The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Baby updates and other things

A few updates on Samantha…

First time in the bumbo!

bumbo

She likes it even if that big ole head gets pretty heavy and knocks her over to the side sometimes!  🙂

bumbo

We also pulled out the play seat…

play seat

She’s not so sure about that sneaky turtle…

turtle

But I think she’s (sort of) liking it! ha!

seat

Sleeping continues to be…a challenge.

sleep

She’s taking great naps during the day but night time is still not going as well. The best we can do is to keep her in the bed with us until her middle of the night feeding when I will then put her in her crib. Definitely not ideal but it’s what’s working for now. We’ll get there eventually!

Other news this week…

Lunch at the Mexaurant!

mexaurant

Baby Mantha takes a bottle like a champ!

botte

Spencer is a cool dude!

spencer

Haircuts!

haircut

More drawing!

tigers

“This tiger wandered into this one’s territory so they’re fighting over who gets to be in charge.”  🙂

That’s all the updates for today. Have a great weekend!

Big cats

Just in case you were wondering, we do still occasionally dress up like firemen…

fireman

and construction workers…

construction workers

But our lives really revolve around big cats!

big cats

Maxwell is still obsessed. He dresses up like them. He honestly chooses the color of his shirt based on what big cat he wants to be that day! ha! I did get him this shirt that he thinks is AWESOME.

tiger

and why does he look 10 years old there?! 🙁

He takes tiger items for share day at school…

tiger

He draws them daily…

tiger

He also loves it when I draw with him so I’ve become quite the expert at drawing big cats and other animals thanks to his strict and detailed instruction! As he says “Momma, you have to practice. I’m trying to teach you so you can be a good artist too!” ha! I must say, he is a good artist so I try to listen! 🙂

mbb drawings

Spencer definitely gets in on the fun and can roar louder than anyone! 

big cats

big cat

So, if you have any big cat questions or need some facts about lions, tigers, cheetahs, pumas, etc., Maxwell is your guy!

ps – he’s also a pretty good expert on TMNT and wants to be a “secret ninja” when he grows up so while big cats are a favorite, we do have some varied interests. 🙂

Lovin’

Ya’ll…Samantha gets SO MUCH lovin’ from her big brothers….whether she likes it or not! 🙂

3 kids

3 kids

all 3

all 3

3 kids

3 kids

I love how Spencer has his hand stuck in her clothes and neither of them can keep their hands off her face. Sweet brothers.

all 3

It doesn’t get much better than that! Cheese!

School report

I had Maxwell’s parent/teacher conference recently and, man, it’s good to be Maxwell’s momma! There’s nothing better than getting a GLOWING report from your kid’s teacher. We sat down and the first thing Mrs. Kathy said was “Well, Maxwell has just stolen my heart!”  🙂 Love it!

Here’s the report from his conference earlier this year. Mrs. Kathy is just super pleased with how well he does in school. She says he comes in every day honestly eager to learn. She said you can tell he’s just soaking it all in and paying attention to everything. Here’s her little summary from the beginning and end of the year:

school report

She also describes your kid using 4 words at the beginning of the year and again at the end. Maxwell’s words in the fall were: Kind, Inquisitive, Imaginative and Leader. Here are his words for the spring:

mbb words

I’d say all of those describe him pretty well! Especially dependable and diligent! She remarked how she can always count on him to do exactly what he is supposed to do. As she said in conclusion, “Maxwell’s ready to go teach 4k next year!”  🙂

The night of the conference, we took the boys out to celebrate with some frozen yogurt. I’m so so proud of Maxwell and what a kind, responsible, good kid he is…I thought he deserved a little treat!

ice cream

I love that kid!

mbb ice cream

High Low

Happy Monday! Our rainy, rainy weekend had some highs and lows…

High! Samantha took FANTASTIC naps in her crib! I worked so hard to only keep her up an hour and a half after she woke up and then get her swaddled and back in her crib before she got fussy. It worked like a dream and for every nap I just laid her in her bed and walked out and she went right to sleep with little or no fussing at all! Hooray! Naps were all around 2 hours too. She would even wake up here and there and fuss for just a few seconds and then go right back to sleep. Go Baby Mantha!

nap

nap

Low! Nighttime sleeping was as bad as the daytime sleeping was good. I don’t know what kicks in when the sun goes down but she will. not. sleep. at. night. I tried putting her to bed super early – she woke up crying 30 minutes later. We tried rocking and rocking and rocking until she’s dead asleep and then put her in the bed and she immediately starts crying. The only way she’ll sleep lately is if we’re holding her…and that is exhausting for all. Maybe it’s the congestion still? Maybe it’s colic? I don’t know but she’s GOT to start sleeping at night. Oh, baby girl.

baby

High! Maxwell got go to the birthday party of his best bud, Max! and he got cake!

bday

Low! He went with a double ear infection. Ugh. He told me Friday afternoon that his ear really hurt so we had him up to see Dr. Walley first thing Saturday and, sure enough, both ears were infected. Basically it’s leftover from his last ear infection 3 weeks ago – the fluid just never really cleared up and got infected again. He’s now on another antibiotic that’s pretty nasty. Poor buddy.

mbb spb

High! Robert and I got to go out Friday night! There was a 50th Anniversary celebration for the kid’s school and they had a party with silent auction to celebrate. We had a great time and even went out to dinner with a few couples after. It was really nice to have a good meal and some adult conversation.

out

Low! When we came home, Samantha was wide awake downstairs on the couch with the sitter, Ms. Alice. Yep – see note above about not sleeping at night! Ms. Alice had tried and tried to get her to go to sleep but finally just brought her downstairs to hold her. I can’t blame her because that’s exactly what I did for the rest of the night in my bed – just hold her.

spb

High! I got Garth Brooks tickets for June for me and 4 friends! Woohoo! I’m not a big country music girl but Garth Brooks is different to me. I can’t wait! This was almost a low because, even though I was online right at 10:00, by the time Ticketmaster pulled up tickets, the 7:00 show for Saturday was sold out! I think both Friday and Saturday night shows sold out within 10 minutes. BUT, Garth immediately added a second Saturday night show for 10:30pm and I got tickets to that! That’s pretty late for us old ladies but we’re choosing to look at the bright side – now we can all go out to dinner beforehand! As Robert said, all these late nights up with Samantha have been preparing me for my night out with Garth! ha!

I’m gonna end this post on that high. Because really, even though there are always plenty of lows…the highs always win in the end! 🙂

samantha

See you tomorrow!