ELLIE'S PERFORMANCE...

Ellie is Bailey's elephant.  She's "one of the family"!  Last night, she had a grand performance complete with homemade costumes, lightening and friends in the audience.  Boo was a great stage director and everyone enjoyed the show :o)

Bailey was very proud of the costume she made :o)

 

Ellie was a great dancer!!

 Bow at the end of the performance :o)

Boo wanted a light on Ellie...

and she came up with this idea all on her own! :o)

Of course the friends were there to watch!

HI YA....

Always lots of love (and laughter) between these two...

IT'S A START....

With Bailey, swim lessons were a big deal.  She screamed the first couple of times we tried to put her in the water and if she was asked to jump in and actually go under the water well, you can imagine how well that went (hint: there were tears).  So...with this little man I was determined to start early.  It's been a busy couple of weeks and this past weekend was the first opportunity we had to go back to the pool (Brandon's second visit).  I took the Yia Yia's advise and dunked him.  He did pretty darn great :)  I put him under twice this last visit...we'll try and keep it up and hopefully by the time he's walking, he's also swimming!

TWINS...

In the 80's there was a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito; it was about these two brothers who were twins and separated at birth.  In the movie, the babies are pictured as Brandon and Chris below (one really big and one small or average).  Now...in our case, the boys are 6 months apart so not really the same thing but, when I took the first photo below that movie immediately came to mind :)

This was the boys first "playdate"; Glenna and I are pretty sure that things will get a little more (haha) energetic as time goes on :)

Oh the fun these two will have!

These socks gotta go mom...

Who is this kid?

Think he'll mind if I take his blanket?

HELLO KITTY!...

Today we had a special summer playdate...with a Hello Kitty theme :)   Bailey invited a few friends over and the girls played outside, then ate some lunch (thank you Ms. Sarah for the AWESOME cupcakes!) followed by some more play inside.  Boo had a GREAT time.  Tonight as I was getting her ready for bed, she just kept saying "I can't believe the Hello Kitty playdate is over".  Poor baby...she was so bummed!  Oh well, guess we'll just have to do it again very soon :) 

The last two pictures were taken by the girls, while they played in Bailey's room :)

7 MONTHS...

Brandon Elijah is 7 months old today; it's been a wonderful 7 months!  Brandon is SUCH a joy!  He's a really happy baby.  The pictures below were taken last week at The Picture People.  CUTE, CUTE, CUTE...if this mama may say so herself :)

Little man's last pediatrician's appointment was yesterday (his 6 month visit got a little mixed up so we pushed it to 7 months).  He is now a very squishy 19.3lb and 26.75 inches.  This puts him at 50% on the growth chart for weight and about 40% for height :)  His hair is a dirty blond and his eyes are still blue.  He makes the sweetest little sucking sound with his lips... kind of like he's sucking and licking his lips at the same time.  I just want to kiss and squeeze him when he does this.  Actually, I want to kiss and squeeze him even when he doesn't :) 

Brandon now sits up very well on his own.  He loves to eat (shocker, I know!) and will reach for anything that you are eating.  He still doesn't care for tummy time but will now prop up on straight arms for a few seconds before rolling over to his back.  He's getting stronger there but doesn't show a huge interest in crawling.  I have to admit though...I'm not in a huge hurry for him to start (crawling) because I know he's going to be VERY busy once he's mobile!  Currently he's wearing size 6-9 months but I'm pretty sure he'll be in (just) 9 month clothes by middle to end of July.  He can still fit size 3 diapers but we just finished the last box I had last week so I'm putting him in size 4 because I have several boxes of those.  I still haven't put shoes on his feet, even though I have a few really cute pairs in different sizes.  I'll probably try them in the fall, when it's cooler.   Brandon stopped letting me rock him to sleep a few weeks ago.  Makes me a little sad, but I guess I should appreciate that he goes to sleep on his own!  He is able to put the pacifier back into his mouth when it falls out (this includes at night unless he cannot reach it).  I do lay him on his back to sleep, but last week he started rolling onto his side and now spends quite a bit of time sleeping that way.  No teeth yet, but he drools like a Saint Bernard!

Everywhere I go, people stop to tell me just how beautiful he is.  Thank you, very much.  I agree :)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!...

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it"  Proverbs 22:6

We LOVE the Daddy and the Popo! Happy Father's Day!

WE KNOW THE TIME WILL COME...

when they'll fight instead of laugh but...right now we have this and man, we LOVE this! :)

 

ONE SILLY GIRL...

Boo can be so silly.  Some of the things she says and does just crack me up.  Today I hear her talking to bear and I can tell she's been listening to me (talk to Brandon) because she's repeating some of my words.  It's really cute; she talks to bear as if she's the mommy (although if you ask Bailey who bear's mommy is, she'll tell you Stitch :o).

Today I hear Bailey talking to bear, about changing her diaper (or dia-dia as we call it in our house).  I walk into the living room to see what she's doing and she has wrapped this rope about bear's bottom half and it actually looked a little like a diaper.  Cracked me up.  Later she asked me if she could have two of her brother's diapers and then she continued to change that silly bear probably 20 times in the next hour.  Finally I had to tell her, that bear's tushie was probably pretty clean :o)

Oh...another funny moment.  A few days ago, Bailey was putting on one on her (many) performances and she asked for a round of applause.  No...let me correct that, she asked for a "round of a - clause".   Man I love her :o)

TOE TAPPIN'...

He's a fancy little man...already "dancing".  Our little double bubble is super cute here! This toe tappin' started about 6 weeks ago; I finally pulled out the video camera last week. Don't you just want to squeeze him?!  :o)

JUST SWINGIN'...

Popo hung this swing in our garage a couple of years ago for Boo; she LOVED it.  Now that she's too big for it, and we have been blessed with our little man, we've brought it back out for a swingin' good time...haha :)   

Brandon LOVED his first time in the swing (the first time in any swing actually) and Bailey really liked being able to push him.  I took these photos around end of May/beginning of June.

Thanks Popo!  Still getting some use out of this one :)

SCRATCHES...

My kiddos are all scratched up!  Bailey has bruises all over her knees but...that's a whole different post (poor kid has my grace, which is to say that she has none :)

I had planned to take them to The Picture People to get Brandon's 6 month photos but decided to wait a week until I didn't have to put make-up on them.  Then again, these things have a way of "showing up" so... maybe I'll bring it, just in case :)

SO MUCH FOR MAMA....

Yep...I prayed for this little guy, carried him in my belly, gave birth to him, get up with him at night, rock him to sleep and do most of the feeding and changing and what's this little guy's first word?  Mama??  Nope.  It's Dada.  He started staying the word a few days ago and I was ignoring it but...can't ignore it anymore :) 

Now, does he know what the word means?  I don't think so.  But if you were to ask me if Bailey knew what Mama meant (her first word by the way), and I were being honest, I'd have to say no but... it was still her first word :)

So, here's the deal little man...when you grow up and become a famous ballplayer (right before you say, "I'm going to Disneyland!"),  I want to hear "Hi MOM!".  

Or, better yet, "Hi Mama" :)

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE...

The light is a little funny at the beginning, because I was trying out the "nightshot" option on the camera.  This video cracks me up because poor Boo was pretty darn tired and some of the other kids around her are just too funny.  Gotta love those preschool performers! :)  Enjoy!

OUR LITTLE BALLERINA

Here's Bailey at her school performance last week.  She did ballet first, then sang with her class (I'll post that one tomorrow).   Great job Boo! :)