brothers | The Angel Forever

Category Archives brothers

Afternoon with my boys (2-6)

Posted on February 7, 2008 10:28 am by TheAngelForever

Being a SAHM is challenging, but oh so rewarding. I swear less seems to get done than used to when I was teaching full time. Granted I can not compare life now with a year ago. Hello silly, you have an almost nine month old little boy now. It takes time to nurse, feed, diaper, play with, snuggle, read to, and dance with JSL. Every so often when I am in a rush I stop myself to slow down and enjoy things. I will not get these moments back where he will laugh at anything and everything his big brother says and does. In a short time this sweet giggling and playing will be replaced with sibling squabbles and screams. Ah, the things to look forward to.

Yesterday after NHL came home from school we decided to do some craft time (other than Play Doh and coloring). I wanted the big guy to do something fun away from the television where I could feed the baby and also work on his fine motor skills. So we took out the beads that we bought the other day. The plan was to make some things for NHL to give as Valentine gifts for special people, but he had more fun designing a masterpiece, looking at it, dumping the beads off and starting over. Over the entire afternoon he went back and forth to the beads 2-3 times and played for over 2 hours (at least). This was a wonderful investment for my sanity!

While NHL was busy with this JSL gobbled up his favorite food, sliced carrots. He loves these and chatted away with NHL while eating and watching his big brother.

Meanwhile I was able to work on the magnets that NHL helped me to pick out the other day. Check these out, they are really neat.

I was also able to do a little mindless knitting. Here is what NHL’s camouflage scarf looked like early yesterday evening.

We had a nice afternoon together and with any luck it will continue today. If the ice is cleared up I may take the boys to Joann’s to get fabric for NHL’s flannel blanket that Madame Squishy Yarn Guru (aka Laura) graciously said she would make for him. Yesterday she told me they had some really cool Muppet flannel and when he saw a photo of it he wanted it (so did JL and I actually).

Categories:
brothers fun jsl knitting nhl photos sahm

Baby review of applesauce

Posted on January 8, 2008 5:33 pm by TheAngelForever

While we were visiting my in-laws I decided to try some natural applesauce with JSL. He is 7 1/2 month old and we have been increasing his food repertoire. He had only been given bananas, veggies, and several cereals up to this point.

JL and I both recalled NHL’s reaction the first time he had apple sauce. Here it is from March 30, 2004 when he was 7 1/2 months old:

As you can see he was not really a fan. When we tasted it, we agreed it was pretty tart for a little guy who had never really had much flavor.

So fast forward to January 1, 2008 when JSL is the same age and trying some natural apple sauce that Bubbe had in her house. Note – thanks to NHL’s reaction we had our camera ready for this:

Pretty obvious that this little money did not like this either.

*sigh*

When we mixed it with a little oatmeal he was able to eat it without the agonizing look from the second photo on the top. In addition to this he stopped gagging. Since that time he has been gobbling up applesauce that we have at home with his oatmeal for dinner.

Thank goodness NHL also changed his mine. He loves to go apple picking and eat anything and everything with apples in it.

Categories:
brothers jsl looking back milestone nhl photos

Sleep . . . the final frontier!

Posted on December 28, 2007 11:54 pm by TheAngelForever

We all had sleep last night. . . . WAHOO BABY!

Yes, you read that correctly. Even the teething baby slept through the night. He actually fell asleep on JL early. He went into his crib and only fussed twice early on. Both times a binky and tucking his blanket buddy under his arm to snuggle did the trick. So he basically slept from 7:30 to almost 7:00. Not too shabby.

When the boys woke up they came into our cloudy warm wonderland of fun flannel sheets.

NHL petting JSL’s hand:

And now a kiss:

A certain 7 1/2 month old was VERY serious. We have been worried since he just has not been his smiling/laughing self. Teething is just evil I tell you. Here is Mr. Serious:

Meanwhile Daddy is making funny faces and saying silly things. JSL thinks about smiling:

Yes Houston. . . we finally have a smile:

It was so nice to see that sweet little smile after the last few miserable days without it. Meanwhile a certain little person was devising his own plan.

Seconds later he went for a sneak tickle attack on his little brother. NHL knows that JSL is super ticklish on his neck if he kisses it. So that is exactly what he did.

I love my boys . . . all three of them!

Categories:
brothers jsl nhl photos sleep teething

It’s Pajama Time!

Posted on December 28, 2007 11:37 pm by TheAngelForever

What could be better than a day in the nice warm house, wearing PJ’s all day with my boys? Not too much more . . . unless JL was home from work with us.

Yesterday the weather was supposed to be nasty starting at about noon. ICK! The boys and I opted to just stay home and remain in our PJ’s. NHL is really enjoying the all day pajama parties. So much that he has claimed my body pillow as his new "sleeping bag" and taken it into his room at night.

*sigh*

At one point the boys were just sitting there together on the couch completely engulfed by Blues Clues. (NHL was watching JSL so mommy could use the facilities – teacher bladder only goes so far after two pregnancies). Here is how I found them when I came back:

Can you tell that they both really like Blues Clues? Heck, they both bobbed their heads to see the television when I dared to get in front of them to take more pictures. BOYS! Please note how "thrilled" JSL was with me taking his photo yet again.

NHL can get completely into a zone (like his Daddy) and ignore me. See, just like this:

JSL finally was able to get me to take one last photo. He decided it was time to wiggle off the couch. I snapped this one and quickly scooped him up since he does know how to back off already.

I hope to add a video later. Right now my big boy (JL) is sleeping and he can not help me to reformat it to put online. One of these days I will remember how to do it. For now I will blame it on Dora. I swear she is zapping my brain cells.

By the way. . . today we did get out of out PJ’s and left the warm house. Not to worry I took more fun PJ photos that I will share later.

Categories:
brothers jsl nhl sahm

Bonding brothers, car naps and birthday party fun!

Posted on December 24, 2007 11:10 pm by TheAngelForever

This part Saturday was a busy day. In the morning JL went outside to remove ice from the driveway since the temperature was going to get close to 45 degrees during the day. While he went outside the two boys were playing together. As mentioned before JSL loves to watch NHL and laughs at everything he does. NHL just eats this attention up.

Here are the boys hanging out on the couch together. NHL just loves to hug his little brother and JSL is tolerates SO much since he is a very easy going baby.

NHL is not the only one that tries to entertain. Here is the little guy trying to get his big brother’s attention. Instead of NHL laughing you can see JSL is the one about to laugh.

Can you tell the wheels are turning inside NHL’s head?

Please note who now likes a binky. JSL is trying to be shy while thinking about playing peek-a-boo with his buddy.

Soon after JL came in from outside it was time to get the boys ready to head to Chuck E Cheese. NHL decided that he wanted to go to his friend’s party that was there. Cool right? Well, we were a little hesitant because NHL is petrified of Chuck E Cheese. Still he wanted to go, so we opted to try it. Last time he went to a party there (over a year ago) he stayed in a corner in tears the entire time until we left. When we got in the car it quickly became very quiet. Here is how the boys looked when we got to Chuck E Cheese:

We decided to wake NHL up to head inside. BIG MISTAKE!!!! The kid was a mess. He had a full blown temper tantrum in the parking lot. I let JL go ahead while I told NHL to be a big boy and go in. He suddenly did not want to go inside where the costume would be. I practically dragged him inside. He immediately wanted to hide inside the bathroom. B’s mother knew about NHL’s fear. She told me that they promised to warn us when the costume would come out and it would only be out at cake time. We told NHL this and after a little while he eased into playing some games.

Getting him to the table (where the cake and Chuck E Cheese would later be) would be tricky, but he eventually went with JL standing nearby. As promised we told him when and where the costume would be coming and he was pretty calm. The poor birthday did not do as well. He was shaking and VERY upset by the appearance of Chuck E Cheese. JL and I were floored that NHL actually wanted to Conga around the place with the costume! At the end of the time NHL did not want to go. He loved it and kept talking about wanting to go back – WAHOO! Now I do not feel as bad about being a "mean mommy" – LOL!

Here are some sketches that we had made there using our tokens:

And here is NHL on a ride with Chuck E Cheese that takes a photo when you aren’t paying attention:

Now NHL keeps asking to go back – it looks like we may have created a monster. Mind you I reserve the right to wait and see if he goes in without kicking and screaming next time before I officially consider this a done deal.