Trimming the Tree

I've always loved when we finally got to put up our Christmas tree for the holidays. Because of this, I want to make this day special for Marcus and Logan too. So the week after Thanksgiving I go out and get some yummy Italian cookies from a local bakery and we set out to trim our tree. This year Mo actually helped a little and had a pretty good time. Logan didn't make it through until the tree was done but he had fun playing with Mo in the box that the tree is stored in.

 

 

 Putting it all together. . .

After the tree was all up and ready to go it was time to enjoy cookies and coffee/hot chocolate. I think this was Mo's favorite part (duh!) and he asked about crithmas cookies for days afterwards.

Taken Hostage

School has taken over my life. Add that to the fact that I have returned back to work full time and I am pretty short on time. Blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside.

As has taken my monthly shots of Logan :( I can't believe it but in just a couple short weeks he will be 10 months old! Right now he is completely mobile and can get into anything. His favorite things to get into include the cat food (yuck!) and anything that has a light on it including the computer, the modem, cell phones, and remote controls. He can also climb the stairs all by himself so our house is once again gated. As far as solid foods go we are still pretty far behind. He was sick a couple weeks ago and wanted nothing to do with it. The past few days we are getting back to normal but he is still eating mostly pureed foods and only eats about twice a day. I'm just hoping he progresses enough to eat some of his birthday cake in 2.5 short months.

Marcus is continuing to grow like a weed. And he is absorbing things like a sponge. He knows his numbers 1-10 (most of the time in order) and he knows quite a few colors  (which he must point out all day long). He has also started to learn the names of shapes. The other day he walked up to me with a foam block and said triangle and he was right! Took me by surprise that is for sure. But with all this knowledge and vocabulary is the ever so wonderful "terrible twos." He has mastered the "I don't want" and "no." He has also decided that talking back is fun. And as happy as I am that he is polite and says please when he wants something, he has come to think that if he says please he automatically gets what he wants.

On the home front, I have decided to eat only a plant based diet and try to live a vegan lifestyle as much as possible. It is going pretty well and I have found some really wonderful recipes to try out. We also just bought a second car and it has made life so much easier. It isn't anything fancy but it does its job and gets us around safely. Other than that we are just busy busy with day-to-day things. I promise I will try to keep updated through the holidays. In the mean time, here are some photos to hold you over:

 

Marcus enjoying a green smoothie. I love sneaking spinach into him ;)

 

Logan having a naked day to help with his diaper rash. He thought being naked was the coolest thing ever.

1/2 the Year is Gone Already.

My chunky monkey Logan turned 6 months old already. It's hard to believe. He is a champ at rolling everywhere. He will get himself all the way across the room if he sees something he wants. He sits up all on his own and really enjoys playing that way. No more laying down for him, which meant bye bye to the baby swing. He also loves to eat! His menu already consists of squash, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, prunes, bananas, apples, and cherries. He has even started to get mad if you don't give him bites fast enough. Recently he has started to push his butt up in the air and scoot forward with his front half on the floor. I have a feeling he will be crawling soon. Oy! Here are some shots from our mini photo shoot.

           Ham bone!!                                        One good shot out of tons!

It is getting a lot more difficult to get a decent picture with that bear because all he wants to do is play with it.

Brothers wrestling already.

Solid Food is Weird

That is what Logan must have been thinking the past two months. We began trying out solids a little after Logan turned four months old. He has a serious problem with "happy spitting" which is just a nice term for the fact that he pukes all over himself and everyone else all day long. Marcus had the same problem and starting out on solids really helped the issue so we thought it may help out with Logan too. The only issue with that train of thought is the fact that Marcus loved to eat (and still does) but Logan had no interest. Whatsoever. Rice cereal = lots of dirty looks and some major puking. Oatmeal = dirty looks and spitting it all out. Sweet potatoes = REALLY dirty looks. So all in all the first 1.5 months of this did not go well. Then I remembered  this little contraption we had called a SafeFeeder. You put solids in it and the baby kind of chews on it and the food comes out all mushed. So one morning I threw a banana in there to see how Logan would do. This is the reaction we got:

 There were definitely some funny faces but he did chow down and suck on that thing for at least 15 minutes.

 That was about two weeks ago. Then all of a sudden, in the past five days, Logan decided he was ready to eat and he wanted everything he could get his hands on. Thursday and Friday he had half a jar of apples/cherries mix. (We had already tried apples earlier on and he wasn't a fan but I guess the cherries made it better.) And then Saturday he ate an entire jar of squash and then was pretty ticked that there wasn't anymore left. Sunday he ate an entire tub, the Gerber 1st Food tubs, of squash. So it took a couple months but Logan is a solid eating champ and he loves dinner time! Here is a picture of how excited he is while Mom is getting everything ready.

A New Garcia

A few weeks ago we added a new member to the family. We decided that Mo could use a kitten, especially seeing as Gato is not the nicest cat in the world. We named him Neno because it is something Mo can say and it is the Spanish nickname for feline which works because Gato's name means cat in Spanish. The thing about kittens is that they get into everything and are extremely mischievous. I haven't had to deal with this craziness in quite a few years and I totally forgot about it. Here are a few shots I got of our little kitten acting crazy.

 This was pretty funny. Neno wanted to check out what was in the tub but Marcus kept sprinkling water on him and freaking him out. He never learned though because he is still jumping up onto the side of the tub every time someone is in the bath.

Rolling Away

We caught one of Logan's first rolls from back to belly on camera!

Summer Heat

Now that it is warm (okay HOT) outside, I have been trying to get the boys out more. The only problem with this is that they are both little heat babies. They sweat sitting still. Which makes it really difficult to keep sunscreen on them and to keep them comfortable. This was my latest attempt:

It didn't work as well as I hoped. Mo was sweating just watching me pull weeds and he refused to get into that freshly cleaned pool. Logan was doing a little better in his tent but less than an hour later they were both cranky. Oh well. We'll keep trying!

Oh and quick update: remember those seeds Marcus and I planted during our quality time? Here is what we have produced so far. Can't wait until the other two flowers bloom!

Cleveland Children's Museum

A couple weeks ago we took the boys to the Children's Museum. Both Lorenzo and I had never been so it was pretty fun for all of us.

Their specialty exhibit was on space travel. Mo's favorite part of that was picking up the "moon rocks" and piling them on the moon rover.

 Here's what Logan did while we were there, hung out in the stroller.

 In the barn room (for kids under age 4) Mo had a good time picking up all the different stuffed animals and telling us what they were.

 Downstairs there was an entire water table set up with moveable dams and these water spigots you could add pipes to. We had a hard time prying Mo away from this.

 This is just too cute not to include!

 Marcus had a fun time making toast and coffee in the play house.

There was even a little grocery store where the kids could go shopping. And yes that is an entire cart filled with meat.

Monthly Onesie Project

During Mo's first year one of my friends introduced me to the idea of taking a picture at every month "birthday" in a marked onesie to see how he grew and changed. I wasn't always on the ball with Mo's because making the onesies would always slip my mind. This time around I found Sticky Bellies. They are stickers that you place on the babies outfit, making it so much easier to remember. Here are Logan's first 5 months of pictures:

He has definitely followed in his brother's footsteps and is a big boy. At 5 months he is clocking in at almost 19 pounds and is wearing 6-9 month clothing. He just figured out how to roll over a couple days ago but since then he has mastered it. Every time I try to change his diaper he is all over the place and has figured out he can use this new skill to get to his toys. He can also sit up pretty well. He will fall forward after a little while but I totally expect he will be able to sit on his own by the end of this month.

Oops

Sooo I'm a slacker. A busy slacker. I have started training for my first 5k race (with my mom at my side) so many of my other "projects" have fallen by the wayside. But, do not despair. I will have an update coming shortly.

In a quick summary, Logan turned 5 months old a few days ago and is now the reigning rolling champ of the Garcia household. Marcus got all his hair chopped off and has finally mastered multiple word sentences. Oh, and now he calls me "Mom" instead of "Mama" or "Mommy" and I'm pretty sure I'm not too fond of this milestone seeing as it came on so early and unexpectedly. Lorenzo is working, working, working but he is in the running for a promotion! And I turn 25 tomorrow, have officially lost 24 pounds in the past 5 months, am able to run 3.1 miles in 40 minutes, and have finally decided Logan is old enough for me to return to school in the fall.

Hopefully that little teaser will hold you over until I finish organizing all of our photos and get some time to give you the real dirt!

Mom and Mo Time

I have been making an effort to spend some one on one time with Marcus during Logan's longer nap times. This past week we planted some sunflower seeds and dyed eggs.

The sunflower was a kit with a Mickey Mouse pot, dirt, and seeds. Mo wasn't quite sure what we were doing but once the seeds start to sprout I'm sure he will get a little more excited.

Adding the dirt pellets.

Pushing the sunflower seeds down into the soil.

Checking out his handiwork.

Egg dying went much better than expected. He did get a little grabby with the dyes and was a little rough with the eggs but we just had some minor splattering. Mo's belly is still dyed a few different colors from that day.

After the dyes dried, we decorated the eggs with some markers. Mo was more excited that he was allowed to use the sharpies than anything else.

Our finished product!

Spontaneous Family Reunion

I have a huge extended family and many of them live pretty far away but on a random Saturday in April a bunch of people from my father's side got together for a little reunion. And for most of them, it was the first time they could meet Logan. We all met at my grandparents's house for some games and dinner. In attendance were my grandparents, my dad (Tim), my stepmother (Bev), my little brother (JJ), Aunt Trish, Aunt Tracy, cousins Alyssa and Carter, Uncle Terry, Uncle Todd, and Uncle Trevor on leave from the Navy. My sister and nephew came out with us.

Before getting there we stopped at an Easter egg hunt for the boys. It had to be held indoors due to the rain and so it was pretty crowded but the boys seemed to have a good time collecting eggs.

Once we got to Grandma and Grandpa's the boys were entertained by all the relatives. Trevor chased them around for nearly an hour. Trish tickled them to death. JJ and Mo went to town doing some serious WWE wrestling. That wouldn't be too crazy except JJ has 4 years, almost 12 inches, and more than 10 pounds on Mo but he was keeping his own.

 Not to mention everyone passed Logan around, getting some much needed baby time. 

All the while the rest of the adults were taking turns playing Uno Slap. It was a fabulous day and a much needed get together.