Pennsylvania

It's a beautiful, fall day today in Pennsylvania.

Boys will be Boys

One of Owen's favorite things to do is play tackle. He asks daddy to play tackle with him almost every day.... and daddy rarely says "no". I read somewhere that playing tackle and "rough housing" is a boy's way of bonding. :)
Now onto the other little guy... Adam.
He has this thing with socks. He LOVES to chew on them (don't worry... we are very careful that he does not choke). In fact, he will carry them around in his mouth while he crawls all over the floor. He looks like a little puppy. He even growls like a little puppy while he carries the sock around. Yesterday, we went out to lunch with my mom and I brought along a sock to keep him occupied. He was staring at two girls having lunch together with his sock hanging out of his mouth trying desperately to get their attention. He even waved "hi" to them and they still ignored him. I told him maybe it was his mullet. He's quite the little redneck these days with his funny looking teeth and now he's beginning to rock a little mullet. You know what they say, "Business in the front, party in the back!"
Oh well, he's the cutest little redneck I've every seen :)

Adam is 8 Months Old!

Dear Adam,

Today you are 8 months old! You are such a happy baby. In fact, today, you were fussy because you were hungry (pretty much the only time you cry), and daddy told you that even when you are fussy you are still a little happy. I tell you all the time that you are "my sunshine" because you have the best smile and such a joyful personality.

Here's what you are up to at 8 months old:

- You still wear size 3 diapers. You are wearing mostly 12 month clothes.
- You have 4 and a half teeth. One tooth is on its way out.
- You are sleeping through the night, for the most part, FINALLY!
- I am not sure how much you weigh, but I am sure you are close to 22 lbs. which means you will be moving out of your infant car seat very soon.
- You are still not a great eater. You do not like baby food. Tonight I gave you some home made mac-n-cheese and you loved it! You also tried Cheerios and loved them! You are still working on your pincer grab so I have to help you eat the Cheerios right now. You've started chewing with your back gums.
- You crawl on all fours and you are very fast!
- You can pull yourself up to a standing position and cruise from one piece of furniture to another.
- You love to get a bath, but you are a wild boy in the tub. I wish I was an octopus during bath time. I am exhausted afterwards!
- You are such a lover and a good snuggler. On Sunday, when I went to get you in the nursery after church, the one lady working there said that you are such a lover.
- When we go places, you get so excited when people talk to you. You are a very social baby.
- You love when we read to you. The other day I got you out of your crib and asked you if you wanted me to read you a book and you turned around and looked right at your basket of books on your bedroom floor. Your favorite book is "Clang, Clang! Bang, Bang!".
- Your brother is your favorite person. The two of you have started to "play" together. Owen is always crawling around on the floor with you. He's the best big brother and loves you so much! He sings a song to you that I made up and part of it goes, "Adam Woburt is such a tootie." (Adam Robert is such a cutie). It is adorable to hear Owen sing that to you.
- Your favorite pastime is shooting raspberries. I usually have to sing to you to get you to eat any baby food and recently, instead of opening your mouth to eat, you just start shooting raspberries at me.
- You say, "Ma" for mommy and "Ba" for bottle and I think you have your own word for "Owen" because you say it every time you want to get his attention.
- You can wave "hi" and "bye".

Happy 8 Month Birthday sweet boy!
Love,
Mommy

Look Out Martha Stewart

That's a joke. However, I do have a crafty new obsession and I am usually not a very crafty person. I love scrapbooking because I love picking out the background paper, but other than that, I am not very good at it. I absolutely love fabric and all the different colors and patterns, however I can't even sew a button. True story. In fact, whenever Mike needs a button sewn on his pants he has my mom do it.

I decided to try to make monogrammed T-shirts. I got the idea from my cousin, Kate, who made some cute things for our boys, and from another blogger who makes adorable shirts for her five kids. I first tried it with some Thomas the Train fabric I had at home and it turned out pretty well. I made an "O" shirt for Owen and an "A" shirt for Adam. While I was looking for fabric at the store I found some really cute, girly fabric, so I made an "S" shirt for Samantha and an "E" shirt for Ella. Then, I started to get a little carried away and made two more Halloween shirts for the boys. Now I just need to borrow my mom's sewing machine to stitch the borders and they are finished! Here they are so far (without the stitching). I think Owen's short sleeved shirts will be cute over a long sleeved shirt. I can't wait to make some for Christmas!

What We've Been Up To

I haven't blogged in a few days, not because we've been terribly busy, but because I did not have too much to talk about (for once). Another reason is sleep. For the past week I have been sleeping a lot during the day. I've been napping whenever Adam naps to try to catch up on some sleep. I've been sleep training Adam this week and while he's made so much progress, there were a couple nights where I did not get much sleep. I wrote all about it, but I don't know if I will post it or not. So instead of blogging or going on my computer during his nap time, I've been sleeping!

Since Owen is only really home with me all day on Monday and Friday I look forward to those days with him. As nice as it is to have a break and only have Adam at home with me a few days, I miss Owen when he is at Linda's all day or with Papa. I had planned to take the boys to the Manheim Farm Show on Friday, but with my lack of sleep and not wanting to mess with Adam's daytime sleep schedule, we hung out at home. Owen enjoyed sorting things and looking at things with his magnifying glass. We did a little "school" time too. He practiced writing numbers and finding certain shapes.

Nana Way came and stayed with the boys last night so Mike and I could go on a date! We went to Trattoria Fratelli, one of my favorite places to eat. It was so nice and relaxing. We had a great time! We put Adam to bed before we left so Owen had Nana Way all to himself. They baked chocolate chip cookies...Owen's favorite :)

This morning we all headed over to Levi's Run. Levi and Owen are daycare buddies and Levi has muscular dystrophy. This is the second year they had a 5K race to raise money for Levi. They also have a one mile fun run for the kids which is what Owen and Mike did. We did not do the 5K this year since Mike just ran the Hershey Half last weekend and me, well, I have not run since my half marathon last month! I really want to, I just have not had the time. Hopefully now that Adam is sleeping through the night I will be able to wake up early and go for a morning run. That's my favorite time to run. Owen did GREAT! He ran the entire mile. I was very proud of him and as he ran toward the finish line I was cheering for him and I must have either scared him or embarrassed him because he started crying and completely stopped running right before the finish line. After a little pep talk from daddy, he got back out there and ran through the finish line.

Here's Levi with his grandpa, mom, and brother crossing the finish line after the 5K.
Adam is getting so many teeth and I don't think they are coming in in the "correct" order. Mike calls him our little Jack-O-Lantern. He also says he looks like a hockey player. Poor guy. I tried to take a picture.

Wordless Wednesday

Hershey Park and Hershey Half

Yesterday, before we went to the pumpkin patch, we drove up to the Hershey stadium to pick up Mike's half-marathon pack. Every runner was given family passes to Hershey Park for that evening from 6:30-9pm. Paige was home for the weekend and Mike offered to watch the boys so Paige and I could go to Hershey Park. Alone. Without kids. I have been dying to ride the rollercoasters and haven't been there in many years.

We had Ella over to play while Paige was at a baby shower Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately this was the only picture I took. Poor Ella has a pink cast on her right arm. Later, I picked Paige up and we drove to Hershey Park. We looked like idiots running all through the park, but we didn't care. We were determined to ride all the rollercosters we could. It was amazing! There were a few times I thought I might die, especially on the Fahrenheit. Obviously I was not able to take my camera along. I wish there was a way to see the pictures of us that were taken on each rollercoaster. I bet they'd be funny! We had a great time and it was nice to get out for a little while. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a pain reliever or muscle relaxer when we left the park! Although, surprisingly, I am not that sore today.

This morning, we got up bright and early to go watch Mike run in the Hershey Half Marathon. It was a little chilly and windy, but lots of sunshine. Mike did great, despite the fact that he said he "has never been so unprepared for anything in his life". He only ran about 5 times since our Harrisburg Half Marathon last month. He finished the race in 1 hour 37 minutes (110th out of 2000 runners!). That's about a 7 and a half minute mile. Pretty good for feeling so unprepared! Luckily, Nana Way was able to go along to help me with the boys.

The Pumpkin Patch

Fall is my favorite season for many reasons. I love pumpkin scented candles, sweaters/sweatshirts, jeans, watching the leaves change color, cooler temperatures, raking leaves and then watching Owen jump in them, turning on our pellet stove, and mums. However, my favorite thing about fall is going to pick pumpkins and that's what we did today! It was a gorgeous, fall day... perfect for a hayride and pumpkin picking.
The sun was bothering Owen's eyes so he was not that cooperative for a picture.

The hayride wore Adam out!

More Firsts

This week Adam started "cruising". He pulls himself up to a standing position and is able to take some steps while he holds on to the couch, train table, toy basket, or whatever he used to pull himself up. He's still very wobbly and almost once a day he falls and hits his head pretty hard on the floor. He cries and cries, but after some snuggles and his "nunner" (pacifier) he is good to go again. I don't get much done during the day because I am always close to Adam trying to make sure he doesn't fall or get into something he shouldn't. It seems the minute I walk away he falls and bumps his head or gets into something he is not supposed to!


Adam has also started to wave "bye-bye". We've been working on it when people leave and for the past few days when he would get up from his nap, I would take his nun out of his mouth and put it back in his crib and we would wave "bye-bye" to the nun. Today he waved "bye-bye" all by himself!

Adam is slowly starting to eat a little better. He does a good job with breakfast and will usually eat all of his oatmeal mixed with some sort of fruit. He likes a few other foods, but it takes him a couple days to finish a jar of baby food. He does best if I sing to him while I feed him. One of his favorite songs is "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas". I like when Owen is here to help sing because it can wear on me after a while! Adam LOVES rice rusks and would eat 6 a day if I let him. Thankfully I found the veggie kind. We are surely keeping the rice rusk company in business!