Jeepers Creepers Where'd You Get Those Peepers?

Buddies

This is Raine and Caroline at 1 month old. So cute. Wow, look how jaundice Caroline is in these pics. Really yellow!

Sweet Miss Caroline....NOT!

Uhhhh....she is giving me the finger in this last one. Geeze! It has already begun!

Here's a few pictures for you folks that haven't seen them...

Time Out!!!!

Brody has been a real handful lately. Crying when going to bed, being super clingy, not wanting to cooperate with ANYTHING, throwing himself down on the ground in a tantrum, and the best of all.............Brody now tells me TIME OUT when he's been bad and runs to the couch (where we do timeout) and yells "2 minutes...2 minutes". It is really funny, however, he is stealing my thunder and making timeouts seems like fun instead of punishment. Ugh!

In the picture, Brody just gave himself a fancy hairdo with pancake syrup!

Polite Mr. Bug

Brody has been up to a lot lately. He is cracking us up at every turn. Brody will willingly sing you the theme from Bob the Builder, songs from Word World, and even the alphabet song. This weekend, Brody told us that his fry was delicious. Brody is also quite polite for a two year old. He asks very nicely for more cookies and it is extremely hard to resist when he puts on the charm. "More cookie, please Mama" He even answers for me. "Yes, more cookies, thank you". Or as Brody would say "dink you, Mama".

Sweet Caroline

Calm before the storm............

3 weeks old

SISSY!!!!

Big brother Brody is mostly elated about having a baby sissy. He runs around yelling SISSY at the top of his lungs and showering her with many gentle kisses! Brody is over flowing with sweetness. I am so proud to have such a loving little man. I observed Brody patting and telling his baby sissy "it will be okay, Sissy" when Cali was whaling in her carseat while on the road. Uh, I just love my sensitive little dude!

Much Needed Update

Well, I am sure most of you know I have a fabulous excuse for not posting in a long time.

Our beautiful little girl, Caroline Josephine Sample was born 8-9-10

7 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long

She is absolutely perfect and quite a drama queen already. She is giving mom and dad tons of grief already with gastrointestinal issues and the dreaded reflux. Darn kids! :0)

Brody has welcomed his new sissy with open arms and is surprisingly sooooo sweet to her. I am very proud of my little man.

Can you say MINI ME?

When I saw these pictures for the first time, I was so taken back about how much Brody looks like his Great Grandma! I just LOVE these pictures. Brody had a blast at the Fair. He loved the tractor and truck pulls and is still talking about them. I think he was pretty much the nightly entertainment for Papa, Dada and Uncle Chris too. We are still trying to straighten out his nightly schedule after the weekend partying from the Fair. :)

Gearing Up...

We had our second attempt at the 3d/4d ultrasound with Miss Caroline. She was a little stinker and didn't reveal herself until the very end. In the above picture, she is sucking her thumb. So cute!

The end is nearing and I cannot wait to hold our baby. She is due August 18th by csection if she doesn't come on her own prior to that.

Our new baby furniture is scheduled to arrive on Friday and I'm relieved to have it in time to set up and organize. woo hoo!

At the beginning of the month Caroline was 5 pounds and 3 ounces. I have another ultrasound next week and weekly monitoring test at the hospital, so if I'm not seeing her, I am listening to her heartbeat on the monitor.

Squirling it Away!

Our little man has a real big appetite at times! Usually breakfast is a good time to get Brody to eat something besides CRACKERS! Today he ate 1 1/2 containers of yogurt, part of a banana, a handful of cereal, 4 sausage links, two sippy cups full of milk, and an apricot! Then daddy gave him part of a hot dog. Geeze, I wish I could make it one season in the same size clothes and shoes.

Brody has a habit of filling his cheeks with fruit (as seen in the picture) and running around for an hour or so before actually swallowing it. He is such a turkey!

Just Not That Into It....

This month playgroup celebrated little Sally's first birthday. In the picture, you can see how eager and excited the girls are for the festivities, however the boys just don't seem that into it. Typical party poopers...don't want to hold still for a picture or watch the opening of presents. The only participation for the boys is eating the food (or at least cake). ha.

Testing the Merchandise

Brody has a definite advantage when it comes to toys. Since I frequently have new things around, he gets to play/test them before they go out the door. In the picture above, Brody was so bored while I was sick, I set up this playhouse in the middle of the living room.

Lost in Translation

New Brody words and meaning....

Yo-yo means Radio
Bat means Bath
more to come.....

Summer Fun

We've had lots of fun so far this summer. We went to a local festival and Brody grooved to the tunes...very entertaining! We have also frequented a few pools in the area and I've learned (the hard way) to stick with kiddie pools for now. Brody about wore me out at the big boy pool. He just does not grasp that he will sink if away from the safety of Mama. When it is too hot to go outside we go to Monkey Joe's, which is a huge play area with tons of bounce houses. Brody is a little behind in his gross motor skills since he walked late, so learning to jump and bounce are good exercises for him. Although, chasing him through the place darn near kills me.

Baby Girl Sample

Well folks, I am 29 weeks now. That means I only have 10 more weeks until our sweet baby girl will be joining us on the outside. I am very excited and cannot wait to hold her in my arms, but I am scared as well. I worry about my one on one time with Brody and I am afraid of hurting his feelings with the attention that she will require. I hope that all of you will visit to help me and Brody make this transition a bit easier. Now that I am teared up, I'll move on to another subject.

The pregnancy is pretty uneventful, which is a nice switch from my experience with Brody. I have the usually aches and pains and have learned (and am stilling learning) the importance of drinking lots of water (especially in a St. Louis summer)...ugh. Baby Girl Sample is MUCH more active than Brody ever was and is constantly trying to punish me by shoving her head into my bladder or pressing on my sciatic nerve. OUCH! I do hope that her activity level is not proof of "what is to come". I did read that activity in the womb is NOT indicative of activity outside the womb...so I'm going with that for now...ha.

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We have officially agreed on a name. I am really excited because this name holds special meaning to many in our family. Our baby girl will be named Caroline Josephine. This name is the reverse of Rich's paternal grandmother (Josephine Caroline)....the middle name of my step grandmother Marcella Caroline....and Rich's Aunt Edie's middle name.

Sing to Me!

Brody can really melt my heart. He is extremely loving and gives hugs and kisses with and without asking. I love to be loved on by my little man.

Along with all this love, Brody is hysterical! I woke up today to hearing Ol' MacDonald through the video monitor. I sure wished I could have recorded it! All I heard was a very enthusiastic EIEIO SNORTING MOOING and EIEIO again....more MOOING AND SNORTING...lord it was funny.

Brody Bug's 2 Year Check Up

Although doctors like to call these visits "well checks", Brody never seems to be "well". We went to the doc three times in May. Brody's "well check" was a little late due to illnesses.

His stats were as follows:

Weight: 34 lbs

Height: 38 inches

off the charts a bit, but growth rate is great.....

and on track developmentally.

The picture is from one of the days Brody was sick. He is hanging out in his beanbag chair watching Cars (movie).

LATE May Update

I would like to apologize for not posting sooner. I don't really even know where to start, but May was a VERY busy month.

To sum it up...Brody had his two birthday parties and they were so much fun. Then we had a big garage sale, Brody got the Croup, then Mama got sick two and it turned into a sinus infection that will not go away. That pretty much brings up to date. (do you like my lack of sentence structure, oh well)

Brody is growing up so fast. I notice everyday that he is able to reach things that he could not before. Plus, his communication skills are developing FAST. Everyday is a new adventure into Brody's language skills. He is truly a funny little guy! This weekend Dada and I were woke up by the screams of our little man demanding to EAT. He woke up yelling EAT EAT EAT. It made me feel a little guilty as if I was starving the poor kid. We all know that Brody loves tv and it cracks me up when he sees something on tv and then expresses his desire to have it. Especially food products...Brody loves commercials with ICE CREAM and immediately starts begging for ICE CEEM as he pronounces it. So cute, but sad that tv already has a hold on him. :)

Ca Ca Monster

Brody is a little cookie monster. Although, Brody calls them ca-ca, please. He also expanded his vocab by adding the word of a body part. Now every time you change his diaper, he grabs his penis and announces (with great enthusiasm) PENIS. So funny. I taught Brody the "correct" words for his body parts so there would be less confusion. Hope that one doesn't come back to haunt me. Ha!

Just playing outside in the cold

Chef Brody continued...

Brody is making lunch for Mama in this picture. Today Brody was served a hot dog cut into little pieces, but refused to eat it. He did, however, take each piece and separate them into two piles and counted to nine! I about fell over. I've never taught him to count above four. I guess Sesame Street is a good teacher. ha!

Playing with Dada

Little People have become the toy of choice in our household and the house is littered with them!

Angel Baby

Of course...he made a liar out of me. I got a smile in this pic! Sweet baby.

Don't Take My Picture

I'm sure most of you know that I love taking pictures of my little man, but in the last few months he is not as enthusiastic as he used to be. Brody used to pose and just "cheese" for the camera. Now he just gives me dirty looks.

Whas dat? Ohhhh Whas Dis?

Brody is a bundle of fun to listen to these days. He's been saying the same phrases for months now and it still cracks me up. "I made a mess" is probably still my favorite. We were at the Zoo last week and Brody had strangers laughing by his pronunciation of Rhinoceroses. Brody was calling them "asses." Brody is really demanding and authoritative with his language use lately. I feel like I'm being ordered around. Daddy has Brody has mama well trained.

Bring on the Green!

And I don't mean St Patty's Day! I am so excited for Spring and can't wait for the world around us to green up. The weather this weekend was wonderful. Brody begged to go outside like every other day, but much to his surprise, I obliged. When it came time to go inside, he threw a crying fit. He had a ball playing in our backyard. The first picture shows a reverse Duke's of Hazard style of entering and exiting his truck. On Sunday, I took Brody to Maryville Park and he did a face plant onto a metal platform and didn't even shed a tear. I guess he was too busy to care. He bloodied his lips just a little, but never missed a beat.

My Valentines

I took my two Valentines to Chuck E Cheese!!! Brody got pushed around by a little girl half his size. He took it like a gentleman and just ignored her. The highlight of the evening was playing skeeball! Brody loved it. Dada was going to let him cheat and crawl up the path to the bucket.