Mr. Potato Head

Monday, Luke also had a checkup. His 3 year old stats:

Height: 38 3/4 inches (70%)

Weight: 31.8 pounds (50%)

I don't have a head circumference measurement for him. Let's just say it's large.

Luke is always on the move but I did mange to get this one of him sporting the Mr. Potato Head Santa beard.

The Birthday!

Saturday was Nathan's 2nd birthday! I'll let the pictures tell about his day. Monday, we went for his 2 year old check up and here are his stats:

Height: 33 1/2 inches (35%)

Weight: 27.0 pounds (45%)

Head Circumference: 50 cm (80%)

Wake up Nathan! Happy Birthday! Let Mommy take your picture! Insert finger and grin (totally on purpose!).

That's better.
From Luke's bed: "Mommy take Luke's picture too!"

Ok boys, let's sit together for a picture. Attempt 1:

Attempt 15:

Attempt 20:

Party Time! The cousins at the party:

The cake has been spotted!

It was also Uncle Brian's birthday celebration. Thanks Uncle Brian for agreeing to have a Spiderman birthday party!

My two big boys!

Lovin' me some Spiderman! Spiderman Grant is in the background!

FI-RE-TRUCK! FI-RE-TRUCK! (frequently heard chanted around our house)

It was a GREAT birthday! I read so many blogs where Moms and Dads write wonderful things about their children on birthdays. I wish I had time and space to tell all about Nathan. It will have to suffice to say that Nathan is an amazing little boy. He's so very sweet, helpful and amazingly loving. Even in the midst of a two year old moment, his mischievous grin emerges. His smile lights up my day and I don't know what I ever did without him! I love you Nater Potater!

Eli Updates

First cereal...as the third baby, Eli's bibs are less than attractive.

So cute, even with an ugly bib!
Officially four months old in this one!
Hanging with Nathan :)

Just showing off my handsome face :)

Four month checkup stats:

Height: 25 1/2 inches (75%)

Weight: 12.13 pounds (10%)

Head Circumference: 41.5 cm (25%)

Spotted: Brotherly Love

Usually Jeff takes care of Luke and Nathan at night, brushing teeth, pajamas and getting in bed, while I see about Eli. But last night I was the one who ended up putting the boys in bed. Since Eli came along Luke has needed a little help going to bed each night. So, Jeff and I (mostly Jeff) will sit with him for a little while in the big chair in his room. Last night after Luke and I had been in the chair for a few minutes he told me he wanted to get in bed. On the way to bed he took a detour to Nathan's bed. Nathan was already lying down. Luke knelt down at Nathan's head and said, "Goodnight Natan. I love you. I'm going to sleep now but I'll be right back." I could have cried it was so sweet. One to remember for sure (and one to tell them about when they are having a knockdown in a few years).

Baby Luke

Baby Nathan
Baby Eli
How blessed I am!

Change Of Course

The last couple of weeks have been eventful, for me anyway. A few days into my new job, I got an email from my major professor letting me know about a visiting professor position at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and asking me if I wanted him to give them my name. I said yes! The next day I got another email from my friend and committee member, Lesley, letting me know she had also given them my name as a person possibly interested in the position. A few days later I was granted an interview with Texas Wesleyan and I got the job! Like I said, it's a visiting professor position with the opportunity to interview for an assistant professor position for the following year.

The position is teaching stats and research methods to Ed.D. students. I'm very excited about it and I think it will be a great fit. The person I interviewed with, Dr. Curtin, will be my mentor. She's from Ireland and I think she's great. For now I'll commute (it's about an hour each way, less than to Denton) until we see what happens with Jeff's job and then, some time in the future, make a move in that direction. For the fall, I'll be teaching Thursday night and Saturday morning. I'll be going to campus T,W,TH and Saturday morning. It's a schedule I'm very happy with. I can hardly believe I have this wonderful opportunity. Because this new job does not start until mid August, I will pull the boys out of school for July and August. It will be a great summer!

These pictures are a little random...

Playing in the backyard.

Eli and Nathan this morning...Nathan is very sweet to Eli, always asking about him and wanting to help me with him (although there is the occasional love slap).

It looks like he's yelling at Eli but he's really saying "Hi Eli"!

Eli

So, what's Eli been up to? Here he is on the floor one afternoon recently. Note Nathan's foot nearby...the boys love to walk down the length of Eli, straddling him! I think they love to hear me gasp and see me hurl myself to Eli to protect him!

My unsuspecting little muffin.

I like this picture because all the boys are playing sweetly (and leaving each other alone :).

Two Funny Things

So many funny things happen around our house each day. I keep thinking, I need to write that down! I can never remember to write much but here are two things I did get.

1. Conversation with Luke. There is this checklist from the doctor's office of all the things Luke should be doing now that he is 3. One of them is, can he tell if someone is a boy or girl. So, I was trying to find out. Here's how it went:

Luke: Luke is a boy.

Luke: Nathan is a boy.

Mama: What is Mommy?

Luke: Mommy is a boy.

Mama: No, Mommy is a girl.

Luke: Mommy is a girl.

Mama: Good!

Luke: Mommy is a hotdog! Mommy is a HOTDOG! Mommy is a HOTDOG!

That's what I get for asking I guess!

Next thing. 2. Nathan going night night. For Luke's birthday he got this really neat box with five little Sesame Street characters in it (like stuffed animals and each about 4 inches tall). The box is created to look like a house with a downstairs and upstairs is a bedroom (see the picture). So, one afternoon Nathan laid the box on the floor, put his head in it, tried to close the top of the box on his own head and was saying Night-Night! It was so funny to see him trying to hold the box top over his head while hearing a muffled Night-Night coming from him. Here's a picture of the box. He did have his head in the upstairs area where the beds are :)

Believe it!

Besides being a tomato lover, I wanted to post something truly amazing. Luke loves sweets and is no stranger to treats. But, if you can believe it, what does he like better? Salad! Here he is at lunch. I wanted to test his love for salad so I put salad on a plate along with half a cookie. What did he go for? Salad (and then the cookie!).

Now don't be fooled, salad and tomatoes are the extent of the vegetables Luke eats.

Favorite Dinner

So, since this blog is now being used to record memories for the boys, here's a mundane piece of information that they might find interesting later! What did I like to eat when I was little? I actually did ask my Mom this question not long ago when I was trying to think of something else to feed the boys. Answer for my boys: Corndogs, tomatoes and blueberries is one of your favorite meals! Enchiladas are actually Luke's FAVORITE food (and asked for regularly) but I did not have a picture of those.

Can you tell Thomas is still a favorite around our house?

Misc.

I found this really great website today that allows you to create a hardback book from blog posts. I’m going to start doing that for each year that I keep this blog. I like the idea because as Luke has turned 3, his baby book is ending and I was wondering how I was going to keep track of all the memories from this point forward. I’m not the scrapbooking type so the blog will have to do. That being said, the voice of this blog may change a bit to more of an online log of our lives during this special time when the boys are small. (That's code for this blog will probably bore most!)

Today was a good day. My days spent alone with the boys are becoming less of an hour by hour mission and more of enjoyment. Of course I still feel like I have to be at least two steps ahead of them to be able to control the chaos but things are getting better. I’m not sure if this is because they are getting a little older, they’re getting settled down after the upset of bringing home a new baby or I am less hormonal. As my professor always said, it’s a multivariate world and it’s probably a combination of things.

Today was also the last day before my new job starts. I’m excited to be starting it, for the money and for the experience and because it’s a great schedule for me and the boys. But, I’m also a little sad that this time of being job and school free is over. It was only a couple of weeks since my dissertation was turned in and the two online courses I was teaching ended, but they were great weeks and I am sad they are over.

The funniest thing that happened today was after lunch. Nathan had a thing for Spiderman today and carried around this toy Spiderman for most of the day. The thing about this Spiderman is, for some reason, his head comes off. The head is tiny by itself. Of course Nathan wanted to take Spiderman to nap with him so before I gave it back to him after washing the ketchup from lunch off it, I popped Spidie’s head off. You should have seen his little face when I handed it back to him with no head. He just looked at it and then looked at me. The next thing he did was cry for Spiderman and try to get his head off the counter. It took me a while to get him to agree to go to bed with just the body but he finally did. I gave him the head back after naptime.

Well, tomorrow is a big day. It will be challenging to get three boys off to school and then head to work. The first of many days I am sure.

Saturday was Luke's actual birthday. Before the boys got up, my Mom and I went and got doughnuts.

Nathan got these sunglasses from his teacher on the last day of school. He loved them! I say loved because they have already bitten the dust.