Alex is still only moving backward and rolling all over the place. He is trying so hard to move forward and grab toys in front of him. He is starting to push himself up on his hands and toes. I have been surprised at how high he has gotten his belly off the floor! Of course whenever I try to get a video of him doing it he never does it as well as before I have the camera, but I did get a good picture of him pushing up.
The video:
The picture:
I never did get a good video of Alex flailing. Before he could get his body off of the ground he would push up on his arms and then pick up his hands and feet and flail around. I said it's kind of like a turtle on his back kicking his feet except that Alex was on his stomach. I try to capture as much as I can, but sometimes the boys just don't cooperate!
I can't believe that Robbie is going to be 2 years old in 3 months. It seems like he just turned 1!
Robbie is saying new words every day. He even says his own name! He can say a lot of letters, numbers and colors, but don't think that he can count and say the alphabet. He really doesn't know colors, though he definitely knows blue. I don't know if Robbie says it as a joke or not, but he calls green blue. I figure he's going to get it eventually.
Robbie not talking to Grandpa:
Let me explain the above picture. We were getting ready to go out to dinner with our Bible study and after I changed Robbie put on my old shirt. I tried to take it off before we left, when I put him in the car and when we got to the restaurant but he threw a fit, so we let him wear it inside. Matthew eventually got it off of him. It was a little embarrassing, but I'm sure worse things could happen.
Has it only been 5 months that Alex has been with us? I guess it seems longer because he is doing so much. He isn't crawling, but he gets around! Once last night and then again at nap time this afternoon when I went to get him he was moving around in his crib. He is going to be an active fellow! I think Robbie will like having someone who can match his energy level.
We are getting the boys to bed at about the same time at night. It sounds like a great idea, but it's twice the work because they don't bathe together yet and since they don't share a room Matthew and I are both with a kid. I'm looking forward to when they are old enough and we can do everything together.
The tooth that disappeared has not yet reappeared. I feel bad for Alex because I know teething is no fun. He's handling it pretty well, though.
Alex reading a book.
I'm 5 months old today!! (Unfortunately my computer froze a couple of weeks ago. Luckily we have everything saved on an external hard drive, but I haven't put it back on my computer yet, so I don't have all of Alex's monthly pictures. I'll just have to post them later.)
I always feel bad when posts are more about one kid than the other. I know it isn't a perfect world and things won't always be 50/50, but I'm going to try to even it out with a couple of videos of Alex (and one of Robbie).
Alex has become such a smiley and giggly baby. It's so cute and I love to hear him laugh. We have found a couple tickle spots on him, too.
(Sorry if the video and sound don't match up.)
Matthew tickling Alex
Matthew has been working with Robbie to get a few basic football signs down. Robbie can now do touchdown, first down and holding. Can't wait for football season to put this knowledge to use!
I read that Robbie can pick up 20 new words a day (not that he will say them!). His vocabulary is definitely expanding. For a long time he would say "minow" and we had no idea what he meant until Matt figured out that he was saying "meow". In the last day or so he started saying "meow" pretty well. He just started saying "Robbie" clearly, too.
Last weekend we saw Alex's first tooth! This weekend, it's gone! I read that teeth can "disappear" several times during the teething process as the gums swell while other teeth come in. Luckily I hadn't written it in Alex's baby book. I'll wait until the tooth makes its final appearance.
I thought Alex might be starting to crawl forward as he had grabbed one of Robbie's shoes that was out of his reach. I have tried putting other things out of his reach, but to no avail. He is rolling to the left and the right, though. I'm not anxious for him to start crawling, but it is fun watching them develop and learn new skills.
Monday was our 7th anniversary. We waited until the boys were in bed to open cards. Matthew surprised me with roses and a chocolate cake from Costco. It was delicious but way too much for me to eat by myself. Luckily I had a few play dates this week to share the cake, I took it to Bible study Thursday night and Matthew took the remainder to work with him Friday.
I realize it has been a while since I have blogged, and there are many things that haven't been written about, so I'm going to do a catch up blog.
Brittany (Matthew's sister) graduated from Wake Forest May 21st. We headed up to South Carolina that Friday to break up the driving. Our plan was to have the kids fall asleep in the car, let Matthew check into the hotel and get the beds set up and just take the kids from the car to bed. Of course that didn't happen! Robbie woke up about 15 minutes before we got to the hotel and didn't go back to sleep. I didn't realize until we got there that it was his first time staying in a hotel. We stayed in a suite and Robbie loved running from our room back out to the family room. It took a while to get him calmed down and asleep. Unfortunately he woke up about 5 am throwing up and that was the beginning of a weekend of stomach issues that were passed around the family.
Saturday we drove up to Charlotte and met up with Patrick, Mariruth, Caitlin and Will at a Chick-fil-a. We had lunch and then went to a nearby park to play for a little while. Mariruth planned a birthday party for Patrick and a congratulations for completing her Phd in Charlotte that night and the next day had Will baptized at their church. We left them and headed up to Winston-Salem to meet up with Jim, Jean and Brittany and they came Sunday evening.
Sunday was Baccalaureate. Matthew took Robbie while I stayed at the hotel with Alex. Unfortunately it was just the beginning of my weekend staying in the room feeling under the weather. I did make it out for dinner, though. :)
Aunt Brittany and Robbie at Baccalaureate.
Again, I stayed at the hotel Sunday while everyone went to graduation. I pretty much wore out my welcome at the hotel and checked out as late as possible. The whole family had lunch together after graduation and then we parted ways. I was so thankful that Matthew didn't get sick because he had to drive all the way home (and probably had to hear me snoring while he was driving).
We finally decided to weed our weed bed and turn it back into a flower bed. Actually, Matthew weeded it, I planted the flowers and we both laid mulch. I let Matthew plant the knock out roses, though. Those things have thorns!!
Vincas and moss roses
Knock out roses
Front flower bed
Down by the mail box
Robbie is all boy and loves to play in the dirt!
It's been so long since we first planted the flowers that I just took new pictures so you can see how they have grown!
Lisa, Kayleigh and Brian came for a visit a few weeks ago. Technically it was our turn to visit them, but they were gracious enough to come back to see us. Kayleigh was so excited to see Alex again because he's still small enough to let her hold him. She's definitely a good babysitter and was strong enough to pick him up and move him. I think she even said that Alex is her favorite cousin since she can hold him!
Not a great picture, but you can see how happy Kayleigh is.
We went to the beach Thursday. I had seen on Lisa's friend Jenna's blog that when she had taken her kids and nieces and nephew to the beach they took a kiddie pool for the little kids. I thought it was a great idea, so we took our pool. Oh, it was not such a great idea! Once we got water in it it was very heavy and hard to move. We let some waves help us move it in until we thought we had it up far enough. It wasn't! A few times waves came up and started pulling it out to sea, so someone had to jump in it so we wouldn't lose it. Robbie wasn't too keen on the ocean, so he hung out with Alex and me on dry land. At one point Lisa, Kayleigh and Brian were all sitting in the kiddie pool (I don't think Brian liked the ocean too much, either) and it was so cute seeing the three of them sitting in a row in the pool. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of them.
Kayleigh, Brian and Alex Thursday night.
Friday morning it started raining, so we let the big kids play in the rain. They had a good time. We went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and let the kids play for a little while before they had to head home. It was nice that they came to visit and Robbie loves playing with his older cousins.
The other day Robbie climbed into the swing all by himself. Of course he was so proud of himself. We let him enjoy it for a little while and then got him out.
I don't remember why we took this picture, but isn't he so cute?!
I also think Robbie looks cute wearing a hat.
We knew Robbie was super tired after church Sunday, but he wanted to tough it out and watch a Bubble Guppies.
Alex started moving backward last week. I really don't think that Robbie went backward and he certainly wasn't mobile this early! The other day Matthew put Alex on his play mat. Alex rolled over onto his stomach and then back his way in a circle and back onto his mat. Here is a picture of the path he took:
Alex also got in his first tooth! I didn't see or feel it until Saturday, but Matthew said that he had been feeling it all week. It's a bottom right tooth, but it's so far over it almost seems like it is a cuspid. I doubt that it is, but I have written anything in his baby book yet until we know for sure which tooth it is. I have a feeling he'll be getting a lot more teeth soon.
