Almost 9 Months and Crawling

Sorry - it's been a while since I posted last. We've been busy and the boys have been doing SO many new things it is so hard to keep track. So hopefully I don't miss something big that has happened in the past 3 weeks... but here goes:

Some milestones we've hit are: Oscar now has all 4 front teeth (top and bottom) and MacKay has three (two bottom, one top) but looks as if he is just days from that 4th one popping through. Around mid July Oscar started crawling, and now is a champ at it and climbing up on everything and starting to "scale" furniture. He's pretty darn fast too and you can't look away for too long before he's getting himself in trouble (usually MacKay isn't far behind him either) getting into Angus's toys, playing with the TV/DVD/Stereo equipment, pulling CDs off the shelf or crawling over the bricked area in the corner of our living room (still need to get some guards on that). MacKay JUST started taking his first crawling steps yesterday. He takes short little steps and movements right now but seems pretty sure of himself and I'm sure he'll pick up the pace pretty quickly here. Life for me has changed completely now..... wow. They are loud and vocal little boys too. Constantly playing with new sounds and with their volume level. They both seem to thoroughly enjoy getting louder and louder. They both seem to say Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa tho we're not sure they really know what they mean. Excellent little sleepers too. We struggled for a while letting MacKay CIO (Cry It Out) for a few nights but he quickly got the hint and now goes to sleep at night (and for naps) like a champ. Oscar now is more the challenge seeing as he can pull himself to a standing position and loves to do so in his crib vs go to sleep. But he quickly tires out and eventually flops down and goes to bed. I think we are just so lucky to have two boys that sleep so well (so far).

The boys and I went to my friend Heidi's cabin on Woman Lake in Longville last week for the day/night. Had a blast up there and the boys made friends with little Avery (6 mo) and James (2.5 years). They got to accompany Mommy to the local ice cream shoppe there too so Mommy could get her fix of "Superman" ice cream (one of the only places I know it is still sold). They also got to try out their first "ride" in a tree swing. They loved it so much (see pictures below) that I ordered one online that should be here soon. Can't wait to get it set up.

This coming weekend we head up to Duluth to spend the weekend at Grandpa Gary and Terri's lake place. Hoping we can get the boys in the lake (hopefully it is warm enough), otherwise just planning on having a nice visit and seeing many of my Kamp relatives. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun pictures to post after that.

Well..... here are some recent pictures of the MacKay and Oscar.

I'll start with the "outfit" pictures first. The first is a picture of the boys in their "Eat. Sleep. Poop" and "My Mom is Hot" shirts that their Great Grandma (Bev) and Grandpa (George) Kamp got for them. The second is of some PJs that the Hoglund/Ledwein family got for the boys over the July4th weekend at a cute little store in downtown Annandale. I love these jammies and they are so soft. Lastly a couple picture of the boys in their "Twins" onesies from my Mom's friend Marna McComb. This is how we find Oscar when we come into the room (standing) and here is MacKay showing off his newest talent of getting himself into a sitting position in his crib.

Had to put some food pictures in. Here's Oscar with a Gerber Puff in his mouth, tho the way he is holding it in there it looks like he has buck teeth. And MacKay is cracking up as usual. He has the funniest laughing faces (smiles with his entire face and body).

And here are the boys with their first pickle. Funny enough Oscar really didn't cringe too much or make many faces but MacKay sure did.

I think it is so hilarious that no matter how many toys you have for babies, they still find the most common household items to be the most interesting, like: Angus's chew toys (Oscar), crawling between the levels of the coffee table (MacKay) - check out that scrunched up face, wrapping themselves around chairs (Oscar), playing with Daddy's slippers (MacKay), and the best toy of all...... our remote control (MacKay and Oscar)

*In the first two pictures the boys are wearing their "guitar" onesies that Grandma Chris got for them in honor of their musically inclined Uncle Dennis

Just some fun pictures of the boys playing: First is of MacKay right after a bath, and he has discovered "shadows" and kept trying to grab at it. Next is a picture of Oscar with one of their newest toys, the big bouncy ball. MacKay, prior to crawling, doing the "bear stand" like Oscar used to do. And lastly, MacKay was in the exersaucer and Oscar just wanted to come over and play with him.

Here are some pictures from Heidi's cabin at Woman Lake. We put the boys in the hammock for a while and it took them a while to warm up to it but they liked swinging and looking out at the lake. Here's Oscar crawling on the deck... and just about to go down a step (yikes). Also a picture of Oscar venturing to crawling through an exersaucer (something he does a lot at home too). And of course some pictures I had to include of them in the tree swing. They LOVED this.

Some pictures of the boys enjoying their time in the water. They love their baths in the sink and we got them in the pool again on Sunday. Now that they can crawl and get around they seem to enjoy it more and chase after the floating toys. Again, MacKay face planted and got a little upset about that. But for the most part they just enjoyed splashing around.

Hope everyone is doing well out there........ will add more later.

EIGHT Months and Updates....

So much has happened since my last post (at least the last one I provided updates on) considering I haven't posted in almost a month now. (Sorry). We've been pretty busy around here. First off I should note that we are (or were) all feeling 100% now. Both the boys came out of their little colds pretty easilly after getting on some antibiotics and taking some Benadryl for a couple of nights. But right after they started getting well poor little Oscar caught some 24 hour bug that sent his temp up to 103 degrees. After the whole Tylenol and Motrin regimen he was feeling better that next day though - so that one went quickly. But I just noticed today that it seems as if little MacKay is starting to get a bit under the weather again, not sure if it is teething or a cold but I'm going to have to watch him closely.

We've had a lot of visitors come to see us lately too......the Hehir's (they visit a lot and help out with the boys), Grandma Diane, the James' (Connie, Jerry, Brian and Allen), Grandpa Gary and Terri, Grandpa Dean and Grandma Bonnie etc. The boys love seeing all the new people. And they even have made some "baby" friends at their ECFE class (Fun with your Infant) that we go to every Wednesday afternoon.

And the house.... which has consumed our lives for the past 3 months...... it is nearly done. We now have new windows, new soffets and fascia, new roof, new gutters, new paint, new patio door, new screen doors.... AND.... a new cedar deck off the back. Definitely one of the best additions we've done to the place - a new place to hang out in the summer months. We still have yet to do a little more painting ourselves and John Hehir will be re-rocking our chimney, inside and out later this summer. So once that is all finished I'll take a picture and post it on here.

Some recent happenings and milestones we've hit.... The boys turned 8 months on June 30th and have gone through a lot of changes. They now are in their 18 month (12-18 month) clothes, and we're guessing Oscar is about 22.5 lbs and MacKay is about 21.5lbs. Oscar started creeping about a week ago AND got his 3rd tooth in (if I hadn't mentioned it in a previous post, MacKay finally got his 2nd bottom tooth a few weeks ago as well). MacKay made his first attempt (somewhat successful) at pulling himself up on the coffee table to get something off of it last week. MacKay is saying a lot of "pah-pah"s while Oscar is still stuck on "ma-ma" - which makes sense since MacKay is his Daddy's boy and Oscar is his Momma's boy. :) They really are very giggly and chatty lately. Around the time the boys started getting better and over their colds, MacKay developed a new "night owl" tactic - and played on his Mommy and Daddy to let him stay up until around 11pm each night. We finally hit the point where we couldn't stand it any longer (especially during the time we were at Dean and Bonnie's for the 4th) and in the last couple nights have tried out the "Cry it out" method. We've tried it before but he just gets so worked up that he gets drenched with sweat and can't calm himself down. But it seems to be working now cuz he's finally going to sleep... but it takes a while (45 minutes of crying on Sat night and about 20 minutes last night). Either way - much better than staying up with him until the wee hours.

We spent the 4th weekend in Annandale with the Hoglund/Ledwein side of the family and had a BLAST. We never made it in the lake with the boys (tho Mommy and Daddy were frequent riders on the jet ski) as it wasn't warm enough for them... but the boys took their first boat ride during the Pleasant Lake July 4th Boat Parade and took in their first parade (which surprisingly they both fell asleep for). The boys had so much fun with everyone. And their older cousin Taylor was a great help during the weekend, helping us out with the boys and loving them up. Thanks Taylor. After a fun and chaotic weekend it was good to get home and take care of things back here. We even got their pool set up and they got to have their first dip in the pool on Sunday. They had fun but MacKay took a couple of nose dives and wasn't a fan after that.

Well I am sure more has happened but so hard to remember everything that's happened in the past couple weeks - will have to make a point to post weekly on a regular basis. But, as always, some fun pictures for you to peruse through..... it's what you come here for anyway. :)

Some pictures of the boys out playing in the yard on a nice mid June day. I love those hats..... and was able to capture a moment that happens constantly between the two of them where they are grabbing each other by the bibs and trying to whip each other around.

Had to post these. This picture doesn't do Oscar's lip justice (for those of you that have really seen this you will agree) but Oscar is the King of Pouting. And the other is a picture of MacKay sucking his thumb. Neither of them are habitual thumb suckers (never used Nuks either) but every once in a while we catch them doing this.

I had so much fun taking these pictures of the boys at my mom's house. We just plopped them on a chair together and got some really fun pictures out of them as they wrestled and cuddled each other (.... as you can see, Oscar is more of the "cuddler" of the two...whereas MacKay, well he's just our little imp) :)

The boys playing. The first is just when the two of them rolled to each other and sort of snuggled up like this. Totally not even posed. And the 2nd is a picture of the boys at Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean's playing with the "Little People" Farm they have there.

Some pictures of the boys during the 4th of July Festivities in Annandale. Here are the boys dressed in the outfits Gma Chris bought for them to wear over the 4th.... topped off with some fun head wear courtesy of Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean.

Here are some pictures from the Pleasant Lake Boat Parade. They do this every year the night before the 4th. People decorate their boats and do themes etc. We got to take the boys on their first boat ride. The first picture is of Captain (Gpa) Dean letting Oscar drive (or at least sit on his lap). The 2nd is of all the kids (cousins) - front Left to Right: Taylor (holding MacKay), Stella, Jack and Sophia (holding Oscar). The last picture is of us with our fun goofy hats we wore for the boat parade.

The boys also took in their first parade on the 4th. They both fell asleep regardless of the Veterans' guns going off and the multiple Marching bands. We were able to lay MacKay on a blanket on the ground but Oscar woke up when we tried that with him so he got to take on a bit more of the parade. Of course Taylor was there to lend a helping hand... here's a picture of her with Oscar. And a picture of us again in our traditional matching Old Navy July 4th shirts that the family gets. Unfortunately none of my pictures of the entire family turned out (too hazy) so Kelly Jo or Denise, if you have any that turned out well, send them on.

Some miscellaneous pictures of the boys. Here's Oscar and his classic crawling/creeping move where he gets up on all fours (pulls knees up too) and looks like he is about to "bear walk". And MacKay sporting some really nasty bed head after his first night of us letting him CIO (Cry It Out).

Some pictures of the boys during their first dip in the pool.

Well that's about it for now...... more to come later, and I promise I won't wait another month to do my next post.