Brothers

My hope is that these two grow into a deep and sweet understanding of what it means to have a brother. An understanding that they live out through out their lives. I know that they will fight hard and play rough, but my hope is that we can model for them how to also love deeply.

They are already off to such a good start.







I love this outtake because it their faces are funny and what in the world was G doing with his leg? But also because you can see their hands. When they are near they are often holding hands. Nolan is in that grabbing stage where he is always looking for something to hold onto or chew on and his brother's hand seems like a good choice. G also reaches for Nolan too. When we are laying on the floor reading books or snuggling up on the couch he takes hold. Heart Melt. Every time.

Sous Chef

I have one darling little chef in training. Almost every night he accompanies me on the counter as we make dinner. He tastes as we go ensuring all of the ingredients are to his liking.



Since he loves to help cook we often find ourselves baking in the afternoons too. You know, if the sweet tooth starts aching. He has already figured out how to clean the mixer by tasting.

Funny thing is that these were all taken on different days, but his wardrobe or lack-there-of is the same.



I have to be careful when cooking broccoli because it often sneaks away. He loves raw broccoli. Not sure if it's because he loves the taste or just thinks it's fun to eat.

My hope is that he loves being my little sous chef for years to come!

5.

My whole hand, I now have to use my whole hand to count my little Smushers age in months.



The transition between four and five months seems to have been a big one.
What's new? Well, Nolan is now rolling over from both his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. He started rolling very stealth-like. He had been stuck on his shoulder for months, but all of the sudden he figured it out and if you looked away for one second he would roll. It took several days of knowing he could do it before anyone actually saw it happen. Now he is our little Rollin' Nolan constantly flopping back and forth to while paying on the floor or in bed.



In just the last few days, he is even sitting up unassisted for a few seconds at a time. What a whole new world this opens up!



He has pretty much given up sucking his thumb, but loves to chew on his fingers and can often be found gnawing on his right foot. Yep, he definitely prefers the right foot over the left.



He is wearing mostly 12 month clothing and at a very estimated weighing on the home scale weighed in at 18.5 pounds. He is trying to catch up to his big brother and has even started sporting outfits G wore when he was already walking.



We had to get in our picture in Daddy's outfit before Nolan grew out of it. Here he is at 5 months, G at 7 months and I am not sure about Matt. We will have to ask Nonnie.



At 5 months our Smushers still has that Jackpot Baby disposition, even strangers comment on his sweet temperament. You laugh so easily and it is a favorite past time of the whole family to get your belly laughs going. All it takes is a kiss on the cheek or G jumping up and down and then we melt at that sweet sound.
Somehow that sweetness seems to disappear when you are away from momma. You don't always have the easiest time in the church nursery or when left with family. It makes it rough to leave you.
Your a good sleeper and can nap when we are on the go. You still wake during the night to eat but I enjoy the sweet snuggles while the world is quiet.
You have had tastes of food but still prefer milk to solids for the time being. You watch us eat like a hawk but when it comes to purees you aren't sold quite yet. I think you just want to wait for teeth so you can skip to steak.
Speaking of teeth those two little buds on the bottom seem to be getting bigger by the day. I bet that we see some pearly white soon!
You are reaching for anything and everything but especially love to reach for faces. G is always saying "Nolan got me!" because every time he leans in you grab him. It just gets sweeter and sweeter seeing the two of you interact.
It is hard for me to believe that in a few short weeks you will be 6 months old, half way to one. How did it go by so fast? I wish we could just stall every time my heart gets that flutter so I could always remember exactly the way you are at that very moment. Yet I know we can't so I will take hundreds of pictures and videos and try to be in the moment in all of the little moments that we have.

BOYS

I absolutely love having boys.



With boys catching frogs in double underwear is just a typical Saturday afternoon.

Out of the Sand

While in Galveston we spent much time on the beach but some of my favorite moments were just conversations in the car, silly or cuddly moments in our condo and a few of the sand-free tourist stops.







We had a blast touring the rain forest at Moody Gardens, especially the butterfly exhibit.



G could have stayed there for hours just trying to catch one.

The animals were amazing, terrifying, interesting and beautiful all at the same time.



Since it was a week day and school is back in session, we were one of the only families there that day. We got lots of attention from the staff. It was neat to learn fun facts about the animals and to have someone point out some of the harder to spot creatures. After a lesson on bats, G decided he wanted to try doing things upside down for a while.



He kept assuming this position and announcing, "I'm a bat!". Funny kid!

We even got to see a Dora movie in 4-D! It was a new experience for all of us and I think we were all caught off guard at the first blast of mist in our faces as Dora flew her plane under a waterfall.





G also took his first swing at Putt-Putt Golf in Galveston.



Yep, Hole-in-One on his first swing! He's a natural!

After playing one round he asked to "Play Putt-Putt right now?" repeatedly. Even at 8 am the next morning he was asking me if we could go play putt-putt. The last night of vacation we obliged with a trip to another one of the local putt-putt courses. Although there was no hole-in-one that night, we still had lots of fun.



Yep, that is the best the lady at the course could do.
Yep, I played putt-putt like that.
Yep, G has started saying yep. He draws is out. It's hilarious.

It was memorable family vacation. A week together, uninterrupted is a beautiful thing. We are all looking forward to future family vacations, possibly even back to (as G calls it) our little yellow Galveston house.