Last Week

Well, this past week has been a real doozy. Lochy turned 9 months old on the 21st, Ian and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary on the 20th, and Lochy was sick all last week. Once he started feeling better Liam started not feeling well. Now both boys have colds and they're not too happy about it.
First our anniversary. We didn't do anything special on the day and decided instead to go out to dinner on Friday if Lochy was feeling better. We had originally planned to go to the Chart House in Weehawkin, NJ. It's right on the river across from New York. One whole side of the restaurant is nothing but windows so the view of the water and the New York City skyline is just beautiful. Plus the food is amazing. We ended up just going to Olive Garden though--with Lochy not feeling 100% we wanted to stay close and keep the evening short. We had a nice time being out just the two of us. It was the first time in almost a year we were able to get out without any children--it was long overdue. Hopefully we can do our Chart House plan some other time.
Lochy woke up from his morning nap last Monday with a fever and the vomitting and diarrhea started from there. He had no interest in food and only wanted to nurse and sleep. But he would only sleep if he was laying on either Ian or myself. By Thursday night he was kicking the fever but we found out he reacts to viruses the same way Liam does--head to toe hives. The poor baby was just miserable and just kept scratching at his little body. I gave him a nice oatmeal bath and washed him with oatmeal body wash and by the next morning his hives were almost completely gone. He still didn't have the best appetite but he ate a decent dinner for Grandma while Ian and I were out to dinner. Yesterday he started getting a cold though so now he's back to not feeling too great.
He is 9 months old now! He's getting braver taking steps but is still very cautious. He much prefers to crawl since he's so fast at that and just climbs up on everything. We really have to make sure all the gates are shut because he loves to climb stairs. The other day I found him standing on Liam's Thomas the Train couch trying to push the buttons on the TV. He mastered the sippy cup a few weeks ago and just loves it. I put a little bit of juice in with his water to flavor it a little and he thinks its just great. I'm glad both boys love the V8 Fusion because that's the only juice we buy them. It's the only way we can get any fruits and veggies into Liam. I hope Lochy doesn't turn into the picky eater Liam turned into. Little Lochy is just a happy little ball of energy. He loves to be outside and really loves to be pushed on the swing. He's also quite content to be pushed in the stroller or ride in the sling for a walk around the reservoir or up and down the street. He's just the happiest little baby; full of smiles and squeals of delight. He has his 9 month check up on Wednesday so we'll get to see how much our little Doodle has grown. His hair still has red in it, I wonder if it'll stay or turn blond?
Liam has been really testing the limits lately. He has a cold too so I think he's not feeling well on top of everything else. We have a no screaming and no whining rule in this house but he's been breaking it a lot lately. He rarely needs time outs but has been frequenting the time out spot a lot recently. He's just being his two year old self and can get in a great mood just as fast as he can turn sour. We've started working on the potty a bit more. We've had his potty since last summer and he's gone on it quite a bit. He's always so proud of himself when he does pee-pee and we make a huge deal of it. So we know he can go on it, he just doesn't want to. I had him in his big boy underwear yesterday and he stood there and peed and then told me he needed clean underwear. Little punk! This kid's going to be a tough nut to crack! He'll be 2 1/2 at the end of June so I'm not going to really push it til then.
Here's a couple 9 months pics of Lochy Doodle:
He tried so hard to be happy despite being sick

New toys...sort of

The past several days here have just been miserable--cold, rainy, and no time to go outside. So yesterday Ian and I took a little trip out to our storage unit to grab a couple toys we put away a few months ago. We thought Loch would get a kick out of something new. Turns out both Liam and Lochy are having a great time playing with them! We brought back Liam's Leapfrog table and his house. As soon as Liam saw his house he squealed "MY HOUSE!!!" He was so excited! He's doing very good sharing with Lochy too.
Here they are playing with the "new" toys:




And here's Lochy "reading" a book. I'm so thankful that both boys love to look at books and be read to. They are both just fascinated by stories and I could literally read for hours to them.

Hopefully it will start to get nice again and we can resume our outside fun. They both just love to be outside and Liam even more so since we got him a tricycle. Lochy loves the swings at the park and is also quite content to sit and playin the grass or have me carry him around in the sling while we walk. The reservoir is one of our favorite places to walk with them. It's so pretty there and Liam loves to stop and throw rocks in the water. We even saw a bear once!

Space Farms

Yesterday we took the boys to Space Farms. It's a little zoo not too far from us. It was a beautiful day for it. It was really more like a park with animals in it. They had a playground and picnic tables all over so you could eat right next to the animals. The boys had a blast! Lochy loved the animals you could get right up to the fence and feed; Liam not so much. Liam also didn't care for the ducks and geese that would walk right up to you expecting feed either. He much preferred the lions and tigers and those kind of animals.



He had enough of these animals getting too close!

Lochy instigated the wrestling after bath time last night...

...so he must be ridden like a pony

He's getting much braver with standing a taking some steps. We have a lot of falls but he's learning. Here his is about to step out!

His innocent look:

Lochy decided to make a huge mess of things in our bedroom the other day. And he had a grand time doing it!
The beginning:

The end:

And Liam being a happy boy this morning:

Feel like crap.

The boys were being a terror on Monday and Liam has been really testing limits lately and driving me nuts. I've been complaining about their behavior to everyone. Then last night I found out a friend of mine's little girl lost her battle with leukemia. She was about 3 weeks younger than Liam. Who am I to complain about a little limit testing? I am lucky enough to have two healthy boys with me every day. I'm sure my friend would give anything to have her little girl be a terror to her. I don't think there are enough hugs and kisses to give my boys today.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies out there!
We had a very nice day. The boys got me a bouquet of flowers (Daddy must have told them that tulips are my favorite) and a really nice card. Then Ian barbequed for everyone. The boys were very well behaved too. We will continue our Mother's Day celebration one day this week when it's a nice day and go to Space Farms with the boys. It's a cute little zoo not too far from here, it should be a nice time. I'll be sure and take lots of pictures!
We also went to my friend Karen's house for her party on Saturday. She got her PhD, so now she must be addressed as Dr. Karen at all times! Congratulations Karen on your wonderful accomplishment! It was a really nice party and she had tons of people there to celebrate with. The boys had a great time too. We had to leave a little earlier than we would have liked because Ian's horrible poison ivy on his legs was driving him crazy. We had a great time though.
And I was wrong about Lochy waiting two months to take another step, he did it again yesterday!!! I think he's going to be my trouble maker. The other day in the car it was almost lunch time and nap time and both boys had had enough of the car ride. Lochy would scream to get out of his seat which would set Liam off into crying fits. Lochy, the little punk, would watch for Liam to quiet down and be ok and then he would scream again to watch Liam wig out again. Oh, the joys of brothers. I think Mommy needs to have a little girl next. LOL

First Step!!!

Well, it's official. Yesterday Lochy took his first step! He's been doing really well standing unassisted and has been doing it for longer and longer periods of time. Normally he will just plop on his butt or lunge for me if I'm close enough when he's had enough standing but yesterday he took a step before the lunge!!! He's getting to be such a big boy!!! Now watch he won't do it again for 2 months or something.

Oh and Liam cracked me up the other day. My sister in law's brother is getting married in a few months so I've started pumping to save up some milk because my parents were generous enough to volunteer and watch both boys for us overnight while we go to the wedding!!! (Yay! Thank you Grammy and Pop!) So Liam watches me pump and is rather interested. The first time he saw me do it he automatically said, "Mommy making milk?" I thought that was pretty good considering I didn't think he knew what I was doing. Well he and I were having a conversation about me making milk while I was pumping the other day and then he got really quiet and looked at his cup. Then he looked up at me and said, "Mommy make juice?" I had to laugh and he was a little disappointed I can't make juice too. He did want to try some of my milk though and he liked it. I wonder if he remembers that he drank it for over a year?