Its back!

My camera is fixed! I'm so thankful to have it back. Cruz does not appear to share my excitement. He did, however, get pretty excited when he ate his first french fry today. I guess that's something worth celebrating in his book.

Tooth Sighting!

This is not the best photo but I love two things about it SO much. 

The first is that you can see Cruz's first little tooth peeking out. So far, no others have made their appearance. The other thing I love about this photo is that you can see his chubby little thighs. He giggles so loudly when you squeeze them, which I do quite often. :-)

Family Night...

Warning: Proud Mama Post :-)

We had such a fun family evening tonight. We went out for a nice leisurely dinner. The boys behaved absolutely perfectly. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy a dinner out with two little ones! After dinner we headed over to a nearby outdoor mall. At 7:00 each night during the Christmas season it "snows" in the courtyard of this mall. They have a bunch of snow machines up above which pour down snowflakes. The flakes melt before they hit the ground. :-) Rowan was SO excited to see the snow. Rog showed him how to catch snowflakes on his tongue. It was so much fun. The boys were so well behaved even though it was past their 7:00 bedtime. I am just so stinkin' proud that they can be so flexible and adapt to new situations! It enables us to do a lot of fun things together.

Christmas Tree 2010

Everyone helped. Everyone had fun. The halls of the Baum house are officially decked.

Rowan playing with the Nativity.

Last December, when I was pregnant with Cruz, I remember looking at the 2nd shelf of stockings that only held Rowan & Cooper's. I remember thinking that three stockings was going to look way too cluttered on that one shelf. As I stood looking at the shelves today I wondered how on earth we ever got by with JUST two stockings on that giant shelf. Its amazing how quickly a new baby "fits" into your lives and makes it seem just like they were always there. 


Our Willow Tree Nativity set goes up on these shelves too, I just hadn't put it up when I snapped this photo.

Happy Thanksgiving

Roger, Rowan, Cruz, Cooper and I had a wonderful day together counting our blessings. Our day started out with pumpkin pancakes. Well, Rowan's and mine did.... Roger was still asleep. We had ham for lunch, watched some football and played a ton. Rowan even set the table all by himself.  While the boys napped in the afternoon, Rog & I played Trivial Pursuit. I am proud to say that I was the winner. Later in the afternoon Rowan and Roger put some Christmas lights up outside while Cruz and I baked brownies inside.

I didn't put in as much pumpkin as I would have liked but I'm pretty sure that Rowan would have refused to eat them if they were too orange. :-)

We played quite a bit today. We did a lot of puzzles and played with the boys' kitchen set.

;

Rowan set the table for us today. While it was a bit of a mess we ate with it just as he set it. He was such an excited, willing little helper.

I realized that I didn't get too many pictures of Cruz today.. he was asleep during a lot of our key activities. Here is one from a week ago.

These next photos are what it looks like to put up Christmas lights in 62 degree Arizona weather. Its definitely hats and coats weather around here. :-)

Thankful Thursday

**edited to add Rowan's Thankful Thursday at the bottom
Here it is.. how appropriate to post this on Thanksgiving! Keep your eyes open later on for a special Thankful Thursday by Rowan.

Rowan took all of the pictures for his Thankful Thursday post. He made a long list of about 10 things he wanted to "thank 'Desus' for" and picked three to take pictures of. He also typed the words below the pictures all by himself. I am so thankful for my big helpful boy!


cruz


milk


cars

Rowan's Bike

This is Rowan's early Christmas present from Grammy & Grampy. Its called a Strider Pre-Bike. It is basically like a small bike only without the pedals.  Kids use their feet to push themselves along. The goal of this bike is to help the child learn to balance so well that when they get a pedal bike, they can skip the training wheels completely. In the few days that Rowan has had this bike, his balance has improved immensely and he's going much faster. Eventually, he should be able to put his feet up on the footrest after he gets going and coast. I've seen a video of his friend Joey balancing and coasting on his Strider and he's not quite 3. Its pretty cool. 

Last but not least, a special video message for Grandma:

Early Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family yesterday. We had delicious dinner and lots of fun playing. Rowan & Cruz each got an early Christmas gift from Grammy and Grampy which they were quite excited about. I didn't get a lot of pictures since I was without my favorite camera but these were two cute ones that I did get. The video is of Rowan entertaining Cruz with his own version of Ring Around the Rosy while the adults cleaned up.

Thankful Thursday- Week 9

Here it is just a little bit late! I was super busy with my family here visiting that I hardly had any time to blog. Also, my beloved camera took a little spill and is in for repairs. A friend of mine from my photography forum, Clickin' Moms, lent me one to use in the meantime. Its a Canon instead of a Nikon but I'm looking forward to at least having one to use for the Christmas season seeing as mine could take up to 6 weeks to get back. Anyway, here it is, last week's Thankful Thursday:

*I completely butchered the spelling of "antibiotics." Sorry about that. :)

Thankful Thursday...

...will be a bit late this week! Meanwhile, here's our little cutie right after his nap yesterday!

Thanksgiving Boxes

Our church is collecting boxes of food to give to families in need for their Thanksgiving celebrations. Rowan and I went on a special shopping trip together to get the things on the list. I explained to Rowan that we were going to buy some food for little boys and girls who didn't have enough to eat. We talked about how when his tummy feels hungry he gets food to eat but that not all kids have enough food to fill their tummies. Rowan was happy to help me choose items off the shelf, throw(literally) them into the cart, and check them off the list. 

When we got home, I "interviewed" Rowan to see what stuck with him. Here's how it went:

Me: So Rowan, where did we go tonight?

Rowan: We went to "Wal Mert" to buy food for the big kids.

Me: Okay. Why did we do that?

Rowan: The boys hungry, Mama. They not have some at their house.

Me: What about the little girls? 

Rowan: Not the girls, Mama.

Me: Did you have a servant heart tonight, Row?

Rowan: Yep and a cheerful heart too. I not cry at "Wal Mert."

I think he got the gist of it.... for a 2 year old at least. :-)

First Tooth: 7 months, 1 week

Cruz's first tooth popped through this morning! Its the bottom, right tooth! Pictures to follow as soon as I can get one. :-)

Interesting Baum tooth facts:

-Rowan's first tooth was his bottom, left one.

-Roger got his first tooth at 4 months, I got my first tooth at 9 months and Rowan got his first tooth at 7 months and 1 day. So far, Cruz and Rowan are meeting milestones right at the same time!

-Two of Rowan's bottom teeth are fused together.

-Roger and I both lost or first teeth in 1st grade.

Thankful Thursday

There are couple of these I want to elaborate on this week:

Day 50: On Day 50 of my project my Mom turned 50 years old... I am so thankful for her and so are the boys.

Day 54: Cruz had hot wax spilled on his hand this week. It was super scary but thankfully he came away unscathed. His little hand is perfect! 

Day 55: Rowan and I had a little date to the facility where all of our garbage goes and it was so interesting to see. There is a lot of hard work and grossness (ha) that goes into collecting our trash each week. It made me very thankful for these workers!

Day 56: Our fridge has a glass front and this is the key to diet success around here. Every time I walk by the  fridge to grab something to eat I see myself in it. Usually that is enough to make me turn away... If I'm looking good, I don't want to ruin it by snacking! 

Quick Pic

I finally did a short photo shoot with Cruz and got a cute photo to print! Be watching your mailbox (in a couple weeks, haha).

Cruz Stands!

Yesterday we headed to the library to check out some books. Our library has a fun little kids corner with tons of puzzles, legos and a big giant wooden cube with beads and stuff on it. The cube was great because one side was low enough that Cruz could sit in front of it and play. Rowan and I were doing puzzles right next to him when I looked over to check on him and saw this:

Rowan was so excited and couldn't wait to tell Daddy that "baby Cruzy was standin' up!"

LIttle Miss S

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Happy Birthday, Grammy!!!!!


Love, Rowan & Cruz

Thankful Thursday

7 months (tomorrow)!

I am doing Cruz's 7 month post a day early because tomorrow is my Thankful Thursday post, plus I have one other special post to make.

7 months:

-You weigh almost 17 pounds

-You love to eat just about anything. You are a big fan of veggies, especially sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, squash and peas. You love the little Gerber Puffs and you are getting so close to getting them into your mouth by yourself.

-You get up on all fours and rock back and forth. You've taken a couple "crawls" but are not doing it consistently yet. You seem content to scoot around on your tummy.

-You are so social. You love other people, you love to smile at everyone you see, and you absolutely love lots of attention.

-You don't have any teeth yet but by the way you've been lately, I'm guessing one is just around the corner. Rowan was 7 months and 1 day when his first tooth popped through so you have two more days to keep up. :-)

-Even though its in your mouth in this photo, you don't LOVE your pacifier like your brother. You use it to sleep or chew on but it isn't as much of a comfort to you.

-You babble, squeal and screech all the time now. You definitely like to be heard. Rowan is already trying to teach you how to say "Rowan." 

-Your sleep schedule is glorious! You are in bed by 7 and then you wake up at 5:00 or so for a bottle and after that, you are back to sleep until 7:30 or 8.  

-The ladies in the nursery at Bible Study are amazed at how easy you are. When you get tired, you sleep, no matter where you are. 

-We love our family with you in it, Cruzy Emerson! 

Best Big Brother

There has never been a better big brother than my sweet Rowan is to Cruz. 

He graciously says "okay" if I ask him to wait on a request because I'm taking care of Cruz. 

He wants to make sure that Cruz has a clean diaper, food to eat and "shoes like me." 

He is the first one to run to Cruz's room when he wakes up from a nap and he sticks his little toddler fingers through the crib slats and talks to Cruz in a "baby voice" until I get in there. 

He points things of interest out to Cruz, such as garbage trucks or hot air balloons. 

When I pick Rowan up at pre-school, he runs over to the stroller to kiss and talk to Cruz. 

On occasion I've heard him tell the other curious kids in his class, "That's MY baby brother." 

He loves to do silly things to make Cruz laugh.

As you can see from this photo the devotion is entirely mutual.

P.S. I have no doubt that some brother rivalry is on its way. I see hints of it every now and then, however, for a 27 month old toddler, Rowan does a great job modeling love to Cruz daily. Can you tell I'm proud? :-)

Election Day

Here's Cruz exercising Roger's right to free speech. :-)

Let's Get Real

Hi, I'm Alison and I bribe my 2 year old to behave in the grocery store with a triple chocolate cookie. When we return home from said grocery trip, I don't always wipe his face or change his shirt because its almost bath time.... well, it is in three hours anyway. :-)