"Baby sit......Mama dig"

Matthew took his time to start talking but boy oh boy has he made strides. He comes up with something new on an almost daily basis. Some of my favorite original quotes....

"Baby sit.....Mama dig"
So it is spring and that means our afternoons are spent digging up weeds, planting, and so many other outdoor tasks. Matthew loves to use a shovel, he also likes to watch me use a shovel. One afternoon, I felt Kimber had eaten enough mulch for the day so I was carrying him around while Matthew was playing and he looks at me and says the above. I cracked up....and of course had to reward his effort by putting another scoop of dirt in his dump truck!

"Side Mama"
Translation......I want to go outside, and I hear this no less than 5 times a day, and we spend A LOT of time outdoors.

"Matt gloves work side"
The boy loves wearing his gloves and so wants to be like Dad and go outside and work.

Happy Half Birthday My Little Monkey

I admit it is hard for me to believe we met you 6 months ago. You are growing so very quickly (please slow down). Every single day my baby is slipping away. I confess that it is so fun to watch you grow, change and learn with every passing hour. You are almost crawling and quite good at doing to army crawl to get where you want to go. We are finally seeing spring and you love being outside and watching brother play. It seems within seconds of me putting you down in the center of the blanket you are at the edge trying to taste pine needles, grass and mulch. You will eat anything I give you but seem to really love baked sweet potatoes, frozen peaches and nectarines, rice cakes and bananas. You are doing pretty well at sleeping in your crib, at least for the first part of the night. If you had your way Mama would hold you all night long but you are transitioning well. I love you more with each passing day...keep up the good work little buddy!

You are Mr. Bear hanging out.

You REALLY get into eating....especially frozen peaches!!

Your most favorite chew toy.

Getting a driving lesson from brother.

Exploring the green stuff.

Hanging out with brother on the blanket.

And this one won the prize for my favorite picture this month.

Twins

We get told all of the time how much our boys look alike and I agree wholeheartedly. In the following pictures each boy was within a month of each other.....

Can you tell which one is which?

shhhhhhh.....church

We have been trying local churches recently and have been taking the boys into the worship service with us. As you can imagine, there is a lot of shhhhushing that occurs during the service, so much so that as we drive by the church Matthew points and says "Shhhh-Church".

I think next week we are going to take advantage of the nursery, maybe they won't get shushed quite as much?

Brotherly Love

Motherhood has been a journey filled with a multitude of emotions for me. Bringing another little Riggle into the family has added a new level to this experience.

I absolutely love watching my two little men interact. At this stage it is mostly Kimber staring at Matthew with such adoration. I know, I know, they will eventually be fighting over every little thing but for now, this makes me happy....and a wee tiny bit proud. Lately Matthew has started showing Kimber "how" to play. Whenever I make Kimber a pallet on the floor to roll around on Matthew is not far behind with his menagerie of trucks, tractors and trains. I was putting up some laundry last week and came back in to find Kimber, who I left in his exersaucer, has had the entire bin of baby toys poured into/onto the saucer with him....talk about sensory overload. Matthew, of course pointed at Kimber and his pile of toys and said "baby play". I have to admit I was a little worried how Matthew would react when we brought Kimber home and I have been very pleasantly surprised. He is nothing but sweet to his brother, such a little helper for me and all around his usual sweet self.

They were both sick with ear infections here but still hanging out.

My three sweet boys!

Instruction....

Help Mom.......I can barely see over this pile.

Christmas Day...2009

Happy Five Months Little Man

Another month has passed us by and what a busy month it was.

You accomplished the following this month:

* You acquired your first two teeth, within about a week of each other.
* You became quite the proficient little roller.
* You ingested your first foods that did not come from Mommy.
* You slept 5 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!!!!
So you only did this once but Mommy can see the light at the end of the tunnel ;-)

Each day it seems you become so much more aware of this world.

As soon as I put you in the car you immediately look to your right, searching for Matthew.

You cackle out loud when Muppet the dog comes into your line of sight and get even more tickled when she licks the ever-present drool off of your face.

You have become quite vocal and make so many sounds. You have started making the motorboat sound quite often, especially when we are in the car.

Complete strangers walk up to us all of the time and comment on your gorgeous hair, you then flash them your huge precious smile and I can almost see them melting...just like I do about a million times a day.

You are still such a sweet little soul and I am positive that I could not have asked for a better baby. You make the lack of sleep seem like such a minor detail. We love you little man....and always will.

My favorite shot of you this month...

Your first food....cereal with bananas.

Chewing on your favorite toy.

Really tired of me trying to get a good picture....

Resting on Papa after a wrestling match with brother.

Enjoying bath time.

You look so much like your Papa to me here.

....Gonna Soak Up the Sun.....

Finally....after what seems like weeks of cold, sleet, snow or rain we got a few days of warmer temperatures and sunshine. We took advantage in a big way.

The first nice day was spent at the park with some friends. We fed the ducks and fish and of course admired the tractors working on the Art Museum expansion.

Over the nice weekend we picked up "sticks" from a tree Willie cut down, watched Willie splitting wood, installed my new sink/potting bench in the shed, cleaned off the back porch and had some friends over for fajitas.

It is amazing how a little change in the weather makes EVERYONE in this house OH SO HAPPY!

Feeding the ducks...and fish.

Enjoying the sunshine...finally!

Watching the tractors.

Matthew and his "lady friends".

Smiley-drooly faced baby Kimber.

Chillaxin'