Did you know March was National Craft Month?

Neither did I, but according to Joanne's Fabrics it was. Maybe that's why I had this urge to make clothes for the boys.

First, one of Mike's old sweaters with a moth hole became a vest for Max & a cardigan for Tate.
I didn't take a picture of the cardigan by itself, & sadly it somehow got mixed up in the wash and shrank enough to fit a Barbie doll now. At least he wore it once first.

Max is ticked that we are blocking "his shows" trying to take this picture.

Originally, this old shirt of mine was just going to become smaller w/a black pirate ship on it for Max. I messed up the collar so used it to make a pirate ship to put on one of his T's. I think I'll make one for Tate now too.

I also made myself a couple ruffle T-shirts & one with some little flower embellishments. I couldn't bring myself to pay $60+ for the cute ones at J-Crew. I'll post those later. Tate had his shots yesterday and is not happy with me being on the computer.

Bowling & Sweet Potatoes

Today was a momentous day for the Brownstein Family.

2 very important 1sts occurred:

Tate ate his 1st food, sweet potatoes!

(do you spell that with an 'e' or just add an 's'? I'm never sure)

We've been giving him rice cereal for almost a month now & he hates it. He wouldn't take it off a spoon so we had to switch to a very high tech, special, customized bottle. Yup, a bottle with the nipple cut off. (Why does writing that make me flinch a little?)

Mike worked from the Pasadena office today, so we picked him up from work and headed off for an outing Mike has been dying to do for a while now.

The bowling alley had some raging music going. We totally rocked out to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Pics of the big day:

Despite his lack of smiles, Max was having a blast. He rarely let Mike or I have a turn. He bowled 2 games by himself, occasionally switching it up and trying granny style.

What is this deliciousness Mommy?

Oh, & Tate got his 1st tooth on Monday, 2nd on Tuesday.

No wonder it felt like his cold was dragging on.

Hooray! Easter time!

How cute is this?

Over 20 kids all geared up for the 1st Egg hunt of the season.

Grandpa Holmes came with us & hid the eggs while the

grown-ups attempted a group shot. Alas, the kids were

spaced too far apart for me to capture all the adorableness,

but this group looks very "springy" and ready for action right?

No.

Please note that my 1st born jewel is the only child crying.

The sequence of events below.

Other than the mini-meltdown it was a great evening back at our old church building. Isn't it fantastic that they have a softball field and park as part of the property? Plenty of yummy food & treats of which Max partook none. Too busy on the slide and trying to steal someones ball to eat. I'm pretty sure all the kids had a blast & it turns out that Max was the 1st child to hit the Egg Hunt.

Tate? Happy as usual to sit back and watch it all.

I love the boys faces in this pic.

Both so intent on getting to the good stuff.

Too bad Tate only had Easter grass in his.

Max eventually gave him an empty egg to play with :)

Max could not be bothered to sit still for a family picture.

Why do I even bother trying to get them in coordinating

outfits for pictures?

Hope everyone has a fabulous week and a fun-tastic Easter!

Sometimes, its the simple little things

One great thing about the recent rains is that we now have nice, juicy oranges on our trees. I thought it would be a fun thing we could do together and make great use of all our oranges to make juice. It took me a couple days to find one, but I got one of those hand-juicer-thingy's (yes, that is it's official name) and Max & I made some OJ.

I don't have pictures of the tree, or us picking them, but I promise we did not buy these oranges. (I had thought of making an OJ/cutie combo drink, but alas the cuties on the counter behind Max had gone bad.)

This was a very lengthy process. Max insisted that every spec be washed off. He didn't quite grasp that we were not using the outside of the orange. He's the same way when washing his hands. Can't stand a single spec left on them.

This was the fun part. Max moved on quickly to the next orange so I had to go back and re-squeeze them all.

The best part of all was drinking it. There are 2 "schools" to OJ drinking. You're either a pulp or no-pulp. I don't mind a little pulp in my OJ, but Mike wouldn't drink the glass we saved for him. Apparently he is on the no-pulp side.

Nothing wrong with getting a little work done

I've always wanted super full lips. My little sister has nice full lips like Angelina Jolie. I really wanted my kids to have nice full lips as well. But alas they were both born with adorable little rose bud lips.

Soooooo, I've been contemplating getting a little work done on them (theirs, not mine). Botox injections won't hurt them that bad will they? I was just about to start looking for a Dr. when Max decided taking a header off the stairs would be less painful AND cheaper!


Thanks Max for saving us a few bucks!

You know I'm kidding about the botox for babies right?

Brothers

When I found out I was having another boy, I was immediately grateful for 3 things:

1) No need to go out and purchase a whole new baby wardrobe

2) Max and baby boy #2 could share a room

3) I would get to name him TATE which is what Max would have been had Daddy not taken advantage of my drugged, euphoric, happy state

4) Max would have a brother to rough house with


I also started thinking of my favorite outfits Max wore and how I would try and stage Tate for the same photos to compare. Everyone tells me how similar they look, but I think they look so different. They do have the same square faces, dark eyes and big cheeks. Can you tell which is which?

Comparing their photos got me comparing other things about them...

-Tate can not be alone. Max was happy to sit or lay on the ground with toys for a little while. Tate will cry as soon as he notices no one is in the room.

-Tate can practically launch himself out of the bouncy seat. Max didn't kick much in it.

-Max's eyes are almost black. You can tell Tate's are brown.

-Both boys smile easily. Tate smiled back at anyone by the time he was 2 months old. Max would smile occassionally until around 3-4 months old.

-Max is very loud. He talks loud, walks loud, eats loud, sings loud, whispers loud (you get the idea). He was loud from birth. Tate is generally quiet unless he realizes he is alone, needs to eat, or needs his "Mommy" time which is from 7-8ish EVERY night.

-Max was pretty solid at 6 months. And although I have not directly compared, I feel like Tate weighs more than Max did at this age. Tate weighs 20lbs.

-They are both tall for their age. People always ask how old they are and seem shocked when I say 2 1/2 & 6 months.

-I am so thankful that both boys take/took their "guk" well. (pacifier)

-Tate has mirror image facial similarities with me. I have a cow-lick on the right side of my hair line, Tate's is on the left. My right eye is smaller than my left, for Tate its his left eye that's smaller. My right ear is slightly higher than my left, Tate's left ear is higher. Max has Mike's identical hair line.

-Tate is longer in the torso than Max was as a baby. The shirts Max wore don't fit Tate as well and end up half-shirts whereas the pants he can wear longer.

-Both boys giggled for the first time while Grandpa Holmes was holding them :)

-Max was rolling over by the time he was 5 months old. Tate hates being on his stomach & has rolled over twice

-Max absolutely loves to sing. He sings at nap time, bed time, and any in-between time. Tate sort of moans and gorans to himself a lot when he is intently doing something.

I'm know there is more, but I'm just so tired. Both boys are also not sleeping well these days.

Tate the Tank & My Main Max

Whateve's don't give me a hard time. Over a month between blogs is a perfectly acceptable time frame.

"What have the Brownstein boys been up to" you ask?

Adventures in Gluten Free cooking:
banana bread & graham crackers



Packing on the weight. (Tate, not Mike)


A visit from GiGi & a trip to Disney. I feel like Max really enjoys it at this age. Tate was just wide-eyed at everything.






Plenty to keep a girl from blogging right? Ok, ok, I'll try and be better.