Photo Shoot Gone Wrong!

When you have two of the most adorable babies in the world, sometimes you just want to have a picture to capture all of their adorableness in digital eternity!

Usually it turns out real well. See...

But sometimes...

It turns out wrong...

Really wrong...

It starts with a desire to have the toy his sister is currently coveting.

But then the big sister takes advantage of her size...

and down goes the lil' brother.

Finally, the chair all to herself.

However, the boy doesn't give up too easily.

But he soon realizes that he can't climb up the chair by himself and he enlists the help of his Mom.

I just have the feeling that this is the first of many battles between these two!

God is Good & Owen has a big head!

So those are 2 no-brainers....right?

God is Good!

That is just as obvious as me saying that Owen has a big head....

See, last week Owen had his 9 month check-up.

Here are his latest stats:

weight: 21 lbs, 4oz (60th percentile)

height: 29 inches (75th percentile)

head: 49.5 cm (99th percentile)

Unlike all of the other check-ups we've gone to with Owen and Bethany. This check up was a little different. The doctor was concerned about Owen's head circumference. She referred us to Children's Hospital to get an ultrasound of his head to see what is causing his "accelerated head growth". When he was born, Owen's head started off at the 50th percentile, but slowly it has taken over the entire world and managed to be the 99th percentile at 9 months old.

So after a long trip to Children's Hospital. After 20 minutes driving in circles trying to find the how-could-we-have-missed-it parking garage (in this process, we may or may not have almost hit a poor guy, oops!). After an hour wait in their cutely decorated Imaging Center. After all of that....we learned that Owen has no signs of having anything wrong. His ventricles look fine....no sign of fluid in the brain....no sign of hydrocephalus....no sign of anything wrong.

What can I say? Owen has a big head. That's nothing new. God is Good! That's certainly not anything new either!

Something about going to Children's Hospital is a humbling experience. As we were walking through their colorful corridors that were doned with all sorts of things whose soul purpose was to make you feel at ease; all I could think is how blessed are we!?!?! We have two health, happy children at home, albeit they have big heads, but they are health and they are AT HOME. I couldn't help but feel selfish for wanting my babies to be healthy....there are tons of babies at the hospital that aren't home with their families. They are being poked and drugged and cut open and hopefully, mended and healed.

With the selfish feeling, I did have an overwhelming feeling of being blessed! How blessed are we that we have two amazingly happy and healthy babies. The amaze me every day. They amaze me with every lil' thing they do. Whether it is growing an alarmingly big head or building "train tracks" out of blocks when I didn't realize she even knew what train tracks were...

these kids are amazing and make me think all too often......How Great is our God!

Old Habits...

die hard!
Owen's still at it...but now he is drinking and crawling.

We better have a talk with our lil' man about the potential dangers of drinking and crawling...but until then we will just enjoy his adorableness! :O)

Microwaving and Standing

A quick video on the kiddos playing together. They love that kitchen so much.




It is kinda funny if you notice Bethany takes that cupcake away and tries to put it up higher so he can't reach it. The poor boy! But did you noticed how he pulled up. I think he's been doing it secretly for a week or so. I've turned around before and noticed him falling back to a sitting position. But, we've never caught him standing up or pulling up by himself. That crazy boy. I guess he doesn't want to seem like a show-off. But finally he decided to show up the skills he has been honing secretly!

On the Run

Owen's a busy guy. He is always on the run. After all, he is 9 months old now. He doesn't have time to sit down and play. Plus, if he sits too long his sister will come after him and take his toys.


So what has the lil' booger decide to do in order to protect what he claims to be his.


Well...

He

Takes

It

To Go!

It is so funny. Owen is always crawling with something in his mouth. I don't know why he does it. I really think it might be to protect his belongings. But I guess when you are crawling, your hands are already busy and he hasn't quite figured out how to put things in his pockets...which is probably a good thing knowing my lack of ability to empty my own pockets! :O) This is just one more thing about Owen that makes him absolutely adorable!!!!!

Happy President's Day!

What is the best way to honor the presidents past and present?

Well, take a picture of yourself and your favorite people, of course!

Washington and Lincoln have nothing over these two cuties! :o)

Hair Cut Time....

Hair today.. Gone tomorrow...

She sat so still while getting her hair cut.

Hopefully, this will make it more difficult for toothpaste, Popsicles,
and other random foods from finding their way into her hair.

While her hair is gone...you might be able to notice her new mustache.

It is from her "favorite soda." She proclaimed that Orange soda is her favorite before she even took her first sip. She said, "Orange is my favorite. I drink orange soda. You drink black!"

Isn't she priceless?

Before and After...

This is before... This one is before...

This is before...

This is after...

That is after Bethany vomitted in the car on Monday. It is after she and Daddy stayed home together and vegged out all day. It is after we found out it she has just a viral infection that needs to run its course. It is after a few inches of snow fell resulting in an extra day home with the folks. it is after we watched Monsters, Inc. a few times. And it is after she managed to get her brother sick, causing him to have unpleasant diapers. Hopefully, this is the end of the sickness and we can get back to the way it was before!

The War Against Messes!

We are fighting a war here. A war that has been waging for nearly 3 years! I don't see an end to this war, but fortunately we haven't had any casualties in this war. Mostly you just have a few victims that are tired of hearing things like, "This is such a mess," "You are such a mess." and "WHO made this gigantic mess?"

Daily we combat these inevitable messes that the children manage to create. We clean up one mess, just to turn around to find another one.

The worst messes (Level Red) are the ones created by this one...

See the lovely surprise in MY chair? His orange spit up can be found throughout the whole first level of the house. His spit-up even ends up in places I didn't realize Owen could get to. This stuff is dangerous, sticky and volatile. He definitely should be handled with care or it can even ruin prized articles of clothing. The sitter has even banned orange-colored foods from entering her house, in hopes that her sheets will make it another day.

Level Orange messes are typically created by this one here...

Although, her brother is starting to give her a run for her money. The reason they are only Level Orange is because we quickly can activate the "clean-up-your-mess-or-time-out protocol". This protocol saves us a quite of bit of time. The tricky thing about these messes, is that while making the mess the culprit usually feels immense pride in their handy-work. This pride will then fuel future messes, making this a never-ending battle.

The Yellow Level messes are messes that are associated with the "They've Gotta Learn Sometime" sort of scenarios. These scenarios are instigated by the parents in hopes to make healthy, independent children. An example of this type of mess is having the not-quite-9-month old feed himself some spaghetti. This will unmistakably make a gigantic mess on said child, high chair, ground and the nearest parent.

However, this mess ,like all messes, are unavoidable and are a required part of child-rearing.

The war against messes is a war totally worth fighting. I embrace the messes the kids create.

Knowing that they are the same kids who do this...

It is so sweet to see those two waiting for me to wake-up in the mornings. It is totally worth all of the wet-wipes, bottles of spray-n-wash, and killed Bissells; if I get to see their faces light up with pure joy just by me going down stairs.

What a Blessing--messes and all! :)

I do it....

Need to give the baby some more snacks? You could ask your 2-year-old to help.....

But then you would likely end up with an empty snack container and an ecstatic 8-month-old with an all-he-can-eat supply of snacks!!!

Did I mention....

Did I forget to mention that Owen started crawling?

Well...he did. And sometimes shirtless.

Did I mention Owen often has a location in mind while he is crawling.

Well he does. Typically, his location of choice seems to be Mommy or Daddy for some cuddling. He crawls to us almost every time we are on the floor with him! When we aren't on the floor, he'll just politely let us know he wants us by producing a loud ear-piercing scream. But we certainly don't mind having him crawl to us...you know...if it will prevent my ears from bleeding!

Did I mention when he gets our laps he loves to arch his back to hang upside down. Well, he does!

When Zombies Attack...

It isn't everyday that your 2-year-old learns to sacrifice her toys to the zombies...but when she does learn, you'd best tape it!

Perspectives..

You probably see a baby stuck in a chair....
I see a boy that needs to hurry up and learn how to crawl forward so we don't have to keep rescuing him form his various predicaments!



You see a boy playing with a toy...

I see a boy playing with the same toy that his sister played with two years ago. Both of them love this toy!!!

You see a boy spitting up....

I see a boy spitting up for the 9897474857th time! Seriously....that is a lot of discolored clothes, hidden spots on the carpet and shouts from a 2-year-old that said, "Don't spit up on me...on rag only!"

You see a cute lil 8-month-old, blue-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights-looking, boy.

I see a boy who got a hair cut. But wouldn't quite sit still long enough to get it perfected...but it isn't too shabby, if I do say so myself. (which...being his mother, as well as his stylist...I'm a bit biased!)

You see two amazingly adorable kids with a gigantic mess!

I see Bethany's "Snowman" masterpiece that includes her new beanbag chair, 2 large blankets, her outfit for the day (which she refuses to put on until like lunch), and a dozen or so toys. Oh yeah...I also see two amazingly adorable kids as well!

See...it is just a matter of perspective. It is just the Milles Perspective is a little more fine-tuned! :o)

Who's the Boss?

When Mommy is away the kids and Daddy will play!

I go out one evening for a meeting. When I come home...

The


House

Is


A

Disaster!
There were toys in the living room, books in the dining room, empty baskets that once housed coloring books, rugs were over turned, toys were sitting in time-out, a pair of glasses rested on the top of the tent AND one empty toy box was setting amongst the chaos!

Things were a mess.

When talking to Bethany about what happened and who was going to clean it up...she certainly had a couple of opinions...

For the record, she did help clean it up after a short stint in time-out to motivate her! :o)

Dancing With the Owen!

Owen might break the Milles-mold and be our lil' dancing fool!

He loves him some music!

8 Months Old

8 months have come and gone since Owen joined our lil' family in May.

He is such a big boy now with scrumptious blue eyes!

He couldn't pass up the opportunity to fling his sign around. Good news is that he didn't try to eat his sign this month as he did last month. Perhaps, his taste buds are maturing a bit. Maybe I should try out the dreaded peas again!

Other than his maturing taste buds...Owen is becoming accidentally mobile. He still isn't quite moving with a purpose...he just gets places. You know...by accident.

For example, see him hiding...

Yup, somehow he has managed to back himself in between the love seat and the wall.

Being that he can't crawl forward yet...he continues to back that thing up! I, of course, couldn't resist the opportunity to snatch a couple of pictures of him.

It appears that Bethany couldn't let the Kodak Moment pass her by either.

One day soon *hopefully, not too soon* Owen will get a handle on the whole crawling forward thing. But until then, I will continue rescue him from the various places he has managed to squeeze himself into.