The Care & Feeding Of Radley

Maverick has taken quite the interest in keeping Radley fed, covered, with a paci and in general taking very sweet care of his baby brother. Radley just beams at him and tries to keep up....

Checking to make sure his mouth is still there...

Trying again...

Let me give you a hug my brother....

Such intense concentration...

Ok...whew...finally got the bottle in..

So proud that you got him to sleep...

You hang in there little man. It may be a little rough, but he does love you so...

Maverick vs Radley - 3 months

Maverick - 2008


Radley - 2009

A weekend in the life...

It is 9:35pm...both of you boys have been asleep for a while now and this is a summary of what we did with our weekend...Starting on Saturday you first continued your swimming and continue to amaze all that get the pleasure of watching you. The instructor can't wait to get her hands on Radley next spring...

And here is your latest video showing your HUGE progress in bubble blowing and kicking! I am so proud of you!

Next we were off to what has the potential to be a regular Saturday morning activity...the fabulous Kids Remo Drum Circle. You've got to love a place where they state that the rules are:

1. Dont Sit Still

2. Dont Be Quiet

3. Dont Not-Touch

This rule set is right up your alley

You rarely sit still...

You definitely touch everything...

And you are getting really good at not being quiet!

Radley usually sleeps through the whole thing, but this morning he was alert and checking everything out.

Then little Rad-monster even got in on the action...

Once you had sufficiently banged on as many drums and cymbals and shakers you could find...we headed home where you took a great almost 3 hour nap. It was glorious...

Once you two boys woke up from your long slumber, we went so Radley could meet his first friend Baby Jack! Baby pile up on the sofa...Unfortunately Maverick, you had to be restrained in your stroller as you just could not resist investigating absolutely everything in our friends house and as Jack is their first, they are not baby-proofed yet. My last resort was to lock you down...sorry about that one...But Jack was awesome and it was great to finally get together with babies Radley's age...

Later that evening you practiced your bubbles in the bath...

And became sufficiently dramatic when you accidentally breathed in instead of out when practicing your bubbles.

But Radley found you very amusing as he supervised your aquatic performance

Then it was time for your evening edition of death defying stunt performances for your brother. The most amusing thing to me is you finish each stunt throwing your arms us declaring "Ta-daaa!!!" and then "Bravo!!!" Cutest. Thing. Ever...

Then on Sunday you spent a large amount of time feeding pygmy goats...

and baby pot bellied pigs...

and more baby goats and chickens...

And then concluding with an excrutiatingly long amount of time opening and closing the pen door until I finally had to pull you away as you were almost more fascinated by the door than the precious little animals. Needless to say, that was quite a performance you gave as we left the area. Quite stunning...little man...but you were soon distracted...

You rode a train...twice

and your first pony...also twice...you LOVED this...

You dug a hole...

Had lunch...(note the sleepy eyes...I thought my plan was working)

And then you, my love. My precious little angel...love of my life...were supposed to nap on the ride home. However, you, my baby, chose to talk and laugh and talk and sing and talk some more almost the entire way home. And I say almost, because you fell asleep a little less than 30 min out from the house which was just enough to keep you from going back to sleep when we got home and not enough to keep your head from spinning around as you try to make it through the rest of your day completely exhausted. And my fate was sealed...

For the rest of this evening your mommy knew that every time she said "no", which I seem to do quite a lot lately, that you, my sweet faced baby, my angel boy, my heart, would throw yourself down on the ground and flail around in an extremely tragic manner while screaming how your life is so unfair and that I am a terrible mommy. You did not use those words exactly, but that is what your general tone suggested...more than once...

I must admit that tonight when it was bedtime, there was a sense of relief...probably for both of us. You were out cold in minutes and I look forward to my Mr Personality Plus' return tomorrow.

I love you baby,
Mommy

Beach Bound!

 In my next life I want to be as cool as my kid...
 

Dear Radley - Month Three

Dearest Radley,

On Wednesday, you were three months old. It is absolutely unbelievable to me how quickly the time is going by as I watch you get bigger and bigger daily. You are such the light of my life. I love you little Boo. However, I hereby order you to stop growing right now or you are grounded!!! To which you respond like this...

So then I try...Dear Radley, Please dont get any bigger or any older because right now you are just so perfectly perfect...and I get this:

And then I think how it is said babies grow when they are sleeping and I try to figure out how I am going to keep you awake so you will stop growing, which is likely an impossible task. You see you love your sleep and another day dawns and I wake up to you another inch bigger it seems.

So it is now becoming clear to me that you just don't listen very well. So I think I am just going to have to ground you...and remember to check my recipe books for a special "stop growing" recipe to slip into your formula. But even then...I would end up with something like this...

If you can't tell by now, you smile at everything and everyone. I think you have just the best smile ever. Your whole face lights up and it is as if your entire body smiles too! And every time I see it I just melt.

You are such a happy little boy with a contagious smile... I hear you starting to make sounds that I think will become your laugh and I can hardly wait to hear it... but I can ...back to that stop growing thing. I mean it...dont grown one more inch!!!

One thing I learned with your brother is to embrace every fleeting stage of who you are as each transition you make is my favorite. I learned to relish the time you spend in them as they will be gone in a flash much too soon to be replaced by a newer sweeter stage that then is my new favorite. It is a vicious cycle trying to decide when you are so cute, that you could not possibly get cuter...and then you prove me wrong getting cuter and more fun with each passing day.

We had your 3 month checkup yesterday where your pediatrician declared you healthy and big at a whopping 15lbs 6oz and 25 1/2" long. You outweighed your brother at the same time by a solid 2 pounds and are a full 1 1/4" longer than he was too! You are hovering up around the 75-85th percentiles and are rounding out into full-on baby cuteness.

You can hold your head up pretty well and are getting lots of practice. Most of the time right now you prefer sitting up to laying down. And the times I do have to lay you down for your own safety, you grunt and fuss and pull and strain to get back upright again. You are starting to discover your hands as well. But you seem to have gotten yourself into quite the pickle recently when I came back to find you in baby handcuffs...

And my heart just melts when you manage to lock your eyes on your brother and just start beaming. You see this month, you have discovered your big brother, Maverick, and you find him quite amusing. Granted, he is usually too occupied by his pre-toddler antics to notice your absolute fascination with him and your beaming smiles, but I notice my little love and it is just the sweetest thing ever. When he is near you kick your legs just as hard as you can and squeal and smile and I can tell you can hardly wait until you can keep up with him.

Maverick loves you so much. This month he has started running up to you in the middle of playing and just giving you a quick kiss or pat on the head before running back off. And you just eat up those moments he gives you a bit of attention. I think once you start "doing" a bit more, you two will have a ball.

You still love to sleep. Anywhere. Anytime. No real rhyme or reason...you just sort of drop off when you get the urge. It makes travelling the world with you so much easier than it was with your brother who never slept for fear of missing something important.

Next week we head off on your first inter-state adventure on the Baby Radley Texas Tour to visit your Aunt Jen and meet some new people who are super excited to meet you. This trip will celebrate your 3 month birthday and your brothers 20 month birthday. Where is the time going? I hope you are as good a traveller as your brother was at the same age, but given how well you sleep, I am hedging my bets you will be a airline traveller rock star. You already have your first frequent flier number.

We are going to check out our new little yet-to-be-named Ranchito that your Uncle Z is grooming to be the best little hunting patch of ground in the state of Texas. I bought this land in hopes you boys will love to explore the outdoors and always have a place where you can run, climb and explore for years and years to comeunder the guidance of your Uncle Z. I think he is excited for the time you boys are old enough to help move rocks - he likes to do that for some reason....and to hunt...and to fish. I am planning on many great memories to be made there.

Life with you and your brother is truly amazing....at times insanely chaotic, but amazing. I think that left to my own devices, I'd very likely enter into some early state of elderly-ness, sitting on the porch with an blanket on my knees, reading a book and drinking tea, and start my golden years at the ripe old age of 40. I would make a great old lady, because that's the kind of thing I absolutely love to do. But the unpredictableness and crazy fun I have with the two of you is so much better than that any day.

I was going to finish up this blog today and include a bit about you not rolling over just yet, but I'll be gosh darned if you didnt work yourself right up into quite the tizzy this morning and roll your butt over! From front to back...but finally....your first roll!!!! I am so very proud of you little man. I look forward to what month 4 will bring. I find you such an amazing little guy. I cant take any credit for that, but I sure am glad that I get to be your mommy. There is nothing I would rather be doing. I am having so much fun watching you grow up. I hope you are having fun too!

I love you,

Mommy