4th

We made our yearly trip up to Virginia for the 4th of July, it's always so special to get the whole family together for a week. Everyone lives so spread out that this has become our week to see each other.

Gabriel did great for his first big 9 hour car ride, only cried a little when he got super tired. Of course both boys didn't hardly sleep a wink the whole ride. Thank goodness for dvd players!

Nico LOVED playing with his older cousins, they were basically at his beck and call for whatever he wanted to do. It was so sad for him to leave to go back home, he said "Mommy, I stay in my room and Jessica (his cousin) stays in her room, we can't leave"

9 months and counting!

Seems like I was just writing this for last month and here I am again!

At 9 months:
Crawl so fast I can't even keep up with you!
Walk around furniture but not without holding on yet
Can stand sometimes without holding on
Loves to open and close doors which causes fingers to get smashed which you don't love
Pulls to a stand on everything
Eating solids table food better than last month
Spitting up WAY less, almost not at all anymore, yea!!!!
Says Dada when crawling around happy, says Mama when you can't find me or you're upset
Sleeps well at night still with the occasional "Gabriel Shout out" but now you get yourself back to sleep without me coming to the rescue 9 times out of 10.
Loves getting into Nico's trains
Does Itsy Bitsy Spider and So Big!
Responds well to no but you are very sensitive if I say it too harshly which makes you cry, like when you bite me!
Happy with the world and the best sport with being taken all over for Nico's activities.

Brittish Soccer Camp

Nico had his first ever soccer camp this week. It's been SO HOT, highs reaching over 100 making it a very warm and muggy camp...
He seems to be enjoying it although I did have to ask him to stop calling his coach Sir Topham Hat! I guess the accent reminds him of Thomas and Friends. Nico goes at his own pace and doesn't really get bothered by what everyone else is doing. On the second day they were pretending to be a train kicking the soccer ball around the field, Nicolas was way behind the others with the assistant coach, he told him he wanted to be on the slow train and go very slow around the field; and that he did!
They also play a game where the coach pretends to be a sleeping giant and the kids have to go steal his treasure, he wakes up and chases them to get his treasure back, Nico picked up the treasure (a jersey) and when the giant chased him he threw the treasure back at him and went running scared :)

Sometimes you want to jump in and help; try to get your child to listen or do what the coach is asking, the hardest part is just sitting there and watching. I'm so glad he is having fun though!

Pictures

First French Fry, yummmmm
Boys being Silly!
First Sucker!

Tall

Nico went to a birthday party the other day for a 5 year old little boy and I noticed Nico was the same height as all the other older kids. He's only 3; I didn't realize how tall he is!
I think it makes it hard sometimes since he's still a little guy age wise and can't always keep up with the older kids that look like the same age as him.

First Tooth

Gabe finally managed to get a tooth! 8 months old and one bottom tooth so far, I think Nicolas had a few by this point.
He loves baby pick up foods like rice cakes and puffs but still gags at anything else that's considered table food. I hope he out grows that, it's frustrating since I'd love to buy less baby food jars now that he has mastered all of those. Well at least baby food travels well so if he is in kindergarten and still only will eat jarred baby food, I can always put those in his lunch :) Oh lets hope not!

Pool Day

I was a little nervous taking both boys to the pool by myself but it really wasn't too bad. They both enjoyed it, Nico more than Gabe but all in all a good day!