Holy Cow....September already??  Yikes!  It seems like only yesterday that my and my big pregnant belly (poor Little Peanut!) were wiping out in the snow and now summer is almost finito.  I am a little excited for fall...I love jeans and sweater weather and I love putting cute little layers on the boys.  But when you have to add on the coat, hats, gloves, that's where I draw the line!

To say that Harry has been a handful the past few days may be a bit of an understatement.  Let us go back to Thursday when everything was right with the world.  I took the day off because Dad was having a heart cath.  Due to his/our horrific family history when it comes to heart disease, he and mom had a heart scan done a few months ago, which led to a stress test for Dad.  Although he did really well on the exercise portion, the doc was still concerned about some possible blockages that were showing up on the scans.  They weren't even sure that anything needed to be done since he wasn't having any symptoms, they were just being extra careful.  Well, thank God that they did--they put five stents in his heart!!  He had a few vessels that were 80-90%; blocked.  To make that long story short--he is doing great, he got to come home the next day, and he is already back on the east coast for work.  It's all a bit surreal, and it makes me scared for my little heart's future but that's besides the point of the story.  Since he had to stay at the hospital longer than we had expected, Travis brought the boys over so I could feed Elliot which messed up naptime for that day.  Since Dad was doing well, we kept our plans of going to Ikea (I know---we're hooked.  It's a sickness) in Cincinatti on Friday.  We weren't planning on taking Harry since I understand why it wouldn't be appealing for a two year old to take a long car ride and shop for a couple of hours, but since Mom and Dad were occupied he came with us.  Um, mistake.  He was not happy about it. 

Our weekend went downhill from there.  We will have spurts of good, normal behavior, then we have jags of the worst behavior we have ever seen out of him.  Yesterday, our neighbors were having a cook out and I put him in time out for not listening, etc. and he let out the most shrill, awful scream I have ever heard right in my ear.  He is very lucky we have decided to raise our kids spank-free or he would have gotten his first one right there.  We thought this was all brought about by his naps being shortened for a few days, but now we're not so sure.  He slept well Sat. night and had a decent nap Sunday and he was still a little monster.   It's just hard to know how to handle him when he's like that.  Ignoring him seems to escalate the situation, but being stern with him does too.  One thing that does work sometimes is being really calm and loving to get him to chill until five seconds later when you do something to set him off like talk or smile, you know, really mean stuff.  Today was one day that I really wasn't all that sad to go to work.  We are pretty slow and I am enjoying the quiet!  This toddler stuff isn't for wimps!

Dear little sweet Elliot...I told Travis the other day he is bad for birth control!!  After we got him through the newborn stage, he has been the most wonderful baby!  I am so spoiled.  He is still sleeping through the night, and better yet, he is developing into a Mama's boy!  Sometime within the past few days he started to be able to tell when I leave the room and it makes him cry!  Nate and Krista were kind enough to let us borrow Mary's Bumbo seat and he looks sooo cute in it (even though it is purple!).  He got to eat his rice cereal alfresco last night in it while Travis was trying to wear Harry out on the playset.  He is doing so well with eating that I need to start giving it to him twice a day to get ready for the baby food coming up in about 10 days or so.  He is totally into the Exersaucer and Jumperoo, and he loves tummy time with some toys on the floor as well.  I think he is quite a bit smaller than Harry was at this age, which is okay by me since I think it makes him more like a baby longer!!  We were working on sitting up the other night--I put his hands out in front to prop himself up, let go, and he would stay there for a few seconds before toppling over.  He's not quite ready yet, but he'll get there soon.  He is also very grabby--it is dangerous now to try to eat, read, or do anything with him on your lap or it will be in his hands in a split second! 

The Monkeys--in happy times!

Never a dull moment at our house...I don't think we would have it any other way!!