Assistant

Jack has been reminding me more and more lately (to the point I get annoyed). For example, he will ask me to do something for him like get a drink ten times before I have a chance to do it even though I will have told him I will do it after I feed Will or go to the bathroom...you get the point. While sitting in bed with him right now he has reminded me about 15 times to post pictures of his new football stadium made by a student at Brian's school. I guess he could hear the annoyance in my voice and he just told me that he reminds me of stuff because I need help and he is my helper. I better post the picture before he tells me again to do it.

Blankies

Will loves his blankies. If he is tired I just give it to him and he pulls it to his face and cuddles with it. It is so cute and I have always wanted a blankie baby. Dont' worry I only give him a blanket like this when I am able to watch him.

Cars

Grant is loving his cars lately. He lines them up on the fireplace and plays with them all day off and on. He especially loves to use a toy garage we have and pretend it is a car wash. The other day we even made a race track out of jump ropes in the living room and had fun racing them.

Big Guy

Today we had Grant and the doctor to check his ears and throat because he has a cold. I weighed Will and he weighs 14 lbs 8 oz and he will be 3 months old on Friday. He is also wearing 6-9 month clothes.

They are taking over...and other useless information

I am outnumbered. I told Brian today that I am scared they are going to take over soon. Each day I feel a little more overwhelmed. Last night Grant was up with an accident so I changed sheets, pjs, and got him settled. Grant cries in the night when he is awake so in all the commotion Jack woke up so I got him back to bed as well. I fell back asleep and about ten minutes later Jack was tapping me on the shoulder because he was scared so we got he sleeping bag out from under our bed and he slept on our floor (we have learned this works better than sleeping with us or trying to convince him to go back to his room). I fell back asleep again for a few minutes and Will woke up wanting to eat. After all of this it was about 3:15 am and at 5am Grant climbed into bed with us, Brian got up to go to work, Jack joined Grant and I and then Will woke up to eat at 6am. I opted to not break down in tears but I really wanted to. It is nights like this that I remind myself this is just a phase and in the blink of an eye they will be off to college.

Grant is also giving up his naps. I am devastated to say the least. I can't even tell you the last time that I had a nap and I don't think I will get one this weekend either. It is such a fight to attempt to get Grant to nap that it ruins our time together and that is not worth it. So we don't nap. Will is taking about a 3 hour nap each day though which is great for him.

I go back to work next week and Jack is happy. He told me at least now it will be "fair" since he has to go to school during the day. It is funny also because daily he drills me about what Grant and I did while he was at school to make sure we did not do anything to fun with out him. I will do another post about returning to work.

Yesterday I caught Grant in the garage and he had drug a stool from the kitchen and was standing on it getting ready to press the garage door opener and head outside. I also found him playing with a knife. I have now moved all the knives up very high in a cabinet so if you come to our house don't plan on cutting anything unless you want to climb on a stool yourself and get it.

Grant is loving the song "If your happy and you know it". I sing it for everything now. So don't laugh if you hear a very off tune singing in Target or the grocery store. It is just me singing...If you happy and you know it sit in the seat or if your happy and you know it hold your mommy's hand." It really works and he responds so well to it so I sing a lot. A LOT!!

Dear Jack, Grant, and Will,

Please sleep through the night and I love you more than you ever know.

Love,
Mommy

It is off to school we go!

Bruce has been riding along to school with us in the morning. Jack loves it and I love how much Jack loves it. Bruce was our dog first but he has become Jack's dog and I really think would walk right into school with him in the morning if we let him.

Will Smiles

Will is a very happy baby. He smiles all the time but this evening I finally caught it on camera. We had just come home from our first 4 mile run together..okay he sat I ran. We had fun and I love running with my kids especially the smaller ones!! Enjoy the pictures.

Brothers

Big Trouble

Grant was alone for about 2.2 seconds in the bathroom today. In that amount of time he did something to the toilet that caused it to over flow. Brian and I used every towel in the house (literally) to soak up water until he could get it under control. We even had water in the basement. We currently have a fan blowing in the bathroom in hopes of saving the floor. Grant was sent to his room and Brian found him standing up leaning on his bed sleeping. Brian carried him to the living room and we let him sleep for a little bit. (He had not had a nap for two days).

Goal Posts

My dad (Pawp Pool) made Jack these goal posts for his field. He wanted this particular style because when the Jaguars play Desmet he would use these because they are like the goal posts at Desmet. He will use his other goal posts for all his other games. Thanks Pawp!

Car Wash

Grant loves to play car wash.

So Cute

This evening Jack and I were talking before he went to sleep. He told me that he wants to go to Zumwalt West and then maybe teach/coach at Desmet. I asked him were he wants to go to college and he told me Mizzou. He then told me we would have to move so he could go to West and then we would have to move again so he could go to Mizzou. I told him kids go to college and they move on their own and live at college. That did not go over well. So I told him of course we could move so he could go to high school and then I would buy a house in Columbia so he could go to Mizzou and still live with me. He then asked if Daddy and I were going to do that divorce thing since I said I would move to Columbia - I assured him again that Daddy would come with us to Mizzou. So here is the plan: We will move in a few years so Jack can be a Jaguar and we will move when he is a senior so he can go to Mizzou. I LOVE THIS KID!! I love that right now he wants me to go to college with him. I hope he knows as he grows I would do anything for him and I will always want to go to Mizzou with him even when he does not want me to after all. On that day I will cry - a lot.

Random

This evening the boys had their swim lessons. They both have done great this session and advanced to the next levels. When we left I told Grant to put on his shoes. When we got to the Renaud Center and I took him out of the car he was only wearing one Croc. I guess I should have been more specific. The other shoe was sitting waiting for us in the garage when we got home. Love this kid!

I have been running, doing Pilate's, and jumping rope to attempt to get some form of my body back. It is a slow process but I am getting there. This evening my sister told me to jump rope 20 times and then do 20 jumping jacks, then 40, then 60, then 80, then 100, then 80, then 60, then 40, then 20. I thought it would be to easy because I had been doing about 600 jumping ropes a night but thought I would give it a try for something different anyway. Wow! It was hard and I am excited to have a "new" exercise to do for a while.

In the evening when we take Jack and Grant upstairs to put them to bed Brian always puts Will in his crib. This evening he was sound asleep and looked really comfy. I told Brian that it looks like it might be time for him to sleep in his room because he looks some comfy. Brian assured me that he is not ready and he needs to stay in our room (in the pack-n-play) a little while longer. Brian knows me well and at times is awesome at telling me what I need to hear. Thank you Brian.

Will is really smiling a lot lately. He smiles the most for me but is giving some to Brian as well. I bought him some toys to hang on his car seat today and he was even talking to them. Maybe this will help him in the car because the car is the only place that he cries.

Rules

Jack's teacher was talking to them about rules and had each student share a rule from their house. Jack told me some kids shared things like "no punching" or "no eating out of the kitchen." Jack shares - "No going outside without your clothes on."

In case you are wondering...This is a rule for Grant who has been caught outside in the backyard playing baseball naked.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Jett! We miss you and love you.

Characters

Grant is afraid of characters. He loves to go to Monkey Joe's but is terrified of the Monkey. At the Rascals game he was a mess when the Rascal came out. I was showing him Will's Lion costume for Halloween (the one Grant wore when he was a baby) and he flipped. He is scared of it and no one was even wearing it. Halloween should be interesting!

Slip N Slide

Our neighbors invited us to join them on a 150 foot slip-n-slide they set up in the common ground behind their house. All the boys (minus Will) had a blast!

Football

Jack plays flag football for the YMCA. He has a lot of fun although he is bummed it is only flag and not tackle. He can start tackle next year when he is seven. He had his first game on Saturday and they WON. Way to go Jack. It was fun to watch him play something he loves so much.

Will.I.Am

I have been searching for a nickname for Will. I watched Oprah this evening and Will.I.Am from The Black Eyes Peas was on and his name has lead me to some nicknames - Let me know what you think!

1. Will.I.Sleepyhead (he slept 8.5 hours last night)
2. Will.I. Picky eater (I got some free Soy formula so I thought we would give it a try and needless to say he HATED it and refused to drink it)
3. Will.I.Mowhawk (he is always sporting a mow hawk with out any gel help)
4. Will.Poop (boy does this boy poop a lot)
5. Will.I.What is my eye color (it seems to change between blue, green, and hazel)
6. Will.I.Bald (yes he has bald spots and a mow hawk)
7. Will.I.Hate a wet diaper (if he is crying it is because his diaper is wet)
8. Will.I.Piggy (when he is hungry he snorts instead of crying)
9. Will.I.Like my head rubbed (when he is tired rub his head, give him a Binky, and turn on a fan and he is out)
10. Will.I.Hate my car seat (screaming!!!)
11. Will.I.Cute (man he is cute!)

I seriously love this kid and he is so awesome! He smiles at me all the time and today had trouble eating because he could not stop smiling at me. So I have settled on Will.I.Smiley.

Brian tells me we will be only calling him Will. So Brian.I.partypooper fine we will call him just Will.

Purina Farms

I took all three boys to Purina Farms for my birthday. We had a blast. We played in the hay loft, looked at the animals in the barn, and enjoyed the new dog arena and show.

Trouble Pic

Trouble

Grant put Brian's new white baseball hat in the trash can on top of some chewed up tomatos. Needless to say the hat is no longer white and Grant was sent to his room. This is how we found him about ten minutes later.

Watch Out

What are these two capable of?

Football Pics

Go West Jaguars

Jack is a HUGE Zumwalt West Jaguar Football fan. It is crazy how much he loves them. In the van he watches their highlight films on the dvd player, we take him to as many of their games as we can, and he even has a uniform (TJ Moes' old one and he now plays for Mizzou). Jack lives and breathes football and he usually has a game going on in his room on the card table I set up. He will spend hours playing and arranging plays. Last week we even got him a white board to keep score. My dad made his day this weekend when he brought him out "lights" for his field. They are awesome and I am jealous I did not think of making them myself. They have really completed the field up in his room. Jack wanted me to put a picture of him with his lights on my blog to thank his Pawp.

Swim Lessons

Jack and Grant took swim lessons most of the summer. Jack is getting quite good and is swimming almost an entire length of the pool. Grant is fearless and having a blast.

Bruce

We have two dogs. Bruce is our "good" dog. He is friendly, loves all the boys, and have a cute personality. He loves to sleep and snuggle with Jack and Grant and recently he discovered another little guy to start hanging out with.

First Grade

Yes I cried when I packed his lunch and when I took him to school. How did my baby become a first grader?

Crazy Hair

Will

This blog is only about a year old but in our photo albums I have pictures of Jack and Grant in this same outfit. They really all do look the same.