Birthday Week in Photos: Part 2

 After the cupcake experience (he crammed the whole thing in his mouth at the same time, followed shortly by Uncle George doing the same with the full-sized cupcake... it was fun to watch...) it was time for presents!

 Grammy sent him a car bag made out of fabric with roads on it!  The mat folds up into a bag with handles and is held together with magnets.  There are a few little pockets on the inside to hold the cars!

 Sweet little monkey blanket/stuffed animal from Aunt Cathi

 Foam letter puzzle blocks from Poppy (Marlie was a great helper for opening the gifts!  Unfortunately the photos of Andrew opening her gift -a cool ball that eats other balls -didn't come out so I won't post them :( )

 Amish Puzzle Ball from Momma

 Two great books from Aunt Grace

 AWESOME beanbag from Uncle George, Aunt Jenn, and Titus!  He LOVES climbing up on it and being set in it and sitting in/on it and even is happy to sit in it when otherwise nothing will do except being held by Momma... I think I may like it even more than he does :-D

 Fun ball pit play time with Hannah, Titus, and Evie :)

 Poppy and the grandsons!

 Lovin' the bean bag!

 Uncle George gives GREAT snuggles!


Then on Monday instead of Music Class we had a birthday play party...

 It was a rough morning for the birthday boy, but the bean bag and some goldfish seemed to ease the pain :)

 Picnic lunch in the back yard!  Cupcake #2... funfetti this time :)

 And then the cheese ball... the doctor thinks this is the origin of the hives that totally covered his body about 16 hours later.  Praise God for baby Benadryll!

 Birthday Buddy Titus!

My, oh my, these boys have grown.  I love them!

(PS - mad props to Marla for dressing Marlie in an outfit covered in balls ;)

I'll post again soon... lots more cute photos of the cousins from the rest of the week!

Birthday Week in Photos: Part One

In anticipation for Andrew's ball-themed birthday play party, James and I bought him a red ball.  He LOVED it and played with it non-stop (even in the car) for 2 weeks!

This was a rare occasion that he was napping too long and we needed to wake him up (so he'd sleep at night) so I took the opportunity to take a photo.  I miss having cute sleeping baby photos since going in while he's sleeping usually wakes him up!

 We took Andrew to the park for the first time (since it wasn't 100* out) and went on the swings!

 After swinging, he was pooped :)  and took a sweet little nap in the car on the way to the restaurant for lunch.

There are few things I love as much as watching Andrew and James together :)

 Music Class is alive and well!  Here we are singing "The Rooster Song."  This time I had the kids pick out photos of animals and we sang through the animals in the order we were sitting.  They were so excited to hold up their photo every time we got to them to do the animal sound for their photo!

 Andrew found James' Geometry textbook and was entertained for about 20 min!  Now, if we can only keep him that studious until he's through college...

The pool in the living room is for the ball pit... the balls just hadn't arrived yet :)  This sweet little onesie was embroidered by my Bible study leader from last year and is just so super sweet!

 Look, Mom, I can do this cool thing with my tongue!

 Aunt Jenn, Uncle George, and Titus came to visit for a week!  We had SO MUCH FUN but of course, the first thing on the activity roster was lunch...

 Great-Aunt Cathi came for the weekend, too!  It was so special to have her here with both boys!

Here we are getting ready for church on Sunday morning :)

Watsons give such good snuggly hugs :)

Poppy also came for the weekend and made us a delicious breakfast!  Thankfully, he had time to pause and play with his first grandson for a few minutes :)

Omelet time!

 Between Sunday school and worship service we stood outside (WOO HOO it wasn't 100*!!!) while I walked Andrew in the stroller to take a quick nap before the baby dedication part of the service.

 I love this shot of Titus!  He has such great facial expressions!

 I love it when James laughs :)  And George.  And it's pretty cool when they're together and happy, too!

Titus gives good Mama snuggles...

...but likes attacking Daddy's nose!

 During the dedication.  I love those boys.

 Thanks, Pastor Brad, for such a thoughtful and scriptural dedication ceremony.

 Andrew's birthday buddy, 'The Texan Titus,' was dedicated at the same time!

 I love the part of the service that the congregation stands and commits to praying for the child's salvation and coming along side the parents and supporting them in raising him to know the Lord.  It was awesome to be on the 'other side' of that part this time!

 Well, two of the three of us are smiling...

 Andrew found his 'big sister' Marlie!

 Well, the ball pit still didn't have any balls so we tossed some other toys in...

 The balls arrived, and Marlie had a blast!  PS - I just noticed her dress makes a heart in the back... hello?  ADORABLE!

Ball themed lunch: cheese balls, meat balls, cherry tomatoes, ball-shaped rolls for sandwiches, ball fruit (clementines) and cupcakes topped with Whoppers and ball-sprinkles :)

I always feel stupid posing for photos like this, but it's one of the few photos of me from the day, so I'm glad we have it!  Haha

 Aunt Jackie and Uncle Nathan (brought the balls - THANKS!) and Hannah and Evie drove up here after church and we had a fun time playing with them!

 First Cupcake time... of course James insisted it would be chocolate ;)

 Hmm... never seen this before...

 Maybe I should squish it...

 Everyone's telling me to eat it.  This is confusing.  Usually Momma tells me to NOT put things in my mouth.  Well, might as well try it...

YUM!

Bum-Book Time

Andrew decided to spend yesterday's "bum time" looking out his window and reading books :)  This lent itself very well to cute naked-baby photos... so I thought I'd share a few!  Here's my almost-one-year-old sweet baby boy!

 

This book has three tiny balls in a plastic dome on the front... Andrew is saying "Ball!" 

 He loves putting his hands through the hole in the cover of "Barnyard Dance." :)

 He just discovered he can open the flaps in the Thomas the Train book and play "peek-a-boo" with the characters under the flaps :)

A UPS van went by, which called for looking out the window... but it was only a momentary distraction.

Just look at that sweet head of hair!

Teeth

Andrew cut a molar on Monday. Today I was playing "upside down baby" with him and noticed definitely two, possibly three, more molars immediately below the gums. And feeling the gums with my fingers I felt sharp points poking up for two of them. Sigh. Poor baby. I'm amazed... I'd have never guessed he was teething that badly based on how sweet he's been! Just extra snuggly when he's tired.

Is it normal to have 12 teeth by the first birthday? Is it normal to get the first 8 between months 4 and 7, then no teething for 4 months, and then get 4 molars in 10 days?