WALKING!!!

Let's see how much I can write while all 3 babies are sleeping!

First.. the most important thing!.. Aeson is WALKING!! A couple weeks ago, he'd gotten up to about 8 steps and then hadn't even tried for about a week and then two nights ago, he just started walking all over the place! It is too cute! He isn't even really wobbly & if he starts to lose his balance, he just squats down. He also was drinking VERY well out of the sippy cup yesterday (finally!).

My sister and her family were here this last weekend and they brought along a new picture of their baby, Bentley. After they left on Sunday, I put it in a frame we had next to our tv and as soon as Aeson noticed it, he went up to the picture and kept pointing to it squealing and talking. He then carried it over to me (walking!) and did the same thing. THEN, he started giving it kisses! I've never seen him give ANYTHING kisses. He's continued doing this same thing since then! We have other pictures up but he doesn't do anything to those except knock them down. He must love his little cousin bunches! :) Last night, Eric & I both swear he said 'Bentley' while doing all of this too.

Westen is loving school. He said yesterday that he wishes he could stay there all night because he loves it that much! He also said that the teacher said again how much she loves when people say please, because he'd said it again when asking for more milk.. So he said he's going to keep saying it so she'll keep saying that! :)

This past weekend, we also went shopping in Springfield for a few things. While we were there, Westen & Aeson got to ride on the carousel (picture below) and we took Westen to the Build A Bear store. He had never done it before, but he LOVED it. He chose a Cubs outfit and named the bear Cubby.

And then, the last picture below is one day when Aeson & Cohen dumped an entire box of cereal out!

First Day of Preschool!

Westen started preschool this week! We decided to go with the local Catholic preschool, so he only goes three days a week for a little over 2 hours each time. The preschool is actually in a little house that's behind the church/school, which I think makes it kind of nice. There are 11 kids in his class, with only 4 of them being boys (Westen included). The teacher is awesome and she has an aid as well. Westen was completely ready to go.. I, on the other hand, had weird feelings! I was nervous and sad and excited all at the same time! When I picked him up, the first thing he said to me was "I missed you, Mom!".. followed a few seconds later by "I was good!" :) He told me after his second day that he asked for more milk "please" at snack time and his teacher said she just LOVES when people say please. :) He's really enjoying it so far. He's come home with pictures he colored or made and tells me about the snack they had and how much they played. I'm glad he gets to be around other kids his age.

One day last week, I think it was, Westen used "speaking of" and "impressed" correctly while he was talking! He's such a big boy now. He also asked me the other day if God put a baby in my tummy yet. I said "you mean, besides Aeson?" and he said yes.. I said nope, and he goes "awww.. Mom!" in a disappointed tone. :) I asked if he wanted another baby and he said yes and I said "besides Aeson??" & he said "yes!"

Aeson has continued getting into anything & everything! Last week, he pulled many, many Kleenex's out of the box and then later that week, he dumped almost an entire box of cereal out onto the floor. He's so funny at this age. He dances and loves to give high fives. He'll go get a snack out of the kitchen (if the pantry's open) and bring it all the way into the living room and throw it on my lap! He LOVES cheese. He also LOVES to be outside. If he could be outside or in the bathtub, I'm pretty sure he'd be happy 24/7!

We're going to the Balloon Glow tonight, so I'm excited for the boys.. I'm sure they'll both love it.

Oh, and one of my best friends Sasha had her third baby boy yesterday (well, in the middle of the night). She named him Oliver Nicholas!

Steps!

Aeson has had quite the week this week! Earlier in the week, he figured out how to climb up on the couch by putting his leg up and pulling himself. The same day, he figured out how to climb onto his brother's recliner in his bedroom and get from there up on to the bed! We now have a gate blocking that doorway, and so far he hasn't fallen off the couch (thank goodness!). Then yesterday, he stood up and took FOUR steps! Very wobbly, but still four! And TODAY, he stood up and took between 6 and 8! I say between because he was pretty wobbly and I'm not sure a couple of them counted! Such a big boy!

Westen's been especially helpful this week too. With the start of the school year, I keep thinking about how next year he'll be starting kindergarten! It's hard to believe. I'll definitely miss him when that time comes! Yesterday, we walked up to the ice cream store and since I have 3 babies under 1.5 years, I strolled the older two in the double stroller and Westen strolled the baby in the umbrella stroller. So helpful!

Funny Boys

Westen has continued to say funny things almost every day. I wish I could remember them all! He's started his Christmas list, and it's quite funny. Actually, I'll just copy & paste it for you!

gi joe toy story lego
big buzz lightyear
toy story store lego set
toy story rocketship lego
lego airplane yellow
green lego car
blue motorcycle lego
huge airplane that you build forever lego set
buzz lightyear with wings
jets at Walmart & helicopter & airplane
moonsand that you put in the roof on the farm & it turns into an animal
transformers freedom fighters

Today, he was looking at wedding pictures & he said "Mommy, you married Grandpa Jim??" He's also asked several times lately why people were called whatever they were when they were born. He finds Aeson's name strange. He asks a million questions, a lot of which I can't really explain! (like things about the moon, sun, storms, etc) He's already very excited about Halloween and Christmas. He's decided he wants to be Batman, Aeson to be a bat, Daddy to be a gorilla, P-nut to be SuperDog, and I don't think he's decided for me.

As funny and darling as he is sometimes, he's also been quite challenging lately! I don't know how to teach him respect and politeness... without just being that way toward him. I also don't know how to teach him the value of money and possessions. Last week, he was on a kick where he just did not understand why he couldn't have McDonalds for every meal and watch tv all day and night. He's been in time out often lately and gotten tv taken away several times. I hope things start to go a little better once he's in school and out of the house for short times.. Hopefully it doesn't go the other way and he learns even more bad behavior there! He doesn't start until after Labor Day, and he's going in the afternoon, which I'm happy with. Hopefully it won't be too hard getting the daycare kiddos in and out.

Aeson's learning more and more each day. He started taking one step just around his first birthday and yesterday he took two. He just doesn't quite have his balance. We have a couple of train/truck toys that you can push around and instead of pushing them from behind like you're supposed to, he pushes them sideways! I think he needs the extra leverage. He recently started saying "ni ni" for night night. He signs "milk" constantly and others like "more," "bath," and "all done" less frequently. Today, he climbed up on the couch all by himself for the first time. He's enjoyed climbing stairs for some time but he hasn't figured out how to get down from places.. and he also hasn't quite realized when there's NOTHING there to sit back on! Scares Mommy to death! His last round of bloodwork and sonogram came back normal, so thank goodness there. His lead screen came back fine, but he was slightly anemic. I think his score was 9.7 and they like it above 10.5. His doctor started him on iron supplements two times a day. He actually likes taking it! The baby that's three months older than Aeson (more of a toddler then, huh? :)) returned to our daycare with the start of the school year, and it's so fun to watch the two of them. They play together pretty well & entertain each other. Aeson's really good about sharing and was sharing his cereal yesterday, even putting it in the other little boy's mouth for him!

One word that definitely describes life with a 1 year old is repetitive! Everything that I like DONE, Aeson likes UNDONE. He'll pull all the towels off the shelf, push freshly folded laundry down, throw all the diapers off his changing table shelf, take picture frames down, etc... I fix it, and he does it again!

I'm really enjoying have a one year old, though. :) He's so funny. He repeats things that we find funny, or if he hurts himself, he'll gently do it again, like he's showing us what happened.

Aeson's First Birthday!

Aeson's first birthday was August 3rd! The weekend before, we went to St. Louis and stayed one night. We went to the zoo the first day and even though it was very hot, we all had a wonderful time. We saw all the animals, went on a train ride, got to pet stingrays, rode the carosel, and watched the sea lion show. We went swimming at the hotel that evening. Maybe the week before, Aeson started putting his face in the bathwater & he did that at the pool too! I think he's trying to copy his brother. Aeson also decided to unroll the roll of toilet paper while Mommy was showering. :) The rest of the evening, we watched Shark Week on Discovery, which Westen LOVED. He was asking questions about sharks the rest of the weekend! The next day, we went to the Magic House there, which is like a huge toyhouse. I think Westen's favorite part was the vine with huge leaves that you could climb up to go between the floors. There were a ton of different settings for kids to play in, lots of slides, and just all around cool things for kids to do. They even had a baby area that Aeson loved. We weighed him there, and he weighed in at 28lbs. Aeson did fairly well on the drive to and from St. Louis, but he was a little fussy the last half hour to hour each way.

Which reminds me, I got a van! I traded my car in the Friday before for a minivan. I had a lot of trouble deciding between a 3 row SUV and the minivan, but in the end I thought this would be easier for our family (and daycare kids). It has a built-in DVD player, so that definitely helped for the trip. There's so much room too! It makes me feel very old and I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that I drive a VAN.. but I'm happy we got it, and it is so much easier than my car. I also found out when trading in that my tire was about to separate, which would have caused a blow out. It was one of my back tires, so it could have been very dangerous. I'm so thankful I decided to trade it in when I did! While debating trading in, I also realized I'm getting older because the excitement of getting a new vehicle was definitely overcome by the realization of having more debt! I used to trade in yearly and never gave a thought to that part of it.

The weekend after Aeson's actual birthday, we had a party at our house for him. We had a photographer come here to do pictures, and I'm anxious to see how they turned out. The sneak peeks I've seen are awesome! We provided dinner for everybody (and had LOTS of people here!), opened some very cool presents, and then did the cake.. Aeson really wasn't too interested in it and barely ate any. He's never had any sugary items, other than ice cream (which he LOVES!), so I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. A few of my family members stayed after and we had a good time. My sister and her hubby were down for the weekend, so they stayed with us & we were very happy to have them!

So now I'm a mother of a one year old! I can't believe it. :) I'm excited for this next year, though, and I know he'll get more independent and verbal. He had his 1 year checkup yesterday. I'm not sure how much she marked for weight, because it was fluctuating between 28lbs, 3oz.. 28lbs, 8oz.. etc.. and he was moving lots! Regardless, he's over 28 lbs and he was 32 inches long.

Westen told me the other day that he wants another baby in my tummy, because it's "empty" now. :) He also asked how the baby gets there! :) He asks LOTS of questions lately! One other funny thing Westen said last night.. We went to DQ to get ice cream and he said he wanted a "lizard." :)

The boys, Starscream, Goodbye Cookout

A couple of weeks ago, Eric's aunt told us about burying a St. Joseph statue to assist in helping sell your house.. I hurried up to the local Catholic store and bought a small one, burying him first like this & then re-reading what she had written & re-burying him the way she had.. but still nothing. We had a lady we thought was interested, but we haven't heard anything. I need to get my daycare income back soon, so I think we'll be taking it off the market in a couple of weeks.

Last weekend, we went swimming at my Dad's for the first time this summer. This is a picture of Aeson's teeth while we were there. They're out far enough that you can clearly see them now. The two on the sides of the front two are starting to come through as well. My poor teething boy.. getting them all at once! Anyway, Aeson was scared of the pool at first but quickly warmed up to it & really did well!

Westen's been especially funny lately. He's been calling the movie theater the "movie peter." He also got a strawberry kiwi slushie at DQ the other night and said it tasted like strawberry & seaweed! Chelsea asked him if he meant kiwi, and that is in fact what he meant. :) I may have written about his knock knock jokes before, but just in case I didn't, this is how they go... "Knock Knock," "Who's there?" "Westen," "Westen who?" "Westen Behymer!" He doesn't quite get the concept... :) He gets so angry when we say them to him and try to be food.. He says we CAN'T be food! He continues to draw all the time and lately has started drawing angels and Toy Story characters. His drawings are so unbelievably good for a 4 year old! I would love to get him started in some art classes or something.

This past week, Westen said out of nowhere that he's ugly. I continually told him he wasn't (that he is, in fact, beautiful! :)) but he remained persistent that he is ugly. I have no idea where he even got this from. When I tried asking him, he said he just looked in the mirror and he is. :( I told him good things about all his features, but he remained certain. He said it for several days, so I finally asked him who else is ugly. (I'm not sure that he even knows really what it means) He said nobody, so I asked who he thought was pretty & he said me.. I told him that he looks like me, so he must be pretty too then! Since then, he hasn't said anything again. I'm hoping that no one said this to him, but it also makes me much more careful about what I may be saying about myself or other adults may be saying around him.

Aeson's been standing for longer and longer periods of time. The other day, he stood in the living room looking at a book for at least 30 seconds. He's started pushing his play table around the room, walking behind it. I'm pretty sure he will be walking in no time! It makes me sad! He's getting so big! We're busy planning his first birthday party and I can hardly believe it.
Yesterday, we had a very, very busy day. After Farmer's Market, we went to the pet store to get our fish some feeder fish and while we were there, we saw a couple of cute kittens. Westen begged me for one, so when we got out to the car, I called Daddy to see what he thought. We ended up going out to the shelter to look, and I'm glad we did. They now have TWO rooms FULL of cats and kittens. There were a couple of older cats whose time was about up, and it just broke my heart not to take them! We really wanted a kitten, though.. One whose habits aren't already formed and one who could grow up with the kids. We already have outdoor cats, and I had considered bringing one of them inside.. but they're so used to being outside now and show no interest in being inside. So, we got this little black and white one you see. Westen named him Starscream (a Transformer). He LOVES him. He's been really good with him too. Aeson even has as well. He giggles at him and touches him with his fingertip. Last night, he was curling his fist around some fur but the kitten didn't seem to mind. Our dog doesn't care less about him.. and while he was afraid of the dog at first, he now couldn't care less either!
After all the errands of the morning, we had Amber's baby shower to go to. She was one of my bridesmaids, and she's expecting her baby girl the first part of October. Another of my bridesmaids is also pregnant now (with her third boy!) and due in September. I got to go visit her last week too.
And finally, last night we had a cookout at our house for my mom's side of the family. My sister and her family (above) are moving to Chicago next weekend. We had a good time with everyone, and the food was delicious! We spent most of our time indoors, because it was SO hot and humid.. but we did go outside for a while, and the kiddos got to play with water balloons. We're going to miss all three of them so very, very much!

4th of July Getaway

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Burlington, IA with my sister, her hubby, and their baby. We left Saturday afternoon. We realized we'd made a BIG mistake when we got to the hotel we'd booked. It was close to Fun City, where we were going to be spending most of our time, and much cheaper, so we'd booked it online. The whole place looked rather shady and when we got in the room, there were dead bugs ALL over the carpet. Every little thing was definitely less than clean! It had sounded nice online and there were even photos, but it definitely was not what we thought! They offered to change our room but then the lady was being less than friendly and even the 'nicer' area looked iffy, so we ended up getting a refund and checking into the hotel across the street! Thank goodness they had a room available. The extra money was definitely worth it!!!

After that whole ordeal, we finally went to dinner, where I realized I had forgotten my ID! No gambling for me! :( We went to Fun City that evening. Westen LOVED it all. Laser tag was probably one of his favorite things. He wouldn't ride the go-carts with Eric, but they had little kiddy ones that he drove himself! It was so funny to watch him. He went sooo slow! :) He was quite concerned about wrecking too, after seeing the adults do it!

When we got back to the hotel, we tried to take the kids swimming. Westen's stayed in lots of hotels when I've had to travel for work, and he LOVES the pool and hot tub. The pool was really too cool for the babies, though, and Aeson was a little bit scared! He started shaking and then clung to me the entire time we were in the pool area.. and we only put his toes in!

On the 4th, we started out swimming again and then went to Big Muddy's for lunch. It was yummy! We headed to their fair afterwards. Westen got to climb up in a fire truck, he won some silly prizes, and he got to ride on a pony! It was rainy, but we braved it! We headed back to Fun City that evening for more games and watched the fireworks at night. While we were waiting for them to begin, Aeson pulled himself up using me to hold onto and then really wasn't putting any weight on me at all... Then he took his hand off completely and stood for several seconds! After he plopped down, he even joined in in clapping for himself and then he did it again a few minutes later! He doesn't seem nervous or scared at all. I think he's going to be walking before we know it! I am SO not ready for that yet! I can't believe his birthday is in less than a month too.

Oh! One more thing I forgot to write about was that on our first night there, my camera died and I had forgotten to check it or bring the charger before we left. I still had my phone to take some pictures, but I was disappointed! It's charging now, so I'll add some photos when I have the time!

Oh, and as for the fireworks.. Aeson watched them but wasn't bothered at all! It was a fun little getaway, and Westen had a blast the whole time. It was good spending the time with my sister and her family too, since they'll be leaving us soon!