When Mommy's Back Is Turned

From time to time we refer to Baby Noah as Nosy . The name is quite appropriate! This small Boy is in to absolutely everything! For example, I was in the office filing something away when I hear O, my neat freak, exclaim, "The floor is very messy Mommy!" Great. What does that mean?

This is how I found Nosy. He plucked all the fake mossy stuff out from around the tree and then tracked it all over the entry way. He was having a blast!

Off to do some more damage elsewhere! Owen and I did have fun sweeping all the mossy stuff up into our dustpans and placing it back around the tree. O and I do some of our best bonding while cleaning up together.

Later the same day, we were blessed with some rain. I had the back door open so we could enjoy the cool breeze that accompanied the storm. My mistake! The second I turned my back, Noah was out that door! Crazy kid! All I could do was chuckle!

He was enjoying himself thoroughly!

If Noah is already wet, we might as well have a little fun! I wonder who is doing the leading and who is doing the following here.

Mommy is still watching you and loving you completely, silly Boys. May I treasure these precious moments in my heart forever.

Flu Shot!

Owen loves to go to visit out pediatrician, especially if the visit is not for him. There is a great boat in the lobby to climb on, fun people to talk to, suckers and stickers for good behaviour. So after ensuring that the visit was for Noah and not for him, he was perfectly happy to spend the morning at the doctor's office. Unfortunately, once we were in the examination room, I was informed that the time had come for the Boys to get their flu shots. Oh no! I had not prepared O for this at all! This was not going to go over well. I explained to him that he would be getting some medicine that would help him to not get sick in the winter time. "Okay Mommy," he said with his characteristic one-shouldered shrug. I am sure he was envisioning Baby Tylenol drops, sugary sweet grape flavoured goodness. No biggy. In walks the nurse with a tray of syringes. Mommy at least had a lumpy throat at the sight. O was up first. The nurse jabbed him in the arm while I hugged him around the chest. He just looked at me with the most pained little face as if to ask, "What are they doing to me?" The nurse applied the band aid and I hugged O some more. The next words out of his sweet mouth: "I do not cry Mommy by-cuz (his new fave word) it only hurt a little bit." Sure enough, not one tear from my brave Boy. (Little Brother hollered so loudly that I am sure they heard him in the next county, but that's another story!)

Showing off his band aid

Sweaty Sweeties

O heard some thrilling news from two of his cousins. Ally and Maddie get to play soccer...real games...on a team...with a coach and cheering section...and there were snacks! He could not fully grasp the wonderfulness of this concept. He had to witness it first hand. So we packed up the Fam and headed to Frisco to watch the Wildcats score some goals. We had a very sticky, sweaty, fabulous time watching these two sweet girls learn the art of competitive team sports. Owen was fascinated and can hardly wait for the day when he too can don an official team uniform and join the ranks of soccer tots. In the mean time, we will have to be satisfied with living vicariously and rooting for our loved ones.

I Kid You Not

This is a true story: Last night, my nine month old son crawled over to a toy golf club and started waving it around. That's a normal enough occurrence in a house full of Boys. But then he paused, fixated on the club. He looked all around the room as if searching for something. The next thing I knew, he was off! He had spied a golf ball. Not only did he know that the club and the ball belonged together, he then proceeded to bang the club up and down on the ball. He doesn't quite have the swing down, but he clearly knew that the club was for hitting the ball. Is he the next Tiger Woods? Only if Owen doesn't beat him to it! Is he a genius? Quite possibly!

So proud of himself!

My genius baby is giving a discourse on the sport of golf.

Demonstrating what not to do with a golf ball.

"Golfing" while sporting the snorty face

Heading to Mommy's lap for a cuddle

Double Fisted

I have a confession to make:

I am addicted to animal crackers. My friends and family know this about me. I can not live without plain old, Stauffer's Original Animal Crackers. I have to have them. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and supper and be satisfied. If I stopped eating them I would probably drop five pounds of chub immediately. They are great plain or dipped in any number of things: peanut butter, Hershey's, Cool Whip or paired with choco chips and mini marshmallows. I am craving them just writing this post. (Although, little known fact, I could not stand the taste of animal crackers during either one of my pregnancies. Strange.)

On to the story. One afternoon, the animal cracker craving became unbearable. Owen was napping and No-nos was busy crawling around practicing his consonant sounds. I crept to the pantry and dug around for the animal crackers. Aaah, there they were. I stealthily hid them behind my back so Noah, who can sense food a block away, would not take note. On my way back to the living room, I stopped by the play room for a stack of distracting toys for Noah. That should keep him busy, or so I fooled myself.

No sooner had I cracked open the lid and relished my first cookie than here came Scooter, curious to see what I was doing. He scaled Mount Rachel and discovered the container of cookies behind me. Quick as lightening, his hand was in my cookie container digging all around! His little fist emerged with three cookies clutched tightly in sticky fingers. He knew just what to do with them too! He eagerly sucked them to death! I thought about prying them out of his tiny grip, but he was so excited and really, who has the energy? It was amazing! He downed all three cookies and begs for more whenever he sees the cookie container. Could he be another tiny addict? The sins of the mother...

Hay Is for...Who?

I have been attempting to make playtime at The House of Halpin more purposeful of late. Owen is like a sponge, soaking up as much knowledge of any subject as I will pass on to him. This thirst to learn is a gift I do not want to squander! (After all, before I know it, he'll be 13 and would rather toss a ball with his buddies than go on learning adventures with Mom!) One of our subjects last week was a little out of the ordinary: hay. Owen is so curious about hay, asking me zillions of questions about it whenever I point out those huge round hay bales in fields we pass. So off we trekked to Owen's Farm ("My farm, Mommy?") to see what we could see about hay.

We tried to feed the ducks some hay. They were not too thrilled about it. They did enjoy the oats O poured out for them on the ground however. ($3 worth of oats, gone in a flash!)

The buffalo were more interested in playing in the mud than in our offers of some yummy hay.

Ah! The goats and sheep! O made some fast friends with these guys who have insatiable appetites. We spent close to an hour feeding them hay, strand by strand. I was impressed by how brave the normally timid Owen was. He didn't hesitate at all when offering the goats and sheep hay he had found. The donkey must not have been very hungry, but he did enjoy a good ear scratching from O. I don't know what that's about! O called, "Come here donkey! Come here!" until finally the donkey ambled over and what did O do? Stuck his finger right in his ear! Strange!

Now for the highlight! We actually got to sit on a hay bale and go for a hay ride! Oh the excitement of it all! It turns out, O discovered that hay is a bit scratchy to the bum.

The tractor was just as intriguing as the hay itself.

I had to include this pic. The goats nibbled on more than just hay. I guess I parked Noah a tad too close!

Time Out=Time In

It is so hard to believe! Noah has now spent as much time out in the world as he spent in the oven!

He continues to be a Boy of extremes. He wakes up extremely early every morning, extremely happy to start his day. He is extremely smiley and flirty and charming...unless of course he is extremely upset about something. And our biggest challenge of late: He has an extremely horrid case of the dreaded separation anxiety. In fact, when I am not around, even if Daddy is home, he crawls around the house searching for me while screaming extremely loudly. It is extremely pitiful.

Scooter's appetite is extremely large. He is a Foodie to the extreme!

Nine month stats:

Weight: 20 pounds, 4 ounces (50%)

Length: 29 1/4 inches (80%)

My favorite developments from this month are the extremely sweet and sloppy kisses Noah offers upon request and his ability to clap. He is extremely generous with public displays of affection and applause. He also has really begun to play with O, mimicking him and initiating little games of chase and roll the ball. Life with my two Boys continues to get even more and more fun every day!

This is the new look Noah sports a lot of the time, tongue at the ready in case food is stumbled upon. We wouldn't want to waste that yummy morsel of snack O carelessly dropped on the carpet, now would we?

What a precious Boy. You are such a joy to me, Noah!

And the Race Is On!

These are by far not the greatest pictures I've ever taken, but they portray so well one of my favorite aspects of every day life at The House of Halpin. It brings me such joy to see my Boys enjoy each other.

Just chillin' in the office

Uh-oh! What's Scooter up to?

Noah's outa here and the race begins. It looks like Noah is in the lead!

Owen pulled a last minute upset and reigned victorious. Noah doesn't seem to mind coming in second one bit.

Owen Makes Gingerbread

Maisy is one of Owie's favorite celebrities. She is featured in many adventurous books that can be found at the library. She has also been discovered as a television star and plays the lead role in a sweet-natured little show on Noggin.

Pictured is the book we checked out of the library last week. What a good read! Not too much room for interpretation or discussion, just a very straight-forward, heart-felt story about a mouse making some cookies.

Owen was fascinated by the mysteries of gingerbread. "What is it? A bread? A cookie? Would I like it? Are those eggs in it? I like eggs." So off we headed to the kitchen to discover the wonderfulness of gingerbread. (Plus, Mimi had a very important birthday coming up, and who doesn't love gingerbread cookies on their birthday?)

Owie kept me in line, letting me know just how Maisy went about making her cookies. We even got out a red bowl for mixing, since Maisy's bowl was red. It was of utmost importance that we get the cookies just right for Mimi.

Yummo! The dough sure was tasty!

Cutting out pretty shapes. All those hours playing with play-do payed off right here!

Decorating with raisins. O wasn't too sure about this step. Raisins? On cookies? But after consulting our book, it did seem that Maisy's cookies had tiny black things on them that could possibly be raisins. Phew.

Our cookies turned out great! Somehow, Mommy who is constantly looking at life through a camera lens managed to overlook getting a picture of the end result and of lovely Mimi on her birthday. But what a memorable day spent with my O!

Music to My Ears

My days are filled with the sweet music of two tiny voices. One Boy carries on a running commentary of our day while the other babbles away happily. Owen is always challenged to make sensical words out of Noah's chatter. The other day, Noah was diligently practicing his consonant sounds when Owen let out an extremely high pitched squeal. "Mommy!!!! NOAH SAID 'BUBBA'!! Hooray No-nos!" Once my ear drums recovered, I was able to notice that sure enough, Noah was smiling adoringly up at Owen saying, "Bu-bu-bu-bu." What a precious moment. Owen was relishing the fact that, in his mind anyway, Noah was talking just to him, while tiny Scooter was soaking up all the extra attention and praise from busy Big Brother. I love having two Boys and am so grateful that they love having each other.

Milestones

There have been some big developments around The House of Halpin this week!

Look who's smiling in his Big Boy Bed! Remembering back to the traumatic attempt to change beds months ago, I was convinced this day would never come. So how did Owen end up in his new bed? Well, blame it all on the irresponsibility of Mommy. Every single crib sheet in the house (except for the one on Noah's bed) was currently in the dryer at bed time. I had forgotten to switch the laundry after dinner and so the sheets were still sopping when it came time to put the Boys down. Surprisingly, O took very little persuasion to lay down in the new bed. He just hopped right up with John and Jeremiah in tow and got comfy. I was hesitant to believe he would actually last the night there, but just look at what I found a half an hour later! Sacked out! I guess on closer inspection, with all the railings on his day bed, it really is just a super-sized crib! He should feel right at home.

Noah's new nap time antics! Poor, sweet Scooter. He can pull up but can't figure out how to get back down.

He was none too happy about the situation. That Baby needs some love!

Mr. Manners

So here's my O, all sweetness and innocence and obedience, right? Most of the time, I would fully agree. But something has changed dramatically in my little guy's head! To put it nicely, he can become quite argumentative from time to time. I know it is part of him growing up and establishing his own identity, but it can be quite grating after a day full of Owie opinions that don't coincide with Mommy opinions. The funny thing about O is how ingrained his manners are. I guess when I taught the manners lesson, he really soaked it up! Here are a few of O's most frequently used arguments:

"No thank you, I will not eat my supper!"

"Yes, Ma'am! I will go outside!"

"No Ma'am! I do not want to put my shoes on!"

Without fail, even in a heated argument, Owie's perfect manners shine through. It's good for a private chuckle in the midst of a frustrating day!

Grand Parents

One of the greatest blessings God has given me is the fact that both sets of the Boys' grandparents live close by. It is invaluable to be able to share so much with them! Not only do we get to see them for special occasions, but they also love to hang out with us on do-nothing days. Parents are crucial in a child's life (of course!), but I dare not underestimate the value of having grandparents closely involved in my children's lives. Grandparents can love unconditionally without worrying about discipline, spoil my kids rotten without consequences and ruin dinner with a special treat without having to worry about cavities or nutrition. I wouldn't have it any other way! My kids feel so loved and cherished by four wonderful grandparents. I love you all and am so grateful for your presence in our lives! Thank you for investing in my Boys!

(An added benefit of grandparents: There is no one else on earth that lets me tell story after story about my babies without tiring or losing enthusiasm! Even Daddy gets bored eventually!)

Breakthrough

After much agony, many sleepless nights, days on end of inconsolability, and an entire bottle of Motrin...

we are pleased to announce the arrival of Noah's two middle bottom teeth.

They were hard coming, but we are glad they are here.