one of the gang.

Titus fits right in with our big boys. They love him and he's pretty easy going and open to whatever they've got going on around him.  We loved all the beautiful days in March and spent lots of time in our driveway.  I'd strap Titus in our little stroller and he would be content for quite a long time as long as someone was pushing him around and luckily for me I had some eager volunteers to push! 

This is another good example of how things have changed around here from baby #1 to baby #3.  I don't think I would have dreamed of putting Isaiah in a flimsy little umbrella stroller at 3 months old, but I didn't give it a second thought this time around :)

bumbo baby

Titus loves to sit in the bumbo chair - these pictures were taken mid-March and has been sitting in the chair regularly since the beginning of March.  He is so strong and can enjoy the seat for 20+ minutes at a time.  Since  he was a few weeks old he has always wanted to look around and be able to see what is going on so it's no surprise that he wants to be sitting up watching what's going on around him now -- making the seat perfect for him!

a perfect view.

Nothing beats the view we have from our kitchen window.

these two spend hours and hours together simply being little boys.

There's nothing better!

strong baby!

Here is Titus showing off his strong neck on March 7.  Can you believe just how fast he is growing?  He really wanted to take off crawling, I could see it in his eyes ... it won't be long!

first real smiles.

On March 6 we finally caught Titus giving some real smiles.  We'd been waiting and waiting as it seemed like the other boys had smiled much earlier on, but these smiles came and brought joy to our house!  He was sitting in his little swing (thanks again Molly!) and just started smiling all on his own and just sat and smiled for about 5 minutes!  Mark, the boys and I had fun watching him.  He was so cute!  After those few minutes he was ready to get out and be held -:)   What a good baby.  Each day from then on he's been smiling more and more!  Love it!

slumber party!

Levi and our niece Liahna have developed their own sweet little friendship.  They are just a couple months apart with Levi being born middle of August and Liahna middle of November 2008.  For the past few months when we've gotten together they've played together like good buddies do.  It's fun to see their bond together.  A few weeks back my sister and her girls came up to visit and I got to keep Liahna and Elise while she went out with my parents (I think I got the better deal haha jk).   Levi and Liahna were so cute while we were reading stories before bedtime....

and were even cuter when after I told them it was lights out and time to sleep.  (Liahna was sleeping on a spare crib mattress on the floor of the big boys' room) Shortly after I left the room I hear someone making a "boo" sound and then lots and lots of giggling.  After a few minutes the giggling hadn't stopped so I went in to remind them it was bedtime.  As soon as I turn my back I hear "boo! boo! boo!"  I turned around and tried as hard as I could to be stern and said, "shhhh!  it's time to sleep"  and walked out to hear lots more giggling...this happened several more times... It was so adorable. They did eventually fall asleep and sleep through the night just fine.  I think they were excited to play again in the morning.  I think we need to have lots more cousin sleepovers in our future! 

Mario Chess

Isaiah continues to be so interested in board games and loves to play them any chance someone will sit down to play one with him.  One night (the same day as crazy hair/pajama day in my last post) Isaiah decided to create his own version of chess/Upwards/dominoes/checkers/Mario Brothers.  It was quite the complicated game and I don't think I ever really got it down mainly because the rules changed with every move :)  But there were bad guys and Mario and Luigi and power spots to get star power, freeze power, fire power, little power and so much more I can't even remember.  It was quite the game...  I hope he continues to be this creative his whole life!  What a sweet boy.

crazy hair day.

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday Isaiah's preschool class had a crazy hair and pajamas day.  Isaiah talked about this day for weeks beforehand.  Mark and Isaiah decided it would be super cool if Isaiah had a mo-hawk for crazy hair day.  I figured why not - let's go all out.  So Friday morning before school Mark took Isaiah and Levi to get their hair cuts and this is how Isaiah came home...

 I will admit it looked really cool and cute.  The haircut lady was happy to go along with the haircut idea and was happy to suggest their red hair gel to make things even more fun.  When the boys got home Caiden was excited to see the mo-hawk and wanted one too...so Mark used some clear gel and made him one too.  

 Levi had to get in on the picture action too. :)

 I came to school a few minutes early to take a class picture of the crazy hair and pajamas.  If you look closely you will see the little boy in the bottom row far right has a purple mo-hawk similar to Isaiah's - they were pretty excited to have matching mo-hawks! 

Isn't preschool fun?  And the haircut, by the way, was what is apparently called a faux-hawk where it combs down to look like a traditional haircut so you'd never know that it could spike like this.  Isaiah happily wore his mo-hawk all weekend long and was incredibly sad when I made him wash it out Sunday night!

funny Isaiah

A few years ago my mom got a few books from her school library that were being expired from their collection.  The books were all for much older kids (like 5th grader or something) but we were going on a trip to visit my sister or someone so she brought them along to try to be entertaining.  I thought we had gotten rid of them but one has been found and in our book basket in the living room for a few weeks.  One day Isaiah decided to look at it.  He starts reading it for a few minutes and then says, "this book is a lot better than you think it is." and kept looking at the pictures for several more minutes (repeating the same thing many more times.)  Levi of course wanted a turn after he was done and said the exact same thing a few times too.  I guess we won't be getting rid of that one just yet... 

Isaiah's big idea.

One day after I picked Isaiah up from school he tells me that we need to go to the store to get the ingredients for a recipe that Mrs. Williams made for them one day at school (not that day).  I agreed since he had never asked for anything like this before and I was a bit curious.  We get to HyVee and he says that he needs Cool Whip, Oreo Cookies, Chocolate Syrup and Teddy Grahams... hmmmm... I then asked him what Mrs. Williams made and he said that she made caves and the Teddy Grahams got to hibernate (they were having a week on hibernation).  I was guessing that she made the oreo cream stuff that includes a few more ingredients than what Isaiah said, but he insisted that it didn't.  We rarely have sweet treats in our house so I decided that we'd go with this.  I let Isaiah make his treats which he smashed oreos in a baggie and then took a big scoop of Cool Whip and put the cookies on top and then poured plenty of chocolate syrup on it -- I had to remind him about the Teddy Graham he was supposed to hide :).  He of course was happy to make one for Levi too.  I must admit it was a pretty yummy treat - funny enough, neither boy finished or asked about it again.  Somehow the Oreos disappeared though :) 

jammy time.

Isn't he adorable? 

sick.

The yucky winter sickness caught our house the week I went back to work - go figure.  Mark got it first and was miserable - so sick that he had to call in an employee to work for him Wednesday night!  The boys woke up with it Saturday morning  :(  It mainly consisted of a fever around 101 degrees which had them feeling cold and icky, a stuffy nose and cough.  After a few hours Levi started to feel much better and was pretty much back to his normal self by early afternoon, Isaiah, however, was sick all of Saturday and Sunday and stayed home from school on Monday.  Titus also had the fever and stuffy nose too.  His little cheeks were so rosy and red.  His fever only lasted Saturday, but his stuffy nose lasted for almost 2 full weeks :(  Luckily I managed to stay healthy somehow - I was sure after all the snuggles, coughs in my face, and snot and spit up that I cleaned up that I was bound to get it!  Mark unfortunately was sick for days and days.  As yucky as it was having sick kids, I won't pass up the cuddle time with my rowdy boys who don't sit still long enough to do that normally!

he rolled over!

On February 18 Titus rolled over from tummy to back for the very first time!  I had put the big boys down for bed and Mark was still at work so Titus and I were going to hang out on our tummies for a bit.  I laid Titus down on a blanket and I could tell he didn't really want to do it (which is a bit unusual for him since typically when he's awake and happy he likes his tummy) I noticed he was starting to move so I grabbed the camera.  Good thing I went quick because just as I was getting it on video - he did it!  He rolled over several more times in a row and below are pictures of his second time ever rolling over!  Since this experience he's rolled over lots more times, but it's not every time he's on his tummy... What a big boy!  I can't believe we are already to this stage!  Time sure flies!

quilts

My mom has put in countless hours to make each of our boys a quilt - she's specially picked the fabric and the pattern differently for each boy (she's also made one for each of my sisters daughters).  Both Isaiah and Levi love their quilts and sleep with them each night.  Her goal has been to have them made by their first birthday but always has made that by a long shot (Titus was just 2 months old when she gave him his!).  Take a look at her wonderful work.

 I love seeing each of the boys on their quilt - it's crazy to see just how big Isaiah is compared to his quilt, it seems like just months ago that he was the size of Titus on his!  

Little friends

Titus has had 2 playdates with his little friend Ashlyn in February.  Ashlyn is my friend Andrea's daughter who was born a few months before Titus.  It's fun to see another baby so close in age - it reminds me what I've got coming :).  Somehow at these last two playdates the only pictures I've come up with were the babies - sorry big kids - Andrea's older daughter, Ava, is just a couple months younger than Levi.   (I must admit the second playdate was at our house and my older boys were about as naughty as I've ever seen them which I'm sure is why no pictures of them were taken that night.)  Andrea and I go way back to deployment days and I'm so very glad we've kept in touch...there's something about going through such a major life experience that ties you together in a way that only we can understand.  

 

Not sure what was up with baby Titus and refusing to look at the camera in either picture, but none-the-less it's fun to see the babes together!

more snow

I did get a couple more snow pictures a few weeks back when we had a good snow storm.  Not sure why Levi's not in them, he must not have been willing to cooperate that day!  We have 2 sets of stairs that go up to our back door and we let the snow gather on one of them so the kids can have their very own hill out our door - this year it was great for them and they loved every minute of it!  

2 months

On 2-12-12 Titus was 2 months old. He's become such an important addition to our family and I must say we all love him so very much.

The big brothers LOVE to be IN HIS FACE.  Which is NOT where the parents want them to be - so that's been a bit of a challenge :)  Titus doesn't need on the mouth kisses all day long, but it is sweet that they love him enough to want to love on him!  The kisses often make him look like this...

Titus continues to love to be on his tummy and prefers to sleep that way too - which we have allowed him to do during naps if he's not zonked out in his carseat.  It's fun to let him lay on a blanket and just kick his legs both on his tummy and back...and he enjoys the company down on the blanket with him - he will face you when you talk to him.  (although the eye contact isn't there most of the time)

He continues to co-sleep with me which is what works for our family - I know not recommended by all (but also recommended by some).  He loves to sleep right next to me and usually nurses himself to sleep, gets up once or twice in the night to eat again and sleeps until I get up.  (which is typically when Levi gets up around 7:15--or sometimes a bit later if Mark is able to get up with Levi!)  I feel like we are both pretty well rested when morning comes again.  He also naps a couple hours in the morning, a couple hours in the afternoon, and a couple more in the evening...sometimes he falls asleep in Mark or my arms and we can lay him in our bed to sleep, he often falls asleep in the carseat and will stay asleep there or other times he spends his nap right in my arms.  I do (try to) cherish those naps and not think of all the things I could be doing instead! 

He has started to smile, but only when he wants to and not super huge grins yet - we are still waiting!  He has very clear facial expressions and will let you know by looking if he's happy, upset, tired, etc.  Below is the closestI got of a smile close to his 2 month birthday. 

He continues to be mellow and easy going which is exactly what we needed around here.  

Happy 2 months baby!