guinea pigs!

my sister was pet sitting some guinea pigs, so during our visit we got to play with them. ethan called them rabbits for almost the whole trip and then finally called them guinea pigs. he fed them carrots and apples and even let one sit on his lap.

thanksgiving in maryland

we had wonderful trip back east for thanksgiving this year. my first thanksgiving home in 10 years!!!

the boys had a great time with their cousins and mee-maw and grampies. and i think miles ate more food in the 5 days we were there than he has in the past month back here. i guess being around all the older kids, i don't know, it just seemed like he was constantly eating and he was the FIRST to be at the table for thanksgiving. waiting with his two forks.

definitely glad we made the journey and the boys were actually pretty good on both of the flights. though i do think lance finally understands why i insisted on buying a ticket for miles last time i flew alone with the two. we were lucky enough to have a flight that wasn't quite full on the way out and had an extra seat that we were able to use for miles, so that really helped.

the boys shared a room again like they did the last time i took them home and they did really well. we even woke up to find ethan in the pack-n-play with miles a few times. very cute!

and i introduced my sister to the twilight saga...i needed someone else to talk about it with. :) i borrowed the first dvd from a friend and we watched that on saturday night and then she was ready to see the second movie on sunday. it had been a long time since we had seen a movie together, so it was really great to spend some extra time with just her. thanks to mee-maw and gramps for braving the kids by themselves...especially miles who is quite the tantrum-y little guy these days!

ethan and daddy!

hot chocolate!

finally a cold day in november. not that i haven't loved all the warm, really warm, weather we have had the past few weeks, it is just hard to get in that holiday spirit when it is 75 degrees out. a cool front came in earlier this week and this morning when we went outside to wave goodbye to lance, it was definitely chilly. perfect morning for some hot chocolate. ethan loved that he got to drink out of "mama's coffee cup!"

mama, i'm a rock star!

he had a little help from me with that saying, but after i told him he looked like a rock star, he just kept repeating it. he HATES the sun in his eyes, so i have been giving him my sunglasses for car rides and he loves them. we tried little sunglasses a long time ago and he wouldn't ever wear them. i think i need to see if i can find some kid-sized ones for him now though.

miles' favorites

this blanket was made by a friend of my mom's when ethan was born. i used it in his crib some when he was a baby, but he ended up liking a different blanket.

since miles was born in the summer, it was the perfect blanket for his crib since it is nice and lightweight. i didn't really notice until about a few months that he really loves it (that could also be because we swaddled him so long - okay, only 8 months, ha!) he reaches for it as soon as you lay him down in his crib and pulls it up to his face. he also begs to have it taken out of his crib each day so he can walk around with it and snuggle up to it on the floor. so, so sweet.

also, caught a cute picture of miles with his current favorite book: 5 (or 10) little ladybugs. he loves it. he will bring it to me, sit down in my lap and listen to it over and over and over. i am excited that he is interested in books this early. while ethan loves to read now, he wasn't interested until closer to two years old. there isn't much better than a little one (or two!) cuddled up in your lap listening to you read.

fall photos

we spent the afternoon at the park yesterday taking some pics of the boys in their new lovelucascreations shirts! a friend of mine makes these shirts and they are super cute and very creative.

the boys had a great time in the leaves and loved getting to explore the woods.

happy 15 months, miles!

yes, i know i missed 14 months...but hopefully these cute photos will help make up for it!

here is miles at 15 months:

he is VERY active these days. i am enjoying seeing him play more with his big brother. they are very cute together. and now that miles can walk, the two of them like to run and chase!

sleeping: it has actually been better since the time change! yay! we also ended up moving both of their bedtimes to 7:30-7:45 since being sick. i kept with it since it seems to be working well. we put him down at 7:30 and he usually plays in his crib for about 15-30 minutes and then sleeps until 5:30 or 6:30. then he will go back down for another 45 minutes to an hour. so much better than before!

routine: pretty much stayed the same. wakes between 7-8 with naps from noon-3. LOTS of playtime in between!

milestones: walking all over now and it is very cute! he can get up the stairs very well, but needs help coming down since he often tries to walk down like his big brother. he does fine on his own if he will crawl though. definitely getting closer to talking. he tries to repeat things we say. he understands A LOT even though he may not say many words.

some of his favorites:
food: cereals of all kinds! cheese sticks, lil' smokies sausages, pancakes, crackers. some foods he has tried lately, but hasn't been a fan of are fish sticks, green beans, scrambled eggs, mac-n-cheese.

fruit: watermelon, canteloupe, apples, red grapes, diced peaches and bananas.

veggies: still not a lot of luck here. i tried green beans again and he still doesn't like them. diced carrots are hit and miss. he does like corn and mashed potatoes. he is a little carb guy!

drink: now that we've figured out his medication dosage, he is doing well on milk. we are back to regular milk as the lactose-free didn't really seem to have any difference and he needed to be on his meds with it as well. we are in the process of weaning from the bottle. i didn't even try earlier with him since ethan had trouble early on...too much to worry about and a few more months with a bottle isn't really a huge deal. i found these green sprouts silicone bottles to ease with the transition, i started with the regular nipple and then just started with the sippy cup nipple for naps this week. hopefully he'll be on all sippy cups by the end of the month.

toy: he plays with the trains with ethan and is trying more and more to keep the trains on the tracks. he gets frustrated easily and will tear apart the track, but he is definitely starting to get the hang of it. loves the john deere tractors we have too. he wants them down from the shelf each morning so he can push around.

book: 10 little ladybugs he loves this book! grandmother and grandfather have the full book and we have the 5 little ladybugs mini book and he just loves to flip through the pages and gets so excited pointing out the different animals on each page.

activity: coloring. he loves to use crayons, pens, magna doodles, anything that he can draw with. ethan wasn't ever interested in coloring this early, so i am excited to see how it continues.

our jack-o-lanterns

and only a day late...

i had really wanted to do jack-o-lanterns this year, but with the costumes, i was so busy we didn't ever get to do it before halloween. but who will ever know, that we did it just one day late. we still had a good time just the same and they'll still look cute sitting on our front porch.

we went to grandmother and grandfather's house to do the carving. ethan definitely wouldn't touch ANYTHING inside the pumpkin and almost cried when i got my hands dirty and kept telling me to wash them off. it was quite funny! he did stay there the entire time we worked on the pumpkins and was very excited to see them lit up. i'm glad we ended up doing it even if it was a bit late!

and here is our finished product...