Yep - Andy is a crawling machine. I came into work early this morning to get caught up on some stuff - J just called. He said that he put Andy down in the den while he went and started breakfast for the boys - and he turns around and the next thing he knows - there are Camp and Andy in the kitchen. It has begun. LOL!
Camp was adorable last night. He had a serious case of the giggles - and was just laughing so hard in the tub. At one point, I was popping my head around the door playing peek-a-boo with he and Andy - Camp pulls the shower curtain in front of him, hides behind it and yells "PEEK BOO". What a cutie. He calls it Peek Boo. Cracks me up.
Ahh, my boys. I hope they have a wonderful day. I can't wait to go and get them tonight - hug their little selves tight.

It was a nice weekend! On Saturday, we decided to take the boys to Ebenezer Park for a picnic. Met our friend Amy with her daughter, Grace - who is just the sweetest little girl. She and the boys played and fed the ducks and kicked balls around. At one point, I was on the swings with Camp and Grace wanted to swing too - so I had Grace on one leg, Camp on the other and we were all swinging away. Loved it. I laughed and told Jason - " See - we could handle another one." To which he replied, "later dear". I'll win one of these days. It was a lot of fun. The kids passed out when we got home - go figure.
Later, that afternoon Camp did the sweetest thing in the entire world - made me cry. I was holding Andy on my lap and Camp was dragging out toys from his room and making a pile in the middle of the den floor - he got done and came over and said, "Andy Play?" awww.. I asked "Do you want Andy to come play with you?" He nodded then reached out his chubby arms and tried to pick up his brother. SOOOO sweet. He carried Andy's top and I carried Andy's bottom. Both of them cracking up the entire way to the toy pile - then they just sat and played with each other for the longest time.
Later, Jason mowed the lawn - Camp was fascinated. At one point, J was out in the front yard. Camp put his lawnmower on the couch and proceeded to "mow" it while he watched Jason out the front window. Back and forth, back and forth. I was dying!!!!!
Sunday, we lazed around the house. Played, ate, read and played some more. I met my friend Dana for afternoon coffee and we had a great chat. I have missed hanging out with her.
Well, that's about all. Will update again soon.

Big news around the household!!!!!!! Andy Pandy crawled for the 1st time yesterday. I went to pick him up from his class - and I sat on the floor and reached my hands out and he took 3 little crawls forward to reach me. The teachers were estatic! They said they had been trying to get him to do that all day! Way to go Andy! Then - this morning - he was standing up holding my fingers and the little man took some steps forward. I can't believe he's already starting to "cruise". My bets are that he'll walk before he crawls. He's growing just so fast.
Camp thought it was thoroughly cool. He was so sweet this morning. Woke up in a fantastic mood. Always great for 1st thing in the morning. Andy was fussing in the den while I was in the kitchen fixing their bags - and I said to him - Camp, go give your brother a hug - and he did. Went straight in there, gave Andy a huge hug and then turned around and smiled at me brilliantly. It was a very proud moment, I have to say. Then - as we were getting him in the car to go to school - he spotted the neighbors lawnmower and wanted to play with it so badly. Silly boy. Luckily - in his class, they have this new tumble-mat with a ramp and everything. He went straight in and hopped right on it and started playing with all the other kids. He's so smart. He has this wonderful ability to figure out mechanical stuff - floors me how fast he "gets" things.
Ahhh.. I love it. My boys - my sweet sweet boys. No matter what is going on in the day that is just weird - one look at them and all is right with the world.

Poooooor Andy Pandy. Little man has been so sick with an ear infection. He started running a fever this past Sunday, Monday - woke up with 102.5 temperature. Jason and I split the day, so I took him to the doctor in the afternoon. Sure enough - ear infection. Poor monkey. He's one of those babies that doesn't really act sick until they are feeling completely horrible - so he was still in a fairly good mood. Then, Monday night - his temperature spiked to 103.6! I lost it! Gave him motrin, a bath and he crashed - but tossed and turned all night long. Woke up again yesterday morning with 102.5. He was really fussy yesterday morning and didn't want to be out of Jason's arms. We put some eardrops in and he started feeling better. By the time I got home at lunch, he was laughing and playing - still not eating well, but he seemed a lot better. No more fever too. He slept like a log last night and woke up feeling much better today. Thank heavens. There is nothing harder than having your sweet child feel awful. And it just breaks my heart when I have to give him medicine and he looks at me with tear filled big blue eyes and wonders why I am doing that to him. Kills me. I just checked on him - and he's fine and dandy. Eating and playing. Sweet angel.
Camp has been a dream through all of it. He's so worried about Andy when he cries - just says "Andy crying?" and goes and hugs him - or gives him a toy - or tries to make him laugh. I love how he genuinely cares about the wellbeing of all of us. The cutest thing he does - is anytime anyone sneezes - he now says "Bless you" and smiles so sweetly. Ahh.. my darling son. He can be so trying with his little exercises in independence - but his true nature always shines through and I love him for it.
I'm just glad the house seems to be back on the mend.

Happy Thursday!
No particular reason for that - just wanted to say Happy Thursday. The boys are doing so well. Camp had a bit of a cold over the weekend - but he's so sweet and wonderful. I just can't get enough of him. He's so funny. He absolutely LOVES being outside. Last weekend, we all went to work in the backyard - and he helped me rake and played on his toys. Then, I sat down to start pulling weeds out of the flower bed - and he came and just started helping. At one point, he had a weed in his hand and pulled so hard, he fell backwards! LOL! We both just cracked up.
He's recently gotten into the "Mine" phase of toddlerhood. Fuuuuun. It's just a phase - and this to shall pass one day. But for now - we're just going to try to keep teaching him about sharing and just because he can't have his brother's sippy cup when he's got 2 of his own already does not mean the end of the universe. My friend Deb brought over a wooden rocking horse. He loves it!! He pats it, pokes it's eyes and climbs on and off pretty regularly. He's also talking more and more each day. One of my favorite things Camp says is "Bless you" anytime anyone sneezes. So sweet. And he loves The Itsy Bitsy Spider - but he calls it "Up Down", and does the hand motions. Or at least tries to. It's so hard for me to believe that he's going to be 2 in November. Not all that far away. My sweet boy. Getting so big.
Andy is also growing by leaps and bounds. His 2nd toothy has broken through on the bottom. He's also starting to eat more solids - thank heavens. He had mac 'n cheese over the weekend and really liked it. This week he's added yogurt, a raisin, a potato chip (thank you camp for sharing), milk, green peas, carrots, and pears to his diet. Along with his usual puffs and cheerios. I need to do better about exposing him to more stuff. He's also getting the hang of the sippy cup and is starting to drink water at his dinner. Which is great! If I can break him of the bottle by 11 months, that will be fantastic.
Andy is pulling up on everything. Still no crawling yet - but he's soooooo close. He can get onto all 4's - then he rocks back and forth a bit - and slings his bottom way back and sits up. It's his version of scooting on the floor. He's got the backward movement down. Now - we just need to get him going forward. He loves bathtime too. He and Camp will just play and play.
I'm so grateful to be a Mama. A good friend is just starting down her fertility treatment journey, and I pray and pray that God blesses her with the joys that I have in my boys. The pure, unimaginable joy is amazing. Plus - I know she and her husband are going to be fantastic parents. As you read this - say a quick prayer for her.

It's been a while, so I thought I'd check in and let you know all that's been happening with the 2 cutest boys in the universe. And they are! Nooo - I'm not biased!
Well - we moved to our new house on July 10th. I was in Washington the day the boys came home from spending the weekend with Grammie and Granddaddy - but J said that Camp was so funny. It took him a minute to warm up, but then he recognized the furniture and was fine from then on. Andy broke his 1st tooth on July 12th! It's SO cute. Just the smallest sliver of a tooth poking through. I checked him last night - and it looks as if his 2nd tooth - the bottom right, will be coming through any day now. What a trooper.
Camp is a little parrot! He's talking more and more. It was so funny - the other morning, I was washing dishes while the boys ate breakfast and Camp yells "MAMA!" I look at him - he points to the chair - and says *very* sternly "Mama sit!" Well now - alrighty - so I quit washing the dishes and went and sat by my precious boy. He was happy after that. LOL!
We got him his first "Bag o'Dinosaurs" recently - boy- does he love those! "Dinos" have even had to come in the bath with him. I have a sneaking feeling that a Dinosaur theme might be his 2nd birthday. At least I found some cute cakes for that! It's either going to be this or bicycles- which he calls "Bye Sybils". He's the heart of his classroom at school. Poor munchkin got bitten by another kid for the 1st time last week. The teacher called and her 1st words were "Camp's ok". Well, if that isn't enough to make any heart drop! He and another child were wrestling - and yep - he got bitten on the face by his right ear. Looked like he had a permanent kiss mark on his face. The teacher said he was fine - cried for 2.3 seconds and then forgot about it. That's my sweet boy!
We had my father's 60th birthday party this past Sunday - Camp was very excited to see "D-Daddy" and sat in his lap most of the time. Even helped D-Daddy blow out his candles. :) He and Andy made plates for Na-Na and D-Daddy to have with their handprints. He adores his Na-Na - and just wanted to hug her. She makes him laugh and smile - and that always makes my heart sing.
Andy has had a busy month too! He's (this) close to crawling - but still hasn't managed to kick one of his legs out from behind him. I have a feeling that in his new class - he'll learn quickly. But - what he HAS learned to do is to pull up! This happened last week! He's adorable while he's doing so - because he just gets this rumbly laugh going the entire time he's standing! Once he's completely upright - he just chuckles and smiles. Precious lamb. Oh - and he had a goldfish cracker over the weekend!! And last night - I gave him a sippy cup to start introducing that idea - he "sorta" got it - but not really - to him it represented another giant chew toy.
We've offically taken out the bath seat - which is cute to see 2 little bare bottoms playing in the tub. Camp has also started showing more interest in the loo - I won't go into details, but you get the idea.
We had a wonderful playdate this past weekend. Our 1st one. My friend Amy brought over her beautiful daughter and she played with the boys! I thought they did so well - and little Grace with her amazing smile. Man - I ache for a little girl. One day - maybe. Grace liked to play with the house toy - and laughed and smiled. We gave Camp and Grace mac-n-cheese and hotdogs for lunch - they devoured it! It was Grace's 1st hotdog experience. She did wonderfully.
I'm so thankful for everything I've got. I admit - this last couple of months haven't been easy and I've been down in the dumps. But every single day, I gather my boys into my arms and thank God for them. No matter what happens during the day - the moment I walk into Camp's class and he yells "Mama!" and runs to me with his arms thrown up - it all disappears.
It's funny - I talk to people who never wanted kids and who have them now - and its amazing how much perspective changes. My older sister wasn't sure she wanted children - but she is a natural Mama - and her son is so wonderful. And she's just great at it. My younger sister is also a brilliant Mama - so we're all lucky and blessed. I can't imagine my life without my two children - nor would I want to.