The kindness of friends

Military life has many perks.  At Barksdale and here in Minot we've been blessed with the most amazing neighbors.  If our current duplex neighbors get orders anytime soon, I'm protesting! Just one of the small reasons we love our neighbors is because this note was hanging when I got home from two months of being gone. 

In addition the the casserole she left in my fridge, she also left some grocery staples, collected mail, packages, forwarded mail for us, and took care of the house so we could travel home and not have to worry about the house.  I'm so grateful for Audra's friendship and being an awesome neighbor! 

Presents

Checking out the seed packets

Great-Grandma Carole knows we're back in town and has already sent two goodies packages!  The box this week contained a bucket, shovel, sunflower seeds, dirt starter kit, and a copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  The night the box arrived, we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Theo was very focused on the story and was equally concerned that the farmer made a scarecrow at the end out of Peter's shoes and coat, but the scarecrow didn't have a face...when I asked him if he liked the story, he said, "I don't think very much."  It was hard not to laugh, but he talked about it the next day and was looking through it again, so I have a feeling we'll be back to reading it again soon.

Tonight, we planed our sunflower seeds.  Theo has been so excited to plant his seeds, but he was hoping we'd do it outside instead of in our started kit.  I'm really hoping that they take and in not to long we have some sprouts.  We Facetimed with my sister tonight and Theo told her all about how tomorrow we'd see our sunflowers...so...I'm hoping he won't be too disappointed in the morning when we just get to water the dirt.

Planting seeds!

Thanks GG for the present!  Boys loved it.  :)

Waiting for the dirt to expand

covering the seeds with dirt

    

Iceeeee Keeeeeeeem

Our housing company on base has decided to have an ice-cream truck come around housing this summer.  Most bases have an ice cream truck come through at some point, and I had seen a notification telling us that there would be a few dates this summer we could get our treats.  The girls delivering the ice cream (free) said they'd be coming through every Friday...so we'll see.   

Theo first saw an ice-cream truck when we were on our trip in Illinois.  We didn't stop to get any, but after that he was excited about the idea. I told him when we got home we could put some money in an envelope, decorate it with ice cream pictures and we'd be ready when they came through. 

Luckily we caught the ice cream truck (a plain white maintenance vehicle), but Theo was so excited to get a chocolate popsicle.  (And very excited to keep repeating that Neely (our neighbor) got an orange popsicle and Aiden (her brother) got a sandwich.  He was so excited, and I made him wait a few days to eat it.

Woodrow at 10 months

There are a lot of kids around Woodrow's age that we play with, and when I look at them, they all seem so much bigger than my little baby Woodrow.  Then I sit back and look at pictures I've taken and I think, oh my goodness, Woodrow is becoming this little person who I'll soon can't call a baby any more. 

It really seems like this past month flew by, but mostly because we had been so busy squeezing in last visits in Chicago, we traveled home, and then we've been settling back in to our routines here on the home front.  I can't believe we got home two weeks ago...that's mostly because my suitcase is still on the floor of my bedroom (empty, but still sitting there).  

Height:  28.7 inches
Weight: 19.3 lbs.

-Woodrow now has two bottom teeth!  Hurray!  Glad they pushed on through, and hopefully the next set comes through quickly and pain free.

-Completely weaned and is drinking from bottles only.  He is a guzzler!  I went out and bought 3-8 oz. bottles and he gets them in the morning, before nap, and before bedtime.  Then he has about 3-4 4 oz. bottles throughout the day.

-Woodrow is getting better at eating solids.  Strawberries are still his favorite, but he's learned how to eat the little puffs and yogurt melts.  He also likes to gnaw on crust or bread, and this week he ate a whole pancake.  I'm working on being better about 3 meals a day for him...he's just a mess, and slightly picky.

-Introduced a sippy cup to him. He seems more interested in grabbing Theo's cups that are around the house, but he has sipped a little water or milk from the sippy cup.  Guess we only have 2 months to really get him off bottles...the time is going so fast!

-Woodrow is still napping, although it really varies between 2-4 hours.  I've been trying to get him back to his sleep cycle now that he's back in his own room, so he's been getting up anytime between 8:30-10:00am.

-Since he's been teething, he's been wanting the pacifiers more and more, but I try to limit them (somewhat) so we can work on speech!



-Woodrow isn't too verbal yet, but he is babbling more and more, and I thought I caught a dada the other day, and it sounds like he says mamamama when he cries, but no actual word connections yet.  I'm trying to talk and read more to him to get the skill going some more.

-Woodrow always wants to keep up with big brother and play with his toys which is pretty cute. It's been really nice weather here, but I think Woodrow gets a little frustrated outside, because it's not as fun to crawl on the cement or the grass, but he's making it work.  Yesterday he actually walked with the walker for the first time, so that was cool!

-Woodrow loves to "cruise" around his crib, the coffee table, and train table...he's ready to go!

-Woodrow has a good set of lungs.  Maybe he'll be a swimmer.  He doesn't cry or scream too much, and it's always if he wants something.  But if he wants to be heard, he's heard.

It's so fun to see both boys develop and change in to their own little selves.  So excited that for the next post-Dad will be home from 5 months of being gone-hooray!