Could He Be Any Happier?

Happy Babies are awesome. Oh Liam, I love you!

Ode to the Dads

I'm sad to be a day late on this post. It's tough to find time to blog when you're the one doing the pampering, instead of being pampered! But I would be remiss if I did not take time to mention the men in my life that I am thankful for on Father's Day! So here's a short (and late!) Father's Day poem in their honor.

To Dob-Dobby, my own Dad!

A better Daddy was never had.
With your handy hands you fix,
But still have time for Iain's tricks.

For Dad P, my Dad in "law"
My second Dad, and a great Grandpa!
You do all you can for us,
And love us lots, without much fuss!

For my Grampy, I sure love you!
And Papa, gone on to Heaven too.
You've taught me many things in life,
About the long road of joy and strife.

For my brother, an uncle who's lots of fun,
A wonderful Daddy to a child soon to come.
You're the best, my "little big bro",
I hope you know that I love you so!

Two brothers-in-law, smart and great I see,
One fabulous Daddy, and one soon to be!
Two Uncles with love for two little boys,
To entertain, and play with toys.

One nice husband, a Daddy of two-
Without this man, oh what would I do?!
Adored by his sons, and his wife as well,
A wonderful Dad, he sure is swell!

Sure am thankful for all of these guys! And Dads? If poetry's not your style, I'll just wish you a "Happy Falker Satherhood" instead.

New Buddies!

It's been a rough few days Chez Pitman. With a sick little boy, complete with a fever, some barf and a couple of sleepless nights, we've been laying pretty low. I don't think we would have made it without these two pals. Iain has found a new obsession. We've read through our anthology many times, and checked out every other story the library had available! He never gets tired of them. Meet our new best friends: "Cure-dee-us George" and "The Man with the Yeyo Hat"!

All Growed Up

It's crazy. It's like Iain turned two and decided he was big. In the last few weeks, I'm astounded at the number of things he's done, tried and eaten without protest, fuss or complaint. Things that he'd previously decided he didn't want to do, was scared to try or wouldn't eat. He's back on the potty wagon, for one. (Although I'm not holding my breath on that one lasting!) Don't know what the difference is, except that we pulled out the green potty last night instead of the red one! Now don't get me wrong, he's still a two-year-old in any and all senses of the word! It has not been an "easy-breezy" few weeks! But I'm loving this cooperative, adventurous, up-for-anything side of him!

For instance: our fun neighbors (Thanks Candace and Michael!) participated in "Bike to Work Week" and got Iain this snazzy bike helmet. (They actually thought it would come in handy for his extreme-golf games!) But Iain refused to put it on! On Wednesday though, when we brought out his tricycle and I told him frankly that when we ride bikes we need to wear helmets, and he put it on without a fuss! He hopped on that trike and pedaled away to his heart's content! (Don't mind the grouchy face! He was concentrating! And don't mind the messy shirt...he'd just eaten a chocolate chip cookie in the 90 degree heat!)

And the eating! Oh the eating! Ever since I instituted "Operation Smoothie" about a week ago, he's been eagerly slugging one (or two or three!) back a day. We've had strawberry-blueberry, strawberry-banana, mango-blueberry, banana-mango and every flavor combination in between, and he loves them all! We've even been adding spinach for the last few days, and it hasn't made a dent in his enthusiasm. In addition, in the last week he's tried (and liked) watermelon, strawberries (minus the liked part on the strawberries!), quinoa, steak, mushrooms, bratwurst, salami, fruit popsicles, herbal tea, flax seed cakes, Laughing Cow cheese and a host of other things. I say "Try this Iain!" and he does. It's amazing! He even asks for (and eats!) carrots and apples with his lunch! I'm so happy that he's eating such a wide variety of food and getting so many good (and different!) nutrients! However, as you can see below, chocolate is still a food of choice for this boy!


And the little one? He's having a hard time with his teeth lately. He's been up in the night a couple of times, which is unusual for him, and he gnaws wet spots the size of basketballs on any fabric he can get his hands (gums!) on! It makes me so sad to see him fussy. I can tell that he's in a lot of pain, as he's generally never cranky. He's still a cutie little chubster though, and as we know from Iain, "this too shall pass"! As for being "all growed up"? Well, all of a sudden, he seems to think he's big enough to hold his own bottle!

Guess Who Came to Visit?

Deer with spots! Love them!!

(But stay outta my garden kiddos!)

Wowzers!

I guess that a lot of sun and a little bit of rain really do a beautiful garden make! Everything (and I mean everything, from asparagus to zucchini and every letter in between!) is popping it's little head up, just getting ready for us to eat! Love it! Here's a little peek, for Mom and Dad, who made it happen!

Sweet Summer

I think summer is finally here-in my mind at least! I know we've got a week or so until the calendar says it's official, but with the 90+ degree temps we've been having, it sure feels like summertime! We've spent the last week outside; barbecuing, bonfire-ing, taking walks, riding bikes (well...tricycles...) and sitting on the patio. It's been grand! And yesterday we were lucky enough to enjoy a perfect summer day. Here's what it entailed:

Lunch on a deck, with adults to talk to and good friends to laugh with! (Priceless!)

The first watermelon of summer...oh bliss!

Lots of fun pals to play with Iain to his heart's content!

(Thanks guys-he was asking about you all day today!)

A wonderful new friend for Liam.

Her name's Madisyn folks, and she'll be of babysitting age soon!
And she's awesome!

As if the day wasn't good enough already, we cooked up this fantastic summer dinner to cap it off. Buffalo chicken sandwiches, sweet potato fries and salad.
What more could a girl ask for?

A Tale of Two Brothers...

One is not as fat as we expected, and one is not as skinny as we feared! We took both boys to the Doctor yesterday, for their checkups, and they're both more "in the middle" than we thought.

Mr. Iain is about 27 lbs and almost 36 inches, which puts him in the 90th percentile for height, and the 75th for weight! He's such a skinny-minny that we were fearing he'd be about zero-th! However, since it's still not much more than the last time he was at the doctor, which was over six months ago, and considering the deficiencies in his picky-eater diet, we thought it was time to take action! So today I instituted "Operation Smoothie"! What a miracle-worker! Our boy, who has to be coerced to eat anything for breakfast, and who's never met a fruit or vegetable he likes gobbled down a full cup of smoothie! Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, OH MY! He's getting vitamins and nutrients he hasn't met since he was spoon fed! He ate another for lunch, and we're going to try mango-berry at dinner. I'm giving him about a week to enjoy them before I start sneaking in the vegetables. Who knows? Along with the gummy vitamins he gladly chomps every day, we may stave off the scurvy yet!

As for Mr. Liam, he's just over 18 lbs and over 28 inches. That puts him squarely above 95th for height, but only in 90th for weight! We thought he'd be off the charts, and are still surprised that there are 10% of babies bigger than him-although his wee cousin Calvin is one of them! Obviously there's not a percentile measurement for thighs, because Liam's would for sure be breaking records in that arena! And the good Doc gave us the go-ahead to start solids with Liam-he actually seemed surprised we hadn't yet, although he's just barely five months. He said that he seems ready, and thought it might even help with his spitting up. So rice-cereal is in our future, and the day he gets to eat real food will no doubt be Liam's best day ever!

It's always amazing to me how two brothers can be so different! They look different, they have different coloring, they're built different, their personalities are vastly different...! But they're brothers! And while Liam has looked at Iain with adoration for a few months now, Iain is finally getting to the point where he appreciates his little brother. He likes to play with him, help with him, make him laugh, show him things...It's really fun!

I'm glad to be your Mama, Little Boys!

F-U-N!

Not all of Mum and Dad's visit was work, work, work. We did have time for some fun in there! We celebrated Iain's birthday (twice!). We made lots of good meals, including some new things (Alton's from-scratch shrimp cocktail and seared tuna steaks!) and some old favorites (kebabs and steak au poivre, of course!). Dad and Neil went golfing a few times, and got to see the last two games of the Clark Cup Finals. Mum and I enjoyed pedicures (thanks Mik!!) and browsed around nurseries, garden stores and Target to our hearts' content, and the boys were just thrilled to have Grammie and Grampy here. But by the end of the trip, we all agreed it would be fun to take a little break! So we planned a fun Memorial Day Weekend getaway as the "last hurrah" of their trip.

Mom and Dad decided to take the "Lake Express" ferry home, which sails right across Lake Michigan, and cuts Chicago out of the trip. So we took off on Saturday for Milwaukee, with a stop on the way in Madison for breakfast, the Farmer's Market and browsing on State street. We stayed in a Staybridge, so we got to cook our own dinner that night (shrimp Alfredo pasta!) and didn't have to worry about dragging the boys out to a restaurant. We spent lots of time in the pool;Mom and I showed off our pedicures, Iain got to use his new "birthday snail" pool toy from Grandma and Grandpa, and Liam's swam for the first time! He took to it "like a duck to water"! He loved it! A lot more than Iain actually, although he was alright too once he got in, and both of them loved the hot tub! It was nice to just relax together. It was a great ending to the trip.

We were all very sad when we had to say good-bye to them on Sunday, and watch them sail off on their "big boat". It was a cold, dreary day, perfect for good-byes and moping, so after they were gone, we headed back to the hotel, took a nap, ate leftovers and went to bed early.

On our way home on Monday, we stopped at the Madison Zoo which Iain loved this time, as evidenced by the clapping and pointing in every picture he's in! Liam was not so hot on the zoo yet...and he was just plain hot, as it was the hottest day we've had this year. We went directly to the Pitmans for a Memorial Day BBQ, and it was fun to be able to be together...although we sure missed Stu and Becky and their crew. This was our first Memorial Day without them!

Here are some photos of the fun we had over the past few weeks!

Handy-Man Iain

Alton's Shrimp Cocktail-Made by Neil and Dad

Round Two of Iain's Birthday-with Mom and Dad P

Fun in the Pool!!

Saying Goodbye...

Memorial Day at the Zoo

All Worn Out...Drop the Apple...Hold the Guitar...!