Surviving 16 months.

16 months = 1 1/3 years: that’s how old Andrew is now; that’s also how old Matty was when Andrew was born.  I have no freakin’ clue how I did it.  That’s probably a good thing though, because I’m pretty sure a lot of it was not pretty.  In fact, it’s still not pretty at times.  There are days when Lightning McQueen is my best friend because he entertains the boys while I hide out in the kitchen to get some ‘alone time.’  There are days when all the boys will eat are goldfish, granola bars, and fruit snacks- and I agree just so they eat something.  There are days when I feel like the only words I speak are ‘no,’ ‘be gentle,’ ‘stop throwing that,’ and ‘for the love of Pete- stop it.’  But, we’re surviving, probably even thriving.  The boys are both smarty-pants, and love leaning new things.  They love running, jumping, and any other kind of physical activity.  They play well by themselves, and sometimes even together. They give love, and they get love.  They’re healthy.  Really, that’s all a parent can ask for.  We don’t need a ‘picture perfect’ life, because no one really has one.  The people who pretend to be perfect are just obnoxious anyway.  

Here’s to surviving the next 1 1/3 years!

Andrew 16 months

Matty 16 months

Matty now (2 2/3 years)

Project from my senior year.

As I was looking for pictures of my 18-year-old self I came across a group project that I did my senior year of high school for an American Government class (I think).  Why I chose to keep this particular project, and keep it in with my graduation pictures, is a mystery to me.  However, I’m amused, and glad that I did.  The name alone sums up the naivety of 4, small town, high school girls: “The Adopt a Poor Person Plan of Action.  A revised welfare plan with monetary and emotional support.”  We were top of our class ‘scholars,’ and quite certain we had come up with a great, realistic, social plan.  Now though, I’m not sure how our teacher didn’t roll his eyes at us, or at least laugh.  I hope that as you peruse our fantastic program you can giggle at our innocence.  Thanks, Ricka, Kim, and Julie for coming up with this plan with me!

 (If you click on the image it will come up larger, so you can actually read it.)

Kochs + 1 more attempt at blogging.

Kochs plus one… Now that we are in the stage of “no more babies, ever” the name of my blog seems quite unfitting.  However, since I am quite obviously (blog) lazy, I don’t want to have to go through the trouble of starting a new one.  Plus I doubt I could think of a new witty title that I would be fond of long term.  Therefore I will just keep this blog, and it’s name.  Instead the “plus one” will be whatever thought is stuck in my head, causing me to post. 

Kochs plus one more attempt at blogging.  Hahaha. 

I’ve been reading some high school classmates’ blogs: http://allthatscintillates.blogspot.com/, http://life-as-a-pearl.blogspot.com/ and they are fantastic.  Check them out.  When I originally started blogging I felt compelled to post updates about my life, and my children’s lives.  I’ve come to realize that the people who want those updates get them straight from me; not everyone wants to read about it.  That, and it’s quite limiting, as we can be a bit boring.  I’m sure that you will get a fair share of pictures and info about my family, but I’ll try to keep it blow the obnoxious/ nauseating level.  There’s a good chance that I may not keep up on this blog.  It’s happened, twice before.  But I do have a couple of things stuck in my head, so you can bank on at least a few more posts.  Really, I just hope that whatever I send out into cyberspace can make someone smile- even if it is just me.

First Injuries :(

I know there comes a day when each baby gets his/her first bruise, first scratch, first accidental Mommy/Daddy injury. For me, unfortunately, they all happened on the same day: today.

This morning Matty was playing in the living room. One of his balls rolled under the couch so I lay down on the floor to reach under and retrieve it. Matty took this opportunity to start yanking on my hair, I presume, as hard as he could. I reached back, blindly, to shoo him away; unfortunately, he leaned forward, or was just at the wrong angle to my fingernail. I felt the scratch and immediately heard the corresponding yell. It was a doozie. I didn’t just scratch him, but it broke the skin right on his little cheek. I felt so bad. My baby’s first injury and it was caused by me; talk about guilt. Thankfully he forgives and forgets quickly. We were back to playing as soon as he saw I had gotten the ball for him.

A few hours later Matty was once again playing in the living room. He was looking out the back window (it’s really low) and lost his footing. He bonked his head on the window ledge, and immediately starting wailing. He’s done this head bonking, wailing routine a few times before at this particular window. Sadly, this time he got the corner of the sill directly between the eyes. I knew right away that this time it was going to leave a bruise. And it did.

So now my poor baby has a scratch/cut on his cheek and a bruise on his forehead. I know that as he gets bigger and does more exploring that the bumps and bruises will get worse and I am not looking forward to that. It also means that he’s getting to be a little boy and not just a baby anymore; and that’s a little scary too!

Battle scars. :(

Mommy kissing it to make it better.

All smiles!

September 16th

These past two weeks have been good. A little uneventful, but that’s okay. Football season has arrived, our favorite time of year! We have begun our “pigskin pick ‘em” again this year. We each put $5 into the pot; pick who we think will be the winner of each NFL game and the winner gets the pot. At the end of the year whoever had the best record gets to pick an NFL prize of their choice, paid for by the other two participants. It’s pretty sweet; I won last year! Tony took the first week this year, but only by one game. We even bought a helmet match-up board to better illuminate our picks. Unfortunately both Tony and my teams lost in week one (Cowboys and Broncos, respectively). Neither one of us was in a good mood for a few days after that. Our house’s mood is greatly dependant on the outcome of our games. Matty was lucky this week and did not have to decide whose team to support; the Cowboys played Sunday, and the Broncos played Monday. He represented each team on the appropriate day.

Matty and I in our Broncos Orange ready for some Monday Night Football!

In honor of the beginning of the football season we took a special flower arrangement to Galen’s memorial. For any of you who didn’t know, he was a HUGE Cowboys fan. His devotion to his team was that of legend. He never missed a game; and come game time he could always be counted on to be wearing his jersey sitting in his rocking chair- not to be disturbed/ talked to by anyone. We wanted to honor this for him and so we put together a Cowboys themed arrangement. We hope that he would enjoy it. It was tough, as always to visit his memorial, but this made it a little more bearable, as I know I pictured these fond memories of game day as we were there.

Memorial Arrangement for Galen.

We hung a new shelf in our living room with a memorial plaque and blue glass for Galen.

Galen and Matty the night he was born

(a Monday night Cowboys game was earlier that evening)

Matty has been a super-moving baby lately. We had a ‘pen’ set up for him, (a large octagon surrounding our loveseat) but he grew tired of such a confined space. He started crying whenever I put him in to play. He was ready to get to movin’! I changed around the fence set-up so that he can’t get to the entertainment center or bookshelf, and I also blocked off the kitchen and our bedroom. Now he has the whole living room to speed around it; he loves it!

Why he doesn't get access to the entertainment center/bookshelf.

He has a stuffed animal lion, which lately he has come to love. He now thinks it’s a fantastic game to jump on the lion and bite it. It’s really cute because he makes this frantic laugh/ growl right before he ‘attacks.’

Attack Baby!

The other day the dogs were in the living room hanging out with us. Matty was all excited that Trigger was right by us. He pulled up on Trigger, and then made the laugh/growl and went to bite him! Luckily I grabbed him before he sunk his teeth into the poor unsuspecting pooch. Since then the dogs have been secluded to either the kitchen, our bedroom, or outside- for their own safety. They aren’t too pleased with this arrangement, but better than Matty biting one of them. Matty has also been exploring new snacks lately. Some new snacks that he enjoys include Cheerios, Kix, Baby Goldfish, and anything that Mommy is eating.

He loves the fishes!

He even got a ‘lick’ of my ice cream bar the other day.

I went to the OB a few days ago and everything is looking good. I’m finally not as sick, although I still don’t have much of an appetite. I still haven’t gained any weight, although I have started showing. I am scheduled to have an ultrasound on October 13th. This is the one where they’ll be able to tell us if baby 2 is a girl or a boy. We’re nervous and excited for this!

14 Weeks.

September 2nd

Ah, it’s only been about a week since my last post, but a lot has happened it seems. We were invited to a family pool party with some of the people from Matty and my playgroup. We volunteered to make a dessert to bring for the group. My good friend Leslie happened to post that she was going to try making “cake pops.” I looked into what these were, and decided they were a little too advanced for me; but the more common and easier version is cake balls. I then decided I would try to make them. I think I did pretty well for my first time, although I am not a very good ‘dipper;’ something to work on in the future. I may try them again and see if I can shape them into little footballs. If I can manage this they may make an appearance at Matty’s football themed first birthday party! Speaking of which…

Cake balls! They were a big hit.

I finished Matty’s invitations! I’m very pleased with how they turned out. Last Saturday my sister-in-law, Nicki, was nice enough to agree to take pictures of Matty for his birthday card picture. We ventured out to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to find a good spot. It was still really hot, but Mattty did great, and she got some great shots in only about a half hour; she is a great photographer. We looked through all the pictures and were torn between two. So, we decided to use them both, some invitations got one, some got the other. We also got some cute family pictures. After much cutting, printing, and sticking the invitations should be going out in the mail at the beginning of next week!!Family Picture!

Our favorites

cutest baby ever!

Invitations!

A couple of months ago we all went to a Rangers baseball game. While we were there we entered a drawing to win a vacation. Well, they called and we were winners! The only ‘catch’ was that we had to drive 2 hours and listen to a ‘presentation,’ then we would get not only one, but two trips. We decided to go for it, deciding beforehand that we would say NO to whatever they were presenting (we got suckered into something like it in the past and we learned our lesson!). We drove out to Tyler, Texas and went to a ‘condo resort.’ We got a tour and learned about their program. At the end of 2 hours, we politely said no, not once, not twice, but three times- to three different salespeople. They sure tried hard! Once we had assured them that we were not buying they sent us to the prize redemption area (at last!). We won a weekend trip to Orlando, complete with airfare and hotel accommodations for two. We also won a 4 night, 5 day island vacation. We have to provide our own airfare, but once we get there they pay for our accommodations. We can pick from Hawaii (Oahu, or Maui), Aruba, Jamaica, or Puerto Rico. We have a year to use the voucher. We’re looking forward to planning our trips.

Matty zonked out after a long sales pitch.

Matty has been really into trying new food lately. I bought some (Kashi) frozen waffles. I made them the other morning and Matty went crazy until I let him try some (syrup free- of course). He loved it. Now whenever I’m eating he wants to try what I’ve got. Recently he’s also had cheese ravioli, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, and avocados. He’s really enjoyed everything and we’re excited to let him keep trying food that we eat. He’s very into music and making noise lately. He has a little piano that plays music and he loves it. He also will bang on, or together anything he can. His crib is up against a wall that he shares with our bedroom. Well, we don’t really need the monitor anymore; he stands up and bangs on the wall when he’s up and ready. He’s been really good at playing independently lately, just as long as he can’t see me. If he sees me he wants me to play with him.

making some sweet music.

Hey!

Tons of toys already!

Tony starts his four days off tomorrow, and we’re looking forward to a nice relaxing four-day weekend! I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend!

Showing off his chompers!

Taking pictures with Mommy.

August 24th

This morning Matty and I went to a meet up with some of the ladies and kids in our playgroup. The activity of the day was going to one of the local parks and playing at the splash pad. It was already in the mid-nineties when we got to the park at 10:00, so playing in the water was perfect. I wasn’t sure if Matty would want to crawl around on the cement-type ground, but since he bear-crawls it was no problem. He moved all around the splash area, and had a great time! We took a couple of breaks for juice, but he just wanted to get back out there. We splashed around for about an hour, and then he was pretty much tuckered out. We came home and took a great nap.

Splish-splashing.

Crawling around in the water.

Trying to catch the water.

Tired baby after some fun in the water.

Later this afternoon we ran out to Hobby Lobby. We are going to do a football theme for Matty’s first birthday party, and I just haven’t been able to find any invitations that I really like. So, I will be attempting to make invitations. We picked up some supplies and I will start on those today or tomorrow. I hope they turn out as good as they look in my mind!