Fun while it lasted

A few pictures of LT watching game 4 of the World Series. Of course, he won't remember any of it and doesn't even know that *his team* lost. Heck, he was asleep long before the end of the game (truth be told, I almost was too).

Saturday Morning Coffee

A few of the babies and their respective parents decided to get together at Tenn St. Coffee on Saturday morning (for some reason Kar and I have always called it T Street and I still think it's a better name).

Dylan and Ben, the men in Super Jamie's life, shown at left.










Shawn asked us if LT had been biting his lip. We said we didn't think he had but this picture (that Shawn took) seems to prove otherwise. And apparently I do it too. Who knew?






LT was in all his sports gear right down to his Nikes (not pictured). Kari said the outfit "wasn't really her" but I thought it was pretty cute.

The Z Man

No matter if they are hanging out in a bar or hanging out in Landon's crib watching the turtle toy together - LT and Z are starting to be inseparable. True, they hardly even acknowledge each other yet so the term "friend" might not be quite right but it seems like they are destined to be buddies. Besides, with all the little girl babies around (Maike, Mia, Joss, Sofi & Sofia) these two guys are going to need to stick together just to stay sane.

Mom & Baby

Hanging out on a Saturday morning.

Falling asleep early on a Wednesday night.


I am downstairs working right now and I can hear Landon crying (and has been for a while) and I know Kari is struggling but doing her best to comfort him. Pictures like these, and most of what I post, show the good, fun and easy times. And mostly it is just those good times but we have our hard moments too.

"You've got to just put that one up 'cause it's so cute"

Is what Kari tells me about this picture.

I agree.

Is Rocktober Over?

I've already admitted to being a fair-weather fan so it's ok for me and my family to watch the World Series on TV even though we didn't watch a single regular season game. At the end of the 1st inning of the 1st game of the world series and the Rockies are losing 3-0. It doesn't look good for the Blake St. Bombers at this point but maybe this cute little fan can help the cause?

Success!

(Editors note: this is now the *second* post by Kari. The first can be found here. That's two in one week! I better keep my day job...)I have taken Landon several times to baby and mommy yoga, only to be disappointed because he was asleep, or eating, or crying. It was always a waste of time it seemed. When Zack's mom Shawn called yesterday to see if I could watch Z for an hour during my normal baby
and mommy yoga time, I have to admit I was slightly concerned about having TWO babies, but nonetheless agreed to take them both to yoga. Two babies... yes, I was slightly overwhelmed with how it would all workout, but thought it would be alright. It turned out it was not only alright, but more fun than it had ever been. As usual, Landon cried a bit and then fell sound asleep on the mat for the remainder of the class. While I normally would just be sitting there bored while all the other babies were having fun with their moms, this time I could enjoy the class too! I could focus entirely on Zack who was laughing, smiling and having the time of his life doing baby bridge pose and getting massaged! It was a success!
As usual, I did not have the camera during the yoga class and therefore don't have very good pictures to support this blog entry, but Bri took a few when he and Albert showed up to help carry the boys out of class...

Baby's First Snow

The weather called for snow and we'd even talked about how we should take a picture and all that because it would be LT's first. However, we woke up this morning to some light rain and cloudy skies but no snow. A little later in the morning it looked like the rain had let up so we decided to take the whole family on a little walk. Turns out we walked right into the start of the snow storm - we weren't even a hundred yards from our house before the sky had opened up and the snow was coming down hard and wet.

Once around the block was all we could manage. Kari and I with our heads down and poor little Hailie with her tail between her legs and a look on her snow covered face that seemed to say, "Mom & Dad, why are you doing this to me?" Landon, all bundled up and under the canopy of his stroller, was just fine and even fell asleep. Bowen, of course, loved the weather and was disappointed when the rest of us cut the walk short and headed inside. I guess some family members are just tougher than others.

"I love dogs..."

"...but I don't think I like dogs that bite."

That's what the dog food delivery guy said to Kari as Bowen was trying to prove how tough he is by barking and jumping (to the guy bringing him his beloved food no less).

Kari told me this moments after we finished the last post and I just thought it was too funny not to share.

Looking at Bowen I can understand why the delivery man was nervous but just look at that big goofy dog - the only thing he's going to bite is his toy.

Thought I was making things easier...

(Editors note: this is the first post by Kari. For a while now Shawn and I have encouraged her to share some of her stories and she today she finally did!)With a new baby, we decided that it would probably be easier to have
the dog food we get delivered (being that we need 2 x 36 pound bags
each month). However, today may have proved that it is not in fact
easier. I called to order the food and instantly my card was declined
(only to find out after 20 minutes of being on the phone with the nice
gentleman with LT crying, that he had put in the wrong numbers!)
Problem solved, food would be delivered in 30 minutes time. In 30
minutes, I look outside to see the man pulling the first bag out of
the trunk of his car and decide to leave LT in his exersaucer and open
the door to help him. However, I had momentarily forgotten that Bowen
has to be tough and bark and jump when anyone is near our house.
Needless to say, as the man was opening our gate to put the bag of
food in the yard, Bowen jumped while barking quite loudly, nearly
escaped, scared the poor man to death and caused his younger brother
(LT) to begin crying hystarically... Getting everything under control
I was wondering to myself "maybe it would be easier to just go pick-up
the food after all...?"

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday Landon had his first trip to a pumpkin patch (mine too). It was a group trip that kind of took on a life of it's own and before we knew it we were all standing around in a dirt field in the cold with some pumpkins (and we didn't even need a pumpkin). The toddlers and younger kids around us seemed to be having fun but the consensus was that our babies were a little young to really appreciate to finer points of the full pumpkin patch experience. So we took some pictures...

Whenever I hold LT it seems like Kari manages to find another baby to hold.


Some babies enjoyed posing for pictures...

more than others.


Hey, my wife's holding another baby!


No babies were injured during the preceding photo series.


I think he's genuinely concerned about his brother.

And here's Kari with yet another baby.




After standing around in the cold for a while and taking all the baby with pumpkin pictures we could stand, we decided to take the party inside at a nearby Woody's Pizza.

Landon waited until Zach fell asleep and then went into high gear flirting with Mia. Kari called me over to see the little guy in action and I noticed she referred to him as "your son" again.

"35 Degrees and Still Sold Out"

Although technically I think it was closer to 40, "35 Degrees and Still Sold Out" was what the homemade sign a few rows in front of us said last night as the Rockies won game 3 of the NLCS in the rain and cold. One more win and they'll make their first ever World Series appearance.

To be honest, I'm not really a baseball fan. I like to say the reason I'm not a fan is because the games aren't that exciting and the season is way too long. Really though, it probably has more to do with my less than distinguished little league career that was marked by strikeouts and lots and lots of time in right field (maybe LT will be better than me).

I guess it makes me a "fair-weather fan" but how could we say no when Kari's parents generously offered us tickets to the game AND babysitting? To prepare for the weather we packed our bag with hats, gloves, jackets and even a waterproof blanket (made in Seattle where they know a little something about rain). Without thinking much about it, I also threw in two cloth diapers to wipe down our seats but it would turn out that they would be used for more than that. We sat in the cold and rain with 50,000 other fans and when everyone else would waive their white Rockies towels we'd waive our baby diapers. Even a night out without the baby isn't without it's little reminders of just how much the baby has changed our lives but that's exactly how it should be and I wouldn't have it any other way. So call us fair-weather fans (although I'll remind you that the weather was anything but fair) and I guess you'd be right but we rooted for the home team and really had a great time doing it. It's hard to argue with that.

Saturday Brunch

LT getting ready for a nice little Saturday.

Saturday brunch with Papa at Racines. I must say that my breakfast burrito was excellent!

Two more from Mass

Not only didn't Landon cry but he even smiled and laughed!

Rollin'

Landon's mom is crazy. But as it turns out, so is his dad.

For a few weeks now Kari has been telling me that LT has been rolling over more and more frequently. However, I hadn't see a full blown unassisted rollover yet - it's not that I didn't believe her but I just hadn't seen it. She really wanted me to see him do it and kept trying to facilitate the event while I was around. It got to the point where I accused her of being a crazy mom and told her to leave him be and that he'd show me when he was ready (I did this in a nice and joking kind of way - I'm not that big of a jerk).

One day I was doing tummy time with LT on his play mat and he finally rolled over for me a few times. Well, I got very excited and grabbed the camera to document the event. I also yelled to Kari and demanded that she come witness it all. Which, of course, she did and enjoyed it like any proud mother would. But then she pointed out that I was being just as crazy, if not more so, than she had been about the rolling over thing. Touché...

No!

Sunday morning we were leisurely having our coffee when Kari reached to attend to Landon (to clean a booger, reset a pacifier, clean some spit, or something of that nature) and accidentally spilled some of her drink. She grabbed the cup and in racing to clean up the mess she set it down right next to LT sitting in his Bumbo chair. I went to the kitchen to get some paper towels and on my way back to the table I noticed that Landon had grabbed the cup and was rocking it back and forth. Foolishly my reaction was to calmly but assertively say, "Landon, No!" as though he would understand me. In fct, rather than understand and heed my charge, he flipped the cup over and spilled the rest all over the table and floor just moments after the words were out of my mouth.

Reading the baby

I'm learning that the face LT is making above means that a change of mood is impending. It would be great if I knew *what* mood was coming but I haven't figured that out yet. I just know something is about to change.

And this time...


It's happy!

Early Halloween

After crashing everyone else's parties and play dates we finnaly hosted a little event of our own. On Sunday we had an Early Halloween / 4 Month Birthday Party for all the little ones. The weather was a little touch and go but it ended up working out - it wasn't too bad but chilly enough that all the babies were comfortable in their big fuzzy costumes.
LT dressed up as a dog. Is anyone really surprised?



For some reason this picture makes me think of when I was little and would watch the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin Halloween special every year on TV. Maybe Z is the Great Pumpkin? Or maybe he's just doing a great job of sticking his tongue out at me.


All the moms with their babies.

And all the dads taking pictures of the moms with the babies.

And, of course, all the babies lined up on their backs for pictures. For the record, Joss was the first to cry and Eric proclaimed themselves the winners as he picked her up.



Mia arrived fashionably late.


Kari commented that Sarah is very photogenic...


But it looks like Joss is the one in the family who knows how to work the camera.

The doggies weren't invited to the party and had to stay upstairs behind bars. Bo just hung out and Hailie cried most of time - sometimes I think she cries more than Landon.

Our living room looked like a day care center.


Parting shot of Sofi and her dad Mike.

Thanks to everyone who spent their Sunday afternoon with us and we hope you had as much fun as we did.