Gangsta boy

Sometimes you just feel a little gangsta and you need your hat sideways, ya know?

Haircut

The ponytail is gone! Titus got his haircut today. And he got M&Ms as a treat. Can you tell? ;)

Titus and Daddy at the park

Hair

So the other day, Titus got this fun little squishy, pokey rubber ball at a friend's birthday party. He was happily playing with it in the living room while I was making dinner when David ran into the kitchen screaming about Titus and his ball. I could hear Titus from the other room whimpering and saying "stuck". He had been thumb sucking and hair twirling with his pokey little ball in his hand and had gotten it stuck in his hair.

The whole thing got me thinking. He has long hair...our first daughter is on the way....I need ponytail practice with that super fine, baby hair...  Yeah, I did.

And then I sent that picture to his daddy at work with a message along the lines of "mwuahahahaha! You can't stop me". Daddy was not amused. Like how-dare-you not amused. There's-already-a-haircut-in-the-works not amused. Destroy-that-photo-or-else not amused. Daddies are so sensitive about their sons wearing ponytails. Yeesh.

Ice cream

Is there any better way to spend the end of a 90-something degree day than face first in a bowl of chocolate ice cream? I think not. 

Licking up every.last.drop. 

Titus' 1st birthday party

We had Titus' birthday party on Saturday. Wow, was it crazy! We decided to go to the Holiday Parade downtown that morning which pushed off all of our party prep. I was still decorating the cake when guests started arriving! The party was supposed to be 2 weeks ago, closer to his actual birthday, but he was super sick so we had to postpone. All the cute pumpkins and gourds that I bought as decoration had rotted in that time so we were winging it last minute with decorations. It was really nothing like I planned, but we still had a good time and our little buddy got lots of love so it was ok. :)

I cut Titus the first piece of cake and we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. All eyes were on the birthday boy. He dipped one chubby finger in the icing and smeared it on his tummy. This was going to be good.  

....And then Big Brother stole the show. How does a sweet, dear boy  his first birthday cake and all that smashy-smushy goodness get upstaged, you ask? Streaking. Nekkidity. Full frontal two year old nudity. Max didn't make it to the potty in time while playing. He ditched his wet clothes in the bathroom and came running to me in the buff...right in the middle of the party. Good thing it was all family. And good thing our family is so forgiving of these kind of antics. 

I tossed the camera to my mom and ushered the nake bottom boy out of the room. Titus was sad to see Mama go, so he started crying and didn't care anything about his cake. The cake smash show was over. Max put clothes back on and went back out to the party, but he was disappointed that his return didn't get as many laughs as last time. 

The rest of the time was relatively calm (minus the poop-on-the-floor incident - again, one of my kids). The big boys really liked having a special party just for Titus. ....But I'm kind of glad that parties like that only come around once a year. 

One year old

 If you have a Halloween baby, you must dress him like a pumpkin. You must. I remember demanding (politely, of course) that Titus be given a pumpkin hat at birth rather than the usual hospital stripes or baby blue. My Halloween babe just had to look like a pumpkin! 

Flash forward to this year - Titus' 2nd Halloween...

He just had to dress as a pumpkin!

We didn't actually go trick or treating on Halloween, but if you have a Halloween baby how do you not dress him like a pumpkin and take pictures?! Seriously!

David had a rough week in preschool this week so we tossed the lesson plan out the window and decorated for a special birthday dinner for Titus instead. I pulled out my tub of party supplies and let him rummage through and pick things out. He pulled together quite the festive little party. We had all sorts of colors going on because he wanted it to be "really colorful like Titus". He chose an animal themed centerpiece, square white plates leftover from a bridal shower, Handy Manny napkins from his 3rd birthday party and leftover "leaves" from a fall school craft for confetti. We taped streamers and balloons onto every chair and decorated Titus' highchair all special like since he was the birthday boy. 

When Max heard there was going to be a party, he wanted to dress up....

A special birthday bath with the brothers...complete with
bubbles in the water, tub crayons and every toy boat they own. 

What a face maker!

First birthday dinner...chicken, cheesy broccoli,
and brown rice. Yum. 

Titus

Can you believe he is nearly ONE?! Wow.

Taken today while fighting 2 ear infections, a sinus infection,
pharyngitis and a 102.5 fever. What a sweet boy.

Standing!

Bring on the bumps, bruises, tumbles and falls! 

This boy has fully mastered pulling himself up to stand. 

I'm going to be so sad when he decides to get brave and take that first step. Mobility always slims 'em down and I'm not ready to lose that super cute knee cap fat roll yet!! (if you missed it you need to scroll back up and check it out. Seriously.)

My Titus Boy

At 9 months Titus is.....

Crawling all over the house; using his pincher control to eat Cheerios, Gerber puffs and carpet fuzzies; wearing size 4 disposable diapers (though he's in cloth much of the time); wearing 18 month clothes;

weighing in at 23lbs and is 30" tall.

He loves...

Daddy, making silly faces, his blanket, sitting in the shopping cart and smiling at people at the grocery store, his brothers, going to the doctor and fruit - esp. bananas!

He's not a big fan of.....

Veggies (though he's learning to like them), taking medicine or being buckled into any sort of seat. 

He just can't sleep without.....

Nursing and rocking, cuddles, Mama singing the alphabet song, his thumb in his mouth, his blanket and the door shut. In that order.

Look out world....we have a crawler!

9 months old today...

(not nearly as impressive as the full minute long video, but this is all Blogger will let me upload right now)

Sick Babies

How do you make a lil guy sleep when he's hurting from cutting teeth and a miserable ear infection? 

One part car seat and a bajillion parts prayer. 

Thank goodness for well rested Daddies!
I was so tired that I never would have
thought of the car seat on my own! But, DUH!,
it hurts to lay flat when you have an ear
infection. Mama's arms are good, but
he LOVES his car seat! 

My sweet Titus is sick. Really sick. This is probably the worst illness one of my babies has ever had. I haven't heard so much crying since dealing with colicky baby David - and that's saying something because that child screamed at the top of his lungs for a minimum of 6 hours straight every single night when he was a baby. 

He's been a little under the weather since last Tuesday, but the worst of it began Friday night. I knew he was feeling super yucky when I put him to bed at 8pm, but I had no idea what the night would hold for him and I. He slept for just an hour before waking up. He nursed, but didn't settle right back down. It took a while to soothe him, but he did go back to sleep for me. He slept just one more hour before waking again (just as I was preparing to go to bed myself) and this time he wanted nothing to do with nursing or being comforted. He fussed his way through the next 2 hours before passing out in my arms as I rocked him. I waited about a half hour, until I knew he was good and asleep, before attempting to lay him down. His chubby cheek no more than hit the sheets before the screaming began. It was now well after midnight and I was beyond tired. I tried everything I could think of to get him to sleep after that - I even conceded to sleeping upright in a chair all night with him in my arms if that's what it took. 

But nothing worked. Nada. No sleep. Zilch. Titus' screams woke Dave around 3am and he got up to check on us. He made me some food and got me a drink before heading back to bed. The crying continued on...

Finally, nearing 5am as Dave's alarm was going off for work, Titus gave way to sleep. Restless sleep, but sleep nonetheless. It lasted a miserably short 2 hours before he woke up and started crying again. :( There was no question now whether we needed to call the pediatrician now. Thank goodness for Saturday hours!! They confirmed what we already knew - he had an ear infection - and wrote him a prescription. The day continued on in much the same fashion as the night before....lots of crying and little sleep. Saturday afternoon we tried tugging on his ear. It didn't make a huge difference, but it did help some. It cleared things out enough that pain medications helped now. Previously, they hadn't made a bit of difference. He got some good rest Saturday night and was somewhat happier on Sunday. We're hoping now that the worst is behind us. *fingers crossed*

But now I spy an ear infection starting in Max. We're headed to the doctor this morning with him. :/

UPDATE: My little Max-a-roony has ear infections in both of his sweet little ears. :(

Titus - 8 1/2 months

 

Look who's trying to crawl!....

See how his sweet face is all red? He was crying and all ticked off because he can't reach the cars. He wants to crawl SO bad! He's getting super close, but he's not there yet. 

Two Tooth Titus

Titus' first teeth are in far enough to be seen in pictures now. This calls for an obsessive number of photos of that sweet face. 

Superman

A sleeping baby Superman....

....this is almost certainly the cutest thing I'll see all day. 

(Yeah, that is a cape on his jammies. *sigh*)

Look who sits up now.....

Ok, he's actually been sitting up since Easter, but this is the first picture of it. Poor third kids. They get no photo love. :(

Perhaps I scared him by swooping in too fast
with the camera. Perhaps. 

Judging by this face, I'd say he
thinks my toes are repulsive. 

Tiiiiiiimber!

His flappy bird-like arms got all blurry,
but I love that face. So Titus.