Kellen Christopher

Kellen Christopher,

I can't believe you are already 6 months old. I absolutely adore you and am thankful for all the wonderful things you bring to my life. You make me a better person, and I want nothing more than to make you happy. No one will ever love you more than I do, and I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you. You weren't our first, and hopefully you will not be our last child, but nonetheless you are so special. I look forward to meeting the little boy you are too quickly growing up to be. At your appt yesterday you are:

*15lbs 15oz (20th percentile)

*26 in. long (30th)

"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into."

Terri Guillemets

Bust

The photo shoot today was a bust. Justin HATES it when I dress the boys alike, so naturally I take lots of pictures when I do it because he usually isn't home until they are in their jammies. Evil, aren't I? So since I'm usually too tired from working the weekend to keep up with my Not Me! Monday posts...here is my Not Me Wednesday moment.

I most certainly did not keep taking pictures of my crying babies in their matching monkey outfits because I thought it was funny. That isn't mean, right?

Oh stop feeling sorry for them! Kellen looked like this 5 seconds later :-)

Here are pictures from our trip to the observation park at the airport. Cole is obsessed with airplanes, so he was in heaven.

My first born and I enjoying the porch after an evening at the pool.

Dear Kellen

Dear Kellen,

Can you please stay like this

forever and stop trying to catch up to your big brother like this

Thanks. Love, Mommy

So as I mentioned, Justin accepted a position as the manager of "The Lodge" at the Triangle Town Center Dick's. Here are Justin and Kellen as they discuss the ins and outs of the benefits package. If only you could see that Justins feet are crossed the same way Kellen's are. How cute are they? VERY, if I do say so myself, and I DO (thankyouverymuch!).

I have lots more pictures to share, but they will have to wait for another day. I will leave you with this because it makes me laugh out loud. These were taken in the car on our way home after a very long day of running errands. Kellen was tired, hungry, and ultimately tired of being strapped in his carseat...

This was Cole at that very same moment...

I can't count the number of times Cole has woken up his brother, climbed on his brother, thrown a toy that hit his brother, taken the attention away from his brother, etc etc etc.... It is at times like these when I say, "Kellen, let him have it babe!"

Turtles

So apparently turtles like Granville County. More specifically, they prefer my yard.

THIS TURTLE

caught my eye while I was letting Bella out a couple weeks ago. It was on the far end of our yard, but was big enough to catch my eye. I ran down to take this picture while Cole was in his high chair eating breakfast to get a better look and take a picture. I have to be honest that I was scared of the turtle. The shell had to be at least a foot long. This picture was taken from a little ways back, zoomed in. I really was scared! A couple hours later when Kellen was taking his morning nap, Cole and I went outside to see if we could find the turtle. Sure enough, we found her (it didn't take much looking...she was bigger than the dog!)

For some reason she thought this plastic container of some sort looked like a comfy pillow to settle in on and do her heavy pushing. I couldn't figure out at first what she was doing, but then realized she was slowly (they really do move pretty darn slow) digging a hole with her back feet.


I certainly wouldn't say I'm super girly or prissy, but I will admit that I'm not really the nature type. I really was pretty disgusted with the turtle until I witness her laying eggs. No, I'm not going so far as to say that I felt connected to her with my child there beside me while she gave birth to hers. Sorry, I'm not that granola. It was pretty neat though. I mean, how can you not appreciate this...

I told you I got braver and made it in a little closer. And, yes (ahem) my camera is the bomb, capturing every retched detail of this beast. The eggs were pearly white and about the size of ping pong balls. Right about the time I was thinking to myself.... "I wonder if we are bothering her?" SPLATT! She accidentally crushed one of her eggs trying to move away from us. I took the, not-so-subtle hint and grabbed my chatty toddler and left her to her labor. "Turrul" was all he talked about all day. We did go back about an hour later to find this...

I couldn't believe how deliberate she was in burying the eggs and then spreading pinestraw and sticks to cover her tracks. She was on her way back to the creek. After talking to my nerdy husband (dont let him fool you, he's pretty smart) he informed me that she chose that spot on purpose because it is up hill from the creek and a pretty straight path, so when the turtles hatched and made their way to the surface they would naturally find their way, down hill, to the creek. Now, my maternal instincts kicked in and I think the turtle is pretty dumb. Number one, she chose to lay her eggs in the yard of a toddler and a crazy woman obsessed with her camera. Number two, that straight path to the creek is also the steepest spot from our yard to the creek, and very thick with pinestraw. Whatever, I'm not expert on turtle parenting. I am apparently no expert on people parenting either because my eldest son thought it would be fun to drag my youngest son across the floor on his blanket... At least he gave him a kiss afterwards.

Sorry for the blur, photos courtesy of Daddy (who by the way wins "Father Of The Year" for opting to take pictures rather than rescue his baby!) Wink. I like to pick on his photography skills, but check this one out. Good shot babe!

Now that size turtle I'm ok with. Cole liked him. Can you tell wardrobe this day was also courtesy of Daddy?

So just to prove my point...here are Justin's mad photography skills. Note a few key points. 1: My child has no head 2: The intended subject of this photo is the turtle, yes look closely he's there, lastly 3: photographers leg and hand are in the picture. Haha, ok I'm going to stop now.

Mommy & Daddy made it out of the house...ALONE!

I wanted to catch up tonight with all that has been going on around here, but I just realized my camera battery is dead so I can't transfer any pictures. So, to remind myself more than anything, here are a few things to come...
* GIANT turtle that laid eggs in our yard (Cole and I watched!)
*Kellen sitting up and trying to get up on hands and knees (stop growing up!)
*Trip to the airport so Cole could watch airplanes
*Justin starting a new job in July
*Fun at the pool
*Marbles museum

A couple weeks ago Justin and I went to an outdoor concert with a good friend of mine, Helen, and her husband, Jamey. It was so nice to get out and enjoy some music and adult conversation. Nana stayed with the boys, and I'm sure they enjoyed their special night as much as we did. We are so lucky to have family close by (relatively) to babysit. I hope we make time to do things like that more often. I had my old camera with us so here are a couple pictures.

While I've got my old camera hooked up, I can't resist sharing this video I took of Cole dancing. Sorry it's sideways, I don't know how to fix it. Be patient, there is a pretty snazzy shoulder/body wave at the end. Gotta love those white boy moves!