It's Autumn Time!

So it is autumn time...it feels like the dead of winter now though. Thank goodness we took some walks and played hard in the leaves before the pretty part of autumn came and went seemingly overnight. It warms my heart to see my two boys learning to play together. Typically Ethan is "experimenting" on Ben, but good natured Ben just smiles and laughs...love my two boys, so different but so incredible! Here are some of our adventures of the last couple of weeks!

Playing in the leaves in our backyard

For some reason the best game was to see how many tiny crumbles of leaves he could get to stay on Ben's head...poor Ben

This is the day we went to the pumpkin patch! It was so much fun...so glad we went because the weather took a cold turn two days later and hasn't come back yet! Ethan was delighted and therefore so were we...he was having so much fun it pained him to try and look at the camera for mom at all!

Thanks Dave for being the only one to cooperate lol

the perfect pumpkin for pie!

Ethan was on a mission...he just kept wanting to pick up pumpkins...he could have wandered through the patch all day

still looking

He loved following me around and jabbering

Ethan is my little buddy...loves to be with his momma...such a recent development for being such a daddy's boy!

What could be more fun than a giant...CORN box...much cleaner and more festive than sand...the boys LOVED it! Ben thought it was dinner

waiting in line for the haystack slide...another HUGE hit with Ethan

Nothing like finishing off a great night with some snuggles and bedtime stories...this is what chilly nights were made for!

Long Overdue Post...Ben at 6 months

So once again I am rather slow at updating, it's just that we are so busy with house projects and playing our little hearts out before it is too cold to enjoy being outside. I feel bad because I do want our posterity to have a little glimpse of what we were like, but more importantly I want my boys to grow up enjoying life and living to its fullest, so for that reason I won't apologize for playing hard!
     Ben will be 7 months in less than a week and I failed to record his 6 month stats...I already don't know the exact numbers anymore so I'll give it my best shot from what I remember...

At 6 months he weighed about 17.5 lbs. and was somewhere around the 55%
He was 26.5 inches long, which put him around the 37%

Those aren't exact, but hey, most important is that he is healthy and growing. We thought from the beginning that he was going to tower over his older brother, which would probably help him deal with the torment he receives daily (all out of love) but at this point he is quite a bit smaller now than Ethan was...who knows we will just see what happens. He is the perfect little angel and I don't know what I would do without his infectious smile. He is so easy to love and so delightful to snuggle.

At 6+ months Ben...

Is eating solids pretty well...loves sweet potatoes, squash, and is OBSESSED with graham crackers...seriously the boy could eat them all day
-He is SUPER serious about food in general...we don't mess around when it comes to feeding
-He rolls over both ways and sits up on his own, still falls once in a while, but overall pretty stable
-He loves to blow raspberries when he is being playful
-Smiles every time he wakes up and sees his brother...he sure does love his Ethan
-loves to play with faces...his motor skills are improving so he loves using his fingers
-still has a little old man hairline, but it is slowly filling in on top...I adore his head
-still no teeth, the bottom left keeps breaking the skin and then going back under- it's killing me
-loves his thumb, but is moving on to sucking on his big toe as well!

-Loves loves loves to play in the grass

I just can't handle how much I adore this little boy...he just smiles all the time...

And to wrap up, here are my two munchkins...Ethan was determined that he was going to hold Ben, and that Ben was going to LIKE IT!

Bet you've never seen a rain gutter do this before...

These boys of mine are everything that is important and perfect in life...I hope that anyone who ever reads this who only has girls is not offended by my serious adoration for boys, but I can't imagine my life with anything else at this point. I've come to realize as I watch our own little family and other families with children, that it doesn't matter whether you thought you wanted one or the other, or believed you would have a girl or a boy, once you hold that little baby in your arms THAT BABY is the only thing you ever wanted. So as for me, I only ever wanted my two babies to be my little Ethan and Benjamin and I am completely in awe and adoration of their cuteness, cleverness, and absolute perfectness every day of my life, and I am pretty darn grateful to my husband for working so hard to provide a good life for us, and allowing me to be home with my sweet little rascals...Ben is growing out of babyhood faster than I can stand, and Ethan is full swing in to little boyhood...we say it all the time as we watch his mind go to work, He is ALL BOY!

We typically strip him down to diaper still for mealtime, I got tired of scrubbing spaghetti sauce, cheese, juice, etc. from all of his clothing...poor Ben could be in for it with hand me downs lol

It is rare to find this child in a moment where he is not smiling...he is the most content baby and he loves to socialize

Ben is just starting to think about sitting up, he does pretty well until he gets excited, and then he just falls on his face!

Apparently Ethan wants to have super arm strength...he used to put cereal boxes on his arms, or shoes, but last week he discovered the rain gutter spout, and now, rain drainage will never be the same!

And so begin my days of cape tying...

Silly Ben loves grass, until his face is in it, but he loves the feel on his hands and feet!

Looks like someone was snitching in my box of pears, and I don't think it was Ben or David...Ethan, were you a little hungry? lol

is slowly talking more and more, combining words and saying things that actually make sense sometimes...he loves to sing songs, especially the cleanup song which sounds like "dee da" instead of cleanup but I love it, and his animal sounds are pretty great, toddlers are hysterical and oh so clever!

Well my blog needs a whole revamp done, so who knows, it will probably be another month and a half until I get another post up, so I hope I can be forgiven by my posterity for doing a terrible job at journaling! 

Everything is Cuter in Mini X 2

I had NO IDEA how fun it would be to have two little boys so close together. I think in my mind I always just thought you had either a boy or girl first, and then the opposite on round two. So I had never thoroughly processed the idea of two in a row, but there is almost nothing sweeter. It's like how I've always said that everything is cuter in mini, but one more step on that ladder is that it's even cuter if it's mini, and then there's two...SERIOUSLY...so here goes, for viewing pleasure and memory sake so I can look at these pictures someday down the road when they are teenagers at the same time and I want to lock them in their rooms for a decade...and remind myself of how much I adore them!

Kisses!

Two matching diaper bottoms!

Two faces adoring each other

Even more adoration

Two snuggle buddies

So much snuggling, and adoring

Does it get any sweeter?! I say not!

Summertime is for getting messy outside and loving every minute of it!

I had no idea how I could love another face as much as I adored Ethan's, how on earth could you love another quirky personality, another squishy bottom and rolly legs, how would it be possible to enjoy kissing another double chin, and pinching fat rolls as much as with your first...and then Ben came, my whole world turned again, and now I have two little long eyelashed, button nosed boys that have me wrapped completely around their fingers and I wouldn't have it any other way!

The Happiest Baby on the Block...Little Ben at 4.5 Months

Oh my sweet sweet Ben...don't know how to use words to do justice for what a good baby he is, but I'll try my best.

At 4.5 months

Weight  15lbs. 14 oz.

Height 25 1/2 in.

He is smiling and jabbering constantly. Pretty sure he is the happiest and sweetest baby I have ever seen in my life. Sure he has his moments but typically only when he is hungry or tired, or if Ethan has bitten him somewhere, and I'd be mad too.

He has been sleeping through the night since 2 months old, and when I say sleeping through the night I mean 10-12 hours EVERY night. Ben, you spoil me rotten!

He is a super-spitter...potentially worse than Ethan was, but more pleasant while spitting

He rolls over like crazy, tummy to back, so much that at night recently he has started rolling over and getting stuck on his back and waking up because he hates being on his back...yes I'm the mom who lets her babies sleep on their tummy, and darn it they are GREAT sleepers! Don't judge.....

He lets Ethan maul him frequently and only gets distressed when bodily harm is inflicted (which I try to minimize)

Amazingly enough he loves his brother...when Ben wakes up in the morning Ethan is usually already awake and loves being put in Ben's crib with him...where he proceeds to kiss Ben repeatedly and invade his bubble severely, but typically Ben just smiles and smiles. He is totally a morning baby, so so happy when he wakes up!

He is a SERIOUS thumb sucker...I was convinced you could get a child to take a pacifier instead of their thumb, but when they suck their thumb enough in their sleep at night, it becomes such a habit, and in all honesty, right now it doesn't bother me because he is such an amazing self soother, and we don't have to worry about losing a binki every time we are in public.

Has been eating rice cereal for a couple of weeks now, and to my surprise actually likes it...he was all over it the first time we gave it to him!

He is an amazing baby, so happy and so perfect in every way. He is so much fun  and adds so much to our lives already! We love you Baby Ben!

And then he was TWO!

So somehow my baby turned two, right in the middle of us buying our first house and moving, so I feel like I haven't had sufficient time to feel sad about how quickly my boy is growing up...so here we go...this is the part where I put up pictures and remember how little he used to be and do a little sniffling. I'll reminisce about the time before tantrums and disciplining, and then adore the absolute cuteness that he is anyway...so here's my big two year old!

Wouldn't blow out the candles but loved that everyone was singing at him...he just kept saying hot (ha)- at least he's learned something from me lol

just wanted to dig in the frosting at first

Then we made the mistake of taking of the cupcake wrappers...why on earth would we do that!

All's well, cupcake wrappers made it kinda back in place so he resumed picking

And then came the ice cream cone...he really did love it although he didn't smile...sometimes it is straight up serious business, everything is when you're two, plus he totally knows that he is making me work for it! lol

LOVES his cozy coupe!

Wish I could say that he is typically wearing clothes and that these pictures are the exception, but frankly that would be a lie...he loves to be in his diaper, and I hear it is great for the beginning of potty training, but who are we kidding, I just get tired of the constant clothing, and un-clothing so sometimes they just stay off!

At two years old they say you can double their height and figure out what their estimated adult height will be, so his stats at 2...35 1/2 inches tall (75 %) and 27 lbs. (50%) so he should end up being 5' 11"...but I think he'll hit 6 feet...guess we'll see!

All in all little Ethan is a pretty typical two-year-old except that he has no interest in talking, but is a Houdini with my attempts at baby proofing- he can into anything or out of anything if he wants to...he's been a pro with outlet plugs for a while now and his most recent success is pulling off the door knob covers...the kid is ridiculous!

As far as words go, he knows more than he says to me because other people hear him say stuff all the time, but when I ask him to say something he just points at it...it kills me....but he is such a sweetheart

-he mauls his brother to no end- I've recently discovered him biting, kissing so hard he leaves teeth prints, kicking, dumping water on, and planking on his brother to name just a few of the creative tortures he instills...poor Ben.
-he has ginormous hands and feet
-he loves to read books, but always wants to be in control of page turning, and you can never read each book just once, more like 3+ times
-he loves to say baby (bebe)
-he loves animals (especially dogs) and dinosaurs (they had huge ones at the zoo)
-his eating is coming along slowly...I am getting better at presentation which helps and so does cutting back on snacks! lol but he still favors cottage cheese (sheez) and milk juice (choc. milk)
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