It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday Morning.....

Ok, this here is what we call a "catch up blog." How it works is that I apologize for not blogging in a while, then you go "Yeah, it has been a while. What is the deal?" Then I post 2 months worth of photos and we all leave happy. Everybody got that? Good. Let's get started!

For starters, I want to bring to your attention how Jeremy looks every time he eats spaghetti. No exceptions.



We took the boys to a pumpkin patch a week before Halloween. Craig wasn't excited that day, but Jeremy took advantage of the haystack pyramid.



The boys did have a good time picking out pumpkins. Although most of the time Craig was just practicing for the punkin chunkin competition.



Here is Jeremy dressed as a cowboy with 2 of his cousins.



Here we are carving pumpkins for Halloween night. This is the best picture we had and it captures that "What are you up to?" look parents often have while supervising their children. For the record, Tania was the carving champion that night.



Craig was supposed to be a cowboy with a long sheriff jacket. But since he carried that flashlight all night most people asked us if he was a Jedi. Which made me happy.



Here is the family Halloween night. We dressed Jeremy as Tigger so he'd be warmer, but he turned out cuter. Who knew?



Here are the boys together. Craig has a lollipop addiction now. Curse you Halloween and your ridiculously tasty treats!



We move ahead to Craig's 3rd birthday! Here we have Craig getting ready to dig into some cake. He is all red because he had been playing the Wii for a while before cake and presents.



Craig got Lincoln Logs as a present! This is the first picture of Mom trying to build something and Craig/Jeremy happy to destroy it.



Finally here is a youtube clip of Craig singing and playing the piano at Grandma and Grandpa Willmann's. He had been doing it for a while, but I managed to at least catch the end. Enjoy!

...he sure plays a mean T-ball

I want everyone to know, Tania and I did NOT train Jeremy to do this. He just wanted to be like big brother! Here is a video of Jeremy setting up and "batting" from a batting tee! (That's right, my boy can play T-ball before he can walk! and I'm ok with it!)



And because we don't play favorites around here, here is Craig dressed in Cardinal gear for the playoffs. Go Cards!

Jeremy is one!

Last month Jeremy turned one! While I don't have the pics from his birthday party yet(which was awesome) I do have pics from Jeremy's first year with us!

From his first day


First few days home


Hi, I'm new here.


Halloween '08


Springtime '09


Learning to sit up!


Ready for football season!


Jeremy is still walking around furniture and has stood on his own two feet a couple times. We are still waiting on that first step and we don't think we will have to wait all that much longer!

All Star Weekend with the family

The Saturday before the All Star game Tania and the boys went to the All Star Fanfest with Grandma and Grandpa Willmann. Craig may have liked baseball before this outing, but it is clear he LOVES baseball in the weeks following. In addition to the Fanfest festivities they all went to the new City Garden where the boys played in the fountains.

Here is Craig throwing lefty, which is weird because he throws predominantly right handed. Being ambidextrous is a handy skill to have in life!



This is Craig hitting off the batting tee. He hits off a tee in our backyard pretty often now, although he clearly prefers when somebody pitches to him. Note the determination.



Tania and the boys with the grandparents at Fanfest



This is Craig hitting off a tee with an aluminum bat. Pretty good form considering he is used to using a yellow wiffle ball bat! (He stopped using the big red kids bat at the beginning of summer)



Jeremy playing in the fountains at the City Garden. He was having so much fun and being so cute other people were taking pictures of him too!



Craig had fun in the fountains too!



This youtube video shows the boys playing at the City Garden and the aforementioned fountains.

Tania's Birthday 09

We were able to celebrate Tania's birthday with the family last weekend. The plan was simple: BBQ for the adults, sprinkler for the kids. The result was pure awesome.

Craig and his cousin Lily playing in the kiddie pool. The real hit was the sprinkler. It was the greatest thing to ever happen to Craig.



Jeremy was content playing with the giant blue/green ball.



The cousins are all playing on our swing set. The swing set was our neighbors who gave it to us when they moved. Score!



Jeremy and his cousin Benjamin. Jeremy was a ball hog, every time we gave Ben a ball Jeremy would steal it even if it meant using his feet!



And of course we sang Happy Birthday, which is always a big hit with Craig because he loves to blow out candles. In fact, anytime Craig sees a candle he wants to blow it out which occasionally makes Church a little interesting.

She's just being Miley.

We attended the wedding of John and Ellyn Williams a couple weeks ago now. The wedding was awesome and we had such a super time. We were also given the honor(?) of staying at the bride and grooms new house so nobody tried to swipe their stuff while they were out.

They have a dog named Miley. She appears to be part golden retriever and part German shepherd. The boys thought she was part awesome. They have a great time playing with her as is evident by the videos.

Actually the video of Jeremy and Miley was too dark and I can't figure out how to change the brightness on my file so that it looks good when it gets to youtube. Jeremy was on the floor and Miley would dart in and out making Jeremy giggle like crazy. It was great.

Craig and Miley played a game of tag as far as I can tell. This ones a little dark too....that's what happens when you use a digital camera meant for pictures.



Since the Jeremy video didn't work out, here is a pic of him sitting in the backyard. He is crawling! Not very quickly, it's mostly an army crawl. But he can certainly get where he wants to these days!

Easter '09

We did a lot over Easter break! First we did an Easter Egg hunt at the VFW Hall with the Mantias. Then on Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny came to our own back yard! It was great time all around.

Tania, Craig, Jeremy and cousin Jesse with the Easter Bunny.



Craig at the VFW Easter Egg Hunt. They had lots of eggs, but the big kids got 3 times as many as the little ones....and there were lots more little kids.



Easter Sunday hunt and Craig got all the eggs he could want. He had such a blast and even got to go down the slide.



Jeremy is bundled up with Grandpa Willmann. Jeremy was content chewing on half a plastic egg.



Grandma and Grandpa Willmann got Craig a batting tee for Easter! He loves it, although right now he tends just to whack at the tee. He'll grow into it.



Jeremy can sit and play for long periods of time, and it's only a matter of time before he starts crawling. Although here he looks like he is snacking on some wrapping paper....which history tells us would cause him to throw up. Eating paper is a big no-no in our house! (Well, I guess it should be in every house, but it made Craig throw up every time so we watch Jeremy carefully)

At Home on the Range: Craig loves Golf.

Craig loves sports. He likes dribbling the soccer ball, he loves batting and will even tolerate watching baseball on TV. But of course, golf is his favorite. Not only will he watch the golf channel when PBS kids goes on lunch, he plays golf down the hallway everyday.

So Grandma took Craig to a golf range a while back, and Craig loved it. So when we went as a family I took some video. Craig does well and loves it, which is the most important part.

NOTE: Before deeming him the next Tiger Woods, there are TONS of youtube videos of 2 year-olds golfing. The difference is Craig is cuter, and the other videos don't have Dads talking the whole time.

Craig hitting with his 7-iron.



Craig on the putting green (first time!)



Now, before you say he took it easy by moving the ball so close....check out the 2 year-old Tiger Woods. (scroll to 0:42)

Jeremy's Baptism

Back in February Jeremy was baptised! Although most people get baby baptised within a month or two, Jeremy had the advantage of a 6-month-old who could hold his head up. We had a little reception before mass, and Jeremy was baptised at the 6:30pm youth mass at St. Anselm. The ceremony was great, although it was apparent that Fr. Benedict hadn't done a baptism in a while and was trying to rely on memory!

This is Tania and Jeremy at the reception before the Mass.



Jeremy and his Godparents Curtis and Sheila. Tania and Sheila worked together at a school in Columbia for a little while, and their friendship has only grown. Tania is also the Godmother for their child Julian!



Mom and Dad with Jeremy and Fr. Benedict, who was one of the priests at our wedding.



Jeremy and his Baptismal gown, which comes from Tania's grandma Lawler. I know it needs to be a white garment, but I fail to find why it is always a dress!



Craig occupied himself at mass by reading the lectionary with the readings. Actually, all the Mantia cousins were extremely well behaved and I was impressed. Not that I expected them to misbehave, but that it is hard for kids to sit still in a church with no cry room and and echo that is fun to talk to. Well done!

Sick, but hanging in there.

Pretty much since Christmas week, somebody in the family has been sick. It's been rather rough, and we will be glad when the weather warms up. Tania's had sinus problems, I had flu symptoms for about 3 days and none of that is fun when you still have the boys to watch.

Clearly the kids have had the worst of it. Craig has had a runny nose most of the time and currently has an ear infection following a double ear infection a couple weeks ago. Jeremy has had lots of congestion and even had RSV a couple weeks ago. We have only had about 3 days this month where nobody was sick! In the end, we have lots of fun. Let's get to those moments, shall we?

Although it was Daddy's birthday, Craig got a present too! Clearly he appreciated it.



Jeremy has mastered the art of holding his head up. No small feat I might add. Last checkup he was 45% weight, 55% length......95% head circumference. My bad.



Jeremy can also roll over! He loves to roll over and get new toys....he just gets bored on his stomach pretty quick. Which is what happened here.



(Sigh) Proud moment in parenthood. We watched the Super Bowl at Tania's sister with all the Mantia cousins. Sometime right after halftime we noticed Craig had snuck off. Tania found him like this: fully clothed, in the tub with the (cold) water running. This led to a massive bath time.



As Jeremy gets older, some of Craig's toys come out of storage. He doesn't grasp the "you are too big for this" concept. Obviously.



Next blog I will have pics from Jeremy's baptism!

The Season That 'Twas.

Christmas came and went....and apparently so did the month of January. Here are some pics from the whirlwind season that is Christmas.

Tania valiantly tries to hold Craig, Jeremy and my cousin Meg.



I take the easy route and just hold Craig and Jeremy.



Jeremy tried to open his first Christmas present. Fortunately, he has an older brother with present opening experience.



Craig had a blast opening presents. Each time you give him a present he always says "OOOoooooo!"




Craig plays Guitar Hero with my cousin Brandon. All Craig does is hold down the green button and strum....which scores more points than it should.



Craig stopped opening presents, so I had to fill in. And I got excited about it.



Here are most of the Mantia cousins sitting in our kitchen eating Cool-Whip. I don't remember whose idea this was, but we are all fortunate that the whip cream went in their bellies and not in our faces.



Here is Jeremy almost rolling over. He is still in the "stuck on my arm" phase of rolling over, but I saw signs of him crossing his leg over which will help the process along.



Also, Jeremy ate solids for the first time this week. He ate rice cereal and did pretty well! (film at eleven). Craig sings all the time, he will sing the theme song to all his PBS favorites as well as Veggie Tales. He also started singing even without music, which I found impressive. I don't know where this fits in the Milestones, but we love our singing little man.