Candle Art

Last week I was home alone with the kids one night, and while I was changing Charlotte in her room, I kept thinking how impressed I was that Hunter was entertaining himself so well in the living room.


Then I heard it.


"Uh oh mommy! Uh oh! Oh no candles! Oh no!"


When I looked up little H was standing in the hallway in front of Charlotte's door pointing to the living room and with the most enthusiasm imaginable, exclaimed once more, "Oh no mommy! Oh no! Uh oh candles!"


When I went into the living room, this is what I saw...

Personally, I think he did a pretty good job arranging them. Maybe he has a future as a feng shui decorator.

On the other hand, let's hope against that.

Charlotte's First Photo Shoot

My sweet friend, Emily, took Charlotte's newborn pictures for us - same photographer that took Hunter's newborn, my maternity and many other pics along the way. Charlotte was not the most cooperative client, so Emily came on 2 different dates and spent several hours with us each time. We are so thankful for her friendship and her gift! We love her (and her hubby!) so much! Here are some of my favorites... The pictures I used for the blog make-over are Emily's work too:)

Cheese

Charlotte started smiling at us about a week ago, but I haven't been able to catch it with the camera yet. My attempts at getting a picture of a smile somehow always turn out looking like this...
I know...worst faces ever.

To my defense, Hunter doesn't make it easy because the second I get the camera out, he starts begging to take a picture. Between his loud whines and yelling, "MY TURN! MY TURN!" over and over, it's no wonder Charlotte has such a disgusted look on her sweet face.

Being the awesome mom that I am, I do let him have a turn after I satisfy myself with about 15 attempts, which apparently all turn out to be crying-furrowed brow-ugly faced baby.

Here are some of Hunter's best shots...

Ironically, those are the closest pictures to a smile that I have of Charlotte. He may not have the angle right, but he sure knows how to make his sister happy....er, when he's not laying on her...or screaming at her in the car...or "smelling" her arm while nearly yanking it off of her body...yeah, other than that he makes her happy.

The good news is, Hunter has been doing less screaming "no!" the second I pull out the camera and more actual smiling for pictures. My choices are either the half smile...or the closed eye smile...I'll take either over crying baby/screaming toddler face anyday.

First Friends

Charlotte's already made several sweet little girlfriends. First we had a play date at my friend, Courtney's house with all of the new babies from my Keno group. We had babies born in April, May, July and August. I got some pictures (even with my tantrumy toddler in tow...now that is talent people...or at least picture-taking persistence)...

The baby girls...Charlotte - July, Emily - August, Elise (Charlotte's future Kappa sister) - May, and Kennedy - April

We wanted Hunter and Preston (Kennedy's brother) to get in the picture, but Hunter was having none of that. I eventually coaxed him into hugging his sister and was able to get his back side in the photo...my priorities in parenting are always 1. get the cute picture and then 2. discipline your tantrumy child...Hunter and Preston are about 2 1/2 months apart (same as Charlotte and Kennedy). Here they are at their first playdate with their friend, Charlie...

I have another picture from that same play date where Hunter is laying in the exact same position as his sister is in that first picture, but I couldn't find it:(. They so share the same gene pool...and the same womb in which they apparently also stretched out spread eagle style, tearing up mommy's ribs.

Charlie also had a little sister recently, so the two of them came over one day so Violet and Charlotte could meet. Unfortunately Char slept through the entire play date so we didn't get a shot of her, and once again Hunter was not in the picture-taking mood (or the sharing toys mood!), so I just took some candids...

Violet was such a sweet baby, and happily sat watching the boys play the whole time!Charlotte can't wait to meet more girlfriends! And hang out with these sweet ones again:)

Brooks Family Fun

So far Hunter still loves spending time with his sister...at least when she's not screaming in the car. Most days he says, "I wanna play with toys" and will run into Charlotte's room and dump out the bucket of rattles I have for her as he exclaims (in the most surprised and excited voice ever), "I dump it!" Then he'll point to the Bumbo seat and demand that we put Charlotte in...

Once we get her situated, Hunter will playfully shake the rattles in front of Charlotte's face (most of the time a little too close to her face) and some days he'll even read some of her books to her. Yesterday he got out her Bible and started reading to her about the apple, but left out most of the important details and main characters:) Here he's showing her the sticky pads on the frog in her Wild Animals book...

Okay so he's technically not showing them to her, but he really was telling her about them:)

Charlotte actually likes the Bumbo above all of her seats (car seat, bouncy seat, swing), and will sit happily for several minutes...But if you make her sit there too long, she'll throw down a little attitude...So we give her a break and big brother takes his turn in the seat...

Hunter also loves to "play tummy time" with Charlotte. He lays down right next to (and by next to I mean on top of) her once we lay her on the mat. Luckily, tummy time isn't the most exciting thing to "play" and Hunter loses interest before suffocating his sister. I wouldn't say she loves tummy time, but she definitely tolerates it better than her brother did...

And the weirdest thing that Hunter likes to do with his sister....smell her. Usually he restricts this to her hands, but sometimes he'll smell her head too. He always tells me, "smells good!" I think so too:)

Proof

In case you thought I was being overly dramatic about Charlotte hating her bows (which we all know would be completely out of character for me), I've gathered some evidence for you. The other day I laid her in her crib for about 3 minutes to get everything ready before we left for our play date. This is what I found when I went back in to get her...
At least the headband was left intact:)

Hunterisms

Hunter's vocabulary continues to explode more everyday. I'm amazed at some of the things that come out of his mouth...some sweet, some not so sweet, and some hysterical.

Here are his 5 most frequently used phrases...

"I wanna cuddle." - He actually has been saying this for a long time and says it pretty frequently. Just today he asked me to cuddle with him when I layed him down for nap. My heart melts everytime:)

...

"No like eating." (pronounced: no yike eating) - Usually when I feed Charlotte, Hunter runs over, squishes up his face, and says this. (Obviously he likes to eat, but he cringes when he sees his sister eating.) The other day he followed that statement up with "I want some of that." while pointing at my boob. Um...ew. I obviously told him that in fact he did not want some because it is really yucky.

...

"I neeeeeed it." - In Hunter's world, the word "want" doesn't exist when he's talking about food. He neeeeeds cinnamon bread. He neeeeeds fruit snacks. He neeeeeds the candy in the aisle at Babies R Us. He neeeeeds gum. He especially needs gum...that kid LOVES gum and begs for it multiple times per day.

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"Mommy (or daddy) do it." - Hunter mostly uses this phrase while demanding that we sing him a song. He'll request a song, usually "Twinkle Twinkle" or "Row Boat" or "Pop Weasel" or "ABCD", but rarely sings along. When I stop and ask him to sing, he'll get out like one syllable of a word and then quickly say, "Mommy do it!"

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"No like (yike) _____." - You'd think the kid didn't like anything with the number of times per day that we hear this. No yike eating (see above). No yike the potty. No yike fill in the blank with any toy in the house. No yike whatever movie he asked for 5 minutes ago. No yike whatever snack he asked for 5 minutes ago. And my favorite, no yike that. The latest is for him to say no yike (insert friend's name here). No yike Thomas. No yike Ronnie. No yike Max. He's said all of these on the way to see these friends when literally 30 seconds earlier he was giddy with excitement at the thought of playing with them. So if you hear my child repeatedly tell me that he doesn't like your kid, please don't be offended. Just wait about 5 minutes and he'll be running over to play with him or her again.

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There are so many more, but I figure I've probably lost most of y'all to boredom by now. I do acknowledge that this stuff is way more entertaining to me than any of y'all, but it is my blog so I reserve the right type cute little things my sweet boy says...even if it means putting y'all to sleep in the process (sigh).

Big Baby Bows

I've always been a girly girl. From a very young age, I loved to get dressed up in frilly, sequiny things and was drawn to all things sparkly. To my mother's horror, I always begged for those terribly gaudy sequin purses in department stores as a preschooler. Obviously she always said no to this request.

There are many pictures of me as a young child posing with my hand on my hips dressed in my dance costumes or wearing these star-shaped glasses I had. There's even one of me standing in front of my older sister and older cousins striking a pose with them copying me in the background. I'm sure I insisted that we all pose together for the picture, because how cute would that be! Oh wait, that was actually during my high school and college years:)

So when we found out we were having a girl, I immediately got super excited about all of the girly clothes and huge bows I got to put on her head...and of course now that she's here, she would hate said bows. I am persistent though, because who can resist the cuteness that only a big bow on a baby girl can bring?

My goal is for her to love them by the time she's old enough to appreciate all things frilly. I figure the more I put them on her, the quicker she'll be desensitized, so be looking forward to many more bow pictures...probably on top of a screaming Charlotte's head. You have to admit a bow on a screaming baby is cuter than no bow at all.