My Sweet Baby

When Rowan was approaching his first birthday I don't remember feeling particularly sad that my baby was almost a year old.  Maybe it was because I was so excited about the unknown big boy things ahead, maybe it was because I knew that his baby brother was already on his way, or maybe I just didn't really understand how quickly he'd grow after that. Whatever it was, Rowan's first birthday did not bring me to tears just thinking about it. Cruz's birthday is a different story. Every time I think about that fast approaching milestone I tear up. I was looking through all of his photos today preparing for his birthday slideshow and I had to stop because I truly have no idea how he's just about eleven months old already. I am going to treasure this last month of Cruz's babyhood and that includes sneaking into his room, watching him sleep, and snapping a quick photo so that I will always remember. 

Nascar

Roger and I got to go to our first Nascar race today and the experience far exceeded my expectations. We went with our friends Justin & Renee. Through work, Justin has some amazing connections and was able to score "hot" passes for us. With these passes we were right down on the track and were able to walk near the cars, their pits and the garages. Apparently, our tickets were a Nascar lovers dream! They were pretty cool and even I will admit that the sound of all those revving engines is pretty exhilarating. :)

All of these photos were taken on Roger's iphone:

Jeff Gordon's car before the race started. We were seriously that close. He ended up winning the race.

Apparently the Phoenix International Raceway is a fairly safe track however there was a big nine car wreck today. We were able to stand back by the garages as they brought the beat up cars back to be fixed.

We were able to get really close to the track. The cars behind Roger are actually racing.

This video was the most interesting thing to me all day. Apparently car racing is slightly more complicated than just driving in circles for three hundred and some laps. :) In this short video one of the cars was refueled and got all four tires changed. I was amazed at how quickly they were able to do this. If you click on the four little arrows on the bottom right of the video it will make it larger.

We were so thankful to have this experience today and so thankful to spend it with friends. Rowan sang The Butterfly song in church today. I don't have any photos yet but that's a story I'll tell tomorrow. :)

Brothers 9/52

Another Cruzy!

This precious picture almost got deleted with the rejects. I'm so thankful that it did not. Tonight I was looking at the Social Security names database and in 2009, Rowan was the 336th most popular boys name and Cruz was ranked 346. How weird is that??? Also, several of the other names on our list were in 300-350 range. Apparently we are consistent on how unique we like our children's names to be. :)

Photos

We've been stuck in the house the last week since the boys haven't been feeling well and I've been feeling a little bit crazy. Nothing relaxes me or cheers me up though quite like taking photos of the boys... especially with my 85mm lens which is absolutely amazing! I owe my father in law big time for the Christmas gift card that bought me this little gem. :)

Thankful Thursday

I snatched the photo from day 157 from my Aunt Jill... Hope that was okay. :)

Tub Time

A month or so ago Cruz was going through a phase where he hated baths. If we got anywhere near the tub he would immediately start screaming. I tried putting the boys in the big tub in our bathroom instead of the smaller tub in their bathroom to see if it would make a difference and it did! The boys are loving their baths in the big tub these days and I am so grateful that bath time is no longer a fight.

Brothers 8/52

Check out the agony on Rowan's face because he had to share his trains with his brother. This sums up our week last week perfectly. 

The Butterfly Song- Rowan style

Rowan's class is singing The Butterfly Song in church next Sunday so, like the wonderful mother that I am (ha), we've been practicing the song at home over and over. Lately, however, Rowan has become excessively silly so instead of actually practicing the words and actions, our rehearsal time looks more like this.

Thankful Thursday

Day 148: Check out the lump on the left side of Rowan's forehead... it was golfball sized!

Day 150: One of us ate steak and one of us ate sushi. Can you guess?

Pre-School Party

Rowan's Thomas Valentine's were attached to a little baggie with a piece of candy and a train shaped crayon!

Rowan worked hard at gluing candy hearts, sequins and some other things onto a big paper heart.

Rowan loved his Valentine's Day shirt. :)

Brothers 7/52

Happy Valentine's Day from our little "love bandit." Cruz truly has stolen our hearts. :) I'll post a picture of Rowan in his shirt after he wears it to his Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow.

Little Stander

Cruz has started standing on his own for longer intervals. He does it best when he's distracted otherwise he pretty quickly drops to his knees to crawl away. Here he is hanging out with Grammy and the (clean) snot sucker tonight. 

Thankful Thursday

** Just in case you're interested, a grey card helps you to correctly set the white balance in your camera regardless of how gross the lighting is (think florescent gym lights). This made my job SO much easier when I edited 80 photos of kids and their dad's after Dad's Night.

**We got a really nice high chair when Rowan was a baby but I dislike it a lot. It gets SO gross and is extremely hard to clean. Both Rowan and now Cruz smeared nasty, sticky stuff all over the chair, the straps and the fabric seat. If I'd know then, what I know now, I would never have registered for a high chair but would have gone straight for the booster seat. Its practically like a high chair since it has a tray and everything. Its better though because it takes up less space since it sits on a chair, the tray is smaller and much easier to clean and the whole thing is plastic so it doesn't have as many cracks for food to get stuck in. Also, if it gets super nasty, we can just hose the whole booster down. You have NO idea how much quicker this thing makes after dinner clean up. I even got braveenough to give Cruz spaghetti last night. :)

"Daddy's Building"

Last night was the Grand Opening for one of the construction projects that Roger managed. He asked me if the boys and I wanted to come along. This particular project was a really cool looking Performing Arts Center at a high school in Buckeye, AZ. I always enjoy seeing Roger's projects and I know he loves showing them off. I find it amazing that on what started as a bare piece of desert, is now a gorgeous building. I find it even more amazing that Roger actually knows how to manage something like that, hehe. :) Anyway, the boys behaved fairly well through a couple loong speeches and a high school band performance. We hit up Mc Donalds on our way out of town. Rowan was thrilled to eat a late dinner and play in the play land well after his bedtime. 

There wasn't a great spot to get a full shot of the building but I managed to capture a beautifully lit corner. We are so so so thankful for Roger's job.

We've Got Mail!

The other day at Target I saw these adorable little mailboxes in the dollar section. I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with them but thought they were so cute so I picked up a couple. Oddly enough, later that day as I was reading a blog that I follow, I noticed the author had the same mailbox and had decorated it in stickers for her grandson. I thought that was a good idea so Rowan and I put the boys' names on the mailboxes and added stickers. Rowan chose "big boy cars" for himself and "baby animals" for Cruz.

Rowan asked if we could play 'Mailbox' and so our fun began. I got out some stickers for stamps, wrote the boys' names on some return address labels and set out some envelopes. Rowan "addressed" his letter to Cruz, put it in his mailbox and put the flag up.

When he woke up from his nap he ran to his mailbox to find that the flag was down, his letter to Cruz was gone and a new one, addressed to Rowan, was in its place.

He excitedly opened it up...

and was a little bit bummed when he realized that the letter was from me and not from someone exciting like one of his grandparents.

When Cruz woke up, we checked his mailbox.

Rowan helped Cruz open his letter.

When Rowan saw the letter he had written he said, "Hey, how'd that get there?" I laughed and reminded him that mail carrier (mommy) delivered the mail while he were sleeping. Rowan dictated the letters on the top of that note to me.

This is definitely a new favorite game at the Baum house. In fact, I'm heading back to Target tomorrow to pick up mailboxes for Roger and myself. Rowan is getting bored mailing stuff to Cruz. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Cooper!

Yes, we celebrate our dog's birthday. Now that Rowan is old enough to know what's going on he had a blast singing happy birthday to Cooper and giving him his traditional birthday hamburger. :) Cooper sat very nicely while we sang to him, his eye on the burger the entire time.

Brothers 6/52

10 months

Cruz Emerson: 10 months

You love:

playing with your brother

trying new food

laughing

crawling as fast as you can

playing with balls

pulling on Cooper

sleeping

drinking from your sippy cup

pushing around your walking toy

eating in your new booster seat

You are our joy, Cruzy!

Dad's Night

Tonight was Dad's Night at Rowan's pre-school. It was so much fun! How do I know, you ask? I got to be there too, taking photos of each dad and their kid. I stayed out of Roger and Rowan's way but it was fun to observe a little bit. The theme was Camping. There were fire pits, s'mores, hot chocolate, tents, book reading by flashlight, pretend fishing and canoe races on scooters! It was such a treat for Rowan to bring Daddy to his school.

I throughly enjoyed taking pictures of all the dads and their kids. It was neat to see the unique interaction between them but mostly, it was nice to see a huge group of dad's take an hour out of their nights to spend with their little ones. 

The kids filled these out at school last week.

Afterwards, I met up with Rowan & Roger at Starbucks. Roger enjoyed a coffee, I had tea and Rowan had an apple juice box. It was nice to sit and chat with our big boy for a couple of minutes before heading home.

Thankful Thursday

Day 138: Honestly, I have never really given gasoline a thought. I just assume it will be there when I want to fill up my car. This week I was thinking about how nice it is to have a car but how that car would be utterly useless without the gas that makes it run. I am thankful that we can afford gas for our cars and I am thankful that we have access to such a valuable resource.

Day 136: After being completely against a TV in our bedroom for almost 5 years, I finally caved! Roger stays up later than I do so now I can actually fall asleep in bed with the TV on instead of falling asleep on the couch unable to be woken up by Roger later on. :) Its a silly thing but I am blessed by it.

Sweet Cooper

Cooper hasn't been given a lot of love on the blog lately. I'm not really sure that he deserves it today after eating all the suckers I bought for Rowan to hand out with his Valentines... :) I saw this photo though and I couldn't resist posting. Food is his weakness but otherwise, he's generally a sweet, cuddly dog who thoroughly loves and protects his boys. Even Rowan and Cruz aren't immune to Cooper the food snatcher though. After Coop stole a puff from Cruz today Rowan said, "Mama, I think Cooper needs a spankin'.... can I give it to him?" :)