around. Don't really have any decent pictures. I was pretty bad at getting pictures once people arrived. So no party guests either. And once again we failed to get any pictures of me or Shawn with the birthday boy. Lame. I do have a couple more cute ones of Archer though:

Cake you say? Hmmmm

You can't really beat an adorable baby in a crown, can ya?! Happy, Happy Birthday my sweet, squishy boy!

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Children's Museum

So one of my main goals this year with our Tax Return was to get a family pass to our local Children's Museum. It's tough trying to think of things to do with the kids on the weekends when it's rainy and yucky out, which in the PNW is all the time. So I thought this would be a good solution. We went on Sunday and the kids had a ball. Archer just throws himself into any situation like a mad thing, ready to have fun. Also, it turns out he really like hats. Every display that had a helmet or hat of some kind he was just really into. Q spent this first half hour at the train tracks. Then it was just swarmed by other kids who kept taking his trains, and I decided it best to move on to try and avoid continual meltdowns (In all fairness the "taking" would happen when he'd push the train out of his own reach, and would be trying to crawl to the other side to retrieve it. Still. Don't take my baby's trains! Haha)

Anyway, they had a ton of fun, demonstrated by the big ass meltdown Q had when it was time to go. (PS 3 is just going to be SO much fun.)

Yap, Yap, Yap. Here are some pictures.

I'm still alive!

Keeping up with blogging is, like, hard. You know, because of reasons.

Here's something I never blogged about, from NOVEMBER! We had pictures taken with Kipper Photography when she was doing some mini sessions. I can't even tell you how excited I was. These marked the first time all four of us were in a picture together. It's just craziness it took almost a year after Archer was born for that to happen. And crazy it took me so long to get them up to share!

I mean. Come. On.

I'd like to explain what's happening with my hair, but I just don't know.

Oh, that's just Q being THE MOST ADORABLE BOY EVER!

A little distance helps not see the doofy face I'm making

I don't know what I'm doing with my tongue. I mean, really. What's my problem. Still, this is kinda the winner anyway.

It was a cold, rainy day. The little guys were all red faced and I was grumpy. But I am just so, so happy to have these pictures. Care is so great, and I really hope I can have her take some pictures of us again in the future. (And hopefully she won't have to spend the whole day in the rain!)

I leave you with one last picture:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to share this "Handburger" Q made me. I have no idea why he was calling it that, and it caused a lot of confusion in the car trying to figure out what he so desperately wanted to show me.



It was RIDICULOUSLY hard to get him to stand still. But look how proud!



This silly little guy, his baby brother & my awesome husband give me an awful lot to be thankful for. 

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Friday Five

1. The other day while I was making dinner (Okay, okay- I don't really cook, so basically I was probably making a Pb&J for Q and heating a jar of food for Archer. Mother of the year award to meeeee!)  I heard Q saying "I'm really proud of you Arch! I'm really proud of you! Good Job Arch!" When I peeked out he was giving him a hug. I have no idea. And I really have no idea how I'm typing this. You know, with the being dead from the cute and all.

2. Family pictures this weekend! I'm so excited. Well, and also worried. Besides not knowing yet what we're all wearing, I'm going to have to do my hair & makeup which are not my strong suits. Annnnd, I need to practice my non-fake smile and not slouching. I swear I look like a hunch back in every. single. wedding picture we have. Straighten it up Quasi!

3. This picture. I was just walking out of my room and looked across the hall to see Archer hugging Q. So.

 

4. On the other side of that total sweetness above, Archer has been a little pain about letting me feed him lately. He gets all angry and rocks back and forth in his chair, slamming his back as hard as he can against the seat. Yeah, crazytown. So the other night I handed him the spoon and let him dip it in the food himself. He was quite pleased and made a gigantic mess. Then last night it was pretty clear he was ready to do the same thing again. So we have a big boy on our hands I guess. Mr. fancy pants thinks he so big and special and can feed himself now because he's almost one. pshaw



I'm not even going to tell you how we got him cleaned up. But it may have involved sticking the entire chair with the seat & Archer still in it, into the shower.

 

Notice the whole hand going in the bowl along with the spoon. Awesome.


5. I started getting the invitations filled out this week for Archer's 1st birthday. I just can't believe he's almost one. It just went way too fast. We're doing a Dr.Seuss/Cat in the Hat theme, mostly because Shawn found invitations in the dollar bins at Target. So if you have any good ideas that fit that theme, let me know. Sadly we don't have a lot of friends with kids. So it's mostly be a bunch of adults standing around wondering how they got talked into going to a one year old's party, haha.

Okay, Happy Friday all! I'm off to let Pinterest make me feel inadequate about my party throwing skills.

And He Walks

Little man is officially 11 months old today. To celebrate, he started walking. On Halloween actually. How's that for a trick ; )

Here's a blurry picture to prove it. (Hey! You try taking a non blurry picture of a baby walking!) (Naked Q is watching a DVD on a little portable player and is perched up on the chair because he was trying to keep Archer from touching it.)



Brother

"I found my brother in there
Here in my heart
I found my brother in there
Hold in my arms
I love you

And if I feel too quiet now
There are no words to show you how
I love you

I often feel like the prodigal son
Take all I need
Giving back none
Our beauty shows
In such different ways
You're like the light behind the fog
so soft but still you burn my eyes away

I found my brother in there
Here in my heart
I found my brother in there
Hold in my arms
I love you

And if I feel too quiet now
There are no words to show you how
I love you

So much has changed
So much has happened these years
Still I find, you're waiting here
We have a bond
That nothing can change
Still I find a piece of mind
Whenever I hear your name
And if I feel too quiet now
There are no words to show you how
I love you"

This song by Toad the Wet Sprocket (pretty much my favorite band) has never been a favorite of mine. I've always liked it ok, and thought it was sweet. It just never struck me they way other songs did. Then all of a sudden one day it came on my ipod and I thought "Holy crap do I love this song!" Why? Oh, yeah because I have two little boys now. And honestly one of my biggest hopes for them is to be close. Not just brothers, but friends. So now when I hear this song, it gets me a little teary and I imagine my boys as grown men. And I cross my fingers tight and hope they can feel like this about each other as they grow up. Cross your fingers with me, okay?

Archer, lately

Oh boy, sweet Archer. 10 months old already. Okay, almost 11 months old. Where do I start with little Archer? Well he's still just a smiley, happy, sweet little guy. Well, you know, except when he's not. It's just that we're in a clingy phase right now. It's been getting a little better the last week or two, but for awhile there I was losing my mind. He would actually scream his head off if even Shawn tried to take him from me. It's nice to feel wanted, but that's just overkill kiddo.

Okay, so it's a shitty blurry picture, but He's SMILING

Sleep. Ah, sleep. I miss you. Archer's sleep has been getting worse lately, with him waking up as early as 11pm (He goes to bed at 8). We haven't really done much work with him on going back to sleep in his own crib, because wake ups before would be later in the night and he was younger, so I would just bring him back to bed with me to feed him. Now though? This ish has to stop. The thing is I'm just so tired and plus we have Q in the next room and I don't want Archer's fussing to wake him up. So I'm gonna work on it, swear.

Chunky

Mister is really getting around these days. He crawls so freaking fast, and must be so close to walking. He loves to hold on to my hands and walk around the house. He actually comes up to me and tries to grab my hands and get me walking with him. He's been standing up on his own more and more, walking along furniture, all that. I had a dream the other night he started walking and them him and Q were jumping around. I was scared people.

He's eating like a champ, although we really need to work on giving him food to pick up and chew himself. Anything I try to give him though, he eats. Including broccoli, which I can't get Q to even look at.

Holy vocal chords mister! He likes to make a continuous noise like "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh" in the car. It's loud. And long winded. And cute/really irritating.

I'm still breastfeeding, but my supply has gone way down. I don't have the energy at this point to worry too much about it. We were already supplementing with formula anyway. He gets maybe one full bottle of expressed milk during the day, but otherwise formula. I breastfeed him before bed, at night if need be, and in the morning before we get up. I'm beyond sick of being tied to my pump during the day though and am having a hard time not just ditching it before his 1st birthday.

And speaking of his 1st birthday, it's coming up way, way too quick. Trying to enjoy these last days of babyness before it's gone. Sigh. Love this little pink chunk of baby.