Dylan is getting stronger every day. He's now pulling himself up & leaning forward in both his swing & bouncer. I tried helping him sit up on his own outside of his little chair but all I did was induce some spit up as he fell from side to side. He's all boy too, loving a little bit more rough house than Brooklyn did & cracks up laughing. Earlier tonight, he let out a fart & he just laughed at himself!! I'm sure armpit noises are in my future too!....and lord knows what all else with 3 older cousins. He so wants to crawl. He'll occasionally get his but up in the air, almost in a downward dog position, but hasn't quite figured out what to do from there. Sean was waving the remote control in front of him & his hands were shakin with energy to go get it, but no such luck in getting there. Sean says he's a "man in training!" lol. He's also lovin' his big sister. I had B in the top part of the cart @ Kroger yesterday & D was in the basket in his car seat (leaving so little room for groceries BTW), but everytime B would turn & talk to him, his face just lights up & smiles so much.

(Looking in the mirror)
B: "Mommy, my lips are red. The are NOT white like G.G.'s"

(You have to know my Grandma to understand why this is funny!)

Photo Shoot With GG

Here's some of the pics we took with GG. It was so nice having her here,but this was not a typical get together with my Grandma. She kept indicating that 'this could be her last time seeing her sisters,' that 'she wanted to get me my Christmas present,' & get me something special b/c she didn't know if she'd ever be back up to do that again. She mentioned more than once that she's getting old & I just don't see her that way at all, which was sad for me to hear her say this. I admit, I cried after I dropped her off at the airport. I told Sean next time I'll let her clean out my pantry if that's what really makes her happy instead of saying she could just relax while she was here, & that I'll get a sitter so I can just spend some quality time with her. If I have to drag my ass on a plane with car seats, pack-n-plays, & all, there WILL be a "next time."

Pick up time

Had Brooklyn make a sign for Sean to pick him up at the airport. SHE drew all the balloons on here by herself! She was so excited to have him back home! Skype didn't turn out as well as I thought it would. Her attention span lasted about 10 seconds every time & on the third night, she cried out in her sleep "I want my daddy!!!" Didn't realize how much she would miss him.

Road Trip to Indiana

Ever take a what should be a 4 hour road trip with 3 month old that eats every 2 hrs & another one that is newly potty trained on mostly a 2 lane road during the RT 50 yard sale? 4 hrs=5.5 hrs. G.G. was definitely less stressed than I was. I wanted her to have a nice visit with her sisters, & she said she did, but a napless & hyper 2 year old doesn't add well to the mix sometimes. (If anything, I'm more prepped for our upcoming 12 hour road trip....and having Advil readily avail for Sean!)Here are some pics of Aunt Dort, Jane, Brenda & Uncle Brick.

First Pics with Aunt Di & Uncle Terry

Aydan made his first communion today. He seemed so proud, & put in an extra petition for his grandpa to get well. (Papa Obie isn't sick, so we're not sure what this was all about!) Mimi found a really cool cake topper; so appropriate for him- Baseball Jesus! I found a pair of cufflinks that uses the stitches of authentic game used balls from an actual Reds game. They have a hologram on the back where he can log in to find out exactly which game too. They were larger than I thought they would be & a little disappointed he couldn't wear them that day, but they will certainly be nice for him in the future.
As always, Mere threw a great party. B played with Leah & Abbey while chasing the cats, the boys all took naps in front of the TV, all 3 Grandmas sat together & gabbed, the men were outside with beer & cornhole, & the women gathered in the kitchen. (Hey Paul, I just put you in the 'boys' category!!) :-)

GG

GG made it to KY!!!! Here's her first pic with her Great Grandkids!

Seans big business trip

He went to BWI for a week long conference. Took his new laptop with camera so we
could skype each night. He tried to explain that he was leaving for a week to
Brooklyn & showed her on the map where he was going. She told Sean she'd take a
nap till he got back! Here she is coloring a picture of a cat for him to
take to BWI.

Mothers Day Craft

So last Wed., Brooklyn came home with white stuff on her pants from daycare.
Coincidently, I had also packed her a white bean chili for lunch that day. I
asked her what she got on her pants. "ewwwww." I replied with "what?
Stew?" "EWWWWW," she said again. "Food? I asked." "EWWWWW Mommy, EWWWW."
"Glue?" and she reponds lovingly...."That what I say! I make you a bubble
bath, but I did not put a diamond on it."


(Note to Reader, Brooklyn rarely does crafts at her daycare so my first thought
was not glue!)


So I told Sean I think she's making me some bag of bath beads or something &
decorating the bag with shapes. Sean starts laughing & says that he saw the
production & "it's special alright!" He was supposed to pick it up on Friday,
but was text to say it wasn't finished drying yet. On Monday, still no homemade
craft in my hands. I wondered what the heck she was making, a freakin
Piccasso?

Tuesday, Sean comes home with her craft....a bright blue eyed girl runs over to
me with excitement saying she made a BIRD bath for me & followed it with a kiss
on my cheek. SO WELL WORTH THE WAIT! She was so proud. Told Christine @
daycare "My mommy with love it, my daddy will love it & my neighbors will love
it!'

I just found my camera & its 10:30, so I'll have to take a pic of the two of us
with it another day, but here it is!!

Derby .........Derby Barbie update

Ok, so we decided to have a Derby Party to reconnect with some of our friends we hadn't seen in awhile. We had a great time, & had I found my camera, I'd post a pic of all the kids after making their derby hats! Lots of flowers, feathers, & foam horses to go
around. Lexi is the rock-star 'babysitter,' coming prepared with games of all
sorts for everyone to play. I put babysitter in quotes b/c she really was there
just to play herself! For a 2nd year in a row, a McMain girl won the money
pool! We'll have to remind Kenzie when she gets older that when we told her she
won, she replied "oh, did I win a lolipop?" Helen caught me in the yard
yesterday on her way to head to the track to place a bet. Brooklyn & I rattled
off 4 numbers to her for an exacta box- I cracked up laughing when I finally
made it inside to see who we bet on & discovered that we picked every horse with
30:1 odds! LOL.
Update...none of our selected horses won. Also, 2 years ago I posted that I bought Brooklyn a 50th Anniversary Derby Barbie. Bought it for $20, its' now on Amazon for $99.00. (would be nice if everything else that return in today's economy!!)

What r the kids up to?
Dylan is all about his feet right now. I walked into his room a few days ago &
he had his legs straight up in the air just staring out them & laughing. He also
spins around on his head using his feet to try & get to what he wants. He's
turned on his mobile several times & yesterday worked his way down to the end of
the crib & carried on a jabbering conversation with a stuffed Cat in the Hat,
which was oh so cute to watch on the monitor at 3am., till I watched him pull it
over on him & quickly realized its time to take everything out of the bed! All
of this explains he bald spot starting in the back of his head now. Took apart
their kick toy yesterday & Mimi brought over C batteries this morning. Didn't
take him long to figure this one out! (Maybe I'll have 2 kids that love
soccer!!! Yeah!)

For almost 2 weeks, if we're at home, Brooklyn has been in underpants with NO
accidents!! Recognizing when she had to 'go' finally sunk it. We told B that
she had to wear pullups to daycare until Miss Christine said it was ok to switch over. She was so excited to tell her (Christine) that morning! If she
& Madeline both stay dry for 3 weeks straight, Miss Christine will buy them both
princess underwear. (Mads is one of her friends there.) Her eyes lit up so
big!! "OK, I can do that!!" Two more weeks to go!
She's also wanting to put on her pants & shoes by herself. The shoes seem to always go on the wrong feet, which is hilarious. She tries to wear my
heels or Seans' house slippers to go outside too! It's so much fun watching
these kids grow & learn. So thankful to have Blogger b/c I am doing a crappy job
filling in baby books!
*** update, Brooklyn made it her 3 full weeks on June 8th,2010 & is 100% out of pullups!

Never to early to start reading

Drying off in my Wildcat towel

Belly to Back

He's got the easy one down, now for back to belly!

Race Cars

Dylan is figuring out he's got some control over his arms! Usually when I ask him where his arms are, he holds them out front, almost stiff, & move them up & down opposite one another...almost as if he's driving a race car! Future career? Didn't quite happen that way in this video but the smile is just too darn cute not to post.

Funny how things change

Netflix & Tivo are great. Watch what you want, when you want, commercial free. However, Netflix recently was hacked & they are undergoing maintenance so some mornings, it's a little difficult to "tune in" to Dora the Explorer to start off our routine. Sean recorded a few new ones from Nick Jr. to help me out. Nexflix is a 24 minute show. Nick Jr. is a 29 minute show. The differnce? Commercials!!
Brooklyn freaked out this morning when she saw a regular episode: "Ahhhh mom!!! What happened to Dora? It's not over..they didn't get to Tall Mountain yet & it stopped. Help. Get Dora back on." I quickly explained it was just a commercial, that its where they show all the products they think kids should tell their parents to buy for them. And as I went to fast forward, I saw one commercial & I realized I still don't know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a totsie roll pop either! :-)

Great day for the US

Usama Bin Laden is Dead. Kids, I'm sure you'll discuss this in a history class one day. As news is still filtering thru with details, he's a quick summary per our local news.
" At 3:30 p.m. EST, a 40-man Navy Seals squadron raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing the Al Qaeda leader with a bullet to the head.

Four Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters dropped 24 men on the compound. One helicopter suffered a "hard landing" inside the compound after experiencing a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed on the site, according to one defense official.

There was a large shootout. The residents at the compound resisted. The total raid took 40 minutes.

No Americans were killed in the mission Sunday. Officials said three adult men other than bin Laden were killed – one was believed to be bin Laden’s son, the others couriers. One woman was killed when she was used as a human shield and two other women were also injured. Officials said bin Laden’s body, which was in U.S. custody, was given a sea burial."

Most people say there know exactly where they were when big news hits. We were sitting on the couch, watching Mad Love, when news broke just before 11. We watched thru President Obama's speech, text a feww friends to see if they had heard. Twitter was a wild storm of chatter. Turns out,
Twitter reporting a high of 5,106 updates per second late Sunday night with U.S. President Barack Obama announcing live on U.S. television that U.S. forces had killed al-Qaida leader and 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden and had "taken custody" of his body. USA today said that within hours of the news, Twitter had over 2.2 million tweets regarding Bin Laden. Sohaib Athars' tweet is most notable because he practicall tweeted live the attack.
In the early hours of Monday, Sohaib Athar reported on Twitter that a loud bang had rattled his windows in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, adding that he hoped it wasn’t “the start of something nasty.” A few hours later Athar posted another tweet: “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”

I still hate the kitchen. Didn't like it before kids, & I still struggle trying to find a variety of receipes for the family to enjoy that work around Brooklyns' allergies. We use a lot of soy substities for dairy...milk, sauces etc. So, I'm not overly excited to even think about the possibility of how much more I'll be in the kitchen if Dylan has a soy allergy.
Poor Dylan spent Sunday night projectile vomiting his soy formula. It's the third time he's had it, & the 2nd time we've had this reaction. We only have formula on hand for back up, & Sean thought Dylan was hungry so he gave him 2 oz. when I was on my way home from work. I somehow am the one who got wear his belly ache.(yuck!) While miserable & very wore out last night, he woke super happy & no problems since. Cutting that one out of my diet as much as possible too, just to be on the safe side. I'll be talking with the Allergist & his Peds, & we may just move to the Allementum (allergy formula) after all.