Basketball fever

Last night, Jeff and I were supposed to go see the Houston Rockets for our (belated) Valentine's Date. Well, Nathan suddenly became pretty sick with high fever and Joseph had some other things going on. I couldn't convince myself that Marnie and Poppy would love to watch sick kiddos, so I told Jeff that I thought it would be best if I stayed home. When he was unable to get another guy to go with him and not wanting to waste the tickets (which we, from what I heard, had amazing seats, with a parking pass and a club pass), he decided to take C-bear. Christian was so excited that he was getting to go with his Dada, he ran to his room and picked out his basketball gear.

When Christian arrived home, he was hooked on basketball....

Playing basketball can be pretty exhausting..

He loved the game so much that he slept in his blue 'uniform' and with his basketball last night. Joseph caught some of the basketball fever as well.

Nathan at 15 months

Have mercy, first my middle-baby turns 3, then my baby-baby turns 15 months! I don't think I can take it!

Oh Nathan, what a character you have been for our family. We feel so blessed to have you as the baby of the family, but man, do you give me a workout!

You can have such a sweet spirit at times, but then there are times you can be, lets see, how should I put this? Ahem, Mr.GRUM.PY.GILLS. But what can I say? I love you so much that I could eat you up.

Nathan, at 15 months:

• You LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVEEE bath time.

• You also love to drink the water from the faucet as the tub is filling up.
• You enjoy the swings at the park.
• At your 15 month check up, you weighed 23.63lbs (36%) and were 30in (17%). You are three pounds heavier than Christian was at this age, but you two are the exact same length.
• You are anemic. You were anemic at 12 months and were prescribed iron, but we were only consistent with giving it to you for about a month . Now at this appointment, your levels were lower than they were at 12 months, so back to taking that nasty iron medicine.
• You still struggle with asthma. When you get colds or virus' it seems like they immediately settle in your lungs so away we go with the albuterol.
• You have really beefed up. From 4-9 months you only gained 3 lbs and were only in the 1% for weight. Then all of a sudden around one year, you started eating like crazy and drinking whole milk. You are a chunker now! You are only a few ounces smaller than what Joseph was at this age, which is so hard for me to believe!
• You wear size 12month pants and 12month or 18months shirts.
• You wear size 4 shoe.
• You are in size 4 diaper.
• You, errr, I mean 'I' have transitioned you into one nap most of the time. You were taking two short naps up to about two weeks ago, but I don't think you were getting a lot of rest and you were super grumpy. Now you take one nap at 1p and that has been great. You sleep anywhere from 2-3 hrs and are a HAPPY baby afterwards.
• You love your milk.
• You have recently started drinking from a straw, so you love to get sips of my Sonic drinks.
• You love grapes, apples, blueberries and pineapple.
• You eat cheerios, eggs, or pancakes almost everyday for breakfast.
• You like grilled cheese sandwiches.
• You like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Which I am super excited about these last two because your brothers never have liked either kind of these sandwiches.)
• You love balls. You will play catch with anyone who is willing.
• You don't really watch cartoons yet.
• You go to bed around 7:15-8 at night and sleep until about 7:30-(sometimes)8:30.
• You have taken a few steps here and there these past few weeks. Tonight was the most you have taken (4). I'm not too worried about this since your brothers were late walkers too.
• You LOVE.YOUR.MIMI! When she is holding you, you won't come to me. You even tell me 'no' when I come to get you.
• You love dogs and cats.
• Words you can say: Mama, Dada, Joe, Go, Dog, Cat, No, Uh-oh, Bible, Bite, Ball, Hi, Bye
• You can: Play peek-a-boo, you can dribble a basketball, and you play 'timber' on the bed. (Don't worry, I have all these on video and they may just make an appearance on this here blog). 'Timber' is where you are sitting on the bed and we say, "tiiiiiiimmmmmber" and you fall back. You can wave, clap and kiss on command.
• You are getting better about staying in the nursery at church and community group.
• You can stand up in the middle of the room without holding onto anything.

Here are some pictures I took at the park to mark his 15 months.

• Oh, you love to eat rocks at the park and I am pretty sure you swallow a rock or piece of dirt at least once a day. Below, you are showing me the rock that's in your hands and that you will more than likely sneak in your mouth when I'm not looking.
  

• You are a big babbler/talker like Joseph was at this age. Here in this picture you are telling me something.

• Below, you are actually making a grunting sound at me because I was trying to take pictures of you. I kept telling you to look at me and I think you just got tired of it.

• You like to pick up toys. One day I was playing with Joseph in your room, Dada was in the living room with Christian and I saw you crawl to the older boys rooms and could hear you putting the cars in the bucket. Later in the day, I heard Dada say to Christian, "Lets go pick up your cars," and when they went in their room, he said, "Oh, someone already did." You take after Joseph and Mama with this.

• Some days you can go from this......

• ...to this...

• All three of you boys have slept like this and I wanted to document it. (I had the setting on Manuel focus, so that's why it's super blurry.)
  

Sweet Nathan, you will be two before we know it. Love you little man and I can't wait for these next milestones that are coming.

Christian at age 3

Christian Henry joined our family three years ago on February 2. I was blessed with this little angel from Heaven. He was the easiest and happiest baby I had ever been around.

And now at 3, he still is one of the easiest and happiest kiddos I know.He brings his Mama, Dada, and brothers so much joy and laughter!Christian at 3:

• You weigh 32 lbs (54%) and are 37.25 in (37%). You are three pounds smaller than Joseph was at this age and you are quarter inch shorter than him.
• You love clothes! Just the other day I moved all your shirts down to the lower rack just so you could pick out your clothes for the day. You have really enjoyed this. You love to change your clothes during the day, but this can be a problem because you don't get yourself dressed yet and I usually tell you no if you want to change. Unless, the outfit is soaked with something.
• You love to wear shoes. Your favorite right now are your cowboy boots and running shoes.
• You still suck your left thumb and have since you were 4 months old.
• You are an excellent sleeper...always have been. You can fall asleep anywhere. At Nathan's one year party, you were tired, so you plopped down on the recliner, during the middle of the party and went to sleep.
• You wear size 3T in shirts and pants.
• Size 10 shoe.
• You love your cars and superhero toys.
• You broke your arm this year, for the second time, this time falling off the trampoline.
• You really love movies now. Probably your favorite right now is Incredibles.
• You love coke and sprite.
• You aren't much of a sweets eater, but you do like your fair share of cupcakes/cakes and ice cream.
• You love salads.
• You love apples, pineapple, strawberries and blueberries.
• You love chips. Some of your favorites are Cool Ranch Doritos, Cheetos, Tortilla chips that you can dip in salsa or queso.
• You really enjoy playing baseball.
• You LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE your big brother. Today when I picked you guys up at the Y, your teacher commented on how well you and Joseph play together and how well you get along.
• You love to jump on the trampoline.
• You have been potty trained since October.
• You are starting to be such a great big brother to Nathan. It took you a while to learn how to be gentle with him and it took Nathan a while to learn that it was okay if you got near him. You two are starting to play together and wrestle so it's pretty cute.
• You call Nathan by his name now, after what was almost an entire year of calling him 'baby'.
• You love and will eat anything that has pasta.
• You love popcorn.
• Your favorite Shipley's treat is a sausage and cheese kolache and a blue or chocolate frosted donut with sprinkles.

*C-bear, you are an absolute delight to have in this house!

For the day of his birthday, we started off by making a trip to Shipley's where he was able to get one of his favorite donuts. Then after eating breakfast and watching Incredibles, we headed to Sugarland to meet Jeff and Marnie at Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate his special day.

Nathan and Christian loved this little car. I don't know if you can tell, but right when I took the picture, C put his arm around Nathan.

Letting me know that he is 3!!!Some of my favorite pictures of the little guy.

Christian at his First BirthdayThen his Second Birthday (with a fractured arm from falling off a patio chair)Then his Third Birthday (with another fractured arm from falling off the trampoline)

I really hope this 'fractured arm thing right before his birthday' isn't going to be a trend!

Thank you Lord for blessing and entrusting us with this precious little boy. Looking forward to this next year and seeing what God has in store for you.

*If you have ever wondered where we got the name 'C-bear' I would love to tell you. When he was born, Jeff and I were really into the show Scrubs. In an episode, John Dorian calls his friend, Chris Turk, C-bear. One night Jeff came in and called Christian that and I loved it as a nickname for him. So now, we call him by that name quite often.

C-Bear's Third Birthday Party

For some weird reason, I really just want Joseph to grow up. I know that may sound a little weird, so let me explain. I love looking forward to the next things in life for Joseph. First, it was potty training, then it was getting into his big boy bed, then it was learning to ride a bike, and all the things coming up, like, starting school, playing sports, meeting new friends, going to high school, then going to college...etc, you guys get the idea by now.
But for the other two, I really want them to be my babies forever! When we transitioned Christian into Joe's room, I was sad. Then when we potty trained, I was bummed. Now, celebrating his third birthday! How in the heck is that possible? I don't mean to sound cliche, but I am convinced it was yesterday, I went over to my sister in law, Courtney's house, to hold Phillip who has just been born the day before and I was going in the next day to be induced to have Christian. It has gone by way too fast.
Tomorrow is C-bears actual birthday so I will be posting his stats, likes, phases after his three year check up. So for now, he are some snap shots of his (and Phillip's) special day.

I think this is going to be a new tradition for my boy's birthday parties; having a pinata to whack open. Poor kid, at a little bit of a disadvantage with his cast.

June was the one who whacked it open. You go girl!Christian listening to his card. When opened, it plays the song from Cars, "Life is a Highway.."His first pair of cowboy boots. Thanks Mimi and Papaw!!Still, at a disadvantage while eating. He gets the cast off Monday.
The birthday boys.We did a superhero theme for their party. We had a combination of Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man and Captain America. We had it at our house and had family, plus the Selby's (which we consider family :-) ).

I love when friends and family show my boys love!Nice thing about having a trampoline is that we don't have to do bouncy houses anymore!I must say, I love these low key parties. The boys have so much fun and there isn't too much stress on the parents. The nice thing about combining the parties is that you have help! So thank you Kyle and Courtney for making the yummy sliders!

I am curious as to what Christian will prefer next year. It was when Joseph turned 4 that he told me what exactly wanted to do for his birthday.

Happy 3rd birthday to my (one of my) superhero, C-bear!