On the move and in the Grove

Andrew is on the move.  It only took a few days after he mastered the crawl to be everywhere and into everything!  I'm moving breakables and putting in outlet covers pronto.

 

Playing with the Tupperware is SO much fun!  Banks loved having a new excuse to make a mess!!

 He's already trying to pull up some.  Oh boy...

 

Last weekend we took Banks to the Grove.  It was nice for about an hour before the rain came.  Mark my words...never again will I take a kid to the Grove in the rain.  Never.

 

Some of the boys in our tent...

 LOTS of wrestling between these two!

Life with two...

If you asked me one day after Andrew was born if I wanted to have another baby I would have said yes.  Asked me again at one month and I would have said the same.  But now, at seven months, I'm beginning to reconsider.  Life is starting to get considerably more busy with two. 

Andrew is on the verge of crawling.  It is so fun watching the little wheels in his head churning trying to figure it out.  He can definitely get to something he wants and I guess I need to start thinking about baby proofing the house again.  I've been out of that mindset for so long I almost forgot that they like to get into things (like the dog's water).  He's in the spends-a-lot-of-time-in-the-high-chair phase.  Trying to learn to self feed is a hard job and one that his little pincher fingers just aren't quite ready for, but he can palm some puffs like no other.  I almost think he's going to be over baby food sooner than later as he's started protesting anything on a spoon that comes near his mouth.

Chompers!

 

I mean, ya'll!  The eyebrows really crack me up.  They make him so expressive!!!

 Happy, happy baby!

 Banks is just as busy as always.  He just doesn't have an off switch.  I don't know why I'm not super skinny after trying to keep up with him.  As of late, his game of choice is crashing his cars.  It is a pretty fun game he made up!  He's starting to love to wrestle and play make-believe.  He loves hearing and making up stories.  He is loving school and I really think he's learning a thing or two.  He came home saying the Pledge of Allegiance and has learned all about the five senses. 

Showing his Banks that he decorated.  He has a fishing pole in one hand and a Lightning McQueen in the other.  They hung these up at school.

 

Having fun fishing with Daddy

 

It's not that the two of them are more difficult, it's just that my role with them has changed somewhat.  I went from mother/caretaker to referee.  No joke...Banks woke up two weeks ago and realized that Andrew existed.  AND NOW HE WON'T LEAVE HIM ALONE.  "Can Andrew play with me?" "Can Andrew and I take a bath?" "Can you bring Andrew in here so he can play cars with me?"  It is all day, everyday.  Which is sweet and great and brotherly and all BUT that's not the whole picture.  By "play" Banks means form-tackle, steal toys, tease and taunt and boss around.  Poor, poor Andrew.  He has gone from being the happiest baby to being frustrated and bullied and I feel the need to stand up for the poor fella.  So while so many people tell me I should just let them "work it out on their own" I fear that doing so may mean imminent danger to one of them.  But, they are brothers and apparently that's the way it's supposed to go down.  This only child knows nothing about that world but I guess I'll figure it out!!!

 

Enjoying a little bathtub time!

So, for this month, two is enough.  My cup runneth over and my house is never clean.  Maybe try me again later...

Playing catch up

Things have been a whirlwind around here lately.  After we had Banks' birthday party, we had Andrew's baptism.  It was such a sweet day filled with family and friends.

I wanted his baptism luncheon to be "upscale picnic."  I think that may be an oxymoron but we made it work...using McCarty and mason jars and having fried chicken, baked tomatoes, potato/green bean salad and biscuits.

His sweet cake

After Andrew's baptism, we started gearing up for our annual beach trip with two of our couple friends and their kids.  It is always such a fun and crazy week.  Six kids among us all and they never slowed down for a minute.

 

Love my boys!

Shew...getting a good family pic is hard.

Speaking of hard...it takes next to a miracle to get the two of them to look at the camera and smile.  I dread Christmas cards already!

Nothin beats a beach snack...

We just got back Saturday and Banks had his first day of preschool Monday!  He is loving it so far and I am enjoying some quiet mornings with Andrew.

Banks is 3!

I cannot believe my little Banksy Poo is three!  Where has the time gone???  We had such a fun weekend celebrating.  My parents came up Friday to help me get ready for the party and they brought Banks his first present!  A Beta fish he named Pinchy.  Banks was so excited to get his first fish! 

RIP Pinchy.

His party was a fishing party.  We had magnetic fishing, fish hand print art and food galore. 

Walkway to the games...

My little fisherman!

The magnetic fishing was the hit of the party.

So proud of his fish hand print!

The rest of these pictures will probably be so boring to ya'll but I had so much fun planning out the food and decorating for the party that I want to show it off!!!

Singing Happy Birthday and loving every minute of it!

 Obsessed with his cake!  If you need a cake lady in Memphis call me and I'll give you her number!  It was perfect and tasted so yummy!

 For favors, each kiddo got their own fishing game!

Monday was his actual birthday and we celebrated by eating some more.  We got donuts as we do every year and he got to pick where he wanted to go to dinner.  He said he wanted a quesadilla so we headed out for Mexican food.  He LOVED it when they came out singing to him!  The boy loves the lime light...

When you're three you get to do lots of cool things.  Like buckle yourself in to your car seat even though it takes 100 hours to do it.

And you get to be a super hero...

And you get to wear a frat boy visor...

Happy Birthday Banks!!!

Secrets...

 Look at these two talking about me behind my back...

We are starting to have some precious brother moments around the house and boy, does it make my heart happy!

My people are growing up

Banks is about to be three.  I seriously cannot believe it.  I know I'm tough on him; constantly reporting on the blog about how he's a terror and pitches fits and makes things difficult.  It's a reality.  It doesn't make me love him any less.  He makes me laugh every day and has me on the verge of tears nearly every day.  One of the many things I love about parenting is how a child can drive you absolutely into crazy mode yet there is no love loss.  Tonight we were in Walmart and he was screaming at me "are you crazy????"  The other shoppers thought it was hilarious.  I was thinking "yes, because you are driving me that way!!!"

He has really taken to Andrew lately.  Even asked to feed him once.  This lasted about 3 minutes before he asked if he could go play.

A little cotton candy action at Oxford's 175th birthday party.

Our good friends, Lauren and Wes Jones and their kiddos recently moved to Oxford.  We have loved getting to hang out with them!  Can you handle Maggie???  Sweet little pink outfit and a mesh hat.  Love it!!!

 For the Fourth, we went to the Grove for all the festivities.  He did not have any fun at all with the animals.

This is perhaps the most genius thing I have ever thought of.  For all the festivities, we put Andrew in the bumbo in the wagon.  Probably not street legal, but hey, you do what you gotta.  Boy, he thought he was big stuff.  Plus, he was so happy to be out of his carrier and I was happy to not have to hold him all afternoon.

 Andrew is almost five months old.  When I look at him, I still see him as a bitty baby.  He is far from that.  The little chunker was 17 pounds at his four month check up!  He's doing all sorts of fun baby things like cooing, making raspberries and rolling over.  He's super smiley and loves his brother more than anything else.  Started him on rice cereal today.  He managed to choke a little down so we'll keep practicing until he gets the hang of it!  We also tried out the exersaucer last week and he was a big fan.

So proud to be able to pick up toys and put them in his mouth!!!