a little writer

he just keeps growing and growing, this big boy of ours

peter took this picture of grandma and baby curtis - he loves to use mommy's fancy camera

reading to lady betsy before her bedtime - its fun when friends come over and grab your camera. i love being in at least a few photos around here.

me and my boy bax

he loves to write! if you look closely you can see all the letters of his name below my example. it made me SO proud of him to see him doing it so well - and he was so excited to be writing.

he switches between using his left and right hand. his letters are better with his right hand but his grip is less awkward with his left hand.

thank you

my goodness, grandma and grandpa are on their way back to illinois after spending a total of 5 weeks with us in the past two months. i am so grateful for their willingness (and ability) to spend so much time with us - helping me - and the kids have absolutely adored the extra attention. it was sweet to see how each child gravitated to their own special person. betsy is enamored with her grandpa and peter tends to hang with his grandma - although they both just love their grandparents.  i've learned an important lesson with this third sweet baby of mine; how to ask for AND receive help when i need it (and sometimes when i don't, just because its there and why not?) and i have been completely overflowed with so much help that i am feeling so wonderfully taken care of in what could be an overwhelmingly busy and transitional time in our life. thank you grandparents and friends and family everywhere for reaching out and keeping us all afloat and making this time even more special for us. we're already looking forward to our long summer trip home in the midwest to visit with our bigger families and make some wonderful memories. bring on the summertime! xoox

grandma snuggling her boys

look who grew a ponytail!

this is what our evening looks like after big brother is in bed - the kids are really enjoying puzzles lately

little man is growing OUT of his 3 month size clothes....tonight I am busting out the bin and breaking out the next size up. :)

i was trying to capture his sweet smile and mini dimple on the lower left cheek - i will keep trying

thanks for coming!!!!! xoxo

photo download

snuggles from my big babies

happy birthday to me with my three babes!

grandpa meets curtis

the kids are thrilled to have a man in the house to jump and tumble with

betsy loves her grandpa

betsy holding curtis and snuggling with baxter

illini muscles :)

peter captured a photo of betsy looking a little spaced out. cute.

30 at stone brewery

my san diego sisters treated me to a lovely dinner at my favorite restaurant here in san diego last night. curtis was my handsome date for the evening and enjoyed all the ladies doting on him. i am so blessed by these women! am excited to see what 30 brings :)

tummy time and crazy weather

this morning i finally attempted a photo session with our three tiny turkeys. curtis was WIDE awake and the kids were looking for something to do so i tossed the blanket in the morning "sunny" spot to get some decent light and bribed them with a jelly bean to come lay down by baby. :)  it was fun to see them all three in one space at one time and they were all quite cooperative in their stationary session. pete squealed cheese the entire time while half smiling and sometimes looking at me, clearly his version of cooperating to earn the jelly bean reward. betsy did her best to ignore me (she is almost two, this is her new thing) and all requests to look in my general direction and stop touching the baby's face and curtis, wide-eyed curtis, spent the time watching the flurry of movements all around him. he is watching everything as it goes by, taking it all in, tracking with his eyes, making great eye-contact and i swear he smiled at me twice this morning. AT ME! not at gas, not at a fully tummy, AT his momma! hip hip! what a grand birthday present it is. :) its been raining the past few days and should continue into tomorrow - and this morning we got a big spiffy dose of hail (and wind - a branch broke out of the treehouse tree) on top of it. the kids had fun going out to explore it.

our skilled puzzle-putter-together-gal before bed with her grandma. curtis is big enough to request to just lay from time to time - he does the fussy "put me down please" thing sometimes just like his big brother did.  but lucky for grandma, most of the time he wants a good long snuggle.

hi daddy! i'm getting really big!

strong tummy-time!

his hair is starting to fall out giving him the awesome old-man hair patterns :)

checking out the hail

the branch from the tree -woops!

rain boots are perfect for today's weather - picking up pieces of hail to show momma

making hail stone soup - putting the hail in the standing water on top of the overturned container

as usual, big brother thinks she has a great idea and decides to join in

rainy st. patrick's day

at the science center

funny betsy at science center

i wasn't a very good irish momma today (even if i'm only irish by marriage)...i will try harder next year!  we did get out of the house to head to the science center down at balboa park. unfortunately, not only was it a rainy saturday (prime conditions for overcrowding) but it's also spring break AND the museum was free today. so, upon arrive, all four surrounding parking lots were completely full. i dropped grandma and the big kids off at the door and went and parked at the zoo with curtis until they had their fill.  at least we got out of the house for a little fun, perhaps we'll have to try again on a slow week day morning.  i've been spending all the "free" (grandma is helping supervise giving me extra time!) minutes of my day going through boxes, the attic, excessive children's clothing, etc getting ready to donate or sell at a garage sale all those things we just really don't need. we're blessed to have excess but i'm so happy that this move to japan is providing me the opportunity to really consciously examine all of the things we choose to fill our house with and pare down to a more reasonable amount of stuff.  we're not moving for a few months, but i'm doing as much in advance as possible to ensure a happy, as-relaxing-as-possible welcome home for daddy (ie: small to-do list).

bath pic the other day (grandma's phone pic)

hello world! (grandma's phone pic)

playing legos...can't wait for daddy to come play with him! (grandma's phone pic)

pete at swim class (grandma's phone pic)

little bug playing during brother's swim class (grandma's phone pic)

brotherly love (grandma's phone pic)

one kid per storage bin at bedtime (grandma's phone pic)

watching saturday morning cartoon inside a box :) because ... why not?

everybody snuggling on a rainy day

grandma giving curtis his first bottle. success!