As the days fly by...

They're busy days of course, some good, some bad and the rest fill in between. Phi is in a stage of rapid change it seems, coming up with new things all the time, some good, some bad, etc. I wanted to try and remember some of it before it just becomes the routine. As he hit 2 he has suddenly began talking, he will attempt random new words daily out of our conversation, and when you correctly repeat what he's attempted to say it's answered with a huge grin. Today it was "wook" (work) the w sound was a new one. Successful communication is certainly satisfying. Some favorite repeats right now would be: "Mama, mama," with pointing finger when ever he sees something of note, (about 100 times a day or hour some days) "Bat" (bath), "Aiwon" (little brothers name) "No no" (of course), "mik" (milk), "Dat-ie" (Daddy) "Eat", "De-de" (birdie, since we have a bird feeder out the kitchen window) and of course "beandie" (binky) no others come to mind currently but there seems to be more daily. He has a strong aversion to using the toilet to go "stinky" right now which we are working on. We started doing pull-ups this week and it makes bathroom runs that much easier, "Ahh-done" is a favorite when sitting on the throne, whether it's true or not. He loves to share his food with anything and anyone and will sit pointing around the room at things he thinks might like a bite. This may be because I often will feed them from my plate partially rather then giving them everything on theirs. Whatever the reason little brother is usually the first option and too willing a recipient, others include the doggies on little brothers blanket, the birdies or squirrel outside (whether they're there or not) the little bee attached to his spoon (it was sharing his yogurt this morning) his toy horse. If he gets a snack he wants to be sure daddy and little brother are getting some too. He likes to set aside things for daddy when daddy's gone to work or when he's there Phi will pick out things for him to eat. The other day (not to tell secrets, it was just funny) Phi loves carrots and celery (daddy does not) but Phi picked a carrot stick out and offered it to daddy, hmm what to do.. daddy ate his carrot.

Showing off whatever he just sat in, JK he had just figured out he could do this.

He loves to say "See ya" to people, random cars driving by, things disappearing down the toilet, today it was a bite of food he didn't particularly want as it disappeared under the edge of his plate. Ha, very creative, he had to eat it anyway.

"ello" in a sing-songy voice

That's a calculator actually, he turns any device that faintly resembles a phone into one. Little brother is his best playmate but also his biggest annoyance some times since he's gotten so quick at crawling aound, any thing big brother is doing is of great interest. He loves to snitch Phi's binky out of his mouth when it comes with in reach. Phi mostly finds that one amuseing as he can get it back quite easily, keeping his toys out of Leroys grasp is another story, "no no" is repeated often tho' given little heed by the smallest party. Phi is very good about telling if Leroy is doing something they're not supposed to, the fireplace, the book shelf, if he comes to me saying seriously "aiwin, no no" it means I better go see what Leroy's up to. Phi needs a hair cut about every two weeks or he starts looking quite fuzzy, the only issue being hair cuts are also on the do-not-appreciate list. He sees "ats" (hats) of all shapes and forms as we travel around, he was reading a car book with A. Sus and came to a taxie cab with a "at" on ( the little yellow number light on top). As we walk the neighborhood he loves to spot "boats" this one started back when Chatty and the Mr. brought theirs to are house and he got to sit in it, but now has come to include trailers of all shapes and sizes as well. He loves to copy things right now, not everything but he'll pick some certain little mannerisum and do it, you're sitting there going "Phi what are you doing?" and suddenly realize "Oh, that's me". :0P He was stirring in his milk mug with his spoon and after telling him no that's not what you do, it dawn that that's what we do with our morning coffee. Sigh. Oh yes, and "owies" this can be the real thing or any odd mole or such like that's spotted on your person. Yesterday at breakfast his banana had an 'owie' (a small brown spot) and he ate around it but wouldn't eat that part. He is more of a picky eatter right now then he used to be but that varies by the day. We had steak with A-1 sauce the other night and the boys where eatting other food, but I gave him a taste of mine and he kept wanting more. Must be the male genes, steak is great but I just eat it for the A-1 sauce. His strangest like is salsa, he'll eat it off the plate with a chip, medium not mild and be sucking the salsa off the chip with out taking bites of the chip. :0P He'll stop to beg for a drink every few bites but no matter what I tell him about hot he keeps going. I think a favorite food would be cheese or cottage cheese, with apples and celery being a close second. MnM's stay tops of course. Last week he had a cold and learned to say "nose", when ever it ran he'd come running pointing "nose, nose" he learned to bring the kleenex too and that was awesome as you didn't have to go searching every time. We've had some more challenging weeks as we hit two with a lot of testing and restablishing boundries but over all he's a fun wee man. So, if you made it this far I'm amazed, but it will be fun to look back at as the years go on if our Lord tarries. Leroy is also changing a lot but that would be too long a post so I hope to get to his soon.

A wise son maketh a glad father...(and mother)

Our little men

Borrowing sunglasses they won't wear their own.

Mommy's glasses

Cousin Kate's

And two of my favorite shots A. Sus caught on our camera a few weeks back.

Leroy @ 7 months

He rolls over occasionally, mostly in bed at night, he can get on his hands and knees but then he gets all worried and fusses 'cause he doesn't know what to do next. He is quite a chatter box and may just start talking before big brother does. At 27.5 inches he's in 75% av. for height but I don't think he out did cousin Kate yet!! :0)

And Mr. Phi @ 20 months

This small man refuses to pose or smile for cameras at this point in his life so this is a great shot to have. He was clowning around with Aunt Sus as usual and she snuck this in. He is finally trying out words "De" still means please but comes in handy for a lot of other words too. Some days he'll grabber on while looking at me quite earnestly and I have not a clue what we are talking about. He still loves to help and we hope that doesn't change any time soon. Very cute, when we were up visiting Chatty and the Mr. he attempted "Petra" in a high voice. (is that really what I sound like??) :0) "Dada" and "Mommy" finally stuck and he uses them frequently not really needing us just for the sound I guess. He has a hilarious little stride/strut he does when he's feeling "big" or like he did good.

Verse for the Day:
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in ever ygood work and increasing in the knowledge of GOD; Colossians 1:10

Happy and Healthy

Both boys had there well-child visits yesterday and seem to be growing well. Phi is 18 months on the 7th of this month and measured 33.5 inches and 25.5 lbs. He got his 18 months DTAP booster in the upper arm and today it's very warm, red and swollen. He isn't complaining but I called the nurse and she said to do ice if he'd hold still and tylenol for swelling and pain if he complained.

He still does his binky but we're working on just using it for for nap and bed time. (A great idea I got from Katie's blog.) Sunday I realized he's saying "see ya" for good bye when he told that to Grandpa. He also uses the same thing when he plays pee-a-boo. "See ya", "see ya" as he covers and uncovers his eyes. I don't know if that means he thinks all of him is hiding behind his hands or what.?. He also likes to wave and call "hi" to all the cars that drive past when we're working in the front yard. The doctor did say yesterday that he could see two of Phi's eye teeth on their way in. That was some what of a relief to me as his been fussing a lot lately and I keep thinking the teeth were coming in and still nothing. Not that that's the only reason he's fussing as he definitely has a mind of his own and uses it, but he can be so jolly most of the time it's no fun when he grumps.


Little Mr. Leroy is trying to catch up with big brother he weighed 15.8 lb.s and is 25.5 inches tall.
Actually I just looked up big brothers charts from that age and they are very close to the same.
15.12lbs and 26.25 inches. Amazing how much they look alike but then they are brothers I guess.

Big brother at 5 months

Leroy has been doing pretty good about sitting up and now likes his tummy OK for a short amount of time. He'll do push ups while laying there, something his brother never did at his age. Also he's getting awfully good at rolling over, and is always telling us about something. His smile is still most infectious. And he's again after a few relapses slept through the night from 9:30 to 8:00 am last night. Although both of them slept in this morning longer than usual probably from their big day yesterday. Leroy had to get 4 boosters to big brothers 2 and he didn't even start crying until the last one. He seems to be handling his fine with no problems. Our tough little man.
He's 5 and a half months now and will be 6 months on the 21st. Time is gliding swiftly by!!

Time marches on...

Another month old for both of our little men. Phi is 18 months and getting toward the two end of things, we have had some rough days with battles of the will. I keep thinking his eye teeth are coming in as there are lumps now on the upper ones but still nothing has appeared. He is as busy as ever and can now reach door handles. He still can't open most of them thankfully, but at Grandpa D and Grandma Jo 's the handle is a long flat one that you twist down and he has it figured out. But Ferguson the Golden Retriever is a great deterrent on the outside as Phi has a strong aversion to the dog. Ferg likes to watch him when Phi goes out to play in the sand box and they will stand and regard each other from a slight distance on good days. On the bad days Ferg likes to steal licks from Phi's face while Phi screams in terror for some one to save him, therefore for the most part Phi considers the dog a threat to be avoid unless a grown up is around.

Phi loves water still and when ever the kitchen sink is on is desperate to get there. The other day he grabbed the short step stool and attempted to reach but that wasn't quite tall enough so with a quick shove he ran for the nearest bar stool and pushed it across the kitchen. With that in line he clambered up and gleefully accomplished his mission.
He still likes to be a helper most of the time, bring things we ask for and putting things away, his favorite is helping put groceries on the belt when we go grocery shopping. He stands in the front of the cart and loads them on watching in fascination as they move away from him down the belt.
We struggle a lot with the word "come" and seem to have quite a strong will to do whatever is uppermost on his mind. He is still a great sleeper and generally sleeps in till 9:30 at least. If I get up with My Luv by 7:00 am I can get a bit of cleaning done while both little men sleep. I thought the other day, "My man gets up and goes to his job by then, I should get up and do mine" .... some days it happens. :P I certainly feel better when I get a head start on things before the boys get up. So time goes on and we welcome some changes and others we struggle with but are thankful to have a (mostly) happy, healthy little man.

Leroy is now 5 months as of the 21st and loves his big brother. He sits and watches whatever Phi is up to and loves it when Phi plays with him. Phi will bring him toys and Leroy is getting more coordinated at taking them. Some times they'll just sit and laugh at each other, it's been fun to watch the interaction. Of course Phi also takes toys away (something we're trying to work on) but Leroy doesn't complain yet. He is getting a little harder to work with as he wants attention and is not so content to just sit some where for as long.
He had his first taste of baby cereal yesterday, he was so funny as he didn't know how to open his mouth for the bites but wanted to suck off the spoon. (Is'nt that how you eat?? It's worked pretty well so far.) This was a switch from big brother who was ready and willing for bites at around 4 months. I've kind of been enjoying the baby stage lasting longer this time, especially the breast feeding as it's made a great weight loss program. I didn't start loosing from it though until he hit about 4.5 months and then I think the demand was high enough to compensate and it started helping. We didn't get a chance for that with Phi as Leroy was on the way by the time he reached 4 months so this has been great!
He still doesn't go through the night but 5-6 hours is good enough for me for now. He does happen to like to wake up around 8 am and stay up for at least an hour before going back to sleep. That sort of thwarts any plans for sleeping in past then if I'm feeling lazy.
He is a very smiley and mostly out going little man. Occasionally he'll get sad about something and it takes some doing to get him to forget about whatever it is and calm down again. That's only happened twice so far, and the majority of the time he's happy. He talks a lot and has a complaining little jabber he uses when he feels he's been ignored too long. He loves to snuggle most of the time and likes to fall asleep with his little nose buried in the blankets.
We have a well baby check up at the beginning of next month for both boys and it will be fun to see how much he actually weighs!