His first loaf

This is Avery a couple of months ago with his very first loaf of self-made bread. I laid out various bread ingredients in paper cups, and he added them together as he liked. (I just added water to get consistency kinda right.) I turned out a bit glutenous, but definitely edible! He was sooo thrilled with himself.

Serious gamer already...

Here's Curran really involved in his first Settlers of Catan game. He helped Nick decide what resources to use *wink* We let Avery play on pbskids.org while we played the board game, and near the end he came downstairs with nothing less then a printed coloring page - and we don't leave the printer on! I couldn't help but bust out laughing after he said, "Mom! It's not working, but I got this!" Kids really do pick up on technology, and I'm going to have to watch this one!

P.S. Curran should have been a gunslinger in the old west, because man you should have seen how fast his hand whipped out two days ago to SNACH the glasses clean off of Aric's face! I think it shocked both of them :)

Enter teeth!...Banishing sandman...

This is a dramatization of what Curran looked like yesterday afternoon, and why? Well after various attempts to discover the reason, I found a very red spot on his gum. And what was in the middle of it? Well, his very first tooth coming in! Since I'm nursing I can't say I'm thrilled about the early teeth, but at least these last three weeks when I thought he was teething, he really was.

Oh, also deserving mention is the fact that he rolled from his belly to his back no less than three times yesterday. He still doesn't seem quite sure what happened after each time, but it must be okay because he kept on going!

Bugeyes and tracing

Here's Avery getting ready for Halloween; practicing being freaky already! He wants to be a green ghost for Hallow'een, so there's a trip to the fabric store planned for today. We'll see if I can pull off what is supposed to be the easiest costume ever.

The other picture is how Avery traces his letters. First he traces them, then gives them all eyes and mouth to the tune of "ojo, ojo, boca"; that is how I said it when I first gave the letters faces. He's done it ever since. It makes his letter practice a lot of fun for him, and if he gives any sad faces, then the letter beside them gets a happy face and tries to make the sad one feel better. Sometimes we also draw clouds or flowers to make the sad ones feel better too :)

Finally, introducing the new family member!

If you can't tell by the delay, I've been rather busy caring for two little ones in our household. The cutie above is our son Curran. The name is Irish and means 'hero'. He was born on June 23rd in the wee hours of the morning. My husband delivered him beautifully; and after a little whiff of oxygen his purple tinge turned back into healthy baby color. My parents, sister, and mother in-law were all present for this spectacular event; while father in-law and sister in-law were caring for our 3-year-old. This event was also spectacularly painful since I didn't take any medicine or have nitrous like I did with my other son. Still, I don't regret the decision. Just when you think it's too much to bear, then baby comes out and relieves all the anxiety, yay!