Brothers!

Even after a year I can't get over how cute they are together!  Then again... I don't think I ever will!

What I Love About You- Nov 13, 2009

R-Man, there are so many things I love about you right now!  Here are just a few!

• The way you run to get your brother whenever you hear him waking up in the monitor!  You seem to have a sixth sense for hearing him and cue into his whimpers long before daddy or I do!  What a connection!
• Your AWESOME dance moves!  Your rhythm never ceases to amaze me!
• Your big blue eyes and loooooong eyelashes- killer!
• Your goofy grin and crazy faces!

• Your love of all things truck or heavy machinery related!

• The way you play with your brother and entertain him- he is your biggest fan!

We love you so much and think you are pretty darn cute and smart boy!

To join in and find out what other mamas love about their kiddos, visit Lil' Ladybug!

Big Brother- takin' care of Lion Cub!

He may be 3, but R-Man really does amaze me sometimes by how caring he can be for his little brother!

Here he is just making sure that the sun isn't in Lion Cub's eyes!


And he loves giving kisses to his little bro! Lately he has really been wanting to pick him up and hold him, and although the picking Lion Cub up is out of the question, we have been trying to give him a chance to hold him more (which is difficult since Lion Cub screams most of the time!).

Here is a picture that R-Man took of me and Lion Cub- I didn't think it was half bad!


R-Man also had a chance to get away for a weekend with his Grammy & Pappy and his cousins a couple of weeks ago! They went to a local indoor water park attached to a hotel where they got to stay for the night, and they went to see Ice Age 3 (which he had been wanting to see since he saw a preview last summer!). To top it off, his cousin that was up from Texas got to stay with us for a night after they got back- he adores her and they had a lot of fun together!


Although R-Man has been acting up a little bit more in recent weeks than he did when Lion Cub first arrived, he is still doing pretty well considering that his whole world has been turned upside down, and much of it I can't attribute to anything more than him just being 3! He has also been craving a little more cuddle time with mom, which is hard to come by with a VERY fussy 6 week old (just like his brother!) but he has been having lots of wrestling time with dad and I have been trying to squeeze in the snuggles when I can (which is usually when I am not bouncing on the exercise ball with his brother!).

We love you R-Man and think you are a wonderful big brother! We look forward to the days when Lion Cub is more of a playmate for you, but for now just hang in there buddy! The time will come! And by the way- I LOVE your big blue eyes! You are beautiful!

Love,
Mama

Tot School- Getting back into the groove!

This week we attempted getting back into Tot School a bit- we still aren't in full swing but at least it's some progress!

ABC's
We started working on the ABC pages from the Totally Tots blog. Here is R-Man blowing bubbles to make bubble paper for his letter "B" page.


Reading
We also started counting our hours of reading to go towards our local library's summer reading program. If R-Man gets 15 hours of reading in by the first week in September he will get a prize (last year it was a ticket to a local children's museum!).

Life School
R-Man has had a lot of good quality time with Dad lately- including lots of adventures outside! While Jer was mowing the lawn R-Man got to "wash" his truck. He had lots of fun to say the least!


Of course, R-Man has also been getting lots of life school with his new little brother, Lion Cub! The other night we let R-Man fall asleep in our bed. I headed to bed with Lion Cub before Jer, so I decided we could just snuggle with R-Man until Jer came down and moved him. R-Man woke up a little bit and was chatting with me while I changed Lion Cub's diaper. I had to run upstairs for a minute and when I came back down I found R-Man telling Lion Cub all about how they are the same because they are brothers- same two eyes, same two ears, same toes, and so on- Lion Cub was just staring at R-man the whole time! It was the most adorable thing! I then got to have my two boys cuddled up to me- it was just precious! Moments I will never forget!

Big Brother R-Man

Well, there have been lots of changes for R-Man in the last couple of weeks and he has been handling them much better than I ever expected! In fact, I would say that he is probably adjusting to being a big brother better than I have been adjusting to being a mother of two! He is (generally) very gentle with Lion Cub and even helps me by singing to him when I can't get to him right away or am rinsing out a diaper. He tends to still call Lion Cub "the baby" or "my brother," so we are working on getting him to actually call him by his name, but other than that he is accepting him quite well!

R-Man is even okay with Lion Cub nursing all the time- something I thought he would take issue with since he was still so comforted by "the nurses" (even though he hadn't actually "nursed" in over a year!)! His first words as he came into the room after Lion Cub was born were even "Mama needs to nurse the baby!" Hopefully this will only lead to more sharing in the future :-) !

Here are some of my favorite picks of R-Man with Lion Cub over the past few weeks:

Seeing Lion Cub for the first time!

Plugging his ears from Lion Cub's crying.

Upset because we won't let him get in the birth tub!

Holding Lion Cub for the first time.

Helping our midwife check out Lion Cub.

First snuggles about an hour after Lion Cub was born!

Hangin' with Papa & Lion Cub!

A picture that R-Man took of Papa and Lion Cub! Not too Shabby!

Brothers- just chillin'!