Playing at the park

Playing at the park has been minimal lately due to the weather, so we took advantage of the burst of sunlight we saw the other day. We bundled up in the wind and set off to play at the playground.

Jonathan woke up and gave a few smiles while Matt and I played in the sand. He has started cooing and smiling more and more this week and it's so much fun!

I finally remembered to bring some of Matt's sand toys to the playground with us so he could really play in the new sandy area.

Those toys got toted all over the playground and soon I found Matt filling the tunnel with sand. He had a blast and was covered in sand by the time we left.

A rare closeup without a hand in the picture! He was crawling through the tunnel so he was a little slower to reach up and grab the camera from me!

A helicopter had just gone by and Matt imitated the sound it had made.

Road trip with the boys

While Nick was working up in Dallas for the week, we decided to take a road trip up to see everyone up there. We stayed with Granny & Grandpa and got to see the boys' cousins and Uncle Steve & Aunt Kim. We got to go downtown and see Nick's office and introduce the boys to Nick's co-workers. We had lunch with him and Matt rode on an escalator, saw and rode in his first glass elevator, and threw pennies in a fountain for the first time. One night, Granny & Grandpa even stayed with the boys and allowed me & Nick some grown up time together without the boys. They powered through the early morning hours with Jonathan and helped Matt with the morning realization that Mommy wasn't there with him. He was in great spirits when I got back to the house and wouldn't stop running around and telling me all about his morning.

The boys did great in the car, sleeping most of the way! It was wonderful. I was able to delay my lunch just a bit until Matt woke up, and upon slowing the car down, Jonathan began stirring. We stopped and did diaper changes and sat and ate together. Jonathan took a bottle while we ate, and we were all back on the road with full tummies! When we arrived, Matt was a bit wired and we found out his cousins were coming over for dinner.

This is what Jonathan looked like shortly before the Howell family, party of 6 arrived!

Matt was his usual entertaining self at the dinner table with his cousins. He is in rare form when we see all of them and of course we all encourage it with laughter. This was what happens when you anxiously eat black beans!

I got the camera out of reach just in time! I didn't realize at the time I was taking a picture of an opened mouth monster. Needless to say, all the wiping in the world wasn't good enough. There was still scrubbing to be done at bathtime!

Everyone got a chance to give Jonathan his bottle, but I have to say, Blake took to it most naturally and seemed to genuinely enjoy just starring at Jonathan in awe. It was awesome to see.

Chase took a turn and had some success getting Jonathan to take the bottle.

By the time Grace got to hold Jonathan, he was no longer interested in the bottle, but he had fun sitting with his bubbly cousin.

Blake snuck in for a little more time with Jonathan. This was our attempt to get the boys in a picture with all of their cousins, but Matt was not wanting to cooperate, and Chase and Ethan were off in another room. This is as close as we could get!

Uncle Steve and Aunt Kim got a little time with Jonathan once they could get him out of the kids' laps!

Ethan finally got a chance to hold Jonathan, but after all that milk, Ethan got to experience the rumblings of a baby after a feeding!

Jonathan got a bit of floortime play with my brother after all of that, and a diaper change!

This was the only chance I had to get Matt in a picture with at least one of his cousins. He was showing off his tops. He just figured out how to make them work "all by self, Mommy". That's his new favorite saying, other than "no, I no want to" when I ask him to do something.

10 hours of sleep and a trip to the museum

Just a little update on the boys: Matt is doing well with being a big brother, and he's loving all the adventures we get to have with me at home. We have gone to the park (weather permitting), story time at the library, and various errands including Matt's new favorite - the Post Office! Jonathan is still getting the hang of things and is in the process of developing a schedule with naps more so than just drifting off all the time. Awake time is getting to be fun, with lots of smiles and we swear he's on the verge of laughing any day now. Last night he gave me the best gift of all... he slept 10 hours in a row! I couldn't believe it when I woke up to his cries at 5:45 this morning. I had to rack my brain to figure out if I had gone upstairs to feed him or not. I didn't remember doing it, so I am assuming that he slept the whole time! Tonight he's sleeping in the swing. You can't win them all, he's only 8 weeks old now, what do we expect?

We decided to finally take advantage of the Children's Museum of Houston and see what it had in store for Matt. We took the boys up there and Matt had a blast exploring everything. Matt & Nick had to hang by themselves for much of the visit as Jonathan decided to be awake and therefore hungry while we were inside. I had bottle duty and the boys played and ran around.

Matt went shopping in the grocery store. Nick had to constantly tell him what was on the list, kind of like at the real grocery store.

He discovered the register, but the little girl wasn't quite ready to give up her post.

Matt finally got a turn to push buttons, but someone a bit older came to show him how it's done.

Then he got to go milk a cow. It didn't take much demonstration from Nick, and he went to town. That boy loves his milk!

After a long morning, Matt was getting a bit delirious as we waiting in the car for Nick to get some much awaited Tri-tip sirloin at Central Market. He had his museum sticker on his hand until I talked him into putting it on his nose. He'll love this picture when I pull it out for his girlfriend in about 14 years!

Matt was a bit worn out on the trip home and got in about 1 1/2 hour nap as we ran another errand on the way home. Needless to say, he didn't take his usual afternoon nap once we got home, though he showed all the whining signs of being ready for one.

Jonathan was a bit tuckered out himself. He "lost it", like Matt always says about the pacifier, but he was able to hang in there with a nap until about 10 minutes until we got home. I hate having to soothe an infant from the front seat of the car. Imagine a giant hand coming at you, not really knowing from where it comes. Yeah, that's calming! We managed to get him back to sleep until we got home.

Boys will be boys

We took a walk to the park over the weekend and Matt made his daddy proud by getting dirty in the sand. When we got home, he got even dirtier playing out front in the muddy garden. We haven't had much relief from the rain and the sun has been scarce, so Matt was anxious to get outside and play!

Nick had some fun at the playground too.

Matt helped Nick fill up the "scoop" by hand.

We finally got a chance to take his baseball game outside for a little batting practice.

I fixed Matt a quesadilla for dinner that night and he continued his messy day with the sour cream. He had it all over his hands and then tried to shake it off. That was quite a mess!

Matt is adjusting so well to Jonathan. He loves rediscovering his old toys too. Occasionally he'll offer them to Jonathan, but not before he plays with it a bit.

Jonathan is beginning to learn the concept of cause and effect with one of Matt's old favorites.