Busy Week With Family and Friends

This past week and a half has been super busy, much more than normal. It started off with a trip to North Carolina for my family's annual reunion. Like the last time, it was very stressful with both the littles, but it was worth it and I had a great time. I got to see my cousin Robert Reid for the first time in 2 years and it was so great to introduce him to the boys and get to catch up. I got to spend time with my family and watch Curtis play with Taylor and Reegan, which is so much fun to watch. Curtis absolutely loves Taylor, so much that Taylor finished her lunch and "babysat" Curtis while I ate mine. She's such a great helper with him! On my way out of town, we stopped to hang out with one of my favorite family's, the Perez's. Curtis and Lucy had a great time playing. And Curtis tried to get Prudence to play on the slide, she just wasn't feeling it. Curtis wants to hug on everyone and wants everyone to play with him. Sometimes he just doesn't understand when other kids don't share his love. But she'll come around one day :)

The next day, after my shift at the clinic, one of my very best friends, Jess came up to visit with her son Will. Judah and Will are destined to be best friends, born only a week a part. It was so great to meet Will, he's such a sweet, smiley baby, lots of personality and the cutest expressions ever! It was wonderful to catch up with Jess too. I look forward to one day living a little closer so we can maybe do that more often. All the pictures this blog are from that visit. Her little boy is just so cute I couldn't stop taking pictures. 

The last fun thing was a visit from Isaac's best friend and Curtis and Judah's Uncle Keith. Keith has been in a school up here the past month, leaving his wife and sweet daughter in Key West. So he came to stay with us for the weekend. It's always wonderful when he comes to stay. Curtis just loves him so much! He had fun being thrown around all over the place and watching Curious George and throwing balls into the fan in his room. He loves him so much, he even said Uncle Keith today, although Keith wasn't around to hear it. We always miss him when he leaves, but we are hoping to get to visit next summer.

Life goes back to normal this week for a few weeks, and then Isaac's family will be here, which we have been looking forward to since Judah was born. We've been facetiming with Nana and Nono so hopefully Curtis will know them and he'll have so much fun with them.

The many expressions of Will

Trying to get a decent picture of 3 little boys is not an easy thing to do

All the boys watching Curious George

This may be my favorite. Will was not feeling it at all.

Mr. Piggy is 3 Months

Judah is 3 months old this month. He is coming in to his little personality and it is so fun to watch! He has become much more alert, and much like his older brother, loves to talk. He has happy, content time for about 30mins to an hour after he eats where he will lay on his mat, or swing, or sit in the bumbo and just chatter away, usually with a smile on his face. When he smiles, his whole little face lights up. It's one of my favorite things lately, just sitting and watching him and his happy little self. When he gets upset, he snorts, which is so cute! Hence, the nickname Mr. Piggy, or Isaac calls him George from Peppa Pig. Most of the time, he sleeps pretty well, which is such a change from Curtis. He usually only wakes once, from 2 to 4, sometime in there and then up again by 6ish. But these past few nights, he's been up 3 or 4 times, which has been exhausting since I let myself get used to the good sleep for a while. I'm hoping that starts happening again soon, especially this week with Isaac  gone most of the time, a little more sleep would be nice.

Curtis is beginning to be really cute with Judah. When we're playing, he'll bring his little ball with the bell in it and shake it over Judah. I tell Curtis that's how we "play" with Judah right now. He'll lay down beside Judah and try and cuddle with him. He always gives a hug and kiss goodnight. When we're eating breakfast and I'm holding Judah, he'll take a break from eating, hold out his arms waiting for me to give Judah to him. It's so adorable to watch him learning how to be a big brother. It is another one of my new favorite things. He does have his times when he's jealous, wanting to be held while I'm holding Judah, or trying to crawl in to my lap while I'm nursing him. Those things are lessening, though as he gets more and more used to having Judah around.

A few new things with Curtis, he is starting to talk much more, learning to sign more and learning a few new words. The other day, he began putting 2 signs together, either "more milk" or "milk please". We've been working on these for about a year, so I'm excited that he's finally learning these signs. He's becoming much more of a little monkey lately. We moved him in to his new room that has stairs. He enjoys going down the stairs head first, and climbing up the out of the railing and seeing how far he can get himself to the ground without dropping, and then he lets go and drops. He's been trying to climb in to his crib, and Isaac saw him trying to climb out of his crib while he was putting him to bed. Sadly, it will probably be soon that we have to move him to a toddler bed, and I don't think that's gonna go well, but hopefully we can put it off for a few more months.

Other than that, life is pretty much the same around here. Isaac is still doing his shift work. This month, they have taken away their days off during the week, so he's doing 7 days straight with about a day to adjust his body to the next sleep cycle. We are really looking forward to Sept. Isaac goes on leave for 15 days while his family is here. I just keep telling myself we gotta get to then and all this doesn't seem quite so bad. 15 days with Isaac at home will be wonderful!

Here's a few pictures from the last few weeks, Judah's 3 month picture, and Curtis playing in his new room, which is our favorite place in the house now.

This bib was given to Curtis, but for some reason, I never got his picture in it, but I had to get a picture of Judah in it.

There's one of those little smiles he gives.

Curtis loves to play in his bucket.

He was crashing his truck down the stairs and then doing a victory dance. He also does the same victory dance when he knocks his lego towers down.

This is why Curtis loves to play in his bucket, b/c Isaac picks the bucket up and swings it around.