Finally!

Looks like we've got a crawler and a butt-scoot-er on our hands! WHOOOHOOOOO! Cole has taken to his hands and knees while Grady scoots forward on his behind. It's really fun to watch, and it's hysterical to see how pleased they are with themselves.



PS. To all you people who told me I would not like it when they crawled... you're crazy! Crawling is SO much more fun than lugging around 50 lbs of baby!

What the hell? says Elvis

Let it be known that Elvis is NOT happy that the babies got all sorts of toys for Christmas. He is patient, ever-loving, constantly happy and eager to offer face-lickings, and got nothing. Nothing.



Take that, colorful playblock that Nana and Grandpa got Grady. See how fun it is to try to fit it into the correct hole once he's chewed the edges. HA.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Wishes

With just a few days left before Santa arrives, we asked C & G what they wanted Santa to bring them. Based on their responses, I've decided Grady is heading for a post-college stint in the Peace Corps, and Cole will be hugging trees while working summers as a Forest Ranger. Just my guess. Pictured are their responses.

Bothma Grandkids

The boys overnighted at Nana's house this past Friday, and so did the other grandbabies and their parents! Talk about a full house! Here are the youngens: Cole (10 months), Sara (5), Greg (7), Grady (10 months), and Rhett (3). You might notice that the kids are each about 2 years apart. In keeping with her baby-making schedule, it seems to me that Karen is due for growing another baby, no?*


*NOTE: This baby would not be for us. No, thank you. One set of twins is plenty. PLENTY.

10 Months!

That's right, the boys are 10 months old today! Tonight we celebrate with a big ole glass of wine.

Coley took a tumble

It was bound to happen, I know. But I really would have preferred for it to be on someone else's shift. A few days ago Cole decided to throw himself out of the stroller while he was with Mum-mum. He leaped over my arms and somersaulted onto the patio, head & face first. And despite it happening in what seemed like slow motion, I was not quick enough to grab him. After a frantic call to Nana, she came rushing to check on him and turns out he's fine, just scratched and bruised.

I, on the other hand, was a mess. I am normally very calm (I think) but something about the sound a baby's head makes when hitting concrete totally freaked me out. Keith pointed out that little boys are bound to get lots of bruises and scratches, and we'd be doing lots of bandaging and kissing booboos in the future.

And maybe I wont cry and throw up each time it happens. Just maybe.

What's wrong with this picture?

Today's afternoon nap: I heard a some rattling about and thought I'd go peek. We normally just let the two romp and moan until they fall asleep, but something told me that someone was struggling, so I went on into the boys lair. Checked on Cole first, and that sweet little boy was fast asleep...



I congratulated myself on being an excellent nap inducer and moved the the other crib, where I found this....


This is most definitely NOT sleeping, Grady. Mommy is not pleased. Unfortunately for me, Grady did not seem to care and gave me a hearty "bbbreeeeeerrreeeerreeeeee" shout-out before grabbing teddy for a wrestling match. Teddy put up a decent fight, and thankfully wore Grady out, because he's finally asleep and I can get some laundry done.

As we like to say around these parts say after a baby falls asleep, Victory is Mine!

Well, alright. Let's talk about Thanksgiving

Keith pointed out that our Thanksgiving weekend was way too fun to not have a proper mention on the blog. I'm usually the first to argue with Keith's opinions (funny how that becomes a natural reaction), but this time I'm inclined to agree.

The weekend started off with a visit from honorary aunt and uncle, Sara and Jeremy. They came all the way from Savannah! They're technically on their way to see twin babies who are their true niece and nephews and are up in Buffalo (yes, Sara married a Yankee! If you watch Golden Girls, you know that's funny, and if you don't watch Golden Girls...well...then there's a good chance you don't understand most of my humor. But anyways, back to Thanksgiving). We omitted the true reason for them coming through town and told Cole & Grady that they came just to see them. Babies cooperated and were [mostly] pleasant, adults had tasty beverages and good conversation, good times were had by all. Aunt Sara and Uncle Jeremy had to leave that same night to get moving to their own families, which gave us some time to prepare for the arrival of Aunt Angela, Uncle Ken and Cousin Evan the next day.

Part of the prep included the things we all normally do before visitors-washing sheets, cleaning the house, frantically shoving things under beds and in closets to make the house appear clean- and then we also had to get the turkey a'brinin. (again, Golden Girls). By "we" I mean Keith, since the turkey had to be brined in our cooler, and in our marriage all things having to do with a cooler falls under Keith's jurisdiction. Unless it's a small soft sided cooler that is holding bottles or babyfood, then it falls into my area of expertise. Am I oversharing? Maybe. Let's move on.

Thursday the Tennant family and my dad arrived! (mom had to work, damn hospitals always having needy sick people). We tried to get a picture of the boys all together, but as anyone with more than one baby can attest, it's nearly impossible. At best we have one of Grady smiling, another where Cole looks semi-happy, and one where Evan is looking at the camera. Not in one picture, of course, but we'll take what we can get. Angela and I dug into preparing the meal while the boys cruised around on the backporch and the menfolk sat around talking and drinking beer. Why they would fill up on beer when there are casseroles to be had, I'm not sure.

After an excellent Thanksgiving meal (brined turkey was awesome, kudos to the man in charge of All Things Cooler Related), the Tennants and our little family headed down to Lake Avondale for our annual group picture. This year's picture didn't quite turn out as we hoped, it's more of a sillouette, but with semi-fussy babies in the cold we didn't want to keep trying. The picture taking excursion ended with a stop at the local park where Evan had his first swing experience! WHEEEEEEE! He might look a little apprehensive in the picture, but I'm pretty sure he had a good time.

Friday Gran GG and Grampie stopped in for a night on their way back to Florida (yes, for another cruise). Always good times when they visit, they get their fill of playing with babies and I get to leave to go do some shopping. Win-win situation, as far as I'm concerned.

For pictures of the weekend, go to http://babiessquared.shutterfly.com and click on "Giving Thanks 2008". I also have some Christmas tree decorating pictures up, and I know you're not going to be able to resist looking at those either.

C'mon Christmas!

Too busy to write much lately, but I've at least uploaded some pictures from Thanksgiving. You know the drill by now... go to www.babiessquared.shutterfly.com, click on "Giving Thanks 2008" for pictures from our weekend visiting with family and friends.

And now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, it's Christmas time! WHOHOOOOO!

GP Ellerman

We've returned from our trip to Pennsylvania for Grandpa Ellerman's funeral. While a very sad trip, it was nice to be together with family as we all reflected on Grandpa's life. A few months back we were lucky enough to get a few pictures with Grandpa and the boys. Below is 4 generations of Ellerman men: Cole & Grady, Dad Keith, Grampie Dean, and GP (great-grandpa).

More pictures from our trip at www.babiessquared.shutterfly.com, click on "'08 Pennsylvania Trip"

Party @ Camp Keller!

You probably remember Camp Keller from this summer, right? Well, Suzanne and Bill were crazy enough to invite us and our teething babies over for some UGA football viewing, and of course we said yes! Someone else's beer to drink and many hands to hold the babies? We don't pass up those kinds of opportunities.

We had a great time watching the game in the Keller Party Pad, and Cole and Grady enjoyed being passed around and oowed and awwwed over. Suzanne had such a good time with the twins that I overheard her saying that she's ready for two more! Just kidding Bill, making sure you're paying attention.

Enjoy pictures from the get together on the picture site

http://babiessquared.shutterfly.com

Click on the "Party at Camp Keller" album to see the pics!

Thanks again for having us over!

9 Months!

That's right, Grady & Cole are 9 months old today! Here they are, celebrating in the backyard.

Cole in blue shirt, Grady in brown.

A new site for our pictures

After much frustration with the site we previously used for our photo albums, we've switched to a new site. Here is the link to the new website:

www.babiessquared.shutterfly.com

On this site you will find all of the pictures (but none of my clever commentary), so I will post a permanent link to the left on the blog (soon) for you to check whenever you feel the need to look at babies. I am still switching some of our older pictures to this site, and anticipate that being done in the next week or so.

Pretty typical

This picture sums up what is going on with the boys lately. Grady is goofy and into entertaining us, Cole is intent of handling/chewing/slobbering on an object. In a week or two, they'll switch and Grady will be serious, Cole a goofball. Always changing things to keep us on our toes!

Happy Halloween!

Dada, the Pumpkin Artiste

Amongst my many (many, many) talents, I've always considered my creativity to be one of my strongest. But I have met my creative foe: the pumpkin. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I cannot design or carve a cute pumpkin to save my life. Maybe it's because I didn't do this when I was a kid (no Halloween in South Africa), maybe it's the orange curved canvas, maybe my hands are too little to grasp a big ole pumpkin, I'm not sure, but for whatever reason, I suck at carving a pumpkins. Last night Keith and I sat down to do some carving, and after being ridiculed for my first attempt, I turned the task over to Keith and he got to hollow out and carve all 4 pumpkins. I sat there looking pretty and only had to insert & light the candles when he was done. Come to think it it, it's not that bad of a deal for me... Keith carved one to represent each of us, and I think he did a pretty impressive job. Here is the carving master, pure concentration:

Keith's pumpkin, I could not help but notice that he gave himself a really big mouth...hahahaha. Art imitates life, right?

C-man's pumpin, showing his big open mouth grin with 6 razor-sharp teeth:

Here I am, notice that my curls do not look frizzy at all:


Finally, here is G-baby's pumpkin, complete with 2 teeth and a curl on top of his head:

Happy little pumpkin family!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Holy Crap, Our Kids are Adorable

Grady, leaning in to inspect the camera.

I've not been very good at posting lately, so I'm trying to pick up the slack now. Things are pretty good at the Ellerman household, babies and parents have figured each other out and are now starting to have fun!



What was not fun was Keith being on a business trip most of the week. Not fun at all. Thankfully though Miss Sara came to the rescue from Savannah! WHOHOOOO. Not sure how I would have made it through the week without her, those two are a handful. A heavy handful, at that. Thank you, Sara! As when most people visit, I only realized I didn't get any pictures of her with the boys until after she left. So, Sara, do your hair when you come the day before Thanksgiving, I'll be taking pictures!



Here are pictures I took yesterday before and during our daily hour and a half walk. Why an hour and a half? 'Cause the boys like it and Grady & Cole actually stop squealing to enjoy the outdoors. It's usually a happy squeal, but it's pretty damn loud so a break from it is always welcome.

Cole, looking cute.

"Mama" wins!

After a few weeks of rattling off "patadadatatadadada" and "uhhhmamamamamma", our darling Cole today said "Mama"! It was really more like "mummum", but I'll take it! Whoohooo! Finally something out of his mouth other than drool or green beans (we do not like green beans, don't even THINK about making us eat that has been the general response). Very exciting.

As I was leaving the house this morning, Grady started with "uhhmamamamammamama". Excellent!

I am having all sorts of trouble loading pictures lately, so keep checking back for those pictures I've been promising for a while.

UPDATE: Happy Birthday, Papi!

The boys and I just got done serenading Keith with a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday. You may not know this, but Grady can squeal ridiculously loud and in tune. He's not always singing the same song that we are, but he makes a joyful noise. Cole chose to bring instrumental accompaniment by chomping his 6 teeth onto the plastic side of his pacifier.

Anyways, we all say happy 30th birthday Papi! We love you, you rock.

Here the boys brought their first breakfast in bed offering to their dad. Picture is a little dark because it's really early. Really, really early.


Later: Sadly, birthday weekend is over! It was a great one though. We went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where we looked at all sorts of flowers we wanted to stuff in our mouths. Good times! Saturday we had friends and family over, and Cousin Evan even came! We haven't seen him in forever. Then Sunday we headed up to a corn maze, again fun! Enjoy some pictures from our weekend, click on the picture below to go to the album:

Keith Turns 30!

Better than nothing

Well, it's not the pictures I've been promising you, but here is a short clip for those of you who have not gotten to see the boys lately. Notice how Grady gives you the once-over at the end. He's so funny! Another clip will be uploaded later and more pictures sometime this weekend.

Coming soon!

Pictures coming soon, I promise!

We're back!

Have you missed us? We're back from vacation, and have been busy, busy. More later, once I get all the pictures uploaded and can regale you with tales of Arizona and Grandpa Lourens' 60th birthday party.

Until then, enjoy the picture of our cute boys and refrain from reaching towards the computer screen to pinch cheeks.

Higher, Papi, higher!

Another first for the boys, swinging at our neighborhood park. Lots of fun! First 5 are of Grady, next 5 of Cole. You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger.

Big boys!

Look at all the things big boys can do! A big boy can ride in the grocery cart seat-his first time!

A big boy is also has good input on selecting gardening equipment.


Most importantly, Big Boy listens is considerate of his brother, Only Slightly-Less-Big Boy when he wants a turn.

Countdown!

CHEEKS! I love 'em.

Cole is staring at Grady here.

5 long days stand between us and our first official baby-free getaway. We've been very lucky to have several nights when Nana & Grandpa watched the boys, but we do have the travel bug, and this will be our first time out of state for a long weekend. We're going to Arizona to spend a few days with Amy & Matt in Phoenix, and then we're tooling on down to Tucson for another few days. We leave on Saturday and will be back Wednesday, hopefully that is enough time for the dark circles under my eyes to dissapear! Let's hope, you know it's bad when the security officer at the front door of your work comments.

Anywho, please don't expect much from me this week in terms of witty posts, I am going to give you nothing but pictures. Here are the boys with Papi, before the wedding shower we hosted yesterday. Those boys throw a hell of a party.

7 Months!

We've made it to 7 months! Things are really starting to be fun, and are changing so quickly.

By the way, Cole, stop chewing your brother's paci. That's how fights get started. If you didn't want him chewing your hand, you should really leave his paci alone.

Your Brother is Not a Chewtoy.

No, you're not seeing things, I'm really posting two days in a row. Today's post is about [obviously] the boys. They are finally starting to acknowledge each other! It's SO cute. They stare at each other, sometimes hold hands-I don't think they know they're holding hands, but still cute- and yesterday as Cole was babbling for a good 30 seconds, Grady stared at him and laughed when he was done. Cole then smiled back. Maybe Cole was telling a joke? Or maybe they were making fun of my new too-short haircut? I'm not sure, but it surely just the beginning of a lifetime of inside jokes that Mommy & Papi will not be privy to.

Here are some of my more recent favorite pics of the boys together. Grady tried to gnaw on Cole's hand, you can see for yourself how well that went over.