Ten on Tuesday

1. As some of you might have heard, Zane got his first chipped tooth at daycare on Friday. I'm not quite sure on the details, but somehow a rock made contact with Zane's face and now Zane has a busted lip and a chipped tooth. I was super sad initially, then angry, but that was followed by the realization that Zane probably was throwing rocks too or just as easily could have thrown a rock at someone else. These are the dangers of three year old boys playing together, but doesn't help with the mommy guilt I feel over it. The bad news is that it is hurting him when he brushes his teeth, or when he eats, and drinks which means we will be going to the dentist next week. Joy Joy!! For now his perfect, perfect, little baby teeth aren't quite so perfect and it breaks my heart. If you look closely you can see it on his bottom teeth, just right of the middle two. Sad face!

2. In other doctor appointment news Zane had his first ophthalmology appointment yesterday and did an amazing job. He loved the hospital, with all it's happy decorations, fish in the waiting room, and was very cooperative with the doctor's exam. The results are that he does have an astigmatism and will need to follow up yearly. Zach got glasses early on in life so I'm sure at some point Zane will need them, but not yet. Praise God! After getting his eyes dilated Zane asked to wear his sunglasses all day, what a smart kid.

 Zane checking out where momy works. He loved it! 

Rocking his cool shades in the pool. I think they might have been left in there, but oh well.

3. After his doctor's appointment Zane and I made a quick trip to the science center, which just so happens to be across the street. It was a special outing, with just Zane and I, since Ro was at daycare for the morning. Our trip to the Science Center was followed up with lunch with daddy, so it was a very special day indeed.

 We had never seen the dinosaurs outside before, since usually the Science Center is a winter activity.

Zane had a full conversation with the T-rex this time. He asked him what he liked to eat and then told me he thought he was tired.

The other favorite activity of the day was putting carbon atoms together, fun times with chemistry.

4. Rowan remains kind of sick and super crabby. His nose is still runny, but his cough is much better. He seems to think he should be held all the time now, which isn't like him at all, and his night time sleeping schedule is terrible. I think his not being able to breath is probably to blame, but it's been a rough week here in the sleep department. Currently I also have a cough which makes sleeping with him in the chair nearly impossible as my coughing wakes him up and vice versa. 

5. Last week Zane and I made bread together for the first time. I am admittedly not very confident in my bread making skills, so going into knowing that half of it is going to be used for texture play/making animal bread, takes a lot of the pressure off. Half of the dough was used for an actual loaf of bread and half we made into animals and faces, decorated with raisins. It was a great time, though the time it took for the dough to rise really threw him off. The down side of making homemade bread is that I can't stop myself from eating all of it once it's baked.

Kneading the dough

Rowan watching closely as Zane decorated his master pieces.

Finished product

6. The gorgeous, mild temperature weather of a few weeks ago has turned back into actual August weather, with temps in the upper nineties. This means we are back to inside fun for most of the day. To my pleasant surprise Zane's attention span is actually starting to become slightly longer. He plays big boy puzzles, strings blocks onto shoe strings, read books, and spends lots of time playing with canned goods, building and bowling. I love to see him actually play with something for more than two seconds. 

He can do this twenty four piece puzzle all by himself now. So proud of him!

 He strung all the blocks on a shoe string for the first time the other day. It took lots of concentration. I couldn't believe he stuck with it.

Rowan watching the big boys build with cans.

7. Today the boys and I went to buy Zane's winter clothes. It never ceases to amaze me that I have to buy pants when it is a hundred degrees outside, but if I don't they are all gone by the time it is actually winter. I have come to accept it and now Zane has a new winter wardrobe. He officially had to move across the isle to little boy shirts, but can still wear 4T pants. He has a really long torso, which means he usually ends up with arms that are too long, and have to rolled up, but at least his stomach is covered. Meanwhile, Rowan is definitely going to be too little for Zane's winter clothes. I thought it might work out perfectly with Ro being smaller, and born earlier in the year, but not so much. At some point I am going to have a ton of boy clothes to give away. 

8. How about another installment of "Things Zane Says." Sometimes, instead of asking if he could have ice cream he whispers, "maybe if I really good, I can have ice cream." But it's in a super quite whisper voice. Then when I say, "I don't know, maybe." His response is, "let my think.....ah ha, yes!" (My = me in Zane's life. This happens in all sorts of situations, like "Zane it's nap time." "let my think, ah ha... no!" 

9. As a follow up to that, recently Zane has started ad libbing dinner time prayer instead of his normal singing prayer. It usually is just some grumblings that we can't really understand. So I tried to explain to him that you can pray for people, like praying for Grandma. However, in Zane's language to = for, i.e. "I want that to my birthday." So Zane's prayer was "I pray to Grandma." That has a little bit different meaning, but close! Love me some three year old language.

10. In depressing news there is a new poop chart up in the bathroom. We are at two days of no poop in his pants, so Buzz Lightyear got to come out of the timeout closet. Dear God why is this still an issue?? He did finally admit to us, after being in huge amounts of trouble, that he doesn't want to stop playing to go to the potty, no kidding. My new weapon in my parenting arsenal is the timer on my phone. Randomly I set it and when it goes off he has to try to poop. What has my life come to..... whatever works. 

Cowboy Zane and His First Bowling Adventure

This post requires a bit of back story. My dad use to wear pearl snaps shirts all the time. He rocked them from when they first came about in the seventies, all the way through to them coming back in style in the two thousands. He was buried in a pearl snap and was a cowboy through and through. None of his own children wanted to be cowboys, after growing up on a working farm. However, Able has been rocking the pearl snaps for a long time as well. This led to me calling Zane's snap up dress shirt his "Uncle Able shirt," making it one hundred percent cooler. That shirt did not have pearl snaps though, so Uncle Able came through again and got Zane a real life, pearl snap, cowboy shirt the last time we were in Oklahoma. The original shirt was too small, so Zane waited patiently, checking the mail everyday, for his "cowboy shirt in a box, from Uncle Able." Finally it arrived and he loved it! 

As of late Zane has been doing a lot of pretending to be a cowboy. His current favorite song is Ghost Riders in the Sky, but every time I suggest wearing his Uncle Able cowboy shirt he turns me down. It isn't fun if it's mommy's idea. So I have left the shirt in his drawer for the day when it would be his idea to wear it. Saturday finally was that day!!! He woke up and got dressed in his cowboy shirt, cowboy hat, and.... well.... khaki shorts (what can I say we aren't full fledged cowboys around here.) Here is the adorableness that ensued. I teared up a little when I looked back through the pictures, as I know how much my dad would have loved them and how much he would love seeing Zane pretending to be a cowboy. Warning there are a lot of pictures because I just couldn't choose.

Cowboy Zane, complete with his busted lip.

 He couldn't stop taking his hat off and saying "yeehaw."

 I fully expect this to be in his senior video montage, it's quite possibly the cutest picture ever!

 Looking at himself in the glass door, saying "Yeehaw!"

 We moved out to the front porch for some porch time, another love of my father's, and Zane proceeded to sweep the porch for me. What a wonderfully helpful cowboy.

 He, ever so briefly put on his cowboy vest, but couldn't resist taking it off and throwing it. He is also riding bullseye the horse around if you look closely.

Then onto trying to teach brother how to play catch. He was unsuccessful, again, but he keeps trying.

I felt sure that the cowboy shirt wouldn't last long and that he would treat it more like a costume than just a normal shirt. I was wrong. Zane took his nap in it and wore it out to our afternoon of bowling fun. I loved it! 

Which brings us to part two of this story. Zane started playing "bowling" with canned goods in the hall Saturday morning. I'm not sure where he learned about or saw bowling, but he was loving it, so I thought why not take him bowling for real. I fully expected this to be a very short outing, as Zane's attention span usually leaves something to be desired. Zane proved me wrong once again. He loved all aspects of bowling, the shoes, literally throwing his ball down the lane, cheering it on as it took forever to get to the pins, and finally celebrating after the pins were knocked down. Not to mention the popcorn and sprite for snacks. The best part of the whole thing was when Zane went to the bathroom and when he came out the bowling alley had turned into black light, party time, bowling. His mind was blown, and he was slightly concerned. "How did this happen mom?" I'm not sure that he really liked it. I think the strobe lights hurt his eyes and the music was pretty loud, but I found his reaction to it priceless. Rowan slept through party time, but had been a great cheerleader for the rest of our bowling. This particular bowling alley was pretty much all centered around kids parties and was smoke free so a wonderful find that I'm sure we will be returning to soon. 

 The lightest ball was seven pounds, which he managed to haul around, and throw around pretty successfully.

 Love this short of Zane, sitting on his bowling ball, strategizing his next move, with only one pin still standing. 

 Cheering his ball on to get the last pin. Zane's super slow method was surprisingly effective.

 Somewhere along the way the kids next to us got this contraption to push the ball down. I didn't think it was nearly as much fun, but since the other kids had it, Zane wanted it.

This was my dream come true, Rowan actually laying his head on my shoulder! 

I will spare you the gory details of the pooping in the pants meltdown that happened after we got home, pushing Zach and I over the edge and led to Zane loosing all iPad privileges until he can poop in the potty for a week, and suffice it to say that the majority of the day was wonderful, family fun! 

Rowan's Six Month Update

My little pumpkin head is half a year old today. I literally cannot believe it. It seems like yesterday that I was hugely pregnant at work, ready to meet our little man. But time flies when you are having fun I guess. Rowan continues to be a very busy boy, who refuses to be treated like a baby. I would love for him to snuggle me and lay his little head on my shoulder from time to time, but no such luck. I was hoping his recent illness would make him more snuggly, but that has not been the case. In his miserable state, he really needs to be held, but hates me trying to cuddle him, all at the same time. His little head is always up, looking around, possibly on the look out for the crazy blonde haired boy who tries to kill him daily. On the few, rare occasions, when he does fall asleep on my shoulder, I hold him for way too long, soaking in this most precious of baby moments.

I took him to his sixth month doctor's appointment today and all is well, though he remains tiny. He weighs 15lb 14oz, so basically 16 pounds (25th percentile). He is 27.25 inches long, 80th percentile, and his head is something normal and appropriate that I can't remember. He is meeting all his milestones and didn't have ear infections, which I thought for sure he would, after days of a snotty nose. He eats great, just recently mastering how to eat baby food, just apparently a small person, something I can't relate to at all. Way to go Zach's random gene pool, I guess. I'm started to get concerned that Zane's winter clothes, which I was sure would be too small for Ro, are going to be too big for him now.

The big highlights for this month include the major milestone of sitting up, unassisted, and getting up on his hands and knees. He loves sitting up and playing with toys, but it has caused the knew hazard of making him much more easily accessible to his big brother. Zane tries to pick him up, roll him over, or sit him back up all the time, which Rowan does not enjoy, and which terrifies me. Zane usually tries to do all these things with Rowan's head in his hands. Poor baby. Rowan is enjoying his toys a lot more as of late, with most things going into his mouth, but he has also figured out how to make things make noise as well.

He is very mobile, rolling around the room to get whatever toys he sees. He can spin, scoot, and work his way forward pretty well now too, which makes life much more interesting/difficult. Yesterday was the first time he managed to find some small piece of trash on the ground and try to eat it, which is foreshadowing for the near future of the crawling/eating everything off the floor stage. With his new love of sitting up he has transitioned from his gym, his home away from home, to the pillow protected blanket. This way he can sit up and play upstairs and I can do other things, occasionally. Turns out he also loves rolling around in the pillows, so huge win!

Otherwise Rowan continues to be a very happy baby who loves being part of everything we are doing. He keeps a very close eye on his brother and finds him pretty entertaining most of the time. Zane continues to struggle with sharing his parent's attention, but has grown to enjoy playing with his brother as well. I'm not sure Zane realizes he is a real person yet, but he has gotten much better with him this month, trying to play catch with him, bringing him toys, giving him his binki, and comforting him when Zane inevitably scared/hurts him. I am eager for the day they can play together without such close supervision. Currently their play time, while adorable, is very stressful.

When I looked back at Zane's six month update, I was surprised to see how different the boys look at this age. They looked exactly alike when they were born, but Rowan has definitely grown into his own look. Of course Zane was three pounds heavier at this point, which I think makes him look a lot older than little Ro. Turns out Zane also had his first baby cold right at six months, something I would have never remembered had I not blogged his life, so glad I started it, even throw the tough times. Now I can have some make shift memories of Zane as a little baby at least. Here is the comparison of Zane and Rowan at six months.

Definitely brothers, but I feel confident I could tell their pictures apart in the future. I can't say that for their baby pictures.

 Yes, I did his six month photo shoot today when Zane was sleeping, because I'm just that pulled together. Here are my other favorites.

 Love that grin

 He spends a lot of time chewing on his whole hand. I wouldn't be surprised if some teeth started popping through soon.

Ten On Tuesday

1. We are all battling the cold and cough here, which is absolutely no fun. This is Rowan's first go around with sickness and he is terribly pathetic. Zane and Rowan both have pretty bad coughs and Rowan's nose is pouring snot. Both boys are crabby as is mommy, who isn't feeling too great herself. Rowan has his sixth month doctor's visit tomorrow so we shall see how that goes. The six month shots will make this situation much better, I'm sure.

2. While I was saving lives this weekend, the boys took a trip to Grammi and Pappa's. I hear a great time was had a by all. Here are some classic cousin pictures to prove it. Not sure where Pappa was in the picture with Grammi, but I hear he was there too.

Also not sure who thought, of all these kids, Zane would be the best choice to be in charge of Rowan. Some how Rowan managed to survive.

3. Prior to all of us getting sick, the big news of the week was Rowan working really hard on crawling. He gets up on all fours now and does the pre-crawler rock, that we are all so familiar with. He doesn't weigh anything, so this task isn't as hard as it might sound. He continues to work on this even with his baby boy illness. Last night, after loosing clothes privileges due to vomiting, he was working on it in his diaper. He is so skinny/bony it's hysterical. I'm also getting use to his bare chest sans "stripe" as Zane calls it.

 This was the first time we noticed him being able to get up on all fours. He now does it all the time.

 Sick, but still working out.

Look at this face, so cute, and all haired out.

4. Last night the boys also took one of their first baths together. It was the first one since Rowan could sit up and Zane loved it. Zane thought he should be in charge of washing Rowan, which went great until he started washing Ro's eyes. There was lots of splashing, so I think it was good fun all around, after a not so fun day. 

5. We are fighting lots of three year old battles at our house currently, which continues to be exhausting. Zane is either sweetness and light and a big boy helper, or he really isn't. His current battle of choice, eating. The boy loves to eat, but I guess it's a power trip to ask for food then not eat it. This particular thing makes my head explode, so lots of battles over that. Currently I think the option of eggs for breakfast is going to be taken off the table, since the last two days he has begged to get them, then thrown a fit that he didn't want to eat them. Cereal or yogurt it is, picking my battles.

6. I think all my nieces and nephews will be back to there different schools/preschools by tomorrow. Hopefully everyone is settling in nicely. Brendan started first grade today, hope his first day went well. I have been sending good thoughts for a great school year out to everyone. They are all getting so big, I can hardly believe it. 

7. I had been getting into a good routine of exercising everyday I wasn't working, either with the boys in the morning, or by myself in the evening. Then, per usual, I got sick. This is literally how it always happens. There is about a week and a half where we finally get into a good routine, and Zane stops complaining about exercising with me, then I, or they, or both, get sick and it all goes out the window. It's disappointing and so frustrating. 

8. Rowan is going to be six months old tomorrow, that's crazy. This is the point where I think "it's been half a year, you should really have lost all that weight and pulled your life back together." But alas, neither of those things have happened. Also, need to work on his scrapbook soon or it will be his birth and I will have gotten months 1 and 2 done. Not yet...... soon.

9. Today Zane started doing signing performances from Rowan's room. The microphone was the baby monitor receiver, his desk area was the little table where Ro's humidifier is, and his CD's/concession stand was housed in the closet. This afternoon he sang all the songs he knew, with the introduce of "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Rowan's room. If you not poop in your pants or throw a fit, you watch a movie tonight and get popcorn." Then he would sing. I requested some songs, that I know he knows, but he told me "we not have that CD." This evening we had an encore performance for daddy, but the popcorn and candy in his concession stand, me trying to record it, and the book brought in from book time threw him off his game a bit. He never really got an entire song out this evening, but it was very entertaining. I will try to record it again tomorrow.

10. Speaking of trying to record things, singing time in the evening has officially been replaced by story time with daddy. The current favorite story is "the dragon story with Maggie." I haven't heard it, but it's Zane's request every night. The other day when Zane requested stories over singing Zach said "I've told you the same story for a week." To which I politely reminded him I have been singing the same handful of songs for three years, so he would be fine. I really want to try to record a story time, but not sure how to do that without him knowing, which throws the whole thing off. 

Ten On Tuesday

1. Rowan is becoming such a big boy I can hardly believe it. He is sitting up more all the time which led to us getting out some more toys for him. It has also led to Zane and him "playing together" more. It is still a work in progress, but Zane is doing much better with him. Here are the boys playing with the baby tool bench. Zane loved showing him what all different things made noise, but did get a little frustrated that Rowan really wasn't "using it right."

2. With Rowan we are experiencing a whole knew phase that was missed with Zane. Due to Zane's sternal incision he didn't start rolling again, after surgery, until around seven or eight months old. So from four months until then he wasn't mobile, and it was lovely. He spent a lot of his time in his swing or chair, fully content. Rowan, on the other hand, is fully mobile, rolling all over this house. His favorite spot is half way under our TV cabinet where he can play with the playstation charger cord or under the kitchen table. He can get to either place very quickly and does every time I try putting him back in his gym. Yesterday he rolled across the basement in about a minute, with Zane clearing him a path in front of him.

 Whatever toy he is playing with he takes with him on his rolling journeys.

Pretty sure I have a picture of Zane in this exact spot, but he was much older.

3. We had a lovely weekend, with all of us at home together. Saturday afternoon I went to a Derby themed bridal shower, which meant I finally had an excuse to wear my fun Happy Hat that mom got for me at the turn of the century (love throwing that out, really the turn of the millennium, even better!) It was great fun and was so happy I could celebrate with my dear friend Brandy on her big day!

 Here is the blushing bride, rocking my hat. She looked much better in it than I did!

Here I am with Brandy and Ashley celebrating. 

4. Sunday afternoon Rowan took his first real dip in the pool. Once he got use to the water he thoroughly enjoyed it and would have loved to play with Zane longer, but mean old mom took him out when he started shivering. He loved splashing in the water and trying to reach all the balls and toys in the pool. There were a few splashes to the face from brother, but he took it like a champ. He was so adorable that I allowed my self to be photographed in a swimsuit to capture him having such a good time. 

What a big boy all wrapped up in his towel!

5. Sunday night Zach and I went on a date night to celebrate our Anniversary. We were thinking dinner and a movie, but turns out all the movies are terrible currently. So we just did dinner, drinks, and dessert at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. I had a Smore's Martini which was amazing, the dinner and dessert were wonderful as well. Many thanks to Ashley for watching the boys so we could have an evening out. Here is my handsome husband enjoying his super chocolate martini.

6. As of late Zane seems to think that Rowan wants to wear his hates, so he puts random hats on him all the time. Rowan doesn't seem to mind, and goes about life as if he isn't wearing an extremely large hat. The end results are pretty adorable.

He looks great in a fireman hat,

or a fedora, 

 or a cowboy hat, and those were just the times I had a camera handy.

7. This weeks other events that make me realize Rowan is getting too big include him sitting up in the stroller during our morning walks and desperately wanting to drink out of our glasses so we gave him a sippy cup to play with. I don't that he got anything out of the sippy cup, but he has the idea down for sure. He is so tiny all those things look so funny when he does them. 

Loving his new view. I miss my view of his adorable face while walking though.

8. In an attempt to not make the same mistakes with Rowan as we did with Zane, we have started to see if he can put himself back to sleep when he wakes up at night. We NEVER did this with Zane, not when he was little, not when he was toddling, NEVER! In turn we have created a monster who doesn't realize that he can just turn over and go back to sleep. So far it's going pretty well. Rowan doesn't really cry when he wakes ups, so much as play/talk to himself. So he isn't "crying" it out per say, just getting bored and going back to sleep, much easier! We've had mixed results so far, but Sunday night he slept until six AM, which was a miracle!! Here's hoping he becomes a phenomenal sleeper since his brother is a lost cause in this area.  

9. As a follow up to number eight, Zane can either sleep all night without crying, or he can poop in the potty. They seem mutually exclusive. The past three days, after an epic meltdown during the night/following day last week, Zane has slept with no problem and gotten all his toys out of the closet. However, yesterday and today he hasn't pooped in the potty. Not sure which one is worse, all of it is frustrating, and new toys are in time out for pooping his pants. Sigh.... no ideas.

10.  Lastly, Zane's new favorite activity is story telling. He likes telling them, loves hearing them, and then he loves trying to retell the stories that were just told to him. Uncle Able told him Dad's famous story "How the Snakes Lost Their Lips." We aren't sure if Able actually told it correctly, since the last time he had heard it he was about six years old, but either way Zane loves it and it's his new favorite story! Singing time at night is now sometimes replaced by story time. I really need to try to record some of the little stories he comes up with. They are so funny and he is very serious about them. Fun Fun!!