Bouncy music and the Boot-scootin'-boogie

Back in April we had a family photo shoot.  

 We just LOVE our photographer.  
Check her out at https://www.facebook.com/heidibrownphotography/

We're so happy to have our littlest guy documented!  Now to get one of them up on the wall...

Here's a cute outtake:

And like that, it's summer!  Hinckley is 7 months and Atticus is 3 and a half.
  

Hinckley was 17 lbs 6 oz. at his 6 month appointment.   All of his measurements were near the 50th percentile so, as the doctor put it, he is the quintessential American baby boy for now.

Ahhhh, he is the cutest stinking little thing.  He blows raspberries like nobody's business, loves to fold in half and hold his feet, can do a mean gorilla sit, and got his second tooth on May 8th (so he was 6.5 months).  If you look closely at the picture above, you can see those adorable teeth.  He has become very vocal and will let you know right away how he's feeling.  He HATES having anything taken away from him (even if it's something that could kill him...)

He started to back up in circles at the beginning of the month, and then, mid-month, he started scooting backward, on his back.  It's hilarious.  He'll roll around like a steam roller and then back up with little jumps.  I call it the boot-scootin-boogie.

Atticus did the army crawl for months, so we are cracking up.  These two kiddos seem to be opposites in many ways.

He has also started babbling.  Yep.  His first easily distinguishable syllable is "Da da," just like Atticus.

An unfortunate, unforgettable part of our month was Hinckley's stomach issues.  He has not tolerated solids well, at all.  After trying several different foods we decided to go off of solids for a week or two.  After a few days the gas pains and diarrhea subsided, but he has still been teething like crazy and waking up every three hours.  We're still trying to figure it out, so any advice (and prayers, ha ha!) would be appreciated.  Atticus has a stomach of steel, so this is new territory for us.

Oh these two.  Atticus really is growing into his role as big brother.  Sometimes he's still not too thrilled about it but then he has shining moments, like when he'll start singing "Gethsemane" to help calm the Hinckley down.  He LOVES kissing, hugging and tickling him and lately is always asking if he can play with him.

Atticus also hit an amazing milestone in May- he read his first word.  He's been watching "Word World" on Amazon Prime.  One day I pulled some magnetic letters off the fridge and placed them on the counter in front of Atticus.  I turned around to do something else and to my great surprise the crazy kiddo read them!  "Bat!"  While a lot of it is mostly guesswork, he is off to a great start!  He's still a 3-year-old, so it's not easy to get him to focus, but when I can convince him to play "pictionary" with me (with the letters that he knows!) he is sounding things out wonderfully.

 I am SO sad that Joy School is over.  Just today Atticus was saying he wanted to go to school. 
Here's our last day of class (at my house), when we talked about community helpers and, specifically, firefighters and how to "Stop, Drop, and Roll."

The next week we followed up the lesson with a field trip to the fire station.  It was our last hurrah and we had a wonderful time!  We even got to see them leave on a call.  Atticus totally wants to be a firefighter now and we are wholeheartedly encouraging him!

On May 13th we celebrated Mother's Day.  This was definitely the best one yet.  Dane, Atticus and Hinckley made me feel very loved!

I just LOVE this kiddo!  We were able to go on our first "date" a couple weeks later and had a blast.

Speaking of mothers, here's a photo of me and my mom back when I was in high school:

I just love this woman!

 Atticus is so lucky!  The weekend after Mother's Day he got to go on his first camp out with his dad and Bobba.  They didn't get much sleep but they really had a great time.

We just started swim lessons and gymnastics at the end of the month.  He LOVES gymnastics but is verrrry anxious about swimming (last year was pretty traumatic).

As much as I've dreaded these lessons, it led to a pretty special teaching moment.  His first day he was very afraid and so we prayed that he would feel brave and be safe.  He was still afraid but went out and had a great time!  It was awesome.

Another, similar teaching moment came when he was screaming.  For once I had the presence of mind to avoid yelling back.  We knelt in prayer to help him calm down and say what was on his mind.  It worked.  He immediately told me that he was worried that his friend was going to be mean to him.  So we said another prayer that his friend would be nice.  When we picked him up and asked how it went, he was very positive about it.

Now, if only I could have moments like that more than once a month...

Atticusisms:

• "Yes and no."
• "Actually..."
• "We're workers!  Right, Bowman?"  "I'm an instruction worker." 
• "My back is hurting because you're talking."
• "Let's turn on some bouncy music and get to work!" (before cleaning- very little cleaning gets done, I should add.  He settles in with a blanket and just listens.)
• "Stop laughing at me, Hinckley!  It's not funny!"
• "Hinckley, listen to your mom or she'll spank your bum!"
• "Heavenly Fadder will protect me!" (while doing a pretty risky trick)
• "Dear Heavenly Father, help me to get a pirate ship toy."
• "We're laughing and making fun of you!" (to Mommy)
• Pretend phone calls with his hand to his ear-
• "Bowman, I need you to come and bring your weapons!"
• "I need to call Daddy to see if that's scary...Dad?  Are these snakes scary?"
• [While his friends pretend to go to Disneyland] "I have to go to work!"  [Goes behind the couch for half a minute, then comes back out.] "Now I can go to Disneyland!"
• "I don't want a sister." ("Why?") "Because I'm fighting with Skye every day!"