6 months old!

Here are Sammy's 6 month pictures. We haven't had his dr appointment yet, so we don't know his stats. The hair continues to impress/amaze us. His personality is starting to come out. He is more active than Noah was, always arching and stretching around. He's also more vocal about things and lets us know when he's peeved. He is sleeping through the night consistently now 7:30pm-5:30am which is wonderful. Sometimes he loves the fafa (pacifier), sometimes not. (Noah was a fafa addict by this age). Sam is also doing 2-3 solid meals nowadays with cereal and some fruits and veggies, taking the solids well and bottles not so much (Noah was the opposite!). All in all, a great baby!

And just for kicks, here is a picture of Noah at 6 months. Yes, they are VERY different looking we think. Noah is more Rodriguez and Sam is more Hewes. Noah had the dark eyes and Sam has a ton more hair. Noah was bigger, Sam is goofier with the smiles. Both are pretty dang cute, though!

Snowflakes and playdates

I won't be posting any pictures from this week, as we all have colds and are not looking our best with stuffy noses and wearing jammies. So here are some shots from last week. Highlights included making some snowflakes, playing with Evie (we have her here every Thursday), and trying new foods with Sam. Noah and I made some snowflakes with paper and scissors. This kid LOVES to cut! I know, it's just a matter of time before I post "How Noah Cut his Hair" or something along those lines. But for now he's done a great job sticking to cutting paper.

Evie and Sam are growing and changing so quickly these days! Evie is trying desperately to get the hanging Elephant toy in her mouth. So cute!

Look, they are starting to look more like little baby people, not little old man squishy newborns!

Despite his continued reluctance towards taking bottles, Sam has proven to be a master with solids. He downs his cereal 2 times per day and often grunts/sqwaks for more. This week we started some veggies. So far he has been loving sweet potatoes and squash. He even got a bit of mashed bananas when I was making banana bread yesterday and loved it! Way to go Sammy! Oh, and he is officially 6 months old now, woohoo! We got some pictures taken at Penneys, I'll post those soon.

Monday Dinner

Here's a glimpse of dinner time in the Rodriguez house. It's gotten pretty loud around here, and our youngest is making sure his voice is heard! I know that when our house is quiet again (think in 18 years or so) I will miss all the ruckus! By the way, that is his "happy/excited noise" he is a very gutteral/grunty baby!

January is a LONG month...

Boy, January sure is a long month when you are trapped at home with a baby and a stir crazy almost 3 year old! So on Saturday we arranged a playdate/dinner with a family Mike knows from work up in Lake Zurich. We decided it made the most sense for us to drive Mike to work and then pick him up after work to go meet up with the other family. To make it even more fun, we picked up donuts on the way! So, how did you spend your Saturday at 7:30am?
... bet you weren't at a lab with a 2 year old? Don't worry, we didn't let him touch anything!

Sammy's got some new fun skills going on this week. He is rolling everywhere these days, so we have started to get a little more vigilant with all the action figures that typically Noah has strewn about. He's also starting to sit up. Or more accurately rest his upper body on his fat buddha belly...

He's also mastering the rasberry, here you see him doing 2 new skills at once. This of course resulted in a hilarious picture followed by a tumble. How else do you learn? Thank goodness for cute faces when we get a little tired of Noah whining/asking why and Sam crying/wanting to be held!

He ain't heavy... he's my brudder!

This week has brought a lot of fun, new, sweet interaction between the Brothers Rodriguez. It is wonderful to see these two guys start to really bond and enjoy each others' company. Sam adores Noah, and loves watching him run around. He spent literally 15 minutes shrieking with laughter yesterday as Noah jumped around and danced for him. And Noah is SO sweet to Sam. He looks for him constantly, always asking about where he is and what he's doing. He loves picking out clothes for him, grabbing diapers for him, finding toys for him to play with and in general looking out for his younger brother. I couldn't help but take some shots during a cute session yesterday...
I swear this was unprompted. This is just how they are right now....!

Ok, not the best of shots, but it just makes me smile :)

After the cuteness, the wildness began. Noah is doing some kind of dance move for Sam...

Sam is a face grabber right now, and Noah is very willing to let his little bro' manhandle his face!

So, boys, let this post serve as a reminder to you in 5, 10, 50 years that you two at one point truly, honestly, unconditionally did love each other!

Noah's gotta a guy...

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season! We certainly did :) There's a lot to review from the last week or so. Let's see. Sammy tried out some cereal for the first time. The first few tries he just did the typical mash it around his mouth and spit it out business. But now he's got the hang of it and will open up and swallow. That's a good step for a little one that still has a really hard time with bottles...
The week before Christmas was fun as we finished up some last minute wrapping of gifts and had visits with friends. Bob, Michelle, and Evie came by and brought Noah the game Elephun which he loves, and Sam got some cute clothes.

Christmas Eve was with the Rodriguez/Mioni family at Mike's parents house. The kids all looked so cute together!

Nick is a great role model for Noah. He shared turns with his remote control toy with Noah. Noah is sporting a super hero shirt he got from Uncle Danny that night.

Meanwhile Sammy was forced into the cute Christmas outfit again, much to Daddy's chagrin.

Late Christmas Eve we drove to my parents house to sleep (or TRY to sleep) and awoke the next day to gifts from Santa and the Hewes family. Noah got some dress up clothes from Bamma (my mom). Like the magician, muskateer, bear look going here...

Ellie got an obnoxiously large bone from Josh. The picture does not do it justice. It is at least 3 feet long. She's only allowed to gnaw on it after the boys go to bed. We're afraid she'll accidentally club one of them with it.

Nothing accessorizes a Holiday outfit like safety goggles and a tools...

Noah's group of "guys." You need a superhero? He's got one. You want Iron Man, well which suit because he has 4 of them. You want Captain America, he's got small, medium, and large. You want Thomas guys, got 'em. Disney guys, got 'em. DC guys (yes he knows who is Marvel and who is DC), got 'em. More abstract guys like Thor, Robin, Silver Surfer, or Aqua Man, got 'em. Seriously, we've got guys... LOTS of guys...

One of Noah's gifts from us was a shaving kit, so he could shave with Daddy. Important lessons seeing as how he'll probably have to start shaving in another 9 years...

So we made it to New Year's and Sammy got to spend some quality time with his godfather Uncle Cliff. The night before Cliff came, Noah's prayer was, "Dear God, please help Uncle Cliff wear his green lantern shirt." Cliff was alerted via text and managed to wash his shirt just in time so he could wear it for Noah. Noah was thrilled. The boys all got to pick out tattoos together.

Not sure that Cliff knew what he signed up for spending New Years with parents of young children. Mike was out by 10:30pm, and I was done by 11pm. Oh well! At least Sam got to bond a little more with the Godfather.

So now we're recovering, enjoying the wonderful gifts from the holidays and the time together as a family. Noah's been enjoying some painting with Daddy and a new movie, The Incredibles. Hope everyone got wonderful gifts, ate wonderful food, and most importantly got to spend time with loved ones! Happy New Year!