Finally!

It's official! My babiest of babies started toddling last week. (Technically, he's not my babiest of babies considering the bun in the oven, but I'm not one to get technical and I really don't need any reminders that Patrick is not a baby and is growing up, thank you very much...)

I read a statistic that 90% of babies are walking by the age of 15 months. Apparently, Patrick finally got that memo. I really think he took so long to walk because he can't do that and push a little car or train around on the ground at the same time. That's his favorite past-time.

I've been waiting to post this until I could get a good picture of him walking, but every time I pick up the camera he starts crawling. This is the best I could do.

So Long

Today we sold Lettie's SUV. We are both sad to see it go. It was a very good car, and we never wanted to get rid of it. But, we either get rid of it or we get rid of one of the kids. We thought about it for a few weeks, then we chose to keep every kid. I hope we've made the right decision but only time will tell. Here's a picture from the Craigs List ad:

We are working to get the replacement car later this weekend. The new car fits our needs to hold more car seats. I know you're anxiously awaiting me to tell you what we're getting. Here's a hint: it has 2 sliding doors and it will rock your face off.

What we haven't been blogging about

I guess I should start with the biggest news first. The Burns household game plan is changing from a man-on-man defense into a zone. #3 is due October 14th and we are pumped! I have already gained 13 pounds. Wow...

Patrick still isn't walking, but he's very close. He will walk all day holding a finger and he has taken 3-4 steps at a time on his own. He has holes in all of his pants, so I'm definitely ready for him to walk now.

Alex and Pop built a swingset for the boys. It is awesome! We still have some additions to add to it, but the boys are loving it.

Jackson went to the dentist for the first time earlier this month. I'm so mad that I forgot my camera because he was so good and he looked so cute sitting in the big examination chair. He loved it and didn't want to leave. It definitely went better than I expected it to.

Patrick's newest word is "mine!" He doesn't really know what it means, but it drives Jackson crazy because he'll say it over and over and over.

Jackson has started to loudly and honestly observe other people of loud stature in public. A couple of times recently he has blurted out "HE'S BIG!" when he sees a large person. It's very embarrassing and when I tell him not to say it he says "But, he IS big!"

Alex and I were recently nominated for parents of the year when another diner at Chik-fil-a frantically brought to our attention that our son was licking his spilled ice cream off of the floor. Can you imagine how great it will be when we have 3?

New Game

We have a new game in the Burns household.  It's called "Pretend to be asleep" and it is awesome.

  

Alex always wins.

The Big 3

Happy Birthday to Jackson!

I can't believe my first baby is 3 today!  

He's been such a big boy lately.  He loves going to "school", counting, playing with trains, painting and singing.  He's a big help with all of Daddy's projects and when Mommy is cooking.  He's a super big brother and has been doing a great job being polite and kind.  He has a sweet heart and loves to cuddle.  He makes us laugh-a lot. 

He is such a joy to us!

Bottomless Pit

Here's a list of what Patrick ate yesterday:

Breakfast

cheerios

1 banana

1 yobaby yogurt

milk

Snack

animal crackers

juice

Lunch

piece of bread

1 cheese stick

green beans

blueberries

milk

Snack

graham crackers

juice

Dinner

bowl of peaches

bowl of blueberries

fish

bowl of peas

rice

chicken nuggets

milk

I'm afraid he's going to be morbidly obese soon.

Being Humble

Over the years my mother-in-law, Linda, has often stated that children teach you to be humble.  I never really understood this until I had children of my own.

Sometimes it's their embarrassing actions (growling at people as a greeting or announcing to someone "my booty itches"), but more often for me, it's about accepting that I can't be a perfect mom.

I sent out invitations for Jackson's 3rd birthday party this week.  I've always made his invitations myself, but to make things easier on myself I used store bought invitations this time.  Jackson decided on a fire truck cake this year and I happened to have some dalmation invitations lying around so I put them to use.  

These invitations definitely tried my patience.  I had to experiment for over an hour to figure out how to get the text to print on them correctly.  After I finally got them all printed I had to assemble the little dog collar/tag embellishment on them.  This consisted of threading a plastic cord through a tiny, stiff opening in the paper.  I tore most of them and kept forgetting to put the tag on the collar before I threaded it through so I ended up threading that little cord at least twice. 

I sent them out anyway, even though they are far from perfect and I didn't really make them myself.  That's only one of the million ways I've been humble this week.

So, if you get one of the torn invitations, please understand.  I only hope that the fire truck cake I promised him doesn't prove to be more of a lesson in humility.

Hope to see you there!