Andy at 22 months...

It's so hard to believe that my baby is just a few months away from being 2! We ae so grateful for you - you have brought so much joy to our family.

You at this stage -

• you are talking so much. you are speaking constantly. you will say whatever we ask and putting two words together. you are learning to use your words to communicate with us. some of the words you say are: hoe (show), juice, eat, side (outside), dog ... usually followed by 'woof woof', cat, cow ... usually followed by "moo", see (means - follow me and I'll show you), mommy, dada, beh (ben), wii (will), ganny (granny), beep beep (which means I want to get in the car and pretend to drive), k (are you ok?),
• you are sleeping from 8pm - 9am. you take 1 nap usually at 2pm that lasts anywhere from 1-3 hours.
• you are ALWAYS happy. you seldom cry unless you are hungry or tired.
• you are wearing size 4 diapers. we think you are ready to potty train and we have tried a little. you actually used the potty once (see an earlier post). you do know the sensations, and you want your dirty/wet diapers off immediately.
• you wear size 18 - 24 months clothes.

some of your favorite things are:

• playing outside,
• getting in the car and going "beep beep",
• your blanket and clifford pacifier which you call "baby". if you are unhappy or need comfort. you call for your baby and go looking for them. it always has to be the pair together;
• watching barney, leap frog's letter factory and word world;
• playing with your brothers. if they are playing rough, running and chasing - you have to be right in the middle. if they are playing with swords or lightsabers - you grab one and play along;

what i love about you:

• i love when the barney song comes on "I love you, you love me" - you have to find me and give me a big hug and a kiss;
• i love that with any situation you can laugh and giggle contagiously;
• i love that when you are playing rough and you think you may have hurt me, you lean down to my face, pat me on the back and say "k" wanting to know if I'm ok. i love that you do this!
• i love that everytime someone gives you something you say tank you (thank you);

daddy and i are so thankful for your sweet, happy personality. we hope that you never change. daddy often says that you remind him of papa b/c you love to joke and make people happy.

Fake cell phones and all their rage

All the kids in the neighborhood (at least the ones our boys play with) are all excited about cell phones and playing with them. We found out that if you go to Best Buy and ask for their "fake/demo" phones they'll give them to you - for the kids to play with. It's just a shell, not inside parts - but you can get any model that's currently being used now. So the kids just love them.
I took the boys to Best Buy to get some ... I think we ended up with like 12.
Ben and Will were at school and I was doing laundry, cleaning ... and came in the living room to find Andy putting all the phones in his pockets. I thought it was so funny. They were so heavy - it was weighing his pants down. He didn't care though - he wanted to get as many in his pockets as he could.

Don't you love the diaper peeking out. I love these kind of shots .. no matter what it is - I love seeing the little diaper.

Feburary Header

Got the format fixed and uploaded the new header... It's pretty simple but I liked the picture - so there... Let's see if it can make it through February.



And here's to all of us making it through February as well...

Dave

January Header

The header for January sure didn't last long - or is 2009 already flying by like 2008...


...and I mangled the format... maybe i'll get it fixed or just wait until Kate chooses a different one. It's hard to hit a moving target.

Dave

Is it Spring Yet?

Like a family of bears emerging from hibernation we enjoyed a brief minute of sun outside the cave, er, I mean house... But then like a groundhog that's seen it's own shadow we scurried back inside within 30 minutes... I guess we'll have a few more weeks of winter...



p.s. I know ground hog day has yet to come, but darnit, we're ready for spring now!


David

Xbox'n

Ben and Will were playing xbox and of course Andy was feeling a little left out. So he climbs into Ben's lap (which is something he LOVES to do and does regularly) in hopes he'll get to play. Ben lets him push a few buttons while he still continues to play Lego Star Wars. Will is sitting out this round - probably because he was in trouble for screaming or something.

Muffy says "Please let me rest...."

Muffy was sleeping in her usual spot. On the pillows at the bottom of our fireplace. Everything was good. She had a blanket because she was very cold. She was resting comfortably ....

And then here comes ..... Andy. He wanted to hug her and pet her and love on her. And all she wanted to do was sleep.

In the end - Andy was satisfied with the loving that he got to give Muffy and Muffy got to go back to sleep - so she was happy. Andy absolutely loves Kuma and Muffy. He loves dogs and animals period! He gets so much joy from looking at them and petting them.

Andy - age 20 months

Mommy's sick ...

David was sick over Christmas with something - still not sure what it was. He had flu like symptoms but also sinus issues. Anyway - he was sick for about a week. Luckily he was on vacation from work - so he was able to rest.

Then on Tuesday morning, I came down with something bad. I took Ben to school, but I wasn't able to take Will to school - I was too sick. I came home and needed to lay down. I think I got what David had. I guess! Still unsure. But I was down for 2 solid days. My mom had to come and watch Andy on Wednesday because I couldn't take care of him. Thankfully, David works from home and he was able to shuttle the kids back and forth from school and help me.

On Tuesday morning ... after Andy woke up - I needed to rest. I hate to admit that I used TV as my babysitter - but I so did. I let Will play the xbox on the big tv and I put baby einstein on for Andy on my laptop. It was great! I was able to get a little rest when I desperately needed it.

P.S. Sorry for the messy house. You know how it is when the mommy is out - things fall apart : )

Oh, and also - sorry for the bad pictures. David's constantly on my case about loading bad pictures that are unedited. But this blog is not about my photography - it's about getting things up so I have something for my boys and for their memories. So please excuse the snapshots.

Update (February 16, 2009): We got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago from Sams Club saying that the protein bars I bought from there had been exposed/contaminated w/salmonella. Now .. I know why I was sick!

Girls Night Out or is it Boys Night In...

Kate went out tonight so Dave got to take care of the kids... Usually that means one thing - portrait time for the boys!

...and don't be too disturbed by my hair - I was trying to cut it myself and just quit at this stage for the shock value of it... I'll finish hacking it tomorrow.

We ate chinese takeout - I got General Tso's chicken with steamed rice and the boys got broccoli chicken with brown rice... As usual they complained about it before the actually tasted it and of course then they thought it was Ok. Ben likes steamed rice and Will ate the brown. They're more in it for the fortune cookie at the end. Anyway, finished up the night with a popsicle for Will and a Go-gurt/yogurt for Ben and Andy. And then a whole lot of XBox'n until bed time.

Good times...

Dave

Andy building a tower

Andy got these oversized blocks for Christmas - which he LOVES! He builds towers and then knocks them down and cracks up. He'll grab your hand or pull on your shirt/pants/leg/whatever is nearby and say "sit down" and point to the ground. Meaning ... "I want you to play with me." It's so cute! What's funny is - Ben and Will didn't build like he does at this age. We are amazed at how much quicker he's picking things up than the other two .. and it's probably a competition to keep up with his big brothers : )



Andy - age 20 months

Yea Andy!

So, probably for a few weeks now Andy has been showing interest in wanting to use the potty. He knows the sensation of both duties and he knows when he's going. We haven't really paid it too much attention, b/c frankly potty training is a pain and he is young. I decided to go ahead and get him a potty seat to go on the toilet. Which he was thrilled about. His little butt is too small for the toilet seat - he falls in. : ) He's considerably shorter than Ben and Will - not to mention younger (he's 20 months).... so we knew he would need a little help getting up to the toilet.
Tonight - we were getting the boys ready for bed - Ben is peeing and Andy says he needs to pee. He walks over to the toilet (while Ben is peeing), arches his back (as to pee) and says pee pee. I told him to go tell daddy. I was trying to get Ben in bed - plus I thought he was just playing around like the other times before. David brings him into the bathroom, takes off his clothes and sits him down and guess what .................................. he peed! YEA ANDY! He was so happy with himself. All 4 of us (including Kuma) came into the bathroom and praised him. He was thrilled! He was so excited w/himself and Ben and Will were so proud of him. They gave him big hugs and hi-five's. Once he got all the praise - He was so happy, he kept pushing - trying to get more pee out. It was so cute!
I'm hoping that this is the start of him potty training. David and I would LOVE to get rid of the diapers. I think Andy would too.
I snapped this photo of him when we first got the seat - so I would have something to upload once he went potty.


We are so proud of you Andy! You are so proud of yourself and so excited! I can't wait to see what the days ahead deliver for us.

Andy - 20 months

Saving My Blog Headers

I'm actually having fun creating the blog headers so I thought I'd like to save them somewhere as well... My goal is to try to create a new one at least once a month. We'll see how it goes as the new year looks to be as busy (if not busier) than the last.






David

It's a New Year and a Fresh Start!

Every year the big joke is that people make New Year's Resolutions and then quickly break them before days end. Last year - I only had one major resolution, and that was to lose 40 pounds - which I accomplished! Yea me!

I do have a few NYR this year. (1) to lose an additional 25 pounds which I hope to accomplish by eating well and working out; (2) to wear my hair in a ponytail less and look at myself in a mirror before I walk out of the house. I get comfortable in my routine and sometimes it's tough to remember that I also have to be presentable for the world; (3) to document my children's life so that I leave a lasting legacy for them. You will find all those entries, ramblings, memories, and accomplishments here on this blog. I also hope to backdate this blog so I can get my children's entire lives on here. David will be updating headers in hopes to keep the blog entertaining for you and for us.


We pray this year is a great one! Lots of fun things on tap for this year.

• January 11th, David and I celebrate 6 years of marriage. Hopefully sometime in the year we'll be able to get away for a quick weekend to celebrate.
• David has his annual golf trip in August. Which may be somewhere different this year instead of the normal trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. That will be exciting for he and his buddies to be able to try out new golf courses.
• I am not sure what I will do for a vacation this year. Super Soap Weekend has been canceled at Walt Disney World. But I would love to go back to Discovery Cove in Orlando again. That was a phenominal experience!
• I am planning my parents 50th wedding anniversary party on August 29th. I'm really excited about that and so happy and proud of them.
• Will will start Kindergarten in the Fall this year! Very exciting! He can't wait. He will actually test January 24 to see if he can get into the Academy that Ben attends. We pray that he tests high enough. We are so thankful for the Academy and the great opportunities that it has provided for Ben. If he does not test in - he possibly could get a neighborhood spot in the school. The school is made up of 75% gifted/25% neighborhood. If this does not happen for him - he will go to our neighborhood school, which we also love.
• Andy will start pre-school a few days a week in the Fall. That will be great for him. He's very social and loves to be around people. It will also be great for me - as I'll have time to actually finish something.

We are optimistic for the coming year and hopeful for a safe, healthy and rewarding year.
Happy New Year!

A Beautiful Tuesday at the Park!

We decided to go to the park today since the weather was beautiful for once and we probably wouln't have an opportunity to enjoy the park for sometime. The boys were excited and we all had a great time.

Andy swinging on the monkey bars...

Will upside down on the monkey bars...

Andy playing on the monkey bars. (Ben behind him going up the slide).

Ben stopping to smile at daddy before he crossed the monkey bars.

Andy trying to stand on the rolling thingy... ???

One of Andy's favorite things is for me to stand up on this rail and swing him. Ben was laying underneath and Andy was having fun swinging his legs over him.

We took a little break and got ice-cream. Yum!

Will on top of the monkey bars. He definitely is that ... a monkey! He'll climb on anything no matter how high.

Andy lost his shoe and was looking for it. So cute!

My happy Andy! This is him! Always happy, always smiling!

Ben lost his 3rd tooth

Benjamin told me yesterday that his tooth was loose. He showed me and it definitely was hanging by a thread. So then he was eating his lunch - and came and asked me if I had seen his tooth. I was a little confused - but soon realized that it had fallen out when he bit down on his hot dog and was stuck in the bun.

Here he is w/his 3rd tooth missing....


He's putting the tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. We have a tooth fairy pillow - just can't locate it at the moment : )

The boys were going to bed and Will had his powerranger in bed with him. He sleeps with a different toy everynight.

My sweet boys being nice! A rare moment : ) Ben sleeps on the top bunk and Will on the bottom... at least that's supposed to be how it works. But they both sleep on the top together. Will doesn't like to be without Ben. So sweet!

Granny turns 68!

My mom wanted to have a girls day out for her 68th birthday! So ... I'm thinking, a nice lunch somewhere; a day at the spa; even a trip to the mall .... but no - she wanted to go to Chuck e Cheese to play Skiball. Yes ... we went to Chuck e Cheese w/no kids. Quite funny!

My mom and my Aunt Charley playing a game trying to get as many tickets as they can.




My mom wanted a chocolate cake. I got her a princess candle.

Me and my mom taking a photo. Not a good look for either of us : )

Christmas at the Wilke's

Christmas Eve was a nice day! Ben and I went to Christmas Eve Service at Church. We had a great time. He went with me last year also - so it was nice to have this time with him again.
Here's a few photos we took at the service. (1) They have a huge Christmas tree in the foyer so I had to take Ben's picture in front of it. (2) The stage was all decked out with Christmas trees and snow. I tried to grab a picture of Ben with snow on his shoulders and head to make it look like he was really in the snow - but it didn't go so well ... we just had a little 'snow' fight in front of the whole congregation .. alittle embarrasing, but fun~ : )



Ben and Will had to write notes to Santa. The first one is Will's (I wrote it), and the second is Ben's. Sorry they are sideways. I forgot to rotate.


(1) Andy had gone to bed, and Will and Ben were leaving cookies, milk, a photo and a nativity (in case Santa wanted to play) for Santa; (2) Santa came to OUR HOUSE!

(1) Christmas morning. The boys got up bright and early. We decided to wake up Andy early too, which was a little bit of a bad idea. He was a bit grumpy b/c he usually sleeps in; (2) Will got an Imaginex Fire Station and he was playing and Ben was bothering him - as usual.

Ben asked Santa for an xbox and games and Will wanted a spiderman motorcycle and spiderman jet. They both got their wishes! (1) Will opening a powerranger that he was very excited about; (2) Ben asked Santa for an Xbox and he got it. The boys first time to play. BIG FUN!

My brother, Christopher, and his partner, Robert came by .... along w/my parents and my brother, Stephen and his family. The boys love to jump on the trampoline - so of course, they had to take Uncle Christopher and Uncle Robert out to play.