Jumpin, jumpin, jumpin!

Even though he's been robbing us of our precious zzzz's for six months now, I'm still so happy to pick him up out of bed every morning...as long as it's after 5:30, that is. Before 5:30? Now that's another story. But I regress.  My point? Jackson & I agree that there can't possibly be a cuter or happier baby on the planet!  (I can say this because Brooklyn is a Big Girl now. :))  And it's not just us that gush over him. You should hear his teachers at school!  He's the reason they come to work every day! 

Well yesterday was his 6 month birthday, and he partied the night away in his jumper:

Partied til he was out like a light...in his jumper:



He goes from ninety to nuthin in that thing!  One second he's jumping like a mad man and the next, he's passed out!  One day I ran over with concern, thinking he'd knocked himself unconscious on one of the toys.  But no, he was just asleep. 2.3 seconds after he was jumpin his heart out.  The best part is that when you go to pick him up, he startles and immediately starts jumping again!  He was jumping with his eyes closed last night, as I picked him up to relocate to bed.  Happy half birthday, my boy. You are oh so loved.

OUCH!

We spent the evening at the neighborhood park again tonight, where Bryson swang on the swing and Brooklyn fearlessly tackled the rest of the playground.  Until she saw him swinging and immediately realized that she wanted to swing really, really bad.  We were just about to call it quits and head home for bathtime when the begging began. "No swing, bubba." Little did we realize that she was directly in the line of fire. BAM! Right to the face!  Bryson's swing collided with Brooklyn knocking her backwards off her feet!  Big cries and some healing kisses later, and she was M.A.D. at him!  Pointing and scolding, "no, no, bubba."  We tried to hide our laughter while explaining the term 'accident'. 

Minutes after recovering from the fall, we begin our foot race home.  Running in full force behind me is a red, swollen-foreheaded girl with a couple crazy curls flying in the wind and a mouth open wide with excitement. Until BAM!  She bites the dust...I mean blacktop.  This poor toddler not only met, but slid across the blacktop like a baseball player sliding in for a home run!  Oh, man. I couldn't get to her fast enough. 

I wanted to document this evening not only for memory's sake of how accident-prone and resiliant toddlers are, but also because we'll be dropping off a knot-headed princess with 2 skinned knees, ankles, and hands at school tomorrow.  Looks like we have some explaining to do after this crazy "play, play" time!

BIG cookie

Every day when I pick the kids up, I'm welcomed with big smiles from my boy. He just gushes with excitement and brings so much joy to my afternoon!  So I get him all loaded up into the carseat, (which must weigh 30 lbs now), and we head down the hall to get big sister. She runs to me, arms open wide and we hug a "BIG" hug...until we separate and the whining for "bi-bi" (aka blankie) immediately follows. I try reasoning with her, "you're a big girl; you don't need your blankie! It's not nighttime yet."  This is usually to no avail. My new tactic: straight up bribery. At least until we get out of the building!  Usually it's crackers, but today I offer a cookie. Of course she doesn't want just a bite. She wants the WHOLE darn thing! So she double fisted her entire oatmeal cream pie and says with extreme emphasis and excitement "BiiiiG cookie, BiiiiiG cookie" the whole way home. Until the cookie was gone and she was parched. "Wa-wa, wa-wa, momma? Please?!" At least she's a polite begger, right?

Play, play!

If you're ever in the car with Brooklyn and happen to drive past a playground anywhere in sight, you'll hear the words "play, play" as she holds her hands together signing 'play'. Sometimes I have a hard time even finding the playground, but inevitably, if I search enough, I'll find what she's eyeing. Well this was a weekend full of "play, play" time!

Look at those wild locks of blonde!

 She's just as fearless on the playground as the 3 year old boy she towers over (not pictured, unfortunately):

Meanwhile, Bryson's dreaming of next summer when he dominates the spotlight with his cool kid tricks...

She can't get back to the top fast enough.

"Must find faster way. Ah ha! Climb!" 

 Wonder where she learned that?

 ...AND...she's out! "Night, night," she says:

Cousins Retreat!

Jackson's cousin, and my lifelong bestie invited us down to their house for our 1st annual cousin's retreat!  So I loaded up the house into the car Thursday night and we headed for the lonestar state after closing shop at the cube farm Friday evening. It was half past midnight before we entered their house with a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed little girl in tow. After endless efforts to shush her to sleep, my eyes were closing involuntarily and the last thing I remember was a head butt. Or maybe a kick to the back. Either way, we awoke Saturday morning in the same bed that the 3 of us fell asleep in.  (Bryson, of course, slept like a prince in his pack-n-play.)
Weekend festivities included some Bumbo time for the baby cousins:














Dancing time for my girl:

Loungin time for the big boys:

Shoppin time for the girls (pictures of this event may be incriminating and therefore won't be posted), and of course some poses in our special t-shirts (thank you, Katy!!):

And Bryson realized that there's another love in his life...Bethany!!

After the kiddos were tucked in each night, the girls schooled the boys in a few games of Taboo.  After a weekend filled with fun, family and friends, we headed home Monday morning, turned on a DVD for Brooklyn's viewing pleasure:

Six hours, 3 stops and several diaper changes later, we were home again, home again, jiggity jig! We unpacked the house, did bathtime, bedtime stories, and enjoyed some shut eye without the busy body in between us. Thank you, Katy & Ross for organizing such a great weekend!