Oh That Bacher

Hollis. Holli. Hollibacher. Holli bok choy. Bach. Bachus. Bacher. Wild Bill. Wild Bill Hollis.

Nana suggested we start calling him Johann Sebastian.

I never really had a nickname. Well, except some forced ones- and they all related to killer whales spanning from age 7 until high school. Huh. Never thought of that.

Wesley doesn’t have many nicknames. TC has a gazillion. And now Hollis has joined the nickname boat. He already has a million.

TC’s great uncle is named Hollis. When Holli was born we asked what his nickname was. It was Hollibach. Well it stuck to this Hollis and then some. Sometimes I find myself calling him more variations of the name Bach, rather than Hollis. Weird how it all morphs.

Anyway, Hollis had his 6 month check up last week and it went well. He weighs 4 POUNDS less than Wesley did at 6 months. Is that even possible, I cannot even fathom how huge Wesley must of been. Geez.

We also started solids this week, or tried to. Hollis isn’t really into it. We’ve tried avocado, bananas, and apple sauce. We have this amazing blender to make all sorts of purees and foods if he would just open up his mouth. This might explain the 4 lb. difference.

Much like his brother, Hollis has a pretty good attention span and really loves to sit and explore. He LOVES ice water, so I made him a giant jug of ice water. Haha. When Wesley discovered it he was equally amused. Who knew.

Hollis continues to be the happiest camper I’ve ever come across. All smiles, all the time. Today Hollis and I joined Wesley and grandma at music class (Wesley goes to Heartsong Music on Wednesday mornings), Hollis was having a blast. He was bopping, babbling, and trying so hard to set himself free. He chewed on a couple instruments and grabbed the teachers guitar when it was his turn to strum.

Wesley is amazing to watch at music class. His music class takes place at a retirement home and the residents of the home sit around the children (ages 0-5) while they sing, dance, strum, and learn all about music. When it is time to get instruments Wesley brings all of the residents instruments to play. At the end of the class the teacher tells the kids they can go shake the residents hands and Wesley pops right up and goes and tells each resident goodbye (he was the only one). It was extremely touching and I was very proud of my boy as both a musician and a loving human.

Oh these two.

There is already so much brotherly love, it is incredible.

Now, if we could just get them to sleep.

Loops Holes & Muscles to Go

Wesley loves a good loop hole. I think this is why he loves the cul-de-sac so much. I let him run free in the street. He is inherently a rule follower, but he is always up for breaking it if he can find a plausible reason. Good for him.

He wore his “muscles” on this walk. Wesley steals everything from Hollis and makes it his own. Even stacking rings.

 

 

The Art of Rolling

Wesley discovers the art of rolling down a hill at Auditorium Shores. One of my favorite past times.

So Quotable I Had to Write It Down Immediately

78 degrees on  January afternoon. We go outside for a little watermelon and playtime. I said (probably a gazillion times), “It is a beautiful day.”

Wesley says, “Do you know why it is a beautiful day?”

“Why?” I reply

“It is a beautiful day because the clouds are blue, the trees are fine, and the houses are not falling down. That’s what makes a beautiful day.”

Um… love this logic. Here we are enjoying this unbelievably beautiful day.

Actually 6 Months

Okay, so I was a month behind on the last batch. Here is littlest man at 6 months. I’m not sure I recognize him here, he changes so fast it is hard to keep pace. Love him.

Stories

Wesley has always been a player of toys. He is very focused in his playing, very orderly, very strict with his rules. This is a known, we love him for that. Recently, Wesley has put aside sorting his cars and racing perpetually for a new game.

TC has been reading Wesley novels at night. He does this because Wesley takes FOREVER to go to sleep and he demands stories. So, TC figured is he wants to hear stories he might as well read him some literature. Wesley enjoys it and seems to understand, or at minimum enjoy the reading. They have read The Hobbit, Harry Potter, and are currently reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Which brings me to my next point. TC also bought Wesley the Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego story packs. Wesley will play with these legos for HOURS. He creates these little stories and games for the characters to partake in. He likes to set up his wooden blocks as cities (or robots) for the characters to move in and around. He is just fascinated by the whole thing.

That was a long winded way of saying Wesley has moved away from his devotion to cars to Legos and blocks. We’ll see, I’m sure eventually the cars will find the blocks and a new love will emerge.

These photos crack me up, it is a total battle scene. Not Santa’s intended purpose, but nonetheless he’s having a good time.

And of course, Hollis has to be in the middle of it. He doesn’t want to miss a moment. He has been in trouble on multiple occasions for destroying the city (although Wesley is very patient so far with Hollis).

Happy 1/2 Birthday Hollibacher.

Somehow Hollis is a half a year old today. TIME SLOW ON DOWN NOW. Hollis, you are:

hilarious, active, smiley, social, grabby, goofy, loveable, sweet, and perfect. I love you uniquely for who you are, and you are without a doubt your own man.

I love the way you: laugh out lout at your brother, the way you love sucking on the sides of glasses of ice fresh water, the way you bounce in your bouncy seat, the way you yell when your tired, the fact that you really don’t cry much but totally melt down about 30 seconds before I start feeding you, the way you burrow your little head in my chest when someone makes you smile, and the way you bathe like a wild man always dunking your head in the bath and then choking, I love how you trap everything and shove it into your mouth, I love the way you don’t wake up when I set off the alarm but the sound of me typing causes you to stir (this just happened). You are remarkable in every sense of the word.

big brother stepped in for a bit…

TC’s Facebook Post

I had to share, somehow I missed all this commotion so reading it on FB was just as shocking to me. Haha, love these goof balls. Here it is, the facebook post that would of had me laughing out loud if I actually did that (I’m a laugh in the inside person).

Lessons you learn as a parent:

I was playing hide and seek with my son tonight, and I thought it would be fun to try and scare him a bit. So I hid, and as he came looking for me, I jumped out and yelled. He took off, screaming and terrified, and I gave chase. When I had him cornered, he turned around, looked at me, and said, “Dad, I pooped my pants.”

Touche Wes, Touche.

The Tale of Besley, Best Friend of Wesley

So… tonight we were eating dinner and the usual statement was made, “tell a story.” This time it wasn’t a round story, Wesley assigned daddy to the story telling task. TC began telling a story about a little boy named Besley. Immediately Wesley wanted to be in the story too. He always does, when you tell him stories about your childhood he always has to be included. So anyway, TC told the tale of Wesley and Besley. It was a mundane tale. They did things like eat their dinner, take a bath, finish reading Harry Potter, etc., etc. But then Besley didn’t end at the dinner table as stories normally do. Besley went to the shower with Wesley to fight the “soap pirates”, Besley got into bed with Wesley for Harry Potter, Besley has a baby sister named Shollis, TC went to get Wesley some water and I heard Wesley yell, “two waters.” Wesley came into my room to tell me goodnight, and I said, “how is your friend Besley?” Wesley said, “he is just my story friend.” That may be so, but I have a feeling the tales of Besley have just begun.

The inaugural scooter ride. We don’t have a helmet yet, but he was going so slow I think he could have injured himself worse walking… that and TC was not permitted to let go. We’ll keep practicing (and buy a helmet).

 

The Goof Gift Exchange

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have some incredibly special friends in my life. We have all been friends since high school (some earlier), and even though our lives are busy, in flux, changing, or we are just in different places our friendship continues on. I love my friends, they are family. Anyway, this year I love my friends even more because they started having babies (haha, totally kidding but it sure is fun). There are now 5 children in the bunch 4 little boys, and one perfect little girl. So cute. I did a couple photo sessions of their families over the holidays which you can see here and here. Okay, sticking to the point….

So, every year (since high school in fact) we get together for a gift exchange. This year, we did a little pre-party with the babies. It was our goal to photograph them in matching outfits all at once (Evelyn sewed the onsies which made the photos I think). It was a tough goal it turned out. Baby Elizabeth is only 2 months, Holiis & Jake were not sitting well at this point (and I forgot the bumpo), Henry is on the move crawling everywhere, and Weslesy was all over the place. We got one though, not necessarily a work of art. But funny, and it makes me smile A LOT.

and the babies

and some other favorites…

and then we went to Stephanie’s without those cute little munchkins so we could get wild. Like this:

and this…

As usual Stephanie’s place looked gorgeous and was perfectly decorated.

Hands down one of my favorite nights of the year.