Daddy Time!

 I'm sitting here in the office/living room this Saturday morning doing some law-work while Jamesie sleeps and Sean and Cody are shooting hoops in the other room.  Its a peaceful morning with our windows open and cups of coffee a plenty. To top off our domestic bliss this morning I just heard Sean say, "Its Daddy time!  Its Daddy and Seannie time!"

Daddy and Seannie time last weekend making pancakes.  Meanwhile James tries to read the letters on the fridge, and ...

displays the only way he's willing to move-- a little bum-spin-- he can get going for a good 360 spin pretty quickly, but not willing to try a scoot forward or backward.

Lunch with John Cougar Mellencamp

One of Sean's most frequent questions throughout the day (there are many) is "What this song about?"  Every song that comes on the iPod or the radio garners this question.  I've noticed some common answers: "A man who loves a lady very much," or "Jesus."

Listening to some tunes (*we have not downloaded new music on to our iPod since approximately the days of Napster and WinAmp skins*) at lunch yesterday when Sean started this conversation:

Sean: What's this song about?
Erin: A boy and a girl.  Listen, you'll hear their names.
Sean: Its about Jack and Diane!
Sean: Who made Jack and Diane?
Sean: God made Jack and Diane.  (yes the last 3 lines are all Sean--he has little convos to himself.)

Sometimes his question requires a little creativity on my part to honestly answer in a G-rated way.  Still on the same album that the above song came from:

Lyric: "I need a lover that won't drive me crazy...someone to thrill me, and then go away...I need a lover that won't drive me crazy... someone who knows the meaning of 'hey, hit the highway'"
Sean: What this song about?
Erin: Hmmm... umm.... a lover.   A man who wants a lover.  A man who wants a wife.  The man is looking for a wife to love very much.  A man is a husband and a lady is a wife.  A daddy is a husband, and a mommy is a wife, and that is what a lover is."
Sean: Mommy is a wife?

I can only imagine me trying to explain a few other "big" questions in the next few years.

February 2011 Snapshot

What are we...
Reading:
Cody: One of Ralph McInerny's Notre Dame mysteries, plus The Virtue Driven Life.
Erin: After seeing the brilliant movie, I picked up the 7th Harry Potter book again to refresh myself on all the things the movie left out and to get ready for the last movie coming out this summer.
Sean: Little Blue Truck and 15 Animals (by Sandra Boynton, whom we love).  I should note that he loves reading in his tent outside most days, and cannot go into the tent without at least 2 books and an adult to read them to him.
James: Seems to enjoy listening to us read, but is more interesting in eating the pages, which greatly stresses out Sean.

Eating/Cooking:
Cody and Erin: Tonight, a chicken and brocolli calzone, using the Publix pizza dough for the first time.
Sean: Has been gobbling up his chicken and veggies lately at dinner.  Requests to drink "apple tea" most afternoons, and has a newfound love for Yo Baby every day at lunch when he sees his brother eating one. Also, he was so so so cute when he asked his GG to take him to "Gunkin' Gonuts" (after he saw a commercial--darn marketing!) that she complied, and he now asks to do that nearly every day.
James: I am most proud of this category.  Jamesie has had some issues gaining weight lately.  We just could not break the 20-lb mark, and as he got taller and taller and older and older, his weight percentile dropped-- a lot.  At his 9-mo appointment he was 95th% in height, and 25th in weight.  Nothing drives a mother into high gear like seeing her baby's weight percentile drop.  So, young James has been enjoying rotisserie chicken, his grandmother's beef brisket (both in the blender), whole milk yogurt, cheese, toast (with a lot of butter), at least an avocado a day, and, as the doctor instructed me, anything he'll eat.  I am a mother on a mission, armed with protein.  He completely gave up breastfeeding a few weeks ago, and I don't feel too too bad since he's not really interested in a bottle either.  His liquid feedings are usually a battle, but he is into solids, so i'm pushing protein, calcium and fat, big time.  AND...... one month after his 9 mo appointment he weighed a staggering 20 lbs, 14 oz.  YEA Jamesie!!!  He is supposed to gain a pound a month between 9 and 12 months, and we are off to a great start (he was 19lb 1 oz at the 9-mo). 

Talking About:
Cody and Erin: a far-off dream of opening Groeber & Groeber Law Office one day.  One day.  We're also talking about the luxury of owning a mini-van-- one day.
Sean: Every morning he asks the following:  "Its Wednesday?"  "What we doing today?  What we doing after breakfast?  What we doing after playing? What we doing after lunch? What we doing after nap?  What we doing after dinner?  Where are we going today?  Who is here today?"  Also, as many children go through a "why" phase, Sean's is a "what for" phase: "What's this?" "A wine opener."  "What's a wine opener for?", or "what's a warthog for?" "what's mommy's sweater for?" "what's the strings on mommy's shoes for?" "What's a crayon for?" "what's Jamesie's shoes for?" etc, etc, all -day-long. 
James:  FIRST WORD THIS WEEK!.... drumroll........a-ball! We are so proud.  Cody also taught him "shoe" this morning, and his Ma-Ma is pretty clear when I come into the room.  So sweet. 

Thankful For:
Erin: Work. (I'm still home full time, but do a little bit of work for my old boss, from home.  Even just a few hours a weeks helps out tremendously, and I recently discovered, after several months of being unsure, that I do like being a lawyer still).
Cody: tackle-time with Sean at night, reading stories at night, telling Sean stories about Jesus at night, and giving Jamesie his early morning bottle the last few days.  Oh, and after staying home to take care of sick mom and Jamesie two days last week, I am confident that Cody is thankgful that he works full time, outside the home. 
Sean: Sidewalk chalk, baseballs, tennis balls, footballs, soccer balls and softballs.
James: A Ball.

Milestones/Accomplishments:
Erin: I made my first appearance in the South Carolina Supreme Court this month. A case I have been working on since I got out of law school made its way up there, and I got to go help Peter argue.  I didn't acutally argue at all, but I consider the brief in front of the Justices my seminal piece of work in my short full-time lawyering career, and I was very proud of it.  It was an awesome experience, one of the reasons I can say I still like being a lawyer.  We don't find out the Court's ruling for months, but I thought the oral arguments went very well.
Cody: Was assigned a very high-profile case at work the other day.  Of course I'm always proud of him.
Sean: I have four words for this little genius: My-baby-can-read.  Sean has known his letters and their sounds for months, but just this week he really got the hang of putting the letters together (I want to recommend Leap Frog's Letter Factory and Word Factory DVDs--amazing). The first words he strung together? C-O-D-Y...c-o-d-y, co-da-ee, it says Cody!  M-O-M, m-o-m, maahhh-m maahhhhm, it says Mom! He can also do CAT and BALL. 
James:  Breaking the 20-lb barrier and saying his first word! We are movin and groovin over here!  Except the movin' part--still no crawling or scooting or pulling up yet.

That's all for now, enjoy the update!

The boys in their first fort-- I have a feeling there will be many more of these in the futre.

Two brothers reading. 

 

I'm Like Jamesie, Jamesie, Jamesie, ooohhhhh

If you've been anywhere near our family at any point in the last 6 months, you've undoubtedly heard this modified Justin Beiber tune.  Even Sean sings it now.  Despite the overwhelming number of pictures and stories about Seannie on the blog lately, we really are in love with Jamesie around here.  Here are some stinkin cute pictures of the little boy:

Our little man! I love the sunlight streaming through his right ear--classic.

Nakie baby on the kitchen table.  He's getting chubby, right?

Our peaceful babe with his Aunt Aubrey Anne.  We were lucky to have Aub here this week in between her 4-month adventure in Europe and her 6-month adventure on a sailboat in the bahamas.  Yes, I'm serious.

Mind your P's

I've been meaning to do a post about Sean's speech patterns lately but haven't gotten around to it until now.  He's so darn cute learning to speak the way adults do.  There are some predictable patterns and rules that can help you interpret his 2-year-old language, such as, L is often pronounced as a W ("where's Seannie's gwasses?," "Daddly weft us here"), if a word starts with an S-consonant combo, the S becomes silent ("that is a red 'quare," "a 'nake says 'ssssss', "Seannie see a 'quirrel, Seannie see a cool-bus), R's also often become Ws ("that is a wectangle"), or a sort of high-pitched I sound (his new favorite animal is a "woit-hog").  Sometimes its as easy as phonetically pronouncing something your self to see that his pronounciation isn't really that far off-- "Hah-gog" really does sound a lot like "hot dog,"  our rushed version of "Donald Duck" probably sounds a lot like "Gonald Guck" (btw, we have a McDonalds at the end of our street which is now "McGonald Gucks"), dow-sairs is "downstairs,", etc-- once you say his version out loud you realize it sounds just like our version, we just have the benefit of being able to read what letters are involved instead of just trying to repeat phonetically.  And of course in the rules of Seannie's grammar, "You" almost always means "I."  That one often throws guests for a loop.  ("Aub play with you?  Daddy 'wift' you out of your booster seat, Mommy get you more milk.") I can only imagine what our 14-year old babysitter was thinking the time she heard Sean crying from his bed, went into his room and he said "Change your diaper?"

Lately he likes to "do jumps" on the couch before bed, or shoot hoops with Cody ("Slam-dump!").  When Cody tells him he can do 2 more, Sean's newest reply is "Compromise at 3?"  He likes following our conversations and telling us what we're talking about, e.g., "Mommy's talking about a judge!," but when he can't quite figure out the conversation he'll interupt us and say, "What we talking about?"  Every morning he greets us with, "Its Wednesday?"  In hopes that it will be wednesday, because that's the day he gets to see garbage trucks.  Sadly, 6 out of 7 days we have to tell him, "no, sorry, its not wednesday."  He's gotten so used to hearing that now some days he'll say, "It's Wednesday?  No, its not wednesday, its..... it starts with a S? Its Saturday?" 

Sean loves learning about the Presidents.  He now knows "George Washington, John Adams, it starts with a T, Thomas Jefferson and Jamesie Madison" from the beginning, and from the end, "Obama, George W Bush, (skips Clinton), His Dad, (skips a few more) and Nixon." (One time I saw him put a president flashcard in Jamesie's face and say "That's Nixon, Jamesie.") No matter what order you point to George H W Bush, his name is "His Dad."  When we listen to the news in the morning Sean is often quick to point out "That man's talking about Obama!"

 One of my favorite things he does is change the first syllable of a word he's not quite comfortable with yet to start with P.  Why P?  I have no idea.  For instance-- here are some of our favorites:

"Tomorrow" becomes "Po-morrow."
Ms. Teresa, a good friends of ours is now "Ms. Po-resa"
After we check out at Costco Sean asks to hold the "Po-ceipt,"
His favorite animal at the zoo was the "Po-graffe,"
A tomato is a "pomato" which is confusing sometimes because a potato is often also a "pomato."
*Update*: Sean just reminded me of his Curious George story in which workers are taking choco-wats off of a "po-chine."

Of course there are more -- beyond adorable things he picks up and says every day, which are so so so cute I'll never forget them, yet I do, usually by the end of the day.  Its so amazing to see and hear exactly how his mind is working (he rarely keeps thoughts to himself and likes to report nearly everything around him) and learning.    Things he used to say so often I thought I would never forget I already have, a reminder that he's growing up far far too fast.  Now that you've had this Seannie-grammar tutorial, please come visit us and see if you can interpret!

Boo-yah

Catch up

Like I said, we've been pretty sick around here this week, so i have a lot to update from the last few weeks.  Jamesie had the flu, but it only lasted a day or two, and both of the little guys are on tamiflu right now.  We thought I had the flu, but when things got progressively worse about 5 days in I finally dragged myself to the doctor to confirm my hunch that it was pneumonia. Wow, does pneumonia stink!  I left the house for the first time (save 2 doctors appointments) in about 6 days today, slept 16 of the last 24 hours, yet I have no energy for anything.  However, a few days of anti-biotics have me feeling a TON better than I did 48 hours ago.  On Wednesday night we knew things were getting bad as I was having trouble sleeping b/c I couldn't stop coughing.  Thursday morning I sort of panicked when I couldn't breathe very well and Cody was getting ready to go into trial.  I called him home and luckily the solicitor called a different case to trial.  Cody was great and has been Mr. Mom for the last 2 days.  After I went to the doctor to get the drugs on Thursday my dad called to remind me that my great grandfather died of pneumonia, so be careful. 

About 2 weeks ago before all this set in, we had a wonderful time hosting the Reetzs at our house for a few days while they came back to SC to close on their house.  Sean LOVED having Greta and Xavi at our house.  The saddest part was when we pulled up to our house on about the 3rd or 4th day of the visit and Sean said "Seannie lives here.  And mommy and daddy and Jamesie, and Mr. Paul, and Gretchen and Greta and Xavi."  He thought they lived with us.  :(.   Here are some legendary pics of the little guys having a ball together:

Bedtime stories and prayers with Greta every night.  Sean was in heaven.  We actually tried to have them bunk together in Sean's room, but Greta wasn't quite used to a big-girl bed, and knowing Paul, we've now missed the only opportunity for a co-ed sleepover with these two.

A common theme of the weekend was Sean feeding Greta-- I guess its his way of showing affection.  Another common theme was sean eating all of Greta's leftovers, which was usually any kind of meat.  So Sean had two hot dogs, two servings of meatball, two servings of chicken nuggets...etc. 

Look mom, I found a chubby baby on the couch!

The three amigos ride again.  Greta, Gabe and Sean enjoying a nice evening together.

A nice evening which included about an hour of ring-around-the-rosy, which used to be a favorite when they were all babysat together.  So sweet.

Baby hangover the next morning from a long night of ring-around-the-rosy.

More reading with Cody.

Playing at the park with Greta

These two are all ready for church ...

...or the prom.

Happy. 

We apologize for the delay...

We've been hit by the sick bug this winter!  Jamesie had the flu this week (despite having a flu shot in December), and we thought I had the flu, but after it turned worse after 5 days, the doctor thinks it is pneumonia now.  I've done little more than sleep this week.  When I get back into the swing of things there will be cute pictures, I promise.