Pax's 9 mo photos!

Let's begin with our favorite - this picture captures Pax's personality completely!

And this one shows how happy he normally is!

Cutie pie!

Oooohhh, is that a scary blue monster?

This is my blankie. My daddy sometimes calls me Linus.

Paxton!

Happy Halloween to you all!

9 months old!

18.6 pounds (14th percentile)

28 3/4 inches (69th percentile)

He has a little eczema still that she gave us a prescription for but that's the only concern I had. He got his first half of his flu shot and everything else looked great!

The past 3 weeks have been filled with lots of firsts for us. Pax started crawling and is now pulling himself up on his knees. This past Wednesday he got his first tooth and then Friday morning I found the second tooth! Our baby is growing up so quickly!

Pumpkin patch

We had a blast! I love watching Pax's eyes light up at new things.
Look at this funny gray one!

Woah, this one is almost as big as me!

Tristan's 13!

And he had a spook filled birthday party this weekend. Six boys spent the night and they went to a haunted house. Half of the boys had never been to one before; it was so cool listening to them talk honestly about how they were feeling. Someone was scared that he might pee his pants, another had butterflies, and the rest were scared. Would you think that 11-13 year old boys could be that open to each other?

They all made it through even though one boy wanted to take an emergency exit several times. At the end, they were all glad that they did it (the one who wanted to exit thanked them for keeping him in there) and they all said they'll do another one again in the future.

Sunday morning Josh took them all to play flag football at the middle school. They got three games in and had a field goal contest. Tristan was so happy and told me that this was the best birthday ever! Music to my ears.

Josh and I with our teenager.

Thirteen years ago, Tristan's birth made all my dreams come true. All I ever wanted was to be a parent and gosh does it fly by.

It didn't take long...

One week into crawling and he's figured out how to open the doggie door!!! Wonder how long until he ventures out? I'm taking guesses!

Finished project!

Aidan and Paxton's room is finished!

It took a while due to waiting for furniture to come in and then the decision about what to hang above Pax's crib. I have a great picture in the office at work but couldn't really take it down there so I bought these wall clings and I think they turned out pretty well.

Here's Pax's side of the room:

The middle/corner:

And Aidan's side:

I love the medal rack that I ordered! He organized them by place values!

What's new around here?

Pax is crawling! Tristan got him going Saturday with a video game controller! What better way to spend our first snow day of the season?

Enjoying it while it lasted.

The weather has been perfect lately! We've enjoyed an extended summer/warm fall.

He's 8 months old already!

This is a frequent face for Pax. He loves his tongue!

Tristan and Aidan playing tennis in the street.

When Pax gets excited he shakes his fists.

We have cooler weather coming this weekend. It was good while it lasted!

Last week

So last week was rough. Every day something seemed to happen to us.

It started Wednesday when Pax got the bump on his head. We had dentist appts and all had been just fine until I needed to check out and I handed Pax to Tristan so that they could go into the waiting area to play. A couple of minutes later and I hear a loud thump followed by a scream. Yep, he had fallen and here I come rushing out of the back to get him into a sea of other moms standing there looking as if they had just seen an awful car crash. Definitely one of those horrible bad mommy moments you never want to relive. Come to find out - Tristan handed him off to Aidan and he decided to sit him on the couch. Thank God he was fine but it took a few hours and lots of loving to get over it. Unfortunately I couldn't get over my anger with the boys until the next day.

Then Thursday - we had 10 minutes to stop at home between school and soccer practice. Aidan was to get his evaluation with his coach before practice. He couldn't find one of his cleats and went out to the car to look there. Next thing I know, I hear the horn honk and I know that he's locked the car. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but because we only had 10 minutes I left my keys in the cup holder. UGGGHHHH! I don't have a spare key yet and had to call Josh at work to race home so that I could at least get the boys to practice on time, forget the evaluation. My husband rocks though and got the boys to practice and still got the eval done for me even though it wasn't at the scheduled time.

To end it all - Saturday was the day of basketball disappointment.

Thank goodness this week has been quiet for the most part. The boys are excited for Fall Break next week and I'll appreciate the break too.

Funny video

Watch for the tongue action. He was cracking me up!

Notice the red bump on the left side of his forehead? I'll post about that tomorrow.

School pics

I thought these pictures were great but the boys each had their own opinions. Tristan thinks that when you see his picture the only thing people will see if the little pimple in between his eyes. I laughed, who would have thought that teenage boys are into their looks just like girls are?

Aidan's comment about his was that people are going to say, "BAM, I see a whole lot of retainer!!!"

I like them though! I've been known to send them back for retakes but not this time!

A baby and a pen...

His face was just too funny to not share!

If only I could have given him this too.

We all strive to give our kids everything they want. I know that I do. Yesterday was the first day that I couldn't give Tristan what he wanted. To see his disappointment and hurt was almost too much to bear.

He tried out for his seventh grade basketball team. 4 hours with no breaks and 50 boys there for only 12 spots. We all knew that it would be tough but I don't think anyone thought that he wouldn't make it. Well, he had to walk up to the list at school last night and see that his name wasn't there. Oh my gosh, a huge pit appeared in my stomach and I was sick.

His close friends did make the team so we have that aspect too. As you can imagine his cell phone went crazy with text messages and calls so we put that up for a few hours until he could get his emotions under control. He cried when he got home and it killed me. (I'm emotional just writing this today.)

Before bed last night he was doing better. At least we were able to talk about it all. I'm so proud of him though. I think back to the one time that I remember trying out for something and I got so scared that I wouldn't make it that I quit before the actual tryout happened. And when I told my teacher that I was withdrawing; I saw in her eyes that she was super disappointed because I probably would have made it. I wasn't brave enough to tell her that I was afraid that I couldn't learn the dance the way they were teaching it. (Did you guess it? Drill Team in 10th grade.)

Soooooo, I'm a super proud mom right now that he did try. Just wish that this was something that I could have made happen for him too. Between you and I, I did ask Josh to talk to the Coach and he could but he won't. Guess we can chalk this up to a life lesson learned. Everything that has come so easily to him so far should be more appreciated now and he'll eventually learn to work harder for the things he really wants. (Although I don't expect to hear that from him today. We're only 24 hrs into it.)