Happy 4th of July

We have been busy celebrating our country's independence this weekend.  Owen is old enough to enjoy so many of the activities around our neighborhood so we took full advantage.  First we had a party at our house on July 3rd.  We invited a bunch of the neighbors over to watch the neighborhood fireworks.
Here is Owen telling his brother about the party and all of his friends coming over....

 I made some festive goodies..

 We had plenty of drinks...

 And the kids had colorful sunglasses to shield their eyes from the fireworks...

Here is Owen and I getting ready for our friends to arrive....

On the night of the 3rd the neighborhood country club has its own fireworks which for us are the most convenient to watch.  After we fed our crew, we all walked across the street to the golf course to watch the fireworks.  

The stroller brigade...

We brought balls, frisbees, and bubbles for the kids to play while we were waiting for the fireworks to begin.  Everyone had a blast....

We watched the golf cart parade go by...

We set up blankets and had snacks for the kids....

Grayson fell asleep in the baby carrier and Owen snuggled up with his mama before the show began...

 I dressed the boys in their jammies and brought Owen's giraffes so that he would be ready for bed as soon as we got home.  This is how he watched the entire fireworks show, laying on my lap with his giraffes in hand...

It was so fun and I am glad we kept both boys out past their bedtime to experience this night together.  However all the kids were looking pretty rough at the pool the next day.

In the morning we packed up and headed to the pool for the day.  Grayson napped on the walk over...

The line for entry at the pool was so long - I have never seen it like this...

Then the same group that was at our house the night before pretty much took over the baby pool...

We had a few meltdowns at the pool before deciding Owen was too exhausted to really enjoy himself and headed home to get some rest before our last event of the weekend.

Our neighborhood holds a huge block party every 4th of July.  We were excited to go this year because we knew Owen would really enjoy all of the activities they had there.

Preparing for the walk to the block party...

 

We set up blankets and let the babies play together...

Owen had so much fun, he went down the big slide with his daddy...

Then all by himself...

Then he enjoyed snow cones with his buddies...

And loved on his friends...

It was a successful weekend but we are all exhausted.  The month of July is going to be super busy for us and then fall will be here before we know it.  We have been having so much fun but I wish summer did not go by so quickly.

8 Month Blog Post

Well, we are now beyond the half year mark and are going to have a toddler before we know it.

While Grayson is not quite toddling around he is definitely getting around.  The week after his 7 month birthday he started crawling.  I really wasn't so excited about this milestone at first but now I believe it has actually made my life kind of easier. 

Except for times like this...

Or times like these when I find him pulling all of the toilet paper from the toilet paper roll.....  

Or getting into the dishwasher while we are trying to load it...

We have reached some other milestones in the last couple of months.  Grayson got his first two teeth.  He now has his bottom teeth...

See the drool on his shirt?  I think he is on his way to earning his two top teeth soon.  I can actually see his top teeth starting to make their way down.  

Schedule/Sleep:  Grayson wakes up around 6:30 AM, I nurse him or Brad gives him a bottle if I am out running.  He plays for a while, eats breakfast and then is ready for his morning nap around 9:00.  I give him his pacifier, sing him a song and lay him in his crib sleepy but awake.  He sleeps until about 10:30 then I nurse him, he plays and eats lunch then I nurse him back to sleep around 1:30 in the afternoon.  This week because of all of the 4th of July activities he has been napping for 3 full hours.  It is AMAZING!!  Then he eats dinner, plays and is back to bed around 7:30 or 8:00.  

This is Grayson's favorite sleeping position...

 On days when he doesn't take a long afternoon nap, it is VERY difficult to keep him awake until 7:30.  Here is Grayson at 6:30 after we returned home from our evening walk.  I put him in my sling thinking that would keep him awake but nope, he passed out as soon as I started walking....

Grayson still loves his bunny blankie.  He shows his excitement by kicking his legs and putting it right to his face when he sees  it...

Unfortunately we are now on our 3rd bunny blankie - we lost one on a walk to Jacobson Park and then another one this past week in Louisville while we were shopping at the Summit.  Luckily amazon is just a click away and we had a couple of extras on hand.  

Eat:  Grayson now eats just about anything we eat.  I was trying to avoid foods with dairy or eggs until recently I started adding it back into my diet and his and he has had no problems.  I gave him a muffin, biscuits, pizza, pasta and he loves them without a trace of allergies.  I would say Grayson's favorite foods right now are fruit - he loves peaches, watermelon, pineapple anything really juicy that causes a big mess!

Play:  Grayson LOVES his big brother - he squeals and crawls toward Owen every time he walks in the room.  Owen is still a little rough with him at times when he is trying to play with him, but when Grayson is upset or crying Owen's way of consoling him is to sing to him or rub his head and call him his "little chubby buddy" or his "baby boo bear".  It is pretty sweet except when Owen starts calling me his "chubby little mommy" then I think he has gone too far.

Here is Grayson trying to follow his naked brother to the bath...

Bathtime is a lot of fun and very busy time in our house...

Grayson just started riding his tricycle around the neighborhood trying to keep up with his big brother...

We love our "chubby little buddy" and can't imagine life without him...