A little pre-season entertainment

Hey everyone! I've wanted to get these photos up before Halloween, but since I didn't we'll just have two blog entries for today. Oh my goodness, do we ever have a little baby model here. Todd gets more and more fun by the day it seems. One of the most fun things is giving him a bath. Todd Loves the bath! He'll bury his whole face in the water and come up laughing. He loves to stand at the edge of the tub and slap it until he falls on his bottom to make a big splash. He's ususlly in there with Claire and he finishes before her, but if you try to get him dressed while she's still in the tub he'll scream until you put him down again and he can crawl back into the bathroom to stand at the tub edge and slap! He's been eating more solid foods - among his favorites are bananas, guacamole, and refried beans - those all make for a very colorful diaper change - yeesh!Hope you enjoy the pictures! Love, Erika

we got some silly kids

Well as you can see from the pictures we have some silly kids on our hands. Todd went in for his 6 month check up he's 18.5 pounds and 27 1/4 inches long. Huge. He's crawling now and trying to stand up and walk. He'll crawl all over our bed and try to go off the edge head first, but if you put him in his crib all he'll do is stand at the bar and yell. And occasionally let go to try and stand up. He loves to play with boxes and remotes and the dvd/vcr players so we have to keep the doors to the tv cabinet closed. If he starts going for them and you run to shut the door he'll actually get mad at you and screech. His new found love is the piano though. He'll stand there for minutes at a time (Im not kidding...actual minutes) and slap to his heart's content. I made those two giant donuts for props at church - the kids love sitting in them - and i love it because they can't get at each other! We're having a blast - wait till you see the pictures after Halloween! Love to you all, Erika

more pictures

In case some of you missed about 5 pictures, i hope these are the ones you missed. let me know if i did repeats. Lova ya! Erika

So many new skills

Wow, not a whole lot of time has gone by, but Todd has acquired a lot of new skills. Among the latest ones are eating (although I think this one came naturally), sitting up, trying to crawl (now he does the commando - usually right towards someones food), and biting - biting being the least favorable new skill since it's usually one of us.
The pictures are starting to become more comical because Todd is awake and usually doing something naughty - and smiling while he does it. Our favorite game to play with him is to have him sit on the floor and try to get him to crawl towards things. He does pretty well with dragging himself across the floor (considering th size of his rear end I am quite impressed he's able to do this). He'll usually get to the object although his left leg often gives him trouble and ends up making him sit up again - which he hates. I wouldn't have thought a baby could move so fast, but when you put the cheetos bag on the floor he's racing towards it like there's no tomorrow. Once there were actually cheetos in the bag and ever since he's gotten a hold of a chip bag and there's nothing in it he will actually yell and scream. We had to lower his crib this weekend because he's been pulling himself into standing position - usually when he's supposed to be asleep. He goes to the doctor in a couple weeks for a weigh in and I'll be shocked if he's less than 19 pounds. He's now comfortably wearing 12 month clothes. I'll bet he could probably fit into some of Claire's clothes. Love to you all, Erika.

Drooling

I was thinking of something funny last night. Todd is a world class drool er. It occur ed to me that he now has a bib as a part of his daily fashion ensemble (usually consisting of a onesie). Kind of like daddy's necktie. We also have t change his bib at least twice a day because he soaks it through and I have to leave them on a drying rack to dry out for the next use.
Todd had his first taste of solid food last week. He had some mashed bananas (made an icky face), then he tried some pears (icky face), then some brown rice cereal (made a not-so-icky face) since it had his favorite beverage mixed in - milk! I hope he gets to be a good eater. we already know how much he loves to eat!
Todd's had two teeth come in and he's in the middle of working on the next two. He and Claire were painting together (one of the photos is of Claire pretending to paint his back). He's also trying to make a bridge pose (like yoga) to learn how to crawl. Just like Claire he sees something and tries to move forward, but only suceeds in moving backwards. And that leaves much room for more foul language! Love to you all, Erika.

Todd's Fighting Weight

Well folks, I just took a look at the blog this morning and realized I missed a few entries - OOPS! Well here are some more pictures of the kids. Todd's first two teeth came through last week - much to the enjoyment of all around him. But now he's back to his regular insanely happy self.
Todd visited the pediatrician for more vaccinations and he tipped the scales at 17 pounds - wow! He looks like a prize fighter in the off season. He's measuring 25 1/2 inches long too - an all around big boy who goes off the height/weight chart for his age (that's our little over-achiever).
His last tests at the Vanderbilt children's hospital revealed that his kidneys are functioning and draining properly so no more tests until October when he'll get an ultrasound. Gosh he'll be 7 months old then...hard to believe. Hope you all enjoy the pictures. The last one is a picture I took today. Love to you all, Erika.
In the pictures, Todd is rolling over for the first time (while Claire runs around him), they are watching TV together too.

lots of pictures

Well I'm getting better at taking more pictures of the kids. Maybe because Todd is getting more animated now and photogenic. I just have to remember to keep posting them so I don't end up with so many to post - like this week. Claire put the Christmas bow on his head - she thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever done - and we did too. Claire actually wanted to hold him for the first time ever in the second and third pictures and now she wants to hold him all the time - except for when he's crying - then she says "mommy I want you to feed him!" hahaha.
We had a pretty good doctor's visit a couple weeks ago with the urologist. They were going to do a test called a renalgram or renogram, but couldn't get an IV started so we're going back on Friday to get it done. He did get a couple images taken of his kidneys and his kidney actually looks a lot better (meaning not as dialated) so I'm sure he's going to be fine. It sure is a lot to go through with an infant though. But as you can see from the pictures he continues to be a fountain of smiles and sweetness. We're heading up to Michigan on Saturday. It'll be Todd's first plane trip - and I know he'll be happy as long as he has his mom and her you-know-whats to accompany him. Love to you all, Erika.