While Jeff was in surgery.....

This is what the kids & I did on Friday while Jeff was having his hernia repaired:

Batting practice: These are some mad skills shown below! Watch out MLB, here she comes!

Choking up on the bat
Notice Syd's perfect form. Can you tell her mother's been the one coaching her!

Bam! Its outta here!
Oh, maybe not. Should I go get it?

(This is how far most of her hits go. Sometimes the "T" goes with it)She thinks this is so funny! I don't know what to do about it. She starts giggling every time she sticks her finger in her nose & its so contagious that we all start giggling too. Not really the way to curb the behavior. I tell her its gross & it makes her hands dirty & spreads germs....she couldn't care less about any of those things.

If at first you don't succeed.....(talk to the ball)
Try & try again! Contact!

Running around the bases, or rather the piles of grass Jeff started to thatch before deciding it didn't agree with his hernia.I love action shots, they make me giggle.Sydney's finally starting to show some interest in pedaling herself. Many of her peers got this a while back, buy my girl's been perfectly happy to be pushed around effortlessly since getting the trike at Christmas. She tends to get caught up in turning the trike with her feet instead of using them for motion & her hands for turning.Litter Bug! BTW: Sydney woke up this morning & picked out her own clothes. I usually give her options, but she beat me to it this time. She also aided me in her hair style, so its a little on the wild side. She's little miss Independent about tasks, but not so much into being away from us for long amounts of time. Her separation anxiety kicked in again when Brody came along. Brody chilled in his bouncy chair during Syd's batting practice. We LOVE this bouncy chair & used it a TON when Syd was little too. For any of you new or expecting moms that check this blog-this is a MUST have! I know its a little on the girlie side with its birds & butterflies, but I keep assuring myself its okay since its primarily yellow & blue. This little birdie is one of his favorite friends. He gets all 4 limbs going when I make it spin around & he often talks to it in quite in depth conversations.So, we're pretty much living in the basement right now since Jeff is fairly immobile. Both my kids took HUGE afternoon naps today, so I took this opportunity to snooze a little myself. Syd was naughty this morning & lost her buddy as punishment. Lucky for me it was perfect for my snooze. Jeff thought it was just too funny & snapped this pict.

At times, Sydney does such a wonderful job of taking on her big sister role. Here's my kids on the bed while I got dressed for the day. She's "reading" Brody a sticker book of Mickey Mouse.Syd was randomly coloring at the island while I fixed dinner. I heard her say, "Look, Momma. "S" for Sydney." I looked over & sure enough, she'd drawn an "S". I didn't think anyone would believe me, so I snapped a pict. Unfortunately, she'd proceeded to scribble over it before I got the camera out. Do you see it below? Not sure if this was entirely intentional or not, but I was pretty impress nonetheless, as any mother would be.

Brody at 3 months

This is my big man stretching out during a diaper change tonight. Its amazing how much he's changing. This is when it really starts to get fun! He's sleeping better, laughing more, and smiling all the time. He really loves his family, even his crazy sister! He just gives us the best smiles & just brightens up our home.
Brody at 5 days
1 month

2 months

3 months

I weighed my little man today on the home scale & he was 15.2 lbs. We don't have a doc appt till he's 4 months, so that will have to do for now. I haven't measured him yet, but hopefully I'll get around to it tomorrow while we play hookie from church.

Brody diddies:

• Slept for 8 hours last night. Hooray! What's amazing about that is that we've been "crying it out" for a week now & his sleep had been progressively getting worse & worse. I think this is because he has a bad habit of swallowing air when he's fussy which gives him chest pain until he's burped. I wimped out & decided that this wasn't making any of our lives better (completely opposite of how I was with Sydney). I held him for about 2 minutes (that's how long it took him to fall asleep since he's exhausted from the week of not sleeping well) and he was out until 5:30 this morning!
• He still takes a binkie when falling asleep, but it is a very brief affair & we pretty much limit it to the bed now.
• He thinks Sydney is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I predict this interest increasing for the next 3-5 years.
• He sleeps in his carseat, which we place in his bed. I think this sounds totally unorthodox, but it actually came at the recommendation of our nurse. I discharged the idea when first presented to me, but after I got off my high-horse & tried it I was impressed. It really seems to be the trick for him. It helps him not do that "I'm falling from outer-space" jump when I lay him down & must help his reflux (which I'm still not convinced he has because the medicine doesn't seem to make a difference-and thus I often forget to give it to him until he's already asleep)
• He is such a trooper during bathtime with Sydney. I've been amazed since day 1 how calm & relaxed he is in the water. Maybe he's the next Michael Phelps! I bought a new mesh bath chair for him so its easier for them to bathe together. He slides off of it, wasn't a great purchase, but it works as long as I keep a hand on him at all times (which I should do anyway in a big tub with a big sister splashing around).
• His evening fussiness went away while we were in Florida & he started sleeping right through dinner time. He would actually sleep 7-8 hours then, but it started too early for me to count it as "night sleep"
• He is totally ticklish nearly everywere, but especially under his chin & around his collar bones, on his ribs, and the tops of his thighs.
• I think he totally has a blankie already. I know, I'm breaking all the rules this time. I drape a blanket over him while he's in his chair at night, just over his bottom half, I admit it. He prefers this chenille green blanket, that actually used to be Sydneys. It was one of the only non-pink things I could re-use. If he's awake when I give it to him he eagerly grabs it & rubs it on his mouth. He does not do this with any other blankets. We'll see if it sticks, but its pretty cute for now.

I love my boy & can't get enough of him & those soft little cheeks.

FLORIDA (in reverse)

This post is just entirely too long for me to organize the pictures in chronological order, so this is how I loaded them. Its basically in reverse order.

We visited Pensacola's Naval Air Station, as we always do. This was Sydney's 3rd trip to NAS & she basically gave us the guided tour herself. She wasted no time going to exactly what she wanted, which was the planes she could "drive". (So he doesn't feel left-out someday when reading this historic blog, Brody was there too, but slept the entire time in his stroller. Although super cute, it wasn't necessarily picture worthy)

(Jeff showing off his legs...one of his best assets!)

Reece had this talking bird in his room. Sydney thought it was the best thing ever-someone who likes to talk as much as she does! It repeats everything that you say twice while flapping its wings. She managed to wear the batteries out in a single morning.

The drive between Pensacola & Destin is about 45 minutes-1.5 hours depending upon traffic. We were lucky enough to borrow Ally's minivan while in town. Syd loves this because she knows she gets to watch movies in this van-a special treat! Its a nice treat for Jeff and I as well. This is one of the few times she is quiet.While walking on the beach one morning in Destin, we came across a Great Blue Heron. Well, it was more like he came upon us. There was a school of fish just off shore & he was eyeing it. He let us get surprisingly close before flying off.



Sydney liked chasing the birds on the beach.

No matter how fast she ran, they always managed to escape her.




Brody enjoyed walks on the beach as well. In fact, he enjoyed them so much that he slept the entire walk!

Sydney can talk her Papa into almost anything: jumping on the bed, extra ice cream, saying up past bedtime, and the old "1-2-3 swing" move shown below. I think they got a good work out that morning!
My girl loves the beach! Funny story, so sorry I don't have pictures to correlate: after an afternoon of sandcastle building in her swimsuit, we came back inside for dinner. I decided it was a good idea to change her into clothes before eating, so I started to strip her 1-piece off. As I peeled it down her tummy, I noticed some sand inside, so I took her outside on the balcony to finish the job. Little did I know that there was literally an entire bucket full of sand crammed in the bottom of the suit & in the bottom of my little girl. She had a sand wedgie! She didn't mind the sand until I tried to remove it. We left the pile of sand out on the balcony & I took her to the shower to wash all her unmentionable places. I could have used a bidet, but I had to make do.

We took family pictures on the beach in coordinating blue shirts, similar to 2 years ago. We had to go a little earlier this year because of the kids mealtimes & bedtimes, so the sun wasn't as ideal, but we're a good lookin' bunch none the less. The pictures leave a little to be desired. If we were ever going to hire a professional to do the job, this would have been the year to do it. Getting 4 kids under 4 to cooperate for a family picture is pretty much impossible, especially when they're hungry!

Speaking of good looking, here's Reece practicing self photography. The "Big" kids being troopers as the sun burns their retinas.

Brody wasn't really a fan of smiling for the camera. He was thinking this was more like his meal time. Here's me in one of my not-so-fine moments. Who knows what I'm saying...I'm probably barking an order at my husband or daughter from the looks of it.
Meghan, Ryan, Jeff
My handsome father, the amature photographer
Brody giving up on trying to figure us crazy adults out. What the heck are we doing out here anyway!!!???
The Hunts: There were less kids for this picture, so the odds were in our favor.

The Morgans: 4 kids + lack of professional photographer = (see below)

We'll go back in 2 years & do it again. Brody will be the youngest (unless someone is VERY surprised between now & then), and he'll be 2, so I'm sure we'll get a stellar picture next time.
The KC 4some:
Sydney, feeling similar to Brody... are we done yet? Can we go now please?? A mid-week storm brought in jelly fish, but the pool was enjoyed by all. This float was one of my best summer purchases ($15 @ walmart). Since the middle is just mesh, it fills up with water & Sydney thinks she's in her own little pool. This night it was a boat being rocked by Jeff & Meghan.
This was a close as Brody got to the pool. Too bad that bar was right in the way of the picture. I can't believe I walked around in a bathing suit with my postpartum body. One day I'll use the pictures of me as my "before" pictures in my weight-loss story!My dad was the martini making king for the week.

Trevor & Sydney had so much fun playing together throughout the week. Its nice to have cousins so close in age. Trevor is 16 months older than Syd, so she admires everything he does & wants to have the exact same things as him. Drew is 11 months younger than Syd, and the girls are starting to play together more & more.

Jen Cross gave me this shirt & it was just too funny not to wear! Sydney should have had a shirt that said "Caution, my butt will eat sand!"And infant sandals.....adorable! (They stayed on for a total of 27 seconds!) The morning before we flew out: You can see our house was an upheaval of laundry in preparation. Good thing Jeff stayed home a few days after us to clean up! Yes, that's right, I flew down & back with both kids by myself. Yes, I'm on crack. Okay, that's not funny, but I must be crazy. Sydney's wearing a monkey backpack w/ a tail for a leash. It was actually not that bad (on the way down). The kids were both wonderfully behaved & totally made me proud. I just needed a few more arms & hands to hold bags, her tail, and push the stroller. The way home got a little u-g-l-y. The kids were tired from 13 days of vacationing & we flew in the afternoon, which is totally Syd's naptime. To top it all off, we had to change concourses in Atlanta. Syd had a meltdown while carrying her buddy & tripping on it. She refused to wear her shoes (I didn't have spare hands to enforce it). I ended up carrying her while pushing Brody in the stroller. Brody's ears had trouble popping during the landing & he wouldn't nurse, so he just screamed uncontrollably for a few minutes. Boy, were we happy to see Jeff when we landed in KC!
Jeff changing a nice poopy diaper. Oddly, they both have a similar grin on their faces.

Brody, chillin' in the swing.
Sydney & Brody's first bath together.

A clean & happy boy