What Parenting has Taught Me!

I have had a lot of lessons as a parent. I figured I should pass on some of those lessons to you.

1) Sometimes you have to put the babies in unconventional places in order to keep tabs on them.

Maybe it is just to help them get over a funk...but what is a quicker way to cheer them up other than do something that they don't expect!
2) Kids. Remember. EVERYTHING.

Perhaps, we buy a snack once at Sam's Club...then all of the sudden everytime we go to Sam's we are now asked to buy snacks.

Or it could be that you (you know, hypothetically speaking) accidently say a certain word (perhaps it is the cr*p word). Well...when the 7 mo old spits up in a certain 2 year old's room, the 2 year old may or may not have said, "Oh Cr*p". Nope...this lil' girl would never hear such a word. Not in our house!

3) Kids like to do it themselves. Whether it is playing with PlayDoh.
Or if is getting something off the shelf that is too high and it requires the dragging of a chair or stool halfway across the house to access the "gotta have" object.

Sometimes the gotta do it myself attitude leads to a few (ahem, well) a lot of sprinkles...

that's a snowman cake...fyi!

3) Kids like to be involved with the food preparation process. And you let them . This may create 10 times the work for you, but they are so amazingly proud that they scrambled their own egg or they beat the cake themselves...that it is worth the extra spills, extra clean-up and extra time!

4) Along the same line of food preparation...you do what it takes to make sure your kids eat. And yes...sometimes sprinkles on the hotdog.
5) You really gotta pay attention to what your baby does as well! If he starts to die of laughter when you lay him down to change his diaper...be prepared for a 10 wipe doozing waiting for you in his britches.

6) Finally, you just aren't gonna get the kids to pose nicely for pictures. Nope. No matter how badly you want them to sit still.

It.Ain't.
Happening!

Just after two and a half short years we have learned a lot! God only knows what other lessons those two lil' boogers have in store for us!

7 Months Old!

Owen turned 7 Months Old this weekend. Since I was gone on his actual day at a work conference, I am a little late posting his birthday information.

First off, I decided to make a glimpse into Owen's life, much like I did for Bethany when she turned 7 months old!

Favorite Fruit: Bananas

Favorite Veggie: Sweet Potatos

Least Favorite Fruit: Don't really have a least favorite

Least Favorite Veggie: Peas! He will gag on those!

Favorite Nickname: Bethany calls him, "Boy", Cory calls him "Owen-Eyes", I call him "Boy" and "Baby Boo-Boo."

Favorite Noise: ba-ba-ba-ba-ba & any singing to him

Favorite Noise Owen makes: grrrrr!!! He loves to growl like a dinosaur!

Favorite Formula: Unlike his sister, he can drink ANY formula out there! :o)

Favorite Toy: Jump-A-Roo, Winnie-the-Pooh Blanket & a pair of tongs from Bethany's kitchen

Favorite Activity: Being LOUD, playing with Bethany, being tickled, rolling around, getting up for the 9pm-feeding-that-a-way-he-sleeps-through-the-night (pictured below)

Favorite Body Part: thumb!

Favorite Naughty Thing to do: screaming, pulling Mommy's hair, spitting up on Mom's and Dad's nice clothes

Things Owen can't wait to do: Crawl on all 4's, chasing Bethany around, the ability to hold on to toys better so Bethany can't take them away, eat Cheerios

New Abilities: Eating Rice Crackers, saying ba-ba-ba, starting to raise his belly off the ground, moving around through primative scooting and rolling.

Goals: CRAWL!!!

Puzzled Children

Both Milles children have faced some puzzling situations lately....or well...one of them had a situation where he made puzzling faces!

Bethany has graduated from the wooden plug-in-the-hole puzzles to the big girl puzzles. She loves making us get down with her as we put together the puzzles. She is really getting the hang of it, as you can see...


Look at the proud lil' scrunch face!

Now on to the situations were Owen makes puzzling faces.

Wanna know the culprit is for these funky faces?

Look closely in his hand...

Yup...Gerber puffs!

They boy hasn't decided if he likes them yet. He will just chump on it with these funky faces. He can't quite feed himself yet, as he hasn't mastered the pincher grasp. But, I don't think it will take long for him to have this mastered!

I hope he likes them anyhow...I hear Santa likes to put those in infant's stockings! :-) sssshhhhh

What do you see?

Today we saw such a gorgeous sky as we drove to the sitters at the crack of dawn! The red clouds sprawled across the lightening sky much like the picture below...

Well, this girl....

This girl didn't see red clouds caused the by the diffraction of the light rays as the sun peaked above our horizon.


Instead she saw... Juice!!!



We had this conversation on the way to work today:


Bethany: Juice!
Us: Huh?
Bethany: Juice. Up there! (points to clouds) Juice in Sky!
Us: Yes, sweetie, that does look like juice in the sky! (as we try to not die from laughter!)


Gosh, I love toddlers! I totally will put up with all of the over-tired, don't-want-to-wear-anything-but-my-pajama tantrums if I can continue to get a glimpse inside that amazing head of hers. The connections she makes are just so astounding! :)

Proud

I am proud! Really. Really. PROUD!!!


I am proud of this one.....
with her tongue out and everything as she completes her very-first-ever crafty project. It's hard to believe she is such a big girl now and can do things like puzzles and craft projects!

I am proud of this one too...carrot-covered face and all! He is such a sweet, sweet boy with the BEST laugh in the world. Seriously....it has to be the best, hardiest laugh out there!

And I'm proud of this one....you know the big one in the picture! He just finished his second young adult novel. Nope...I don't mean he finished reading his second young adult novel....he finished writing his second one!!!! All in less than a month's time!

Wouldn't you be proud too...if you were in my shoes?

A little this & a little that...

Our Thanksgiving was a less than traditional this year...but it was the most relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving we've had in years! :-)

Originally we were just going to go to Thanksgiving lunch with my family at IHop. But after a few days of that not sitting well with me, I decided to take matters in my own hands and make a real Thanksgiving dinner myself! :-) We still had our IHop lunch...but our day also included...

A lil showing off our super cute dress and pretty awesome stripey tights!

It included a lil' playing with our own box of toys!
Of course, we had to have a short lil' lesson on patience as we wait for everyone to sit down for dinner. Nothing can keep this girl a way from her turkey!

Dinner wouldn't be complete w/out a sliver pumpkin pie with twice its weight in Cool Whip!
Finally, a bit of cleaning up made our Thanksgiving day complete. I am glad we decided to go ahead and get a turkey (breast) and cook our own little meal. Although, I am surprised at just how much food a lil' turkey breast makes. I am seriously glad that I didn't get a whole turkey. It is also pretty amazing at how much turkey Bethany can put a way. She had three pretty large-sized servings. Turkey is, by far, her favorite meal!!! Our lil turkey just can't seem to have enough!!!

After all, you are what you eat!!!

Why I am Thankful!

It isn't too hard to think of reasons to be thankful...especially when I see this:

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Excuses!

So it's been over a week since I've posted something on our blog. Sorry about that!

But I do have excuses! Wanna hear them?

Good, really, you don't have a choice. I'm giving you my excuses regardless!

Our one and really only excuse is that we're busy!

We are busy covering up our baby brothers, while trying to keep our own feet covered at the same time.
We are busy putting up our Christmas tree...

paying extra attention to overload some of the lower branches with 3 or 4 ornaments at a time!

We are busy dressing up in our pretty dresses and eating scrumptious apples.

We are busy force feeding our baby brothers "macaroni and cheese."

We are busy feeding ourselves our own bottles since Mom and Dad are too busy to hold it.

We are busy sitting as still as possible while....

Mom cuts our hair!!!
We are busy cooking up some trouble before...
our sister comes to take over the toys.
See!

We are busy!

But, good thing, we are never to busy to snap a couple pictures along the way! :)

Reading to Owen!

Bethany loves to read books. She's gotten in the habit of reading before and after bathtime.

She does a pretty good job at reading the pages. She has so many stories memories...it is pretty remarkable!

Here is a quick video of reading, "How Does a Dinosaur say Goodnight."

A "Head" of the rest!!!

Owen's six month appointment was today.

He did a super duper good job. Much better of a job than he did while he was supposed to pose with his birthday sign. *Sigh* I just don't think that he is going to cooperate the rest of the time I give him his monthly birthday sign. He totally had NO desire to hold it up like a big boy.

Oh well, at least he is pretty cute!!!

The Dr. said Owen is doing great. He is developing right on task and is looking perfect.

Here's his stats:

Weight: 18lbs (54% tile)

Height: 26.75" (55%tile)

Head: 18.5" (99%tile)

Actually, truth be told, Owen's head was off the chart. Literally, OFF THE CHART!!! She pulls the charts on the computer and his dot was above those little growth lines.

See...Look for yourself. That green and red dot is Owen's head!

Looks likes his head circumference is the same size as the average 2 year old! Golly! That boy must be housing some serious brains up there!!!!

It is so hard to believe he is six months already. We don't have long until we have another mobile baby on our hands. It is so nice that we can plop him down and put some toys around him without him crawling off to explore the house on his own!!! Yet again, he doesn't really seem too interested in moving...so we will enjoy that while it lasts! :)


Although, how hard will it be to spot him if he does start becoming mobile soon. You know, after all, he does have a nice, large noggin!!!

Guess!

Guess what we did today....

...in our so-cute-aught-to-be-illegal overalls.

Perhaps, it also included some "tiger" attacks from our sister.

Well, after a million wet weekends in a row, we finally got to go outside to enjoy a nice, dry, autumnal day.

Not sure what to make with all the green grass around him, Bethany made sure to take charge of the situation and show Owen the ropes!

Finally, the boy gets to sit in the grass and explore. It looks as though he really likes being released from the constrictive nature of the walker and his mother's arms.

A little swinging action was also part of the Great Outdoor experience this weekend. Bethany loved sharing her swing with her baby brother.

Maybe...she just like pushing him around without being corrected or redirected.

You may not be able to tell from his photo, but the boy really enjoyed himself on swing. The funky look on his face, I attribute to the fiery sunlight beaming in the poor child's eyes.

Bethany really enjoyed pushing the lil' guy around. That is, you know, until the swing came back faster than expected and popped her in the face.

Which, of course, got the "Attack Mommy so I can get over the throbbing pain in my lip" plan rolling.

Nothing diverts a 2-year-old's attention like knocking down a poor, unassuming mother!

Big Girl in a Box!

The best toys are the simplest...

And here's an obligatory picture of Owen, too! 6 months old today!

These Two!!!!

These two...

I gotta tell you....

These two mean the world to me!

I just love them to pieces!