Dog or Baby????

Meal time!

Vet time!

Play time!

-Ok...so are we raising a baby boy or a third dog? Ha! Brooks seems to fit right in with the dogs and just LOVES hanging out...or rather ON them. He pulls up on Sweet Pea, bangs her tummy, pulls her ears, and then gives her a hug. He is always taking the bone or ball from Brutus and laughing as he chases after it. I have mentioned before that he will not leave the dog bowl alone. He now goes up to it and stops....looks at me...shakes his head "no"....laughs and gives me an mischievous smile...then heads right into the water to play. He is testing us with everything and I love his little spunk. He is really such a delight to be around and makes me laugh all the time. He is such the little problem solver...not sure if that is good or bad at this point! I am a little worried about how we are going to keep him away from the X-Mas tree.....hum....the things I now ponder in my free time. "Free" time...what is that???

Past Pix from Grandma...

Can you find me??

Zoo time with Grandma

I was a little timid my first swim class.

But warmed up and even put my face in the water.

All smiles!

-Just some past pix that Grandma had on her camera. I already blogged about them but now you can enjoy the pictures!

Happy Veteran's Day!!!

Happy Veteran's Day to all the Veterans out there...especially Grandpa and Great Grandpa! Here's a fun video of Brooks cracking up...hope it makes you smile!!!

My Buddy...

Happy 4th Birthday Brutus!

I love my doggies!

-Today is Brutus's 4th birthday. He got a few extra treats today:) We started the morning with Brooks' first swim class. He had a good time but was very timid at first. We were running a few minutes late, so we just "jumped" into it. He warmed up by the end and was enjoying "drinking" the water while trying to blow bubbles. (I'll post pix later of his first class when I get them from G-ma) Josh woke up sick Sat. morning and was unable to join us. He got worse as the day went on. I think he got if from Brooks. He had been fighting his second cold and got some daddy time Friday night while I went out to dinner with the girls. It was my first experience taking care of my two sick boys:) I felt so bad for Josh. He worked so hard this past week and now has been sick all weekend. Ugh!

-Brooks is doing well and enjoying being a little boy. He is still into everything and starting to stand a few seconds alone. He is a chatterbox at home and seems to think anything round is a ball. He will look at a round light, pumpkin, ornament, dot, circle, tire, etc and say "ball". He always asks for his special ball that I keep on a shelf in his room at nighttime. It is the first thing he asks for again in the morning. He is even reaching/pointing for it. He also has word approximations for "mom, dad, dog, more, woof, hooo, bottle" and knows what a few more things are in his home. He is so fun and I love watching him learn new things everyday!

Happy Birthday Aunt Tammy!

Happy Birthday Aunt Tammy!

I hope you have a great day.

Happy 1st Halloween!! (Do you smell something?)

Yep..I'm the little "stinker"

I had fun trick or treating with Cousin Cassidy.

I did not recognize her at first as she was a Twister Board.

I had a blast with my Aunt and Uncles.

Aunt Tammy was not afraid of my stink!

I got some yummy candy for Daddy.

Mommy and Daddy's little Stinker!

My first fat lip!

Did not slow me down any:)

-We started off the Halloween weekend with trick or treating at the Indianapolis Zoo for the ZooBoo. We went with Grandma and had a great time. Brooks was able to see some of the animals and seemed to enjoy them. However, he liked the ducks the best! Kind of funny huh? He got to wear his outfit and got lots of attention. Of course he enjoyed that! (did not get to post pix of them yet as Grandma has them on her camera)

-Brooks got his first fat lip on Saturday. It was kind of my fault as I was doing some re-arranging of the furniture. Brooks was not aware of it yet and of course lost his balance and hit his lip on the bottom of the highchair. Oh well....the first of many to come I assume!

-Josh, Brooks, the bullies and I all went over to my sister's house to trick or treat. Brooks was nice and cozy in his outfit. He did not mind us all laughing at him and kept his outfit on all evening. Cousin Cassidy looked so cute (and all grown up) in her Twister outfit. Brooks was not sure why everyone looked so different...but seemed to enjoy it. He even got the hang of this trick or treat thing by reaching in the bucket for the candy. Thanks for Aunt Tammy and Uncle Brian for joining in on the fun. We missed Grandpa and Grandma McCarroll as they were down at IU for Uncle Tyler's soccer game....maybe next year!

-Also....good luck to Grandpa Lee tomorrow as he has to get his hernia repaired...ouch!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Lee!

Hope you had a great Birthday Grandpa Lee!

Love you.

Bullies, Bullies EVERYWHERE!

Does mom think I'm one of the bulldogs?

The boys (Brutus and Kap'em) were stuck in back.

Sweet Pea was in the middle with mommy and me.

I had fun at the Butler Bulldog Beauty Contest with

Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa Lee, Grandma McCarroll and

of course the bullies.

Morning time with Grandpa Lee and Daddy (all cheese!)

-We went to the Butler Bulldog Beauty Contest again for the 4th year. It is held at Butler University and is part of their homecoming weekend. There were 120 registered dogs this year! It is always so fun to see all the bullies. Sweet Pea and Brutus had a blast getting SO much attention. Brooks enjoyed watching all the dogs and even tried to "blend" in with his bulldog hat. We went with my mom and Josh's dad. What a good laugh!

Our Silly Boy...

My "Angel" Face

My Piggy Face

My monster face

Not sure what face this is...

-I think these pictures say it all! A picture really is worth a thousand words...or laughs! Man I love this boy!!!

10 Months Old: All grown up!

I love to get into everything

I like to look out the window and bang on it

Uh..what's this?

My Uncle Brian is really cool

My new hideout

I love making this new sound (with mommy's help)

This is SO much fun! Grandma's house is the best!

-Brooks is 10 months old today! It's also Grandpa McCarroll's Birthday!!!! Brooks celebrated by getting into Grandma and Grandpa's toilet paper. That is why we close all our bathroom doors. Ahh...the joys of hanging out at the Grandparents home. He is into everything...but having so much fun doing it. We are still working on "no" and making slight progress. He loves to get underneath the table to hideout with the dogs. He really enjoys pulling their ears.

-We went to Aunt Tammy and Uncle Brian's flag football game on Sunday. Brooks had fun watching all the dogs and playing in the leaves. He had never really been in the leaves before and really thought it was cool.

-Brooks appears to be working on his bottom molars. Ouch. He is putting his fingers back in his mouth more often and yelling out in his sleep at night. Poor guy. He is a tough kid though and hanging in there.

-Josh hung out with Brooks last Friday night while I went to get a facial! It was SO nice to relax and spend some "me" time. Josh and I have found that "me" time does not happen often. We need to enjoy it when it happens!

Mr. Independent

Grandma tells me I'm cute...wonder why? :)

Future golfer? I love Grandpa McCaroll's clubs.

I liked staying close to my Aunt Tara while I took

things in at Dave and Busters.

Check out Uncle Tyler eating this HUGE cupcake. Mommy let

me have a small taste of her icing.

I like to feed myself with the fork. It's so cool!

-We went to Dave and Busters to celebrate my new brother in law's (Brian) birthday on Monday. It was a lot of fun. Brooks enjoyed being with the family and got excited to see everyone. He really gets excited to see his Uncle Tyler who came in town from Bloomington. Aunt Tammy bought these really yummy cupcakes that were stacked up to the sky with icing. Tyler attempted to eat it all in one bite...good luck with that one.

-Brooks still does not eat much during a meal, but has fun eating! He loves trying the solids and now thinks he is really big by eating with the fork. My baby is growing up too fast!! He is starting to be the little comedian. He squints his eyes and smiles big then lets out a "fake" laugh to get you to laugh at him. Hopefully I can get this one on video, it cracks Josh and I up!!

The GREAT Pumpkin Patch

My first hayride (not sure why I was not smiling...it was cool!)

Look what I found!

Uh..mom...enough pictures already!

Hope I'm not allergic to hay like Mommy!

-We went to the Spencer Farms Pumpkin Patch on Saturday morning. It was SO warm! Kind of weird picking pumpkins in the heat! Brooks had his first hayride. He was checking it all out and seemed to enjoy himself. We had a nice relaxing weekend as a family. It is weekends like this that I could not wait to have a baby. It was so fun just hanging out, watching football, cleaning house and decorating for the holiday as a family. Brooks enjoys just playing by himself and exploring the downstairs. If he does something funny or something he knows he should not do...he will glance our way and start laughing. He thinks "no touch" is funny. I love his laugh, smile and sense of humor...so it's hard to get mad at him. He still loves peek-a-boo, but has started to enjoy patty cake, playing ball, and trying to imitate me dance. (Yep...I'm that dorky mom who dances around the house to make her kid laugh). He really loves music. He even has started to hum along to the songs. He has done it a few times for the "abc's", "happy and you know it", and the "hot dog" song (yes...he has been watching some Mickey Mouse Club cartoons in morning while eating breakfast). He tried diced apples today and really liked them! His eczema has calmed down some for now. We have stopped giving him oatmeal and try to limit his wheat intake. Who knows....maybe its none of these, but I figured it was worth a try! Good news is that I don't think it is the dog hair!!! We are keeping the bullies (ha...like that thought ever crossed our minds). Brooks just loves pulling Sweet Pea's ears and bouncing on Brutus's tummy. He would miss our walks together.

Octoberfest

Future drummer?

Roar!

Just me and my daddy

Another IU soccer game..burr it was cold!

Strike a pose....

I pull up on everything now and have a few bruises to show for it. (despite mommy's effort to baby proof the coffee table). I'm even starting to cruise along furniture. I practice in my crib and like to practice at 3 am in the morning. Mommy says its funny watching me play and then fall back asleep sitting up!

-I love the fall time! I love wearing cozy sweaters, hats, and warm boots. We got a taste of the cooler weather this past weekend. I loved dressing Brooks up in his hat and jackets. Not to mention a pair of cute jeans:) Who says dressing up boys isn't as fun as girls?? Josh and I drove to Bloomington with Brooks to watch Uncle Tyler's IU soccer game on Sunday. We had a great time and Brooks got his second soccer ball. He LOVES balls. He is evening saying "ball". It is more like a word approximation "ba", but he actually holds up the ball and says it. He loves rolling the ball back and forth with us in the evenings. He also thinks it is hilarious when Josh and I try to juggle the ball. He loves to watch Brutus chase after the ball as well. Brooks is into everything still. He pulls up on whatever he can reach and we really have to watch his every move. He typically can be found playing in the dogs' water bowl or toy box.

-He is more interested in table foods than the baby foods right now. However, he is still not good enough to eat all the solids and sometimes gags. He likes diced peaches, chicken, bananas, and of course the veggie sticks. He is not fond of the diced carrots. Don't blame him! I would say he is still not a very big eater. He would rather be exploring. It takes a lot of work to get him to eat. He is still does well at taking his bottle. He eats around 24-28 oz of formula a day. He seems to be teething again (does it ever stop?).

-I am looking forward to the rest of October and the coming months with him. Our little guy is going to be 1 before we know it! Time just flies by....I can not believe all the changes we have gone through as a family. Right now things are so good. Josh is able to help out with feedings now (no breast feeding) and he really enjoys making Brooks laugh. I love seeing my two guys together. I am so lucky to have so much love all around me. It takes a lot of work being a mommy and I don't know how I would get through it without Josh's help.