Goofball.

One night last week, Papa and I were having a conversation in the kitchen while Lane quietly colored in his Berenstain Bears book. At some point, Papa looked over his shoulder to check on the boy and look what he found: an ear plug loosely placed in Lane's left ear.

Our boy's such a goofball. He's always doing funny things that make us laugh.

We're not even sure where he found that ear plug or how long he'd had it resting in his ear.

He was perfectly content to color away. Or, maybe, it just occurred to me, he wasn't too particularly interested in what his parents had to say.

Either way, we watched him color and got a good chuckle until Lane noticed we were watching and then joined in on the giggles.

Its moments like that that we refer to our boy as a GOOFBALL.

The Goo Baby.

If you've never had the pleasure of meeting our Goo Baby, I wish you could. He's a charmer this little man of ours.

And, he knows it.


At eight months old, he's full of personality. Jibbering and jabbering all day long. Crawling and climbing all over the place. Singing and laughing. And flirting with anyone who will flirt back.

If you could look him in those big old eyes, he'd give you a smile. Then, turn his chin down and tuck his head into his mama's chest. Then, quickly turn back at you with an even bigger and brighter smile.

It's his signature move.

Believe me when I tell you you will fall head over heals for him when he gives it to you. Everyone does.


My days are full of constant motion around here. I've got two boys with two very strong - and very different - personalities living under one roof. With each passing month, my life with Lane and Evan gets more interesting.


I spend a lot of time chasing, cleaning and you might notice by all of the food pictures, feeding, my boys.

If Evan had been born first, and I would have had to think of a clever name for this blog using his name, well, I guess it would have been Eating with Evan.

The boy eats and eats and eats.

He eats peas and carrots. He eats green beans. He eats Cheerios and puffs. He eats eggs and pancakes and waffles. He eats black beans and rice. He eats bananas.

Let's just say, if he can pick it up, get it to his mouth and I think he won't choke on it, he eats it.


All this eating makes for quite a big boy. He's blown through his brother's nine month old clothes and currently finds shirts of the 12 month variety fit him the best.

We're pretty sure it is all part of his plan to get some clothes of his own instead of all his brother's hand-me-downs. It's working.


All that eating also means he's got a new partner in crime. With a cookie in his hand most of the time, he's got a short hair by his side most of the time. If you want to find our dog, look no further than Lane or Evan. She's usually by the side of one of them.


If he wasn't cute enough, last month brought about two new teeth. We now have the two bottom teeth and two teeth on top - just not where you think they might be. Evan skipped right over the middle teeth and cut his two top eye teeth first. We figure he figures if he wants to get down to business and eat some meat, he better get some good chompers.

Those two teeth get our babe a lot of attention. So, he found a way to get us even more excited and added a little giggle with a tilt of the head and open mouth laugh to his repertoire.

He will bust out this move at restaurants, in the grocery store and at the gym just to get a good laugh from anyone who might be watching.

I love it. And, I'm pretty sure when I'm old and gray and dreaming of the days when my boys were babes, this will be one of my favorite Evan memories.

Know what else I love? Seeing my two boys interact with each other. As Evan grows older, Lane grows more interested. And at times, more frustrated with his younger sibling.

I spend a lot of time reminding Lane that Evan is just a baby and he needs to keep his body off of Evan's body. I would say keep his hands to himself but sometimes, like after Lane has spent what seems like an eternity constructing a block ramp for his monster jams to jump or an intricate line of 50-something cars down the hallway only to have Evan crawl his way over and and on top of all Lane's hard work, Lane will not only push or hit Evan he will literally throw his body against his baby brother's.

We're working on this.

For each trying moment, I take a deep breath and remind myself that there will soon be many more moments like these - sharing snack time while resting on the living room floor and painting with papa. Even if it means Lane's painting Evan while papa holds him.


Evan eats it up.

Because out of all the things in this little baby's world - plates full of foods, long nights of sleep in his cozy crib, snuggles with any and everyone who wants to snuggle, visiting all of his brother's favorite hangouts - the one thing he loves the most is Lane.



Oh, and being able to have a wee bit of juice mixed in with his water.

Brudders.

Yesterday afternoon, after an exhausting morning at preschool, Lane settled in to my bed for his new pre-nap routine: an episode of Curious George to unwind before going down for a nap in his big boy bed.

Evan, having taken advantage of a brother-free house and taken an extra long morning nap, was no where near settling down. Full of energy, and happy to have his brother home, our babe crawled across the bed, played with the remote control and wiggled his way toward his brother.

Tired, and more interested in a cartoon monkey than his little brother, Lane quickly grew irritated with Evan's shenanigans.

"No, Evan, that's my pillow," he would reprimand.

Or, "No, Evan, I watching George. Don't play with remote."

However, Evan crossed the line when he plopped his pudgy body next to Lane and placed a hand on Lane's knee.

"No, Evan. I have a boo boo there."

The same boo boo he scored more than a month ago at our after movie trip to Old McDonald's with the besties.

The same boo boo he still talks about and shows to just about any one who will take the time to look.

Evan, who could probably care less about a boo boo or might just be sick and tired of hearing about said boo boo, continued his happy-go-lucky roll about game and let out a few sighs and gurgles and even a coo coo.

To which Lane sternly replied, "No, Evan, not a coo coo. A boo boo."

Naughty. Naughty.

Most of the time, I'll chase after the babe to keep him from climbing the stairs. I'll also ask the boy not to climb up the side of the couch in order to jump off the arm and then bounce his way from one side to the other.

Sometimes, I'll just the two of them have a little naughty, naughty time.

You can't expect a mama to be persistent and two boys to behave all of the time.

Life with Lane.

My favorite Lane moment of the week so far:

As I opened the car door and saw his tan little body and sleepy eyes, I couldn't help but let a smile take over my face. Lane looked up at me and quietly declared, "Mama, I making you so happy."

If he only knew .......






All photos taken this morning before heading off to his first day of preschool. Can you believe how much he's grown in just a little less than a year.

Too fast.

Papa says Evan's growing just as he should be. I can't help but think that all of this is just happening way too fast.

You see, the babe's been pulling himself up on anything he can reach his little hands on for a few weeks now.

After the movie.

After the movie, we hit the heat. We didn't have any choice. The babes insisted.

So, we headed across the street to the park. It had to have been at least 104 degrees outside that day. I'm not exaggerating. If I were exaggerating, I would have said 120 degrees - because that's what it felt like outside.

Quickly, the heat got to all of us. So, we decided to take them to Old McDonald's for some lunch.

Then, I had the idea to get a group shot of all of us. We haven't had one taken since October, when we went pumpkin picking.





In front of the fountain was the perfect spot. Awesome - so us mamas thought. The babes just wanted to play more.

And because we are the most awesome mamas in the world - we let them dip their fingers in the cool water of the fountain. The spray hitting their faces felt pretty good too.













So, we just let them play.

Then guess who's kid decided to dip his toes in the water - and by toes I mean dunk his toes, feet and legs all the way in - with his shoes on.

Did you guess mine? Oh then you were right.





Because Paola and I are so super cool, we just let them have at it - kick and splash and have a good time.

Then we loaded them up and took them to Old McDonald's for lunch - soaking wet and all.

You know that's a successful day with the Besties.

Summer Fun: Movie.

We're slowly checking off items from our Summer Fun list. Even though school starts this week, we will continue through summer until it gets cool, which will be October around here.

When researching outdoor movies, I ran in to a few obstacles. Outdoor movies take place in the middle of summer. The middle of summer in Georgia is hot. HOT hot. I don't do hot - especially sitting outside for more than two hours hot. Also, outdoor movies can't start until the sun sets and the sky gets dark. My kids go to bed before the sun sets - and I'm for sure not keeping them up late enough to see an entire movie.

So, I began to look for other options. Eventually, I found something that both myself and my babe could enjoy.

A morning showing of the Curious George movie playing at a historic theatre in downtown Marietta. Score.

We marked it on our calendar, invited the Besties and looked forward to this morning for weeks.

We left Gooey with Val so he could enjoy some peace and quiet and sleep for an entire three hours.

The kids dressed in their Curious George shirts - and the boy Besties showed up dressed the same, which was not planned by the mamas. We promise. I guess Jackie and I just have great taste.


We placed ourselves in the very last row - in case an emergency exit was needed. None of the babes had ever been to a movie before. Mine had never even watched a movie before, and I wondered if he would have the attention span.

We underestimated the power of George. The babes snacked on popcorn and M&M's, and we even let them sip on Coca-Cola beverages. They sang out in amazement when their favorite monkey appeared on the screen, laughed at all the right parts and clapped when it was over.

For an hour and 15 minutes each of them sat still and watched the movie. (With a quick exit in the middle for a potty break! There was a lot of Coca-Cola drinking going on.)


When the movie was over, they begged for more, and we had to pry them from their seats and bribe them with treats in order to get a few more pictures from the day.





All in all, an awesome way to spend a Wednesday morning with the kiddos and a great way to beat the heat of a Georgia summer.

I'm making a mental note to add this to our to do list for next summer and just scratch the whole outdoor movie thing.