Clean bill of health

Baby Nico....

...aint so baby anymore. He looks so much older now.

Christmas

A little update from Steamboat CO. Nico is standing and crusing all by himself. And Benny is learning the ways of a cowboy. Good times.

Popsicle and Monster

Don't worry Mom, its the lo-cal Monster and the popsicle is all natural. LOL.

You are my biggest fan!

Benjamin loves an audience and Nico is by far his biggest fan.

Driver ed

Do they offer driver ed as an option with preschool? I think Nico is ready.

Patio derby

Benny decided it would be cool to crash into nicos command center. Nico could care less. Its all about the chew toy right now because he has 2 bottom teeth coming in.

Cribmatch smackdown

So the boys are growing up to b rough and tumble little wrestlers. I put them in Nicos crib and let them battle it out....

Happy Birthday Benny!

Benny is 2 today! We have been celebrating his birthday for 2 weeks with visits from both grandma and nona. Thank you so much!! Nona took this pic of her famous pumpkin carrot cake! Is he happy or what?

The benny project

This is a great 30 min project. Creepy but fun!

Nico

Our baby boy is so happy. This group of pics was taken on the couch while fiddling with an abacus-thingy. You gotta love it.

Pre and post meal

Off to daycare

So hard to send these sweet little boys off to daycare.

Bo Duke

Cousin Ellie

Cousin Ellie is here to help Mere and Roger with the new baby. We got lucky and they came down to visit for the day on Sunday. Ellie is a beautiful young woman. Such a treat to spend the day with her. She jumped right in and played with the babies and cooked in the kitchen with J.

Dancing with the stars.....

Do we have a star in the making?

If he inherited any of my non dancing genes then probably not.

Insomniac

This cute little bugger does not sleep all day. For real.

Poolside

Yes, that is the big wheel in the pool.

Snack time

Containment

Sometimes the bull needs a place where he can't move. The playstation.

Ninjas

Padre Craig

My good friend and colleague Craig Gianinno won the job as head coach for Serra high schools Padres. This is big. Tom Brady and Barry Bonds both played @ Serra. Benny dropped by the locker room today to congratulate him. Future Padre?

Napping

There is one sure fire way to get these boys asleep. A wagon ride and the bjorn.

Mr Mom

By day 3 of Mr Mom, it would seem that things r under control. Nico can now feed himself and Ben can walk Nico.

First Day

Most of you are probably wondering how Carrie's first day on the job was. I am too. Until we know, I will try and entertain you with my first day as Mr Mom.

Carrie left for work at 8 @ which time I took the boys for a walk. Benny learned how to push the stroller (very cool) and Nico was silently awake. when we got back, we ate a snack and I attempted to put Nico down for a nap. Some of u know he is not sleeping well. Of course he was up 15 min later. We went for another walk to keep Benny calm until lunch. That worked. They both fell asleep for 15 minutes. We returned, ate lunch and Benny went down for the extendo nap and Nico went down for......u guessed it, 15min. By this time Nico is pretty much strung out like Chris Rock in New Jack City. My fathering skills are really being put to the test. Benny rises 2 hrs later (yes!!!) as the pleasant little chap u all know and love. I know it is getting close to bottle time for nico so we doubletime it to the park to use some of the recharge in bennys batteries. Nico pulls the trigger 15 min into our adventure so we go home. The morning hours I spent texting carrie pix of the bo
ys with cute messages about fun and walks. By 3pm I am calling her for advice. Its getting toward 4 and Benny goes thermo nuclear on me and that starts a chain reaction. My time outs sort of work while I get Nico down for 15 min!!!! Ugh. After 20 min of playdough, I figure we can go out in the back yard and play to stay occupied. Yessss! Nico is currently passed out in the bjorn and we have come inside so benny can color. I have not made dinner yet so I figure I have about 30 min before the next fireworks. Hurry home babe!!

Until the next Mr Mom chronicle!

Home Sweet Home

The pix say it all.

Delayed

Our plane had 'mechanical problems'. We wait confirmation for a flight out of DTW on another plane. Nico has it good! Do we have enough tricks to keep 'The Bull' occupied?

Portable DVD

Carrie and I declared we would never allow our child to.... (fill in the blank). Well we brought the portable video player with us just for kicks. The road trip from Dexter to Cedarville is about 5 hrs. Ben loved it on the way back. It was so effective he fell asleep with it in hand. I tried to take it away but he woke and showed me his devil eyes. At least we got a photo of it. Our apologies to all those families that passed us by on highways past. We judged you and we were wrong. Long live the portable DVD player!

Nona and Nico

Walker

This pic is from our backyard. Nico doesn't love the walker yet but he will! All Willard's must go through Motor Training School (aka Top Gun).

Summer travels

We are back east right now so our posts are few. Here is a good pic of Ben in front of Dads camper. Good summer fun!

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Memorial Day Weekend

Had much fun over the long weekend. We got to have a sleepover with Alina while Mere and Rog had a night out at the Four Seasons....
We had James and Gabrielle over as well so Benny was in 7th heaven having Alina time and "Adra" (Alexandra) time.