Favorite Toy

More videos to come... but Grandpa Worst posted a fun video from Christmas Eve! Isn't this a fun gift from Auntie Em, Uncle Ken & Cousin Owen? And we are still walking and walking and walking...

The Boys say HO Ho ho!

Fred had Noah over last week for a play date and to show his friends what a Christmas tree is. Click here to see photos. Yes, Fred is having fun learning all about Christmas, and we have many more adventures on this topic to share.

We have no idea

A silly night at dinner that just makes us laugh. Luckily we were able to get Aunt Molly on Skype to be part of the fun - I love when Fred perks up with the dial tones.



What are these babies thinking I wonder.

Nerd... its in our DNA

We were given this sweater by one of my mom's good friends, its handmade and you can't see it in the picture but there is a navy F knitted into the sweater, and the buttons are little crayons. We put him in it and it cracks me up. I think we found Fred Rogers replacement. Yes, I'm truly enjoying the power of "I'm bigger than you and will make you wear ridiculous things" - its so short lived I must take advantage! You will also notice some ridiculous faces he makes. My favorite is this "oh" mouth and he curls is tongue - it makes me laugh every time!

Happy Birthday Aunt Molly

So we dragged ourselves out of our infected sick beds to get down to my folks the Sunday after Thanksgiving to say goodbye to Aunt Molly before she went back to school. We had big plans to play with her, but alas it didn't happen this visit. As an added bonus Aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff were there too!

We gave her, her traditional chocolate Christmas count down calendar, and fashionable "going out" shirts which thank god someone else picked out for me - because Lord knows fashion and I do not mix. The baby (Aunt Molly that is) is now 21. How crazy is that?! I remember when she was Fred's age. So it was a fun party, rumor has it Fred was given a potato chip by the birthday girl and she also gave him a lick of chocolate frosting, thus the all organic streak ended in a burst of high fructose corn syrup, glucose, trans fat flame of glory. However this is DEFINITELY not going to be the norm - got it sneaky Aunt Molly?! No spoiling with food, toys sure, food no!href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRLRvjFqfgNZy8qhhJsmWTaStsKBrVsW_xq2Bi6shaSLHsfcGs3ocSC_bagyP_kgt7KWkQGCLIA3e6ObVosb0of7H1zjKwJ1f22bB2YF7Tot0ty4tpOp_qumIvoRq0SUynmHSV6482JNs/s1600-h/IMG_2725.JPG">

Co-Eds!

Fred is a ladies man. Well of course look at him! I have to be careful though. Fred has been able to gain almost unlimited access to the inside of sorority house on the Indiana campus, he's primarily been inside one of the girls bedroom. All the girls swoon over him and say hello whenever he is around. Its enough to make frat boys insanely jealous. Now how has this baby boy who can't even walk been able to get to IU? Aunt Molly and Skype. Whenever we dial up his face lights up with the ring tones! Now he has the appropriate college gear to wear to look like he belongs. Those thetas are in trouble, this cuteness factor is irrestitable!

WWM

Welcome to Saturday morning smack down on the WWM (Wrestle With Mommy)! Fred loves to rough house.

He and I are forever gnawing on each others face and tickling each other.

The funny part is that only myself and Grandma Lynn seem to be the ones channeling this more aggressive play.

Daddy is much more calming... except when it comes to laughing at burps.

Biscuits!

We love 'em!

I don't want to work...

I just want to bang on that drum all day!

Well, not really. I was feeling bad that Fred didn't have any toys that required batteries, nothing lit up or made noises (ok I never even bought him a toy). We were at a store getting a birthday present for some other little fella and I saw this bongo thing.

I thought this is perfect, it lights up and makes noises when you whack it or knock it over - perfect Fred loves to do both! I think these pictures are the only time he played with it. We are much more interested in using the wooden spoon and pot on the kitchen floor.

Oh well, so now you know for Christmas - toys that have been paid for will not be played, go the freebie route. Better yet just boxes and wrapping paper will be loved!

Halloween finally!

Halloween was fun, just hanging out in the front yard watching the kiddies go by. Fred did like checking them out. Also we think it may be the last year of our talking pumpkin, just because next year we will want to trick or treat. We'll see maybe we can figure out something next year. If you can't tell Fred was a bug, ahh what you can do with a $1.97 in felt, piper cleaners, and metallic pompoms. Grandma attached the antennas for us (aren't they so cute?)! I'm sure most of you will be seeing one of these pictures again very soon! Oh yes I also got the 'mom' hair cut, I think I might keep it for a bit.

We are back baby!

The external hard drive is in my possession and a lot of other technically geeky stuff I have fixed (thanks to the Apple store and my own personal genius bar you know who you are EO) and so now it is on to fun and catch up with the Fredmiester. I know we missed a lot of the fall so I will try to catch up as fast as I can. Fred loved the leaf pile, I'll try to get the video up of him eating it.


Election day rocked, see previous entry with new post to compare the campaign pics of fred aging click here or scroll.

Napping has been a strange business in this house this fall. Sometimes we hit the nap hard (see picture) and other times there will be none. I could justify this on the count of two new top teeth, yet again maybe it was because he was stressing over perfecting new skills such as pulling to stand, siting to belly crawl, pincher grasp, etc., or perhaps the wicked bubonic plague like cold that laid us all up for Thanksgiving and had Fred's nose ooozing some toxic goo like substance (its hard to breath and sleep with toxic goo in your nose), but really I think I have to just toss this hit or miss napping to the enigma that is babyhood.

I'll hopefully edit some video tomorrow and post Halloween pictures (which is really pathetic to do in December but what are ya gonna do?) So we should be frequenting the blog-o-sphere more often now!

Turkey Day

So I'm sure you are just dying to see the adorable pictures of Fred plowing his face into a pumpkin pie? And all of us in our cute sweaters snuggling on the couch. Or the fellas taking a snooze while watching football. Me too....

We have no pictures, because there are none. The closest thing we got to a Thanksgiving was the turkey baster like nasal aspirator we used to get the gunk out of Fred's nose. All of us were at home with a bad cold. I don't think anyone even made it out of there jammies. We hope for a do-oever Thanksgiving day soon. The sniffles seems to be subsiding and hopefully we will be in full holiday mode.

Quick Stats

Sorry this is boring since I have no pictures, but a few quick things...

the 9mo. check up took place and weighing at 21lbs. and 2oz & 31inches long is Fred the horse. I feel he's huge well at least 90% for length and 50th for weight.

I also realized I've never mentioned that crawling (well belly crawling) is a trick that we are very advanced at. Mobility = freedom and he loves every second of it. Also yesterday and once today Fred is able to pull himself up to stand - Very exciting, except for the fact that it looks as if he wants to climb as well... oh boy oh boy. Pictures should be coming soon!

Halloween Prep

I still can't load any new pictures...I'm working on it believe me! But here is one of our pumpkins - I call it ode to Fred with squinty happy eyes, nice big wide mouth with two bottom teeth. I think he liked it - well he sucked on it, so I think that's a good sign of approval.

Its Not Easy Being Green

Since having Fred, environmental issues, freak me out. Seriously, I had a meltdown during the summer when I heard that the polar ice caps had shrunken to an all time low, that they had almost completely melted, ad while I would like to blame the tears on hormones, I worry about what kind of environment my kids (& their children & so on) have been brought into. So Fred and I got on the G-diaper system. They degrade within 150 days in a landfill, are made from sustainable & recycled products. However many know of our saga that they clogged our sewer (they are designed to be flushable) yet the company was amazing and are giving us a years worth of free diapers (the plumber's bill was rather significant). I've been switching over all our household cleaners to Seventh Generation products, trying to buy more organic products (God bless Trader Joe's - I seriously think I should open a franchise of one). I got Stan this book for His birthday called Living Like Ed, by Ed Begely Jr. It is really interesting, and has increased our desire to get off the grid. (Create our own energy in solar panels & wind). I think the best part of the book is realizing that he is neighbor's with Bill Nye the Science guy - Hollywood cracks me up. Stan is beginning to look at hybrids for his next car & I'm thinking I could maybe get away with an electric for my next car (several several years off). All of this knowledge has sort of spurred on our pipe dream to build our "forever house". Did you know that you can insulate with recycled denim & newspaper composit? How cool is that! I'm trying to cut down on our waste but have been slow to get a compost pile going. We've also been looking into rain barrels. I guess the reason I'm spewing all this goofy granola, hippie, eco-nutter info is that I'm so annoyed with the energy lobby's tv ads! I hope as a society we can look back on them like cigarette ads. These pictures are from awhile ago (I'm re-looking at what I can post since I still can't load pictures) Aunt Kelly gave us this awesome t-shirt for our grassroots movement - by which I mean that Fred sat in the grass and pulled it out by the roots.

Hey Gramps...Watcha Doing?

We love Grandpa Ed.

How can Gluttony be a sin when it's this cute?

My son the Glutton. He is eating us out of house and home. We are talking about 12 - 16 oz of solids at a meal! Babies his age, I was told eat about two jars of food at a meal if that, which is around 8 oz. Fred easily can double that. For instance let me share what he ate for dinner last night:
4 oz. of Chicken Dinner (its a blend of sweet potatoes, chicken and apples I blend together)
1 1/2 oz. of lentils
1 oz. of carrots
3 oz. of peas
2 oz. of multigrain infant cereal
1 oz. of pears
1 oz. of peaches
probably about 2 oz of applesauce
a kiwi (around 2 oz)
Cheerios
juice from his sippy cup
and after all that he nursed before bed time! I don't even know if we have ever seen him full. He never turns his head that he doesn't want food, he'll keep eating Cheerios (I tried this game for over an hour till I finally gave up). And because I'm making almost all his food, I feel I live my life in the kitchen. I'm constantly making batches of sweet potatoes, or spinach, or fruit. There's all the cleaning, cutting, blending, and then clean-up - I swear by the time I finish one batch its time to feed him again. The ice cube trays are always in use freezing green beans or beats or whatever. I'm getting ready for him to just eat big people food because once I'm finished making him dinner, I'm making us dinner and it is crazy! I think we are packing on the pounds too. I'll be anxious to see where we are at when we go to the doctor's in a couple of weeks. He's still really long, but he now has the Philips cankles and his wrists are getting fat! He's certainly putting his two bottom teeth to work chomping on the Cheerios and chunks of fruit. I guess he's in need of all this food to power him, since he never seems to stop moving and is army crawling everywhere! He's speedy and tenacious to get to where he wants. Still it'll be a lot easier once we can go to all table food.

Election Day Baby!

Look at how Fred has aged through out this campaign! The young one is on the day of the primary, the other picture of him coming out of the polls!

Technical Difficulties

I have a few other pictures to post about Fred before my reserve dries up due to not having anymore memory or disk space on my computer. I need to get an external hard drive so I can down load the pictures from Halloween - because you know I would have been writing about that sooner it being my favorite and his first. But for the moment to quench your Fred longing take a look at my buddy's blog about our recent adventure to South Bend for a Fred Fest - so fun! Fred did amazing in the car which I was nervous about because the last time we did that drive coming home from summer vacation, lets just say by the time we got home, my car interior needed serious cleaning, the car seat needed cleaning, Fred needed a bath and rode home through the last part of the journey with out close and Stan would only breath through his mouth. But this time we had no such issues which was awesome for me since I was doing this on my own. I have other pics to post and will do so as soon as possible.

Hurry! Its easier than the SATs.

Ok, I know I'm really bad but quick pick one the pictures are due today! Which one is he the cutest most model like (and yes I know my photography is bad, but nothing I can do about that now - I will crop & touch up). Submit your answers to the poll on the right.

a.)


b.)


c.)


d.)

"Bummer...

doesn't look like any new post yet mom."

"Hold on Fred I'm about to put up a slew in a moment!"

Prepared to brag...

So for my birthday last week Fred gave me these pictures in wallet size, because he heard that I was a bad mom who doesn't carry photos of him in my purse. My excuse is that I am usually caring him with me, so who needs a picture when the real thing is right there? When I got these pictures it struck me at how Fred got Stan's red hair, and my big mouth. I think every picture of me in college with my pal Rox we have our mouths open as wide as they will go - just like Fred here. But I love my gift, so I can carry my boys with me.

Fall into Gap

So gap is having a casting call contest and I'm trying to get a goo picture of Fred because of course if people see just how cute he is, he'll win. However my little squirmy worm won't sit still enough for me to get a great shot. We've had several photo shoots however. I was trying to capture the season - me and my addiction to autumn. Some beauties right? The kid can take a cute picture, but when I try to get a close up with a plain background it just seems impossible. I have a few days left, perhaps I'll have to post a poll to see what pictures to post.

Apologies from a delinquent blogger.

I know I seem to running hot and cold with postings, but it is really rather of me getting the time. I have a little one who has been boycotting naps. We have got a new feeding schedule and now we seem to be back on track. Much of our outings and exciting adventures are with our buddy Noah. We can't get enough of the kid or more like his toys. Fred uses him for his rainforest playmat and mom is now using them for the Wii fit, but don't feel bad for Noah, he got some organic homemade squash baby food out of the deal. Poor Noah is getting steam rolled by Fred. I have the hyper bully child who grabs things and it takes Noah a second or two to realize but then looks at us like "Moms don't just sit there and laugh, do something". I think we really freaked the poor baby out when we put both boys in Noah's crib together and Fred thought this was fabulous playtime and Noah just scooted to the other end of the crib in hopes that it would all go away and he could sleep. I'm confident that someday Fred is going to have to suffer a full on revenge assault by Noah's hands...as soon as he figures out how to use them a little more quickly!