Seth's 18 month photos

I took Seth today to have his 18 month photos taken. I wanted to match the style that we used for Brody's 18 month photos that he had taken with Poochie, but Seth's enormous obsession is with balls... so we took a whole slew of balls. Here are Brody and Seths 18 month photos (sorry for the bad quality, my scanner isn't working so these are actual PHOTOS of the photos)

Seth at 18 months


Brody at 18 months


Seth at 18 months


Brody at 18 months



A couple more of Seth

JMU Roomie Weekend

Well, I guess if you have done an event two years in a row, AND have it scheduled and on the calendar for the next year, it must be an annual event!

We went up to Maryland again this July for Jen's JMU Roomie weekend reunion. It is so awesome to see my college roommates with their families, to hang out, talk about college days, and to see the people that they have become! In total, there were 11 adults and 9 kids!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

Vrooming Around with Zack

Just think... one day this will be a REAL car. Brody has a friend across the street that came over to pick him up in his jeep last week. Brody LOVED this thing! I can't imagine ever letting Brody ride around in a car with a friend when they are 16! I am sure every parent dreads the day!

Harry Potter

Okay, so I know most of my friends will think I am crazy, but I got the last Harry Potter book delivered on Saturday (the day it came out), and along with having to clean my house for dinner guests, having game night that night, church the next morning from 9:15 to 12:30, then lunch with other friends after church...

I finished it on Sunday. I read that book in approx. 7.5 hours! And it was AWESOME!

It's like coming home

Kurt and I felt so nostalgic as we built couch cushion forts with the kids last night. Isn't it strange how almost all kids play the same games, no matter whether it is 1977 or 2007?

New Thrill Ride - "The TP"

Only a 3 year old can turn something as mundane, and shall I say *functional* as a roll of toilet paper (an entire roll of toilet paper, at that)into something as exciting and exhilarating as a "roller coaster" spread out across the many rooms of our house. Too fun.

I know it will be extremely sad when it is gone; that innocent spark, the part of him that knows nothing of being embarrassed, or bored, or ashamed. I wonder how old he will be when he is forced to realize that playing with toilet paper just isn't "cool". I hope it is a LONG way off!

It's like memory foam...

I made an observation the other day. As a mommy, I spend a LOT of time picking up and holding my kids. Well, I noticed the other day as I picked up someone else's kid, it just didn't "feel" right. And that is true of holding all other kids. They either feel too heavy, or too light, or too bony, or too squishy. I find it so amazing that we kind of mold to our kids. We know just how to hold them so we can use our other hand to do stuff. We know their center of gravity. We know exactly how heavy they are. We know just the right amount of pressure to use to grasp on, even through their pudge. I was thinking that it is kind of like that memory foam that people sleep on. Or, it is also kind of like my Birkenstocks, which actually form to your foot the longer you wear them. Pretty cool that God makes us fit so perfectly with our kids. Huh? :)

Just a rambling observation. No offense to all your squishy kids out there. I am sure they feel *just right* to you! :)

Balls!

Seth is only truly happy when there are many balls involved, as is evident below. I love this video!

Brian Regan

Other than our great friend from college, Tony Deyo www.tonydeyo.com, our 2nd favorite comedian is Brian Regan, and it is really cool, because he has kids the same age as us, and his humor seems to reflect that, as well as being totally clean. Here are a couple new bits that I like, and here is his website in case you really like him. www.brianregan.com.

He Spent it All in One Place!

Saturday was payday! Brody finished his first week doing his chores and got his first chore money/allowance... so we taught him today how to go out and blow your paycheck all at once, in one place! :)

We figured that if we wanted him to understand just how exciting it could be to earn money, that we should make sure he got something cool with his first allowance. So, we counted up all the money he has gotten from grandparents, etc... for birthdays and stuff... then we added his new money... and we went off to the mall.



We went into the Disney Store first, but there was NOTHING there that he really wanted that was within our price range... (go figure)



So, we were off to Target to look at the Hot Wheels stuff (which is his obsession at the moment). It was amazing to see how particular he was in choosing his toy. He would pick something out and tell me that he wanted it, but when I said "Is that what you want to buy with your money?", he would say "no", that he wanted to find something "better". Awesome!


Needless to say, it took a LOT longer than I expected for him to make a choice! It was such an Important and Serious choice! He is actually sitting on the floor here pondering if he wanted this toy.



The Hot Wheels starter track was on clearance, marked down about 10 bucks! So, we got that, and a pack of new cars.



He was so cute getting his money out of his pocket and paying for it. Then, he made sure to get the "seat" (receipt). My favorite thing about the day was when he kept asking me if things were too "Spen-sick" (expensive).






And, of course, Seth is happy because he got a ball, compliments of Mimi. :)



Too fun. We have one happy kid on our hands, and he knows HE bought it with his OWN money! Woo Hoo!

3D Harry!

Harry Potter was AWESOME! Kurt and I went with my mom and dad yesterday to the IMAX theater and saw The Order of the Pheonix. The finale (about 20 min) was in 3D and it was phenomenal! I LOVED it! It was, by far, my favorite movie. It was my least favorite book of the series so far, but the movie was wonderful.

It strays quite a bit from the book, I assume mostly because the book is enormous and there is no way to follow all the sub-plots in the time span of the movie.

But, the direction and cinematography are incredible!

Go see it, and in IMAX 3D if you can!

Now.... I can't wait for the last book to come out in just a week!!!

:)

Is it just me? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It may just be me, but every now and then, I will catch Seth with an expression that reminds me so much of his cousin, Will. Will is Kurt's sisters little boy. So, it would be something of the Akers side in him, which we have a hard time seeing.

Does anyone else see it, or really, is it just me? I can't tell!

and let the motherly worrying begin

It is so strange the pain you feel, as a parent, when your child is hurting/scared/worried. It is almost as if he is still connected to me, physically.

Brody has always been a GREAT sleeper. From day one, he has been in his own room, with the door closed, all the lights off.

Well, in the past 6 months (?) he has started "seeing bad things" at night, which he now knows are bad dreams, or things that we see in our heads when we are sleeping. Well, he has many dreams about dinosaurs and dragons outside his window, and every now and then he will mention the "smiley bus" and how scary and fast and loud it is.

Well, it has gotten so bad, that now the door is open at night and he had a nightlight. Poor thing. It makes me so sick that he has fear now. Just knowing that he will grow up and have pain, and worry, and fear is so sad. I wish I could shelter him from ALL of it FOREVER!

:(

This pretty much sums it up...

This sounds like our house...

The Gift that Keeps On Giving

So, for those of you who haven't ventured down this road yet...

Chuck E. Cheese is one of those restaurants that you go, take a WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY, convert it to tokens, play games for a minuscule amount of tickets, then take the tickets and pay an incredulous amount of tickets for cheap toys. Really, the price markup has got to be about 700%.

Well, Brody got a lot of tickets, and one of the things he wanted to was this lollipop. It probably cost about 23 dollars. *sigh*

Anyway... he has been working on this lollipop for a LONG time, and there is no end in sight. We shall have a sticky mess for months to come!

Japanese Antics

We went to the Japanese Steak House for Mimi's birthday a couple weeks ago, and here are the pics of our crazy family!

Brody is a workin' man!

Well, Brody has entered the world of the working man. We have a chore chart and he can earn up to a dollar a week...

Every day he has to:
make his bed
put his dishes in the sink
brush his teeth
clean up his toys before bedtime

For each item, if he does it all week, he earns a quarter.

We started with his bed today, by teaching him how to do it, then he did it!

He is SO EXCITED! I kind of wish we had done this earlier... at least doing ONE thing like picking up toys each day.

Swimming with Zack

Our next door neighbor came over yesterday and played with the boys... they had a ball!

Just me and the Boys

After dinner tonight, we drove up to Busch Gardens to walk around and ride a few kiddie rides. It was a WONDERFUL evening! It was about 72 the whole time we were there. The sun was low enough that we didn't need our sunglasses. We walked around and rode a few little rides, then they had their big fireworks display for the 4th of July. They have it every evening from July 1-4. It was AWESOME. There was music and a great display of fireworks. The boys weren't too keen on them, especially the noise, but Brody eventually warmed up to them and Seth just cuddled up to me on my shoulder and put up with them until they were done.

It was a leisurely, cool, wonderful evening with my boys. Brody walked with Kurt the whole time, held his hand, listened to us when we told him what to do (and what not to do) and was a joy the whole evening.

We left the park at 11 and they were both still awake and smiling.

Awesome. There is some hope yet!

Also, it was so nice to see them riding rides together. There were glimpses into how it will be as they grow up together riding the bigger and bigger rides each year.



*sigh* A mother's heart just sings for joy seeing her family happy and together. :o)