Like Sister, Like Brother

Like Sister, Like Brother....now has all new meaning to me! When Maddie was a baby she decided to roll over the day before I went back to work. Well at 4:30 this afternoon...Liam decided to begin to really go to town rolling over. He was playing on his play mat and then rolled over from his back. It was the funniest thing...he just laid there laughing and smiling at me. I think he was saying, "Look at me mom! I am soo proud of myself, good luck trying to keep up with me now. Soon I will be crawling and then walking and running!"

I am so glad me kids choose to meet this milestone so I can see it before I go back to work!

Happy 29th Birthday, Daddy!

Here is Maddie singing Happy Birthday to her Daddy.

Monday was Scott's 29th birthday. We started the celebration on Sunday night by having a steak dinner at my parent's house. On Monday when Scott got home from work the kids and I took him to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Penn Station. Then he picked out some ice cream at UDF. Once we were home Scott opened up his cards and present, while eating some ice cream.


On Wednesday night Scott is going to celebrate with his family. He is excited becasuse he mom called last night to let him know she made Oreo Balls for him (his favorite dessert.) On Saturday night I am taking him out and Liam will be doing his first overnight stay at Nana and Grumps. So we are going to have the WHOLE night to ourselves.

Maddie wanted to hold Daddy...so this is her holding Daddy on her lap.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was Liam's first Thanksgiving and I think he had a great holiday! Here is Liam in his Thanksgiving outfit. (This is the same outfit Maddie wore for her first Thanksgiving and she was 9 months old. Liam is only 4 months old. He is such a big boy!)

We started out at Aunt Jan's house. Maddie enjoyed eating lunch with her Widolff cousins, especially Leo. He just adores her.

After an afternoon of fun, we headed to GG's house for a dinner Thanksgiving meal with the Oehlman's. We had a great time. Maddie even got to help with family tradition! Every Thanksgiving we complete a puzzle and Maddie got to help and Grandma even had a special puzzle for her to help complete. After a day of no naps for both kids, we were ready to head home at 8:30.

Here is Liam getting ready to get his night time bottle from GG. He snuggles right up to her and went to sleep before we left.

On Friday morning we had some more Thanksgiving fun by going to the Oehlman's house to play Rock Band for a couple of hours before heading back to Grandma's house for lunch. Here are a couple of pictures of our band members. In this picture Laura is on vocals and Heidi is on guitar.

In this picture Scott is on guitar and Edward is on drums. We had a TON of fun and can't wait to do this again! We can't wait for the Christmas season to come so we have to opportunity to make more memories with our families!

Test Run

Today I had a dentist appointment and wanted to go to school to try to get reacquainted with my class room a bit before I go back to work next Wednesday so Liam and Maddie went to Chris' house. We did a test run of Scott getting the kids up and loading them up to take them to Chris. Maddie was super excited to see her friends. They ended up being at Chris' house longer that I anticipated because I did not pick them up until 4:45. So they had a full day of fun! Maddie likes being at Chris' house so much I had to physically remove her from their house.

On the ride home she told me the quote of the day...
When I asked her if she took a nap today she said, "Yes, I do. I slept in Chris' bed with Macy, Jakie, and Daniel." When I asked her if Liam slept with her and the other kids she said, "No, Silly Mommy, babies sleep in the living room. There is no room for babies in the bed." I just thought this was super cute.

Next Thursday the kids will start going to Chris' house three days a week again and then spend two days with my mom. Chris reported that Liam is just the best baby...so that is good. He is going to be spoiled because her four girls took turns holding him after they got home from school until I picked him up. Knowing that my kids are happy and loved while I am at work makes me feel better about going back to work...I guess we will see how next Wednesday goes!

Liam...A Screamer??

On Sunday night Liam went to sleep as easily as usual, but at 2:45, he was screaming! I soothed him back to sleep and I was just about back to sleep myself when he was up at 3:30 again screaming. This cycle went on until at 5:45, Scott gave him a bottle and put him back to bed. He seemed to be asleep again until 6:30 when he was up and screaming again. So I gave up and brought him to sleep with me. I don't know what the magical power is of Mommy and Daddy's bed, but I slept until 8:00 and he slept until 8:45.

Luckily, everything was back to normal last night. He slept from 8:15 until 7:15, his usual, so I think that teething may have been the culprit.

When I got up on Monday morning I snapped a picture of him sleeping sound in our bed.

Finally at peace!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

On Sunday evening we celebrated Grandma's 52nd birthday. Maddie and Jake enjoyed helping Grandma open up her presents and cards.

Gotta love their outfits...Jake the firebiter (that is how Maddie says firefighter) and Maddie has a plastic green horseshoe around her neck.

Fall Fun

On Sunday, Scott, Maddie, and I worked on getting our yard winterized. First, I have to post a picture of Scott using his leaf blower for the first time which is a birthday present from my parents. He LOVES it! I can't wait to get a turn to use it sometime.

Maddie had a great time playing in the leaves this year. It was funny to see how much more fun she had this year than last fall due to being more balanced. She loved hiding in the pile of leaves...

and jumping in to the pile!

This is what Liam did while we were having fun out in the leaves...taking his morning nap. I can't wait to see how much fun he will have playing in the leaves with Maddie next fall.

Scott let Maddie have a turn taking pictures. And these are a couple of here pictures...I don't think they were too bad.

This is a pretty good ground shot.

Snuggle Bunny

I just had to post this picture of Liam and I snuggling before he got his night time bottle on Friday night. I feel as though these snuggling moments are becoming fewer and fewer already!! My baby boy is growing up too fast!!

Bee Active

Last Wednesday afternoon Maddie and I had a play date with our MOPS group at Bee Active Gym in Batesville. Maddie had a blast! They had these HUGE areas that were filled with foam cubes. Maddie would run on a long trampoline and then she would jump into the pit.

She also enjoyed hanging from a set of rings but I couldn't get a picture of it because I was spotting her. So I got a picture of her on the bar.

Maddie told me on the way home she would like to have her birthday party there. I think she overheard me talking to another mom who had held her daughter's birthday party there this year. We can't wait to go back and hopefully take Liam and Daddy next time!

Liam is 4 Months Old!

My little man is already 4 months old! Today at his wellness check he weighed in at 15 pounds (50th percentile) and is 26 inches long (95th percentile). Dr. Kick agreed that he is working on getting his teeth. He is always chewing on his fists and drools sooo much. It was so cute when Dr. Kick asked Maddie how her brother is doing. Maddie replied, "He is talking. We laugh at him. He is a silly boy." Then she began singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Liam started laughing like always.

She said that everything looks good. She commented again on how strong he is for having such a long torso. I told her I think he is going to be a mover and a shaker as soon as he can. He is doing well sleeping this week. He has been sleeping anywhere from 6:00 to 8:00. It still varies everyday. As of today, he is fully weaned from nursing and he now gets soo excited when he sees a bottle. He starts squealing. It is funny to watch. We are still trying to give him rice cereal every night after we eat dinner. He is still trying to learn how to get the cereal off of the spoon without spitting it all back out.

This picture is Liam doing his favorite move. He gets on his hip, cocks his neck all the way back to watch Maddie playing with her toys behind him.

The Ruwe's Meet Cohen Spencer

Big Brother Cooper holding Cohen & Big Sister Maddie holding Liam

Last night the Ruwe's took pizza and cookies to the Spencer family. We got the opportunity to meet and greet Cohen. It was funny to see how little a 2 week old is...Liam is only 4 months old and I already don't remember him being that tiny. Cohen seems to be a good baby. He slept almost the entire time we were there. Maddie and Cooper had a great time playing together. It will be nice that Cohen and Liam are about the same age so they will be able to play together like Cooper and Maddie do.

Madeleine the Pisces!

Today Maddie wore her zodiac sign shirt and it made me curious to see if her personality traits match those of her zodiac sign.

Madeleine the Pisces!

Surprisingly, her emerging personality is pretty much in line with the Pisces description. I took the description from a website and the words in bold were the words used on the website and I put a note about Madeleine to the side.

Madeleine Likes:

Nature (LOVES)
Music (Is always singing/humming a tune)
Mystical settings (Very Imaginative)
Being loved / wanted (She craves to have a sense of purpose: e.i. she strong duty to be a people-pleaser/helper)
Freedom (She likes to try new things & be on her own)
Privacy (Her bedroom is her own space)

Madeleine Dislikes:

Noise (She can only sleep in a silent setting & even as a baby would get overwhelmed in noisy settings)
Crowds (This kind of goes hand in hand with noise for her)
Dirt & ugliness (Her infamous line right now is "That is dirty." She has said this about Nana's bathroom and Grandma's house when putting out fall decorations. She definitely likes neat & orderly)
Being reminded (Miss Independent will say, "OK, OK, OK" in her leave me alone voice when reminded to do something)
Tight spaces (Not sure)
Authority (Not sure, but she definitely has her own opinions and thoughts)
Revealing private life (Not sure)

I just thought it was funny how many similarities there were between the Pisces characteristics and Madeleine's emerging personality. Not that I think people "are their zodiac signs" I just thought it was interesting how many characteristics there were in common with her personality. I am curious to do this for Liam once he displays more of his personality type.

Indian Summer Day #2

The Ruwe Family is still so thankful for these Indian Summer days! Today, Maddie and I decided that we should take advantage of this weather and have a picnic lunch on the deck. So I snapped a couple of pictures of her enjoying her lunch.

Thankful for this Indian Summer

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I would definitely say that I am thankful for this Indian Summer. So, with this Indian Summer in full swing, I decided that we needed to this glorious weather while we still can. So I packed a picnic lunch and we headed to Miami-Whitewater park for some playtime. I am SO THANKFUL that I got to have this experience with Maddie and Liam before I go back to work!

This is Liam enjoying the sunny weather from his stroller. I thought for sure he would take his morning nap at the park, but he was too busy being nosy. He wanted to hear and see what all of the other kiddos were up to.

When we got to the playground Maddie said she was sad and when I asked her why she said, "Because Kaylynn and Nora are not here." So I guess next spring and or summer we will have to have a play date at the park with Nora and Kaylynn. She remembers everything!

Maddie quickly made friends with a few other girls that were playing in the sand. She just invited herself into their playgroup. She did ask them if they would share their buckets with her.

After about an hour of playing it was time for lunch. We found a great spot by the lake. Maddie loves this spot because she saw lots of "Daddy ducks, Mommy ducks, Liam ducks, and Maddie ducks." I think this is her way of spotting a duck family.

I can't wait to go back to the park next summer when Liam will be able to play with Maddie...or maybe not, then I will have to closely watch two kiddos that could decide to dart in opposite directions. I guess I will adapt to that next summer!

Rice Cereal is Yummy!!

On Tuesday, November 2nd, after dinner we decided it was the perfect time for Liam to try to eat some rice cereal. At first bite he did NOT have a "Ummm...Yummy" face as you can see in the picture.

Later on after I got him to open his mouth so I could get the spoon in he seemed OK with it. We have not tried again since last week, but I think he will catch on to eating fast.

I think he got more cereal on his face then he did in his tummy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I can't believe this is already Maddie's third Halloween. So far she has been a Tootsie Roll and a Ladybug Princess. This year Maddie was old enough to choose what she wanted to be and from October 1st on she consisted said she wanted to be a GHOST, so she could scare Jakie. She was a pretty scary ghost. She enjoyed saying BOO to everyone all night long.

She wanted to put tattoos on her face along with the word BOO on her cheeks. So here I am painting her face white. She did a really good job of not touching her face paint.

Here is my little pumpkin and my scary ghost trick-or-treating at Uncle Loren's and Aunt Marge's house. At least at their house Maddie waited to say trick-or-treat until someone answered the door. They enjoyed her saying,"Trick or Treat give me something good to eat."

Next stop was Grandma Bert's house.

Here are the trick or treaters with GG Oehlman!

Nana with the trick or treaters!

We had a great time on Halloween...Maddie and Liam got loads of treats for Halloween. Maddie is already thinking about what she wants to be next year. I wonder what Liam will want to be next year!