1. No matter what I do I can't make Joey stop growing. He's 9 months old today & moving faster & faster toward that 1st birthday milestone.

2. His daddy & I are just trying to enjoy every moment with him.3. He now has 2 bottom teeth & his 2 top fangs (incisors) are starting to come in.

4. He enjoyed his first ride in a swing this month.5. Johnnie got in on the action too. Pushing his brother & making him laugh. 6. For the past 2 nights he has FINALLY slept through the night. 7pm-7am. Let's hope this is his new sleep pattern & not a fluke.

7. Walking can't be far off in the future. He crawls over to us, stands up & looks up to us to pick him up. He walks along the furniture & occasionally he falls down. But he does it all with a smile.8. He is getting really good at picking up food with his thumb & finger. It doesn't always make it into his mouth but he enjoys trying.

9. On his older brother's birthday he enjoyed his 1st carousel ride too.10. Our littlest love is getting so big. He is easy with the smiles. He continues to love food. He loves playing. And each & every day he wraps us more & more around his little baby fingers.

And the verdict is...

A healthy looking babySo you know what you are looking at... it's a view of the baby sitting on a glass table. A bottom, two legs & well you know. So I'm soon to be surrounded by A LOT of boys & I imagine a lot of crazy fun. Here is a profile of our little one's head. Doesn't he look so serene laying still? Not so much. It took forever to get this photo because he was moving nonstop. Let's hope he's trying to get this all out of his system before he joins the other Bolander boys.

Dear Johnnie

My beautiful baby boy you are now a toddler. At 9:47am today, exactly 2 years after you were born you were laying on the couch with your favorite things. Your pacifier (MY) & your blanket (BAY) watching your favorite movie, Cars (Carsee- you tend to add an ee sound to everything you really like.) You are usually so happy, full of smiles & giggles. Excitable at the littlest things but also headstrong when you aren't getting your way. We can make you happy just by giving you the smallest things... letting you sit in the front seat of our cars to "drive" using your belly to honk the horn. Giving you your morning bottle of milk, letting you brush your hair & teeth, making sure Joey doesn't touch your food & just letting you be a crazy kid.You usually aren't that excited to try new things. Saying no, crying occasionally & sometimes outright refusing to do it. But sometimes you'll do it, then love & it, then refuse to stop. Yesterday you rode a Merry-Go-round for the first time. Hesitantly at first but after your 2nd time you didn't want to stop. You had such a good time even if you refused to smile. You were an only child for a very short time & sometimes I really miss those times but I have to admit watching you with your baby brother melts my heart. You are so sweet with him & usually very gentle. Playing with toys, reading him books & always being very worried when you hear him crying. These are the moments I feel most proud of you.Tonight after dinner we gave you another cake & we all (including you for at least the words you knew) sang Happy Birthday. Then to our amazement you put your finger in the cake, & tasted the icing.And then you did the unthinkable for you & leaned down to take a bite of the icing.We were all laughing so hard but you just kept licking the icing & moving the candle around. No such luck on getting you to eat cake, but you sure did love the icing.You are SO very loving. Always giving kisses & hugs. You love to be held, especially when you're tired so you can put your head on our shoulder. You still run everywhere & will only sit still to watch some tv, to play with your trains & occasionally to eat. A pure joy. A VERY light sleeper. A toddler. One of the loves of my life. Forever my BABY. I love you little guy!

10 on Tuesday- Party Weekend

1. Johnnie is 3 days away from turning so we had a birthday party for him this past Saturday.

2. We had a doggie bouncer for him & all the kiddos. As soon as it was set up he convinced his daddy & me to bounce with him & then he spent time throughout the day bouncing.3. This year he was willing to blow out the candle (with daddy's help) & tried the blue icing, but he refused to actually eat the cake.4. Of course his aunties were there to celebrate his big day & one day I'm sure he will actually cooperate & look at the camera to take a pic with us.5. After his fun day with great friends his gramma who flew in from Connecticut for the big day gave him a back & head massage with his new trains. He just kept asking for her to do it with bigger & bigger trains. And the next morning he picked up the train, sat down & waited for her to do it again.6. The day after the party we went to the park with gramma & Joey got some quality time with her. 7. Bimpa came too & Johnnie was really excited to show him the boats that were in the water.8. We set up the train table the Vuoso's gave us & put some of his new birthday gifts out for him to play with. We had actually hoped that he would stand next to the table instead of on it, but at least he was enjoying himself.9. Johnnie got this truck from our friend Chris & he spent all evening running all through the house with it & he even spent some time showing Joey how it works.10. Johnnie & Joey playing together with some of Johnnie's new toys. I can't believe he won't be 1 anymore, but it has been so exciting watching him grow especially with his little brother.BONUS: Joey is 38 Weeks Old now. Teething has been very painful for him & has kept him up many nights, but he is just so darn adorable with his two new bottom teeth.

Because Our Lives Aren't Crazy Enough

In case this picture wasn't actually worth a thousand words, here's another one. I'm 17 weeks along now. Due March 2nd. This was a little unexpected, but definitely reason to celebrate. We always knew we wanted a 3rd baby & even though it has happened a little sooner than planned we are so very happy & just so excited to know that we will have another baby to love early next year.

Saturday Happenings

Rick spent today at school & then went to the Ohio State vs USC game which left the boys home with me all day & of course their Auntie Kimberly most of the day. Johhnie enjoyed typing on my computer this morning while his little bro spent time cruising along the furniture. After My Gym during Johnnie's nap, Joey spent time POSING for the camera. Each time I pointed the camera toward him he would look directly at the camera, let me take the photo & then start crawling toward me. At one point he was playing with his puppy chair & it brought back memories of the photos I took for Joey's announcement at 2 weeks old. Then this afternoon during Joey's nap, Johnnie drew with markers & colored with crayons while I edited photos.Doesn't he look like such a big boy here? He was having so much fun especially once I let him dump all the crayons out in front of him. We wished daddy was home today but we managed to have fun & look forward to family time tomorrow!

10 on Tuesday

1. 17 days from now baby Johnnie will be 2 years old. TWO! Can you believe it? I can't. And as the day approaches I find myself thinking about being pregnant with Johnnie.

2. 8 Months pregnant. 3. He changed so much that first year & one of the moments that stands out most is when he learned to walk. Before he was even 10 months old he was taking his 1st steps. Then before he was 11 months old he was trying to run but just succeeded in looking like a walking Frankenstein.

4.5. I have decided that dinners on Sunday will be stir-fry from now on. I used to try & make big elaborate dinners but have now decided that I'm just too tired after a day of menu planning for the week, grocery shopping, making Joey's baby food for the week & planning lunch for a very picky almost 2 year old.

6. Sunday morning we made oatmeal for the boys. Now that we are trying to feed Joey more solid food, we are able to let the boys share food.

7. 8. Now it's Johnnie's turn.9. Last night Joey tried & loved shepherd's pie for the first time. What's not to love I guess? Mashed potatoes, carrots, beef & peas (I can do without peas but at least he loves them).

10. A Joey lesson learned for the week. Last night Joey woke up crying around 2 hours after he went to sleep. I decided to give a little tough love & to let him cry it out. After a few minutes he went back to sleep. Then 1 hour later he woke up crying again & I decided that he should cry it out again, but a few minutes after crying it woke up Johnnie so Rick & I went to separate rooms to calm the boys down. Well I tried to nurse Joey because this ALWAYS makes him happy but he was inconsolable. Turns out he was teething & needed Motrin & teething tablets to nurse himself back to sleep. Oh well. From now on I will just go make sure he's okay. It may mean more middle of the night wake ups but at least he won't be in pain anymore. Poor baby!

10 on Tuesday- Labor Day Weekend

1. Joey is 8 Months Old now. 17 pounds 2 ounces. Steadily gaining weight & getting bigger. Babbling. Crawling Everywhere. Following Johnnie around the house. Very happy. Cries only when he's hungry or very tired. Sleeping 11-13 hours every night with one feeding between 3:30-5am. Constantly chasing the kitties & always making us smile! Auntie Kimberly & I took him to Redondo Beach to capture his photo. He enjoyed crawling through the sand in the shade until he got to the sunny part & then he stopped because it was too hot.2. Dumping sand on mama's shoes. 3. Everyday during school, Johnnie does arts & crafts. This consists of coloring, pasting stuff on paper & making outfits. Here is the outfit they made last week. A little poncho & hat.4. He even made a hat for Joey.5. Johnnie has finally started eating whole pieces of fruit like grapes & strawberries. No more cutting it up in to tiny little pieces. He sometimes forgets to chew but at least he's trying to eat like a big kid instead of a baby.

6. The boys are trying to play together these days. Mostly Johnnie just plays while Joey giggles & watches. Notice that Batty is right in the thick of things AGAIN. 7. Joey is constantly pulling himself up to a standing position. The couch, his exersaucer, the entertainment center & sometimes push toys. This weekend he pulled himself up on this toy & then looked at us like he wanted help so we put him on it. Look how excited he is. 8. As much as Johnnie loves his brother we still have to watch him constantly with Joey because he gets jealous when "his toys" are being played with. He won't try to hurt him but he will pull the toys away sometimes causing Joey to fall over.

9. Here's that toy that Joey was on & of course Johnnie decided to come over & squeeze on & control it. Joey doesn't seem to mind though.10. But it's obvious that Johnnie loves Joey. Joey better be careful. He may fall in to the splits if he's not careful. When Joey climbed up, Johnnie hugged him & said "I love you Jojo". Hope your Labor Day weekend was full of fun & sun.