big disgrace

You got mud on your face

You big disgrace

Somebody better put you back in your place

Really....I am not sure which is the biggest disgrace of all....

Is it the 2-year old who goes in the pantry, pulls out the instant pudding, bites into the packet and makes a gigantic mess on herself and floor

OR

Is it the parents who can't seem to get the message that the pantry needs to STAY LATCHED!

*Sigh*

We'll figure it out sooner or later!

Our own fairy tale

Once upon a time there was a Mommy, Daddy, Bethany and a lil' Owen . The Mommy and Daddy decided to take the lil' babes apple picken'. We even invited our queen Mum (Grandma Milles) to join in our adventurous day.

We started in a land very close to us (aka O'Fallon) and
we needed to head to a land far, far away (Grafton, IL).

A magic boat arrived to carry us across the great river that beautiful day!

We arrived in the magical kingdom of Eckerts--land of the apples!
The most scrumptious, magical apple we were determined to find.

We found trees upon trees with apples of every kind.

Under the branches and leaves the apples hid.

But nothing could hold back this little kid.Didn't take us long to find the most scrumptious apple in all of the land.

Even our gentlemen were looking fine and grand.

With her apple in her hand, our little princess was as happy as can be.

Riding back to the farm on the tractor was fun for both Bethany and me.

What else is there to say about our glorious day?

Only that our family of four couldn't enjoy our adventure any more!

Sadly Mistaken

A note to my Little Bethany:

I hugged you a couple of days ago and said, "I love my baby."

To which you replied, "Owen's your baby. I'm your big girl."

Oh sweetie you are sadly mistaken. You have so much to learn about this world.

I don't care that you insist on wearing sunglasses with your night gown.

Or if you demand to feed your baby brother his bottle.

Yes, you may even be capable of pouring yourself a real drink of water using your tea set.
No matter the fact that you love playing outside with the neighbors and create a gigantic mess whenever you are given a popsicle.

Despite the fact that you are able to have your friends over to our house to play now.

My dear Bethany, you are even such a big help with feeding Owen his veggies....

So my dear glasses-owning, popsicle-wearing, brother-feeding, baby-cuddling little girl.... it doesn't matter how big you get, what you are able to do or how many words you know.

Dear little Bethany....you'll always be my baby. Sweet Baby Bethany, you'll understand one day...

when you have your own 2-year-old insisting that she's no longer a baby, but a big girl!

Owen vs. Dog

I fought the dog

and the dog won.

Oh! I fought the dog

and the dog won!

All about the "O"

Not very often is it all about the big O.

Really...I am not sure if I have posted one single post just about our little man. He definitely deserves it!

Well, Owen went to his 4 month check up yesterday. Bethany was a little jealous, I think. She said,

"Bet-an-ni hurt." as she points to a fake boo-boo.

"Bet-an-ni go to Dr. Rozin!"

Did she get to go, you ask...

Nope!

Are you kidding. Why would we want take a 2 year old to the doctor's office when it isn't absolutely necessary. Waiting in that tiny little room is torture for anyone under the age of 99 and over the age of 1.

However, Owen had a blast waiting. It is so amazingly easy to entertain a 4 month old!

Especially since they are entertained by the simple fact they can blow bubbles now...
Anyhow... back to Owen's dr. appointment.

The doctor says Owen is doing great. He is healthy and happy and developing just fine.

She gave us the green light to start him on some fruits and veggies. That is pretty exciting for him.

Here's his stats:

Height-->24.5" (50th %tile)
Weight--> 15 lb, 4 oz (50th %tile)
Head--> 17.52" (99th %tile)

Seriously...we make babies with big heads. Isn't that crazy! If you look at Owen head-on, it doesn't look that crazy big. But once you take a glance at him from the side....

It. Is. BIG!!!

Overall, Owen is a GREAT baby. All parents would be lucky to have a such an easy-going, laid back baby as this one. He is just so content 98% of the time. ***the other 2% he is either hungry, tired or in the car--he HATES the car***

So as for his hidden talents:

• He sleeps through the night (9 pm to 5 or 6 am)
• He can roll over from belly to back
• He can follow you across the room.
• He loves to talk. Right now his favorite sound is "AaahhhhhAhhhhAhhhhAhhhh".
• He just learned how to blow raspberries.
• He is grabbing toys and really starting to explore them.
• He is amazingly patient with his big sister who likes to: put things in his mouth, poke his eyes, "help" him roll over, smothers him with love, steals his toys, screams in his face and pulls him by his various limbs.
• He has the BEST laugh. It is such a full, belly-jiggling laugh. It is completely infectious!

So that all about our little man. I am so amazingly blessed to be the one that gets to continue to watch him learn and grow. I absolutely love this stage. Everything is so new and the milestones just keep on coming. It is great watching him figuring things out. It won't be long, I'm sure, until we have both of them running around this house going crazy! :o)

Labor Day Weekend!

Our 3 day weekend was a welcomed break from our typical school work. We had a lot of fun doing nothing special in particular. Does seem that we didn't get much down time. We had quite a bit of school work to get caught up on & plus quite a bit of housework to do. What do you expect when you mix two schoolteachers w/ two young kiddos. The weekends are all we have to work with in our to keep life in order.

However, whenever the kids were up-and-at-'em, we made sure to take time to play with them.

Bethany got plenty of bike riding time in Saturday.
She loves riding down the street with the other kids.

Mommy...look at me going faster!

Hi Mom!

After working too hard riding her bike, she wanted to ride in the wagon.
Owen, of course, needed to go too. Although, Owen didn't last all that long in the wagon.

His look says it all...

Owen had a couple monumentous moments this weekend.

First off, we got out the exersaucer for him.

It was most defintely a hit for Owen and Bethany.

Perhaps, the best part of the weekend was Owen turning 4 months old.

So hard to believe that he's been here 4 months.

But at the same time, it is hard to remember what it was like before Owen joined us.

Although this Labor Day was far from being a labor-free weekend as it was full of work, it is great to have good quality time to spend with the babies. A part of me, though, is looking forward to going to work tomorrow, so I can have some "downtime".

Kinda funny how it tends to work out that way, now isn't it?

Elephant in the Room

Can you spot the elephant in the room?

It is right there...in front of your noses....

Owen has discovered the massive entertain value of toys.

He is loving being able to explore them all by himself....

That is...if Bethany's asleep of course!

~HEY~

hey!

Hey!

HEY!

Hey...isn't that what you say when you need to get someones attention? Looks like some of you really should have said, "Hey Milleses...do something about your blog...its been a whole week already!"

After all if Bethany has picked up on saying "Hey!" to us to get our attention, should you have known better too!?!

Well...So here you are another photo collage update.

First off, is our visit to the Festival of the Little Hills last weekend. It was such a gorgeous weekend we decided to go out and do something. Not knowing what was out there...we stumbled upon the festival (after noticing signs in Schnucks and a news broadcast).

The festival was full of people, fried-things, and crafts galore. But you want to know the highlight of the whole festival was? Well, it was by far the bus ride from the satellite parking place. Can't you tell by the picture below? Bethany was so excited to ride a school bus!!!

The nice weather has also prompted us to spend quite a bit of time outside (another excuse why the blog has been lacking posts). Bethany loves to play in the pea gravel under her swing set. It will entertain her for a nice long time! :) It would be nice though...since you know...we have to pay for the more gravel, that it wouldn't somehow magically jump out of the sandbox.

Meanwhile, all alone, in the garage Owen is chilling totally oblivious to all of the fun being had in the backyard.

Although...later in the week Owen is very much alert during the discovery of the cat and pig ear costumes that a teacher gave us for the kids. Owen and Bethany love the animal ears that Sue got them. Ok...really Bethany loves them. And what I mean when I say "Bethany loves them" really is that she loves to put them on Owen. Regardless...they are pretty cute! And Owen doesn't seem to mind Bethany dressing him up.

The poor girl is going to be in for a HUGE surprise once Owen develops wants and desires of his own. She won't always get away with dressing him up, smoothering him with kisses and invading his personal space. She best get it all in now...before he know better!

This week we also got out the Jumperoo. Bethany got this for Christmas when she was six months old. She didn't get as much use out of it as I thought, because she was just one month shy of crawling. And as you can imagine, once they start crawling they have no desire of being constrained even though we (the parents) love it just want to explore as much as possible.

Owen, on the other hand, is getting plenty of use out of the jumperoo already! He loves talking to those animals and seeing all the shiny lights and whatnots!

Finally, Bethany started teaching Owen sign language. She loved learning sign language when she was little.

*sigh* Since when is she no longer little?

I digress...

Anyhow...she knew tons of signs and used them all the time. We can't wait to get Owen started signing with us...but it looks like we are going to have a little help this time around!

I hope this week lag between posts doesn't become a routine. There is always a ton of things going on in this house that are totally worth of your knowledge...but since school has started...life is just more hectic. We are pretty conscientious about using our time wisely during the school week. When the kids are awake, we try to focus all of our attention on them & when they aren't awake we are trying to get caught up with work!

Sooo, dear readers, bare with us.

And if you need to...

Shout out...

HEY!

Blankies and Bananas

Both babies love their blankies. Bethany cannot fall asleep without her little blankie. Owen hasn't quite become dependent on his blankie...but he sure does like to have something to munch on and to hold on to with his dear life. But with both of them holding their lil' blankies the other night, it was just too cute not to snap a quick picture.


Bethany finally tried a banana for the first time a couple of days ago. She wouldn't try one for the longest time, always stating, "Don't like it!" Out of the blue, she asks for a banana. After a couple odd glances exchanged between Cory and I we gave her her first banana ever! Don't even know if she likes it. She just sorta parades around the house holding the banana, only occasionally taking a quick nibble at the end. I don't try to fully understand our Bethany...but she surely does try to keep things interesting around here!