The Bean at 5 months Old

The Bean turned 5 months old in March and it was pretty uneventful in a good way.  She continues to laugh, grow, smile, and loved by everyone.  Her big blue eyes take in everything and she loves adores her older siblings.  She is the one thing that they can all agree on.  They all love her and want to be with her.  It's like she has always belonged and we were just waiting for her to show up in our family. I can't imagine our family without her.

She likes being in her carseat and running errands with me. I know that she is exhausted and should nap, but it's like she wants to take everything in and it's just too good to miss. So my curious girl stays awake, coos, and smiles.  I try to go to the gym when I can and go on the days that my aunt works. Bean spends most of that time happily in my aunt's arms.  She likes the walk to school and the walk home. She loves hanging out with us. She is starting to sit up more and more and likes when the big kids talk and play with her.  Mr. Bananas has discovered that he can recall the words to books and will sit and read to her. He is so good about sharing his books with her. Most times when he's playing on the iPad he'll sit with her and angle the screen towards her so that she isn't left out.  She just loves being next to him and spending time with him. I see another friendship in the making.  I thought by now that he would grow tired and move on, but no.  He proudly proclaims to all that she is HIS baby.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?

Buggy is a fantastic helper and will sit with The Bean while I make dinner, help Boogie with his homework, or take a quick shower.  She anticipates her needs pretty easily and helps with wiping her nose, changing her diapers, or sitting and chatting with her.

Boogie wants to hold her, but is nervous about dropping her or jostling her too much. So he admires her from afar. Boogie can be sensitive to noise and I thought for sure that he would complain about her squeals and cries, but no. He is able to block it out when he needs to...I just wish he would do the same with his younger brother.

Celebrating with the Epitos at their
50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Life is good. Some days are harder than others.  Some are easier. I forgot how tiring it can be to have an infant in the house.  I think our biggest challenge these days is getting on a good napping schedule.  I didn't really care in the past because 3 other kids were fairly good nappers and could nap anywhere. But not our Bean. Comfort is everything and right now she would rather nap on me. Second best is in the cosleeper next to our bed. I've tried transitioning her to her crib for nap time while keeping her in the cosleeper at night. Nothing doing. She isn't buying it.  So I'm going to appreciate the sweet quiet moments, read a lot of books while the baby naps on me, and try really, really hard to let everything else go.  The one good thing is that I've been pretty good at saying no to volunteer activities and not feeling terribly guilty about it.  It's hard for me, but I feel like time continues to slip by and my days of the baby napping on me are numbered.  So if you're looking for me, I'll be on the couch, cuddling a baby, and reading a good book.

Sporting a beautiful hat

Love this sweetness

I actually managed to get all 4 kids in green for St. Patrick's Day.
It will probably never happen again.

Bean is 4 months old

I can't believe I forgot to post Bean's 4 month update.  She continues to grow healthy and strong. The doctor says that she is lean and tall and to hold off on solids until 6 months since she is doing a fantastic job with nursing.  I think she is in the 90th percentile for height and the 19th percentile for weight.  Bean is quite the trooper and goes on all of my errands with me.  We have found, though, that as a result, she does not nap.  She'll take cat naps in her carrier, but she is utterly exhausted by dinner time and inconsolable. The child needs a real nap in her crib. At this stage she is learning to sit in the Bumbo and will do it for a short amount of time. She will play on her playmat, but prefers if her siblings are nearby.  If they play near her, she'll stay there longer without crying to be picked up. She is still the favorite sibling among the older kids.

Bean loves hanging out in the Bumbo.

This about sums it up with these two.

Bean is helping me make her cousin A's blanket.

Boogie is 9!

9 Years ago this sweet boy made me a mama.

Happy 9th birthday to my Boogie

My sweet Boogie is 9 years old. I can't even believe it. And I'm pretty sure that I didn't post about his last birthday or about his first communion last year. I feel like the last year has been a blur.  And I am really trying to catch life before it just flies right by me.

This year Boogie was invited to celebrate a friend's birthday with a trip to a local museum. The trip just happened to also land on Boogie's birthday. Intrigued with the idea of going to a museum, he excitedly accepted the invitation. However, the closer the date came, the more apprehensive he became. He didn't want his birthday to get lost.  So we made a plan to celebrate with his special birthday breakfast and dinner the day before his birthday so that he could enjoy the outing with his friend. We also planned that Daddy would go with him. More than anything in the world, Boogie wants to hang out with his Daddy. So we were able to give him that, and a day at the museum where he geeked it out with his friend.

We were fortunate that both his and his sister's soccer games were canceled and we were able to have our traditional birthday breakfast with him.  We allowed him to open one of his presents and spent the morning playing "Settlers of Catan" which, by the way, is a game that many of the Green Bay Packers play together.  That night we let him choose the restaurant and my parents joined us for dinner.

The next day we went to church and right after he and Hubby left with their friends to visit the museum.  When they came back exhausted we ordered pizza and Hubby picked up a yummy ice cream cake.  And we topped it off with presents. It was awesome.  He was thrilled to get his very own tablet. He is an avid reader and it made sense to get him his on tablet where all of his books are in one place and not all over our house.  I am happy I can set the timers on it, but he's been pretty compliant on when to give it to us and when to turn it off.  This will make packing for our beach vacation a little easier this year. He'll have all of his books at his fingertips.

Camp Half-Blood versus Camp Jupiter

We celebrated with a birthday party with friends today.  Boogie finally decided on a Camp Half-Blood birthday party.  Anybody who has read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series will understand the reference.  With the help of Boogie's godmother, I made Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter t-shirts. Hubby organized the games between the two camps. Boogie's godmother came to the rescue to help me clean the house because I realized that having a nursing infant makes it really, really difficult to get anything done in a timely manner. Thank you, A!  We served camp food: hot dogs, hamburgers, watermelon, and lemonade.  Almost all of the friends that we were invited were able to come.  It was a lot of fun. Most of all Boogie had a great time. Hubby was pretty amazing getting everything coordinated for the games and I am very grateful he took the day off so he could help out with the birthday party during spring break.

9 years of friendship for these two campers.

Boogie with his best friend since birth on his 8th birthday.

7th birthday

5th Birthday and excited about dragons.

6th Birthday

4 and excited about dinosaurs

3 and still loved trains

2 years old and almost a big brother

1st Birthday and learning to walk