Conversations

Atticus has really begun to talk in the last couple of weeks. He is repeating everything we say and putting verbs and nouns together. Some examples:

"Munnin!" with a big grin on his face when I walk into his room every morning and say Good Morning!

When asked where Daddy is going: "Dada Wut Mate Munah Attis" means Daddy is going to work to make money for Atticus.
Does Mama make money? "Noooo."

"Yook Mama!" (look Mama)

Instead of yes or no responses, we have been getting "Oh Yeah or Oh Yessss" or "Oh Noooo".

"Dada mow gas". (Daddy mows the grass.)

When he hears something and asks what the sound was, he places his hand on his hear and tilts his head to the side. I guess this is to listen more clearly? He also does this when the phone rings.

"Yots tuff; yots tucks; yots caws;" (lots of stuff; lots of trucks; lots of cars)

"Dada booey tane" (Daddy, lets build the train.)

He asks me tell stories all the time. He rubs his right hand over his left arm (I am still trying to figure out what sign language this must be?) and says "stey ____" and wants me to tell him a story about something. Sometimes he wants a story about dumbo, elmo, hippos, etc. But, recently he will ask to hear a story about dada or jill or gg ma or whoever comes to mind. I make a short one up and end with "and they lived happily ever after" and then he immediately requests another one.

"No Dada. No Mama. Attis do it." He thinks he can do anything.

This week when Vic traveled, we told him Vic would ride in an airplane and maybe bring a treat back from the airplane. Well, if I heard it once, I heard it 25 times "Dada vide eh-pane; attis teet".

"Mama veed book" when he wants me to read to him.

"Dada push Attis ving" - when Daddy pushes Atticus in the swing.

He is also sometimes saying Dadeee instead of Dada.

"Mama vawt" is what he says and has said for a long time when he wants you to go walk with him somewhere in the house. He says it as he grabs your hand to lead you.

A few other words: "fooot yoops" (fruit loops); "caw seat" (car seat); "dace up" or "dace seep" when he wants Grace to be awake or asleep; "go pawt" (go to the park); "yane, yizzie, muss menyon, cole" for Lane, Lizzie, Ms. Meghan and Cole (his friends and one of their moms); "vata" (water); "pay toys mama" (play with the toys mama)

And, finally I'll end this conversation update with tonight's prayers. For a few weeks now, instead of Vic or I just saying our prayers at night or before we eat, we have him repeat us. At night, we typically just thank God for our family members by name, friends and family. Occasionally, he will say the entire prayer without being prompted. Tonight was one of those nights:

"Dod - Tantu Mama, Dadee, Dace, Attis, Dace, Fud (friends), Fay (family), yiba-ey boots. Amen."

He thanked God for his library books and twice for Grace.

We love his funny words and thoughts and conversations!

Friday Favorites: Summer Family Time

So, following many other blogs I read, I want to start doing a "Friday Favorites" post every Friday. I don't have any rules. It will just be something that I want to share with you on a Friday: favorite clothes; favorite recipes; favorite baby toys; favorite days; etc.

Today, I want to share with you my favorite day of this past week. This day just happens to be today. Vic has been in Dallas since Wednesday and although he doesn't travel often, I always miss him. I knew his flight would be back mid afternoon and he planned to be here around 4:30. So, we had decided to have a fun pool evening and relax and eat an easy dinner.

I found a pulled pork crock pot recipe and started it up at 8am this morning. When Vic got home, Atticus and Grace were awaking from their 3 hour naps. We got everyone's pool clothes on and headed outside. Grace, just yesterday, wore her swimsuit and hat for the first time. ADORABLE. We visited, played in the sprinkler, sat in the pool, watched Atticus put every single outside toy he has into the swimming pool, pushed Atticus in the swing, got Grace's toes and legs wet, ate pulled pork, corn on the cob, and watermelon, and had a glorious relaxing evening. And, some of the best news yet...Atticus went "poop" on the potty! This is not something I will normally post, but this was a great feat! Then, after baths and clean-up, we sat in the living room and watched Madagascar, while I rocked Grace right to sleep. Even Atticus, who has been a toot to get settled down for bed this last week, was so tired, he just listened quietly to his books and let us tuck him in with no problem.

I'm not sure what made the evening so special and memorable. It was just fun having the four of us to play in the warm sun and sit on the back porch together eating and listening to Atticus talk and watching Grace grin and kick in her rocker. My heart beat with happiness and peace.

I do love my little family.

  

 

 





Happy Friday all!

Grace & Atticus: 3 month and 2 year pictures

I know I just posted Grace's newborn pics yesterday, but today I'll give your her first real portraits as well as Atticus' 2 year portraits we had made a month ago. I love all of Grace's smiles! We had Atticus' pictures taken THREE times before we got any smiles on camera at the studio. Now, he is just a complete ham!

Grace: Newborn Pictures

Yes, I know Grace is almost 3 and a half months old, but I still want to show your her newborn pictures. We got the typical hospital ones made. But, this time I wanted real newborn photos taken with cute outfits and sweet blankets. I had decided to try to do them myself. In all of my spare time recovering from a c-section and keeping Grace eating, sleeping, and pooping, I read about lighting and settings for my camera online and at about 3 weeks old decided if I didn't do them by then, I might as well wait for a couple of months. So, with little knowledge, GG and I set up a card table, blankets, padding, a backdrop (which actually consisted of GG holding up a blanket for the background, haha!) and took probably 300 pictures of almost the same 4-5 poses. And, while I can certainly see the different in my photography skills versus a professional, I was happy with them. Of course, they have my sweet baby Grace in them, so I couldn't be more proud. Also, Vic and I took some candid ones a few days later and I've included some of those as well. Here are some of our favorites:

And here are a few of Mama, Daddy, Atticus and Grace:

 

And this is basically what Atticus wanted to do instead of take pictures:

 

While I will leave portrait photography mostly to the professionals, I sure would like to take a class to learn to really use my camera...anyone have any online classes they'd recommend? 

Books of The Week

Atticus loves to have books read to him, but recently has also started reading to himself. Let me explain. When we moved him to his big boy bed, we started reading to him while he was in his bed. In fact, we eventually had to put a kitchen timer in his room so he knew that when the timer went off, we were done reading. If we let Atticus pick when to stop reading, we'd read for hours. So, books in bed was becoming the norm. We did, however, physically remove them from the bed before tucking him in.

Then, we went through our no sleeping phase. While getting over that, I would always tell him that when he woke up, he could play with his toys or read in his room and when he was ready for me to come get him, he just had to call for me. And that worked great! He would grab those books and "read" through them until he was ready for me to come get him. Well, we are now to the point that he reads books in his bed for at least 30 minutes in the morning, if not longer. And even after we put him to bed and turn the lights out, he pulls them out and reads for awhile (he has a pretty good night light) until he is just too sleepy and falls asleep. So, he MUST have his books in his bed when he goes to sleep at night. It just causes an argument if we try to take them away when we tuck him in. And, really, how can we refuse him reading books?

So, Vic counted the other night, and Atticus has accumulated 22 books in his bed. IN HIS BED. You find them under the covers too. And if you try to put them away while he is looking, he is certain he NEEDS them. However, we know the ones he reads OVER and OVER. The others are just for comfort, I think. So, I intend to secretly re-shelve some of the comfort books today. Now that you've heard that entire lengthy story, I want to put a picture up of some of the books read consistently for this week. It is funny how they change from week to week or how some books stay on the reading list for weeks at a time. This week, we seem to be stuck on:

1. The Lion King Find and Fit Book: While not really the story of the lion king, it has cardboard pieces that you take from the top and put in the book. He loves to do this over and over. However, each morning, we have to find all 8 pieces in his bed; Vic thinks we need to buy a backup book because one morning we will have lost one for good.

2. Elmo and Friends: This book was one we got in an auction basket about a year and a half ago. Atticus has never cared about Sesame Street or this book, until a couple weeks ago. He says "Elmo" and "Osta Douch" (Oscar the Grouch) and loves to look through it.

3. Let's Go To The Zoo: This is one of the Little People books and has flaps with animals all through it. You know how we love animals! Someone recently gave him the Little People book for the farm and on the back, it has tiny pictures of other Little People books. We were getting to the point of going straight to the back on the book to see those tiny pictures instead of reading the farm book. So, I decided to invest. Good investment!

4. Bob & Larry's ABCS's: Atticus just got this book this past week from GG. It's the Veggie Tales characters and we have been reading it a lot.

I'm so glad he loves books and there is nothing cuter than looking on the video monitor to see him flipping through his books each evening and morning.

Daddy's 60th Birthday

This past week, Daddy turned 60 years old. So, this past weekend our entire family surprised him with a 60th birthday trip to Grapevine to board the Vintage Grapevine Railroad for a round trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards. This trip had been in the making for about 2 months, with Molly coming up with the initial idea.

Vic, Atticus, Grace and I left early Saturday morning and met everyone in Grapevine. Molly told Daddy that she was taking he and Mom somewhere for the three of them to celebrate his birthday, but lo and behold it was really all of us, plus Ana, Charley, Melbo, Pa & GG. I think he was really surprised!

We all got on the train in the "first-class" cars which meant it was air conditioned and enjoyed a leisurely trip from Grapevine to Fort Worth. It gave us time to visit and fortunately, it was roomy enough for Atticus to go back and forth from seat to seat. Once at the stockyards, we all walked around a little bit (only there for about an hour and a half) and then re-boarded to go back to Grapevine. After the trip, we headed to Baja Mex Grill for dinner, birthday cake and gifts. Ana made an amazing birthday cake, and we even surprised mom with her early 60th birthday present. Her birthday is in July, but we are sending her to a bluegrass band camp in August!! It was such a fun day for the Seidels and I know for everyone else. It's always fun to get together as one big family and it was a lot of fun to plan the surprise for Daddy's big day to celebrate what a wonderful daddy he is (and husband, son, brother, father-in-law, and Pop). I took about 100 pictures, but here are just a few.