Here Comes the Ring Bearer....

We were very honored when our friend Kelsey (Tim's co-resident from Pedo) asked James to be the ring bearer in her wedding. Kelsey and Jeremy love James and the feeling is mutual! Tim and I were highly skeptical that James would actually walk down the aisle at the wedding, so we just told Kelsey to set her expectations pretty low and we would see what happened. We talked up the big day quite a bit and James was pretty excited to wear a "super hero tuxedo." Here he is looking pretty handsome before the ceremony.

Mac's wedding finery, which lasted about 17 seconds. Thank you Pampers. Literally we have made it (almost) 4 months with no blowouts. None. The second I put him in a disposable and dress clothes, he poops and it is instantaneously up to his neck. Seriously, how does this happen? So Mac rocked the sweater vest sans shirt the rest of the evening and looked like a Jersey Shore baby.

Me and my handsome boys!
We resorted to straight-up bribery to increase the odds that James would participate in the wedding. We took him to Target and let him pick out whatever he wanted as a ring bearer present to get after he walked down the aisle. He chose a little Batman with Batmobile and some gummy bears and was pumped to do his job and receive his reward (bribe). James rocked out his ring bearer duties. He proudly marched down the aisle with the rings, looking side to side and smiling-just like we practiced. He even made it back up the aisle with the wedding party at the end of the ceremony! I was so proud of him, and he was pretty pleased with himself too.
After the ceremony with the Batmobile.
With the bride and groom.
Mac was a perfect baby for the better part of the reception and slept in his Babyhawk and I actually got to enjoy myself for awhile. He let me know once he was done and I took the boys back to the condo while Tim stayed until the end of the reception with his friends.
James was pretty excited about the wedding cake, which we said he could try if he ate some of his dinner. He kept up his end of the bargain by drinking the ketchup from his dinner.
Giving Kelsey a hug-she was a beautiful bride and the wedding was gorgeous. Seriously, all of the cute details she planned made me want to get married again just so I could plan a wedding!
James kept himself entertained at the reception with his new toy.
Wedding cake!
James might have been the cutest ring bearer ever. He had so much fun at the wedding and reception, I think he will be anxiously awaiting the next person we know to get married. (Brynne-we're talking about you!!!)

Crafty

James is finally feeling better, so we celebrated by getting out all of our Valentine's Day books and starting to decorate for Valetine's Day. If anyone rivals my love of holiday books, it's James. We have already read each of them at least 47 times, so I think we might need to expand our collection this year.

James was in the mood for a project and decided he wanted to make a Valentine mailbox (after reading about Little Critter's). I turned him loose with some paint, glitter glue and foam stickers and he made himself a very festive mailbox and painted his hands to match.
James also wanted to hang up paper hearts like in Fancy Nancy, so he "helped" me cut out some paper hearts to hang in the window. (full disclosure-I cut out all the hearts while he cut a piece of paper into a zillion pieces. But he did like helping me thread them on fishing line.)
Mac thinks Valentine crafting is a hilarious spectator sport.
James has already discovered 2 Valentines in his mailbox-one from Macky and one from me.
And incase you didn't think Cormac could get any cuter:

Seriously? It is cuteness overload. He is one happy baby.

Still Boring

Another boring weekend stuck inside with a sick Bubba. Boo! I want my healthy, happy James back! Cormac is as cute and fat as ever though :-) Here he is modeling his schnoodle onesie.

And a happy Macky after bath.
Mac is starting to coo and "talk" to us and it pretty much the cutest thing ever. He makes me smile everyday.

Boring

James has been sick all week, so we have been pretty boring around here. Cormac has been extra cute to make up for his sick and pitiful big brother though.

Tim had yesterday off and was able to hang out with sickie while Mac and I went to Mom and Baby Yoga with Aimee and Stella. Thank goodness because after 3 days of not leaving the house I was going crazy! Here are Mac and Stella lounging after yoga class.

And just so I don't leave out James completely, here he is during one of the few times he wasn't laying on the couch this week. Poor guy. He is starting to feel better today and I am really hoping he is fine by the weekend and that our Macky doesn't catch anything!

Stay healthy!

Funny Boys

As I uploaded pictures from my camera today I noticed every single picture taken of James in the last week or 2 features his cape and cowboy hat. He wears both pretty much at all times and typically has to be bribed to trade the cowboy hat in for a winter hat when we leave the house. While wearing them he runs around the house saying, "With infinity, style AND landing," and jumps off of something. (Ummm, what?? The infinity obviously comes from Buzz Lightyear, but the rest baffles me)

James has been wanting to read longer and longer books and so we decided to try out a chapter book to see how he did. Tim and I chose Charlotte's Web and both really enjoyed reading it with James. We were blown away by his comprehension. We stopped a lot to ask him questions as we read and talked about the book and were really impressed by how well he followed the story. Each night he could tell us what had happened the night before and was always excited to see what happened next. He loved Templeton and Wilbur the most. He laughed, was worried, sad and happy all at different times throughout the book, which I think shows how much he truly understood what was happening. While choosing a book where the main character dies could perhaps be seen as a parenting fail by some, he really enjoyed it and doesn't seem permanently scarred by it. Yet. James has been working on having a positive attitude with his ears, hands, mouth and heart and after earning 10 stickers he got to trade in his stickers for a family movie night. He cashed them in tonight and we watched Charlotte's Web. He was so excited and really enjoyed the movie. He totally noticed when something in the movie happened that was not in the book or when a scene was exactly the same as in the book. He was definitely sad when Charlotte died, but was equally delighted when her babies hatched and 3 stayed with Wilbur. James asked right away to read another chapter book and after going through one of my boxes of books from teaching, he and Tim chose Stuart Little. Here he is ready to watch the movie with his own bag of popcorn and his cowboy hat and cape :-)
Today Mac and I had a playdate with my friend Aimee and her baby Stella and they tried out their Bumbo seats together. I think they look hilarious-like little bobble heads.
Mac has started taking at least one nap a day in the crib and (knock on wood) it is going very well so far. Yay Macky!!! (Stella and the loose blankets are not in the crib with him during nap time)

3 Months Old!

Cormac is 3 months old today! He has turned into such a delightful baby and brings all of us so much happiness. He smiles so much each day and has started giggling too. Everytime he giggles he immediately gets the hiccups which is pretty cute. He is very ticklish, especially on his tummy and on the bottoms of his feet and he loves to be tickled during diaper changes. Mac still loves to be held at all times and truly is the world's most snuggly baby.

Cormac sleeps fabulously at night as long as he is snuggled right up against me. Since he often sleeps through the whole night like this without waking to nurse, I have decided to just embrace the co-sleeping and not try to change anything right now. As much as Mac loves being held and snuggled by me, he seems pretty indifferent towards nursing. It is so weird to me because James was a huge comfort nurser and Mac gets super mad if I try to nurse him and he is not hungry. He nurses when he is hungry and that it it. He also rarely falls asleep while nursing, and would rather just snuggle or be rocked to sleep. You would think this would make it easy to give him a bottle. Nope, no luck on that front yet.

Mac is still growing like crazy and seems positively gigantic to us. He fits into 3-6 month clothing perfectly and I don't think it will be too long before he needs to move up another size! We met our friend's preemie last week who is the exact same size that James was when he was born and Mac looked like a different species in comparison.

Yesterday Mac rolled from his tummy to his back two different times-his first big milestone! I know I am biased, but I think that Cormac gets cuter each day. Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took of him this week:

James is still enjoying his role as a big brother. When we are goofing around and I say something like, "You are such a monkey," or call him anything silly he always responds with, "No, I am just Mac's big brother!" He loves to give Cormac hugs and besides that pretty much ignores him the rest of the time. I think he is looking forward to when Mac is a little more interactive, although I am sure that will come with it's own set of new challenges as well. For now I am enjoying watching James love Mac as much as we do and am looking forward to when they can play together and be real friends!

Super Boys

James picked out he and Mac's shirts for the day....

What is making James so happy? Somebody loves the iPad as much as his Daddy does...