What's that we see....

a TOOTH!!!

Matthew officially has broke gum and is showing signs of his 1st bottom tooth!!!

YIPPIE!

He is definitely ready to have some teeth so he can chomp on his food better. Instead he swallows everything whole! No wonder he has been a fussy napper these past 2 days!

Today's nap = Tylenol. We'll see if it helps!

Crawling; part2 and crackers

Crawling; part 1

Mommy, Daddy, LOOK!

Mommy, Daddy, LOOK, NOW! MOMMY DADDY FROGGIE!

Brad, "Did you hear him Erin"

Erin, "I think he said Frog"

Sure enought, Sam found a frog outside and it was ever so cute how he was playing with it. When the frog would hop, Sam would hop. When Sam would hop, the frog would hop. It was cute and as you can see, the frog was holding on for dear life as Sam tooled him around in his car!

What did we do this weekend???

We went to our new pool!!!
Unfortunately, the air was very warm...but the pool was very cold. However, all that aside, the boys had a great time. Little Matthew even splashed around in the water. The pool isn't heated so we have to wait a little longer before we can have warm water.

8 months old!

THANK GOODNESS! 8 Months = Happy Baby!
Matthew's tears of the unknown are turning into independence. This kind of independence we've been anticipating since he was born.

What is Matthew up to...
He's been taking his first few crawls and tonight he did a complete weave through the toys across the playroom. His motivation, a dinosaur!!! And by gosh, he got it. It was quite cute as Brad and I were totally 100% into cheering Matthew on, our lovely Sam decided it was time for the spotlight to be redirected to him. So, Sam got down on all 4 and started to wine like his brother and crawl, fall, crawl, fall until he got a truck. It was priceless!

Sleeping: we're FINALLY on a GREAT schedule (yes Amy you told me to hold on and this will happen) 2 naps a day, about 2 hours each AND...I've finally got my dear boys to nap TOGETHER in the afternoon so I can get the much needed mommy time (yes Amy you told me this would happen). Bedtime: between 7 and 8. Awake: between 6 and 7! That's right, I said it...7 o'clock and he IS a Teplin boy!!! Baby Boot camp has resulted in success. (I'm so glad that is behind us.)

Back to the 7 a.m. wake up....I know this entry is about Matthew, however, I have to document that this household, (Brad as an exception) for the past week, has not rolled out of bed until 7. That is 7 A.M. Daddy is already gone for his work day and his family is JUST GETTING UP. I have to say, I LOVE THIS. I know it is a total fluke, but I am enjoying it as much as I can. For the past 2.5 years my children have had us up at 5 a.m. and they are normally bathed and breakfast is done BY 7 a.m.

Eating: Still on his Dr. Browns bottles. We tried switching and I'm now convinced that the Dr bottles really do work. We had him on Avent bottles for a weekend and he was a mess. A complete mess. We went back to the Dr bottles and he was a TON better. So we'll continue. They are just a pain to wash. Matthew still is offered baby food, but prefers table food. He loves frozen peas, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, hummus, cheese, yogurt, turkey and waffles! It's so cute watching him try to put the food in his mouth. His little stubbys just can't figure out where that mouth opening is. His new favorite love is drinking out of a sippy cup like Sam and eating mac n cheese.

Personality: Stubbornness is kicking in. It's actually rather amusing to watch him struggle non verbally for what he is telling us he wants. He will push my hand away and insist I understand what his little wines mean. Once we accomplish what it is he wanted, we receive ear to ear smiles. He still likes to be cuddled. However, with his independence entering his world, I already see this drifting away. BUT, he still likes to be held when he drinks his bottle.

Words: Da Da. Don't worry, it's not used at daddy, but Sam is demanding he says, "mama" and "Sam". We'll hear from the other room, "Matthew, say MaMa" "Matthew, say, Sam!".

Favorite loves: His blue My Blankee

No doctors visit until his 9 month appt. AND, I verified with the doctor today that Matthew is all caught up on his shots, which means NO SHOTS at his 9 month well check. Thank goodness because Mimi and Papa will be here and we need Matthew on his BEST behavior or else we pack him in their suitcases for a little boot camp in WI!

Hello from Matthew!

Teplin Tampa Crew

...headed up to see us this past weekend. What did we do? A little of nothing, and it was the best. We ate, we played, we napped, we ate, we drank, we talked and we caught up. What more could we ask for. The kids had a great time playing with each other. Alivia, the oldest of them all, was a trooper as Sam demanded her utmost attention. Sela just hung out and did her thing, as happy as could be, and Matthew threw us for a loop and was a great little boy. He loved all the commotion and the busy-ness of the house and it made Brad and I enjoy ourselves that much more. We'll see you next weekend when we visit you all in Tampa!

I tried, but then stopped. Getting all 4 busy busy children to sit still for a picture just wasn't in the cards. So, we'll keep this shot for a memory!

Baby Boot Camp

That's right. We're here in full effect on Acorn Chase Drive. After many many discussions with friends we've entered boot camp for babies. It's not fun, but we're seeing results, and that IS fun. We started on Monday...it's now Thursday and I'm happy to report that we're seeing results. We're using the Dr. Ferber method as a base, however, I've customized it to fit my needs and my patience level. We've had 2 great nights of sleep from him and he's eating solid foods better and drinking a fair amount of formula, enough to not make him want to eat during the night!!! (this is what we wanted). He used to scream until he puked...but I think I let him do it too many times, that now he's screaming for 10-20 minutes and drifting off, no messy clean up involved.

Naps, we still have a consistent morning nap from him. His afternoon nap, it's a work still in progress. This is the nap we NEED to concentrate on. Sam and him NEED to give me a little break in the afternoon for some much needed catch up on mommy world.

Through our hard efforts, Sam and I have FINALLY got him to roll over from his back to his tummy. He loves to be on his tummy, but still doesn't understand that he can crawl. He's so close, but yet so far. He gets up on all fours and rocks, but then falls over. This is actually how he gets to his objects. Up down, Up down, Up down, and then gets tired. But we continue to work on this and we'll soon see better results.

The one thing I don't understand...even with the time change, my children both STILL wake up at 5/5:30??? Can they both read their clocks in their room already?

Let's hope this progress report will continue to end with positive reports. This is all we got for now, and the sanity levels are going back up!

Meet the pirates!

Brotherly love!

On two feet

One thing we have learned with our needy baby Matthew is that he hates to sit and play. He insists on standing up and playing with whatever it is in his reach. Downfall, Sam. Sam thinks it's funny to body slam his brother leaving tears of sadness over his little face.

Our new garage door

got installed yesterday. Sam thought this was pretty cool. The cutest part was...he wanted to watch the man install it. I told him that he could watch from the garage door but he had to sit still and just watch. No going out to the garage. He looked at with with excitement and said, okay mommy, but Matthew too. So, I placed Matthew right next to him. I think we need to get a garage door installed every week. You ask why? Because this event lasted for a little over an hour. My boys were COMPLETELY in amazement as they watched the man drill holes and make a complete mess out of the garage. Matthew didn't last as long as Sam, but After 45 minutes I begged Sam to come inside for lunch. Who ever knew you could create your own fun $250 later and in the garage.

Curly or straight?

What will it be?

Matthew is Mad at us/world/life?

and we're not sure why. He has been a complete monster since we moved and it's starting to take toll on Brad and I. For that matter, Sam is also feeling the effects. We've come to the understanding that Matthew is screaming/crying for about 80% of the day. The other 20% of the day he is okay, not happy and full of smiles like he used to be, but we'll say he is tolerable.

We could blame this on teething, as we do everything else, but I'm just not convinced that is what it is. We've tried everything. EVERYTHING. And poor Sam is being neglected due to Matthews continuous demanding needs. And because we're putting Sam second, not by choice but by fact, he is starting to rebel as well. Our house is falling apart.

As we've learned being parents the first time, you have to pick your battles. Some things in this house are going to have to wait as we need to concentrate on Matthew and his hard dislike of life. He also has gone from okay to HORRIBLE at riding in the car again. Just screams until he pukes. He makes a 10 minute car ride feel like forever and then we're ending up heading home because it's just not possible for us to go in public. As you can see, we're about ready to throw our hands up here. Just when it seems to be okay, it gets worse.

We want to explore Jacksonville to the fullest and it's just not happening yet. But when will it get better? Do we have to put everything we do on hold until our child can learn that driving in the car is fun and learning to sleep will only make him feel better? I don't think that the word sleep falls into the "Matthew" category. He just doesn't want to do it. Yesterday he screamed his entire nap for 2.5 hours and NEVER went to sleep. We all know what our day is like when our children do not nap. It was a hard one.

So I'm writing this in anticipation that this too will pass and this is only a phase. I'm not sure how much more tylenol and benadryl I can offer my child before it scrapes out the inside of his liver. Patience is our word around here, but it's wearing very very thin!

Jacksonville; Part 1

1. Tap water is rarely cold
2. Speed limit posted at 65 really means 90 (in the passing lane)
3. When pumping gas you have to hold the lever...you can't clip in place
4. Opening at 8 means opening at 8:30
5. We've fallen in the Eastern Time zone and rarely make the 11 O'clock evening news
6. Personal escort to load my trunk after an outing at the local Publix, they even push Matthew!
7. Pulling over anywhere and doing mechanical work on your car
8. Hot dog stands pop up around lunch time on every corner
9. Firewood for sale when the temp drops to 50
10. The in ground sprinklers run even when it's raining
11. No matter what you do to your grass, it always has weeds.
12. Sweet tea!
13. You may live 5 miles from Publix, but it takes 30-40 minutes to reach it.
14. Walmart is EVERYWHERE....ALWAYS open (and we're not lying)
15. Road construction is in mass. Many Many men are everywhere, in groups of 3. 1 man doing the work, the other watching and the other talking on his cell phone. Don't they understand if they ALL work together they could get the job done? No wonder road construction in in mass
16. Southern doorbell hospitality, need I say more (see previous post)
17. No basements = Everyone parks on driveways, or road, or grass or neighbors grass
18. No road can stay the same name or number.
19. When you're going west on the highway it really means you're going north. Yes, Erin NEEDS GPS. Her compass just makes her MORE confused.
20. And last but not least, ya'll have to come and visit to see what we're talking about!

Ants

Jacksonville Zoo

This past weekend we ventured north to the Jacksonville Zoo. The zoo had a great children's area that Sam loved. It was a chilly day, and the animals were comfortable sitting inside, but we did have fun walking around and smelling all the beautiful flowers!

Stuck in the maze!

Matthew enjoyed people watching on the side lines and every so often he would cheer on his brother!

Sam and I rode Bambi on the carousel! It was great and unlike the 'real pony ride' he loved this animal! You all remember the post about the very very unhappy pony ride at the Milwaukee zoo right?

3 FAVORITE things to do...

Sit on the beamer!

Suck on a puzzle...this one in particular

Play with the keys on the computer!

He is becoming rather determined on insisting we attend to his every need. This little man already has a little temper. When something is taken away from him, he has a fit and screams like we've never heard him scream before. We're talking tears and red swollen face. We did try letting him do the scream it out method because he is frustrating me, but that didn't work. He is just like his brother. I won't bore you with my clean up details, but we'll just say he screamed so hard for 35 minutes that I had to clean up breakfast and lunch and it was gross. Vomit everywhere. We'll revisit this method maybe again, but for now, we'll let his little tummy and lungs rest and continue to jump to his every need....for now...

It was nap time, could you tell?

Our picnic in the park!

They were planning something, just not sure what!

And then there was the 2 babies chilling out on the picnic blanket!

Don't bother us, we're knawing!

Notice the arm and hand placements, they are exactly in the same position!

Gotta love babies

This is how you brush Sam...

Scrub a dub dub! 4 kids in a tub!

The Toson Girls head South!

Oh did we have a great time visiting with our near and dear friends. It was so great to see all of them and to compare children and see who is doing what over great conversation with a old friend! Ana and Sam are about 5 months apart and Taylor and Matthew are exactly 1 month apart to the day. So, needless to say, our lives are pretty much similar as we laughed at what our worlds have turned into. It was quite humorous as we tried to plan our days around nap schedules and after we had a plan we realized it would probably be bed time. So we hung out at the park, took walks and ate! Our nights were full of catching up and reminiscing about old times! What more could we ask for.

I think this is the only picture I could get of the 4 of them... no on EVER wants to sit still. However, there is a lot of activity going on here...

Sam: I don't want to take a picture

Matthew: Tay Tay, please look at me, or I'll eat your knee.

Taylor: But Matthew, you have so many different toys here and I need to see all the ones I can suck on.

Ana: Sam, Sit down...

over dramatic...

It has been chilly around here last week. I can't believe I'm saying chilly as I've just moved from Wisconsin, but it is. The nightime lows have been in the 40's and during the days in the upper 60's. So, to keep everyone who lives back home under control, we'll refrain from using the word cold!

However, living in WI has made a lasting impression on our little man Sam. One of our top excuses we use when he insists on going outside is it's just too cold. So, the other day, he was having his melt down about wanting to go outside and I caved in and I told him to go get dressed. This is what the little man came back with. Scarf, fleece and some crocks (with no socks!) and a cup full of ice water!

Theres something about bath pictures....

I just love them!

Our family celebrating Mardi Gras!