Soccer

Over the summer I took a chance and signed Owen up for a soccer class, well he made it to one class. He hated it. The teacher seemed like he was coaching real soccer players, not three year olds. He would yell at the children when they touched the ball. Well our neighborhood has a soccer class that is free and of course a walk away and some of his classmates are in the class. So I signed him up, and the first one was this morning. Well it was a fight to get him to go. He said he wanted to play soccer but then he kept saying he wanted to be able to kick and throw the ball. This was from the evil coach that yelled at them. Well after about 5 minutes he loved it, but just not quite the sporty boy. :) He had fun and talked about it all day and wants to go back.

Soccer Owen

Doing Stretches

More Stretches
Kicking Balls

They play a game to run to a stuffed animal by a cone. When the coach said "Let's run to find a kangaroo." My creative son ran to the woods and said "Look, there's a kangaroo." It made Omer and I laugh, but he joined in on the real game after the first one.

Happy Soccer Owen

Kicking a Goal

Giving Coach John Fives

He also enjoyed sitting and rolling off the ball.

The last game is chase the coach. Owen loved this.

Tackle!

Crawling

At the beach Aiden moved from army crawl to full on crawl. Over the past week he has gotten super fast and of course into everything.

Happy Mover

Lunging to Crawl

He also likes to push-up

On the Move

He loves to chase my exercise ball around.

Ball Chasing

Aiden is showing to be a ball boy; he loves to play in the ball bin.

He also loves to crawl and look outside.

Off to get into something else.

Score! Hat Eating

First Sting

While at playgroup this afternoon Owen experienced his first wasp sting. I find I am pretty calm in these situations and Owen was very brave and handled it pretty well after many hugs. Still makes me a little sad that it happened, but obviously bound to at some point and now we know he's not allergic.

The story: I was getting four boys ready to go outside to play. They all ran out the porch door while I got my shoes on and then I walk outside and see Owen screaming and crying and batting around his neck. They were in the screened-in porch. I had Aiden in my arms but quickly ran to Owen, placed Aiden down and Owen jumped in my arms. I was worried another kid would get stung, so I quickly told all the boys to get back inside while I carried Owen and Aiden. Owen was screaming, but after a couple hugs he seemed none the worse. He was actually more upset that he dropped his toys. I obviously went to go get the toys. Luckily my friends were there to help. Elizabeth made the baking soda paste while I calmed Owen down. And Ali gave Aiden snuggles. Owen freaked out when I put the paste on but then he was completely fine. Didn't even mention it to Omer when he got home. I had to tell him about it. He wanted to talk about the sting a lot on the way home but after that not much else. The stings look completely fine now.

Beach Vacation

One of my very good friends had her wedding in Duck, NC so we decided to couple this with our family beach vacation. We had a wonderful time and look forward to going back next year. We tried out a new beach and really liked it. The house was great and had a view of the ocean, but our two complaints would be it was right on the road and there was no Internet access. Both kids slept like they normally do so that was a plus. The trip down was miserable and stressful. Aiden still takes cat naps so he does not sleep long enough in the car and very hard to get back to sleep. We decided to leave to get back home for bedtime and worked pretty great. Both kids slept until about 30 minutes to home when Aiden woke which woke Owen. However the trip was 1.5 hours shorter because no stops or traffic. It was also a little hard to get both kids back to sleep once home and of course the next day we were all absolutely exhausted but much better trip.


Owen was beyond excited to go to the beach. It is something he has talked about all summer and could not wait to collect shells. Well he lucked out. Duck had some major storms which washed up a ton of shells. There was a huge strip of them to pick through. We have many buckets of shells now. He was not a fan of the ocean though. He told us that he was scared from the big waves. I got him to come and get his feet wet for two times but then his feet sunk and he ran away. He liked to get close and watch the ocean but only if I would hold him. The bad thing is that he was so scared that he completely freaked out when Omer or I wanted to go in. I love swimming in the ocean and this part really stunk for me. But he thought the ocean was going to take us away. Not worth scaring the poor kid, so not much ocean fun for us. Owen also really enjoyed the pool at the house. However, he could only stand at the stairs but really liked running around the pool getting splashed. He'd even ask "Splash my face!". Summary of Owen's vacation: lots of shell finding, walks on the beach, sand digging, pool splashing, playing with new friends, playing on the porch.

Aiden of course is too young to care what he is doing, but he seemed to like the beach. However mobile oral baby at the beach is a lot of work. :) Aiden enjoyed being on the beach and playing with the shells. He also loved having his feet dipped in the ocean and swimming around the pool. I think the major news for Aiden is that he is super mobile now and really trying to figure out how to stand. He is now crawling, stands with hold one hand, tries to take steps, babbling a lot and is the most determined little boy. Summary of Aiden's vacation: sand finding, sand and shell eating, pool swimming, ocean feet, super mobile.

Chloe and Chester were as always happy to be with us at the beach. Chloe of course barked at the ocean, ran on the beach, rolled in the sand and sunbathed. Chester ran on the beach, chased birds (almost in the ocean), and hid in the shade.

Omer and I really enjoyed the quiet stress free family time. It was nice to just enjoy each other and spend time with the kids. We also REALLY enjoyed sitting on the deck under the stars and ocean view drinking some wine and chatting. We both loved playing with the boys at the beach and pool but I was sad that I didn't get any ocean swimming time. Omer enjoyed reading his book, I enjoyed finishing updating my blog book, we both enjoyed naps, we also enjoyed our first night out since Aiden's arrival. The wedding was so much fun and everything worked great with Jenni helping with the boys.

Overall a great vacation and look forward to many more years of beach fun.

There was almost 400 pictures to get through, but no worries I think I got it down to 120. Sorry but my kids are just so cute we must take lots of pictures. The funny thing is other than the rehearsal dinner and a trip to Erica's beach house we really didn't do anything super exciting...so where did all these pictures come from. HeeHee Well sit back and enjoy a very large album of super cute sandy kids.

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First Cookie

Tonight I gave Aiden his first teething cookie. He loved it and as we all know those cookies make a ton of mess.

Of course Chester had to check out the cookie yumminess.

Chomping on Cookie
Messy Face

Messy Pants and Feet

Must be Good

Little Cookie Eater

Aiden 6 Months

We finally got in for Aiden's 6 month check. My doctor was out on vacation for two weeks. In her words she said Aiden "looks perfect". She was absolutely shocked that he can put himself to a seated position and that he is pulling himself to a stand. He actually has started to stomp his feet while standing. Her bet was that Aiden would be walking by 9 months. That has been my guess too. The boy is very determined and moves all the time.

We discussed some more solutions for his lack of normal poops and talked about feeding him finger foods. So we'll be starting that soon as I think he is getting frustrated with the baby food. Always steals the spoon which makes it hard to feed him. She also confirmed that he is getting is four front top teeth in. The two middle are pretty swollen so might break soon. Aiden is also just as oral as Owen was, so here comes another couple years of constant mouthing toys, drool and biting my hand.

We also talked about some solutions on getting Aiden to sleep a little better. We know he can make it with one feeding at night as he has several times, but just easier when he startles to feed him real quick rather than stand there patting him back to sleep. As a mom of two she totally did the same thing, always nice to hear. I only allow him two times at night as I know he does not need it. Our other struggle is a very inconsistent wake up time. He isn't really ready to wake until 7:00, but often wakes at 5:45 or 6:00, and wants to play for 15 minutes and then gets fussy because he wants to sleep but too hard to get back to sleep at that time. We would let him cry and deal with it a little but it wakes Owen. So then we have two grumpy tired kids. So we are just going to try to stay consistent and hope it starts to get better with age.

Hmm I guess that is about it. Health is great, and quite advanced on gross motor skills and average on all other skills. The nurse could not get enough of Aiden's cuteness and smiles. A mom always loves to hear that. And of course I know how adorable my baby is and never get tired of those smiles.

Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz (50%)
Height: 26.75 in (75%)
Head: 17.25 in (60%)

Aiden loves to wiggle under his crib bumper.

And of course he loves standing.

Absolute Adorable

Aiden was helping me wrap Erica's wedding gift.

Playing with the flap.

Back to School

Today was Owen's first day at preschool. It was a short day to help the kids get used to it. Owen did great and so did I. I cried about the first five times last year and Owen cried the first three times. There was no tears. I walked him in, he said hi to the teacher, hung up his bag and ran in to play. Went right up to some girl and asked so nicely, "May I please play with you?" I really wanted to say bye and get a kiss but I knew better, just let it be.

He had a huge smile on his face when I picked him up and told me he had a lot of fun. Just like last year he did not indulge all the details I want but this is what he told me.
1- He went potty and pulled his undies up himself. And that he pulled them down to his shoes. (This is huge as he will never do this at home and has to be able to for school.)
2- He played in the sandbox.
3- He shared the trains with some boy.
4- "I had fun and I was nice, Mommy."
5- He also asked me to name all the girls in his class.

I had planned on taking more pictures of the big day but Owen had no desire to stop and allow me this pleasure, he wanted to get in to his class.

Ready for School

Exploring his Name Tag (his class is the Rainbow Bears)

Off in his Classroom

Making a New Friend

Playing with Addie

At a Stand

Aiden's new favorite thing to do is pull up on everything and I mean everything. He is a lot to keep track of. He's fast, determined and fearless. I have brought out the activity table for him to enjoy, and it is one of his favorites. Also at playgroup, he scaled one step from a sunken room to the next level. He kept diving back down to do it again. Eek!! As Owen says "That boy is crazy! He moves, moves, moves."

Standing at Table

Proud Little Boy

Happy to Turn the Wheel

National Zoo

Omer took Friday off and with the great weather we decided to make a visit to the National Zoo. It was a lot of fun and the trip with Aiden naps and feedings went pretty smooth. We had a lot of fun and Owen wore himself out after running around so excited for the first hour. He then happily rode in the stroller or on my back. As always there was lots of construction and empty areas, but what we got to see was appreciated by all. Surprisingly I think Owen's favorites were the small mammal house, of course the ocean life section and the prairie dogs. He also got a huge kick out of the T-Rex statue, we had a lot of fun there. Aiden enjoyed watching the scenery and animals in the stroller and was eager to scoot around when he got home; he loves to be places he can move. Great trip at the zoo and sorry not a ton of pictures but we were busy keeping to busy boys happy.

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Happy Birthday Daddy

We celebrated Omer's birthday today. In the morning Owen was a little too excited to sing Happy Birthday to Daddy and did his rendition rolling on the floor in a husky voice. Then we made him cupcakes, Owen was in charge of sprinkles of course. Owen also made Daddy a card from him and Aiden. He decided it needed to be all ocean animals and even did a little scribble which he said was the ocean. He even chose the phrase inside the card, "Come Dive in the Ocean Together." I made Omer a special dinner of grilled beef tenderloin and then we all sang and had cupcakes. We love you lots and hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing Out the Candles (Yes, Owen wanted a candle too.)

Owen decided to lick the icing off his candle.

Daddy Joined In

Aiden hung out and played while gifts were opened.
Owen showing Daddy his Card
Owen looking puzzled why there is a naked couple at the beach on the card from Mommy. :)

Daddy thought my homemade card was quite funny. Here I come Hallmark!

Tried to get a picture of Daddy and his boys, but of course just didn't happen. These are the two shots I got.