The BIG Splish Splash...

Whenever Rory takes a bath, we always refer to it as his "splish-splash" because he loves to splash in the bathtub. This week was Rory's first session of swim lessons, so we took him to the BIG splish splash. Everybody warned us that babies usually freak out the first time in the pool because they get totally overwhelmed but that it gets better after a couple sessions. Well, we went into it prepared for 20 minutes of screaming and instead, we had a pretty happy boy for most of the lesson. It took a few minutes for him to warm up to the idea and to get used to the water (its a bit colder than his usual bath for sure), but once he realized that he could still do splish-splash, he was pretty happy. No crying at all. And, after 20 minutes of playing in the pool, we had a very tired boy on our hands.

My favorite ball...

Rory loves his new ball. Every time it bounces starts a new fit of giggles. (sorry for the sideways orientation on half of it...who rotates the camera in the middle of a video?)

...I'm peeing!!!!

So, this week was Rory's first swim lesson. Of course, in honor of the big event, we had to do a pre-pool swim diaper modeling session to try out his new speedo. He looks awfully cute in it. So cute in fact that as we were taking photos and oogling over our little guy, we failed to notice that he was peeing on the counter while we took the pictures. He must have heard all of the talk about us trying to sell our house and move, and wanted to mark his territory like the animals do. At least now we know that swim diapers do NOT in fact contain urine, just the "solid waste". Perhaps this is why public swimming pools are so heavily chlorinated. The best part is that it wasn't until hours later when we were looking at the photos that we noticed that if you look close, you can actually see the stream of pee dripping out of his diaper. We laughed so hard we nearly peed our pants too. Doesn't he have that look on his face like he's getting away with something right in front of us?!

"Go ahead Mom...take another photo...I'm peeing on the counter. Ha, ha!!"

Practicing his front crawl.

He's so proud of himself.

Shiner...

Rory has his first shiner. Yup, a nice little black eye for the little man. We aren't even sure what happened because he never made a fuss about it when it happened, and he was laying on the floor practicing his tummy time/crawling, with nothing else around him. My best guess at what happened is that he must have fallen forward and landed with his face on his hand. We're going to just tell people that he was sticking up for a friend and got into a fight at school...and you should see the other guy. How's that sound for a good story?! As sad as it is to see, it clearly doesn't bother him at all and its sort of cute to see him look like such a bruiser. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will not be the last of the bruises we'll see on this little man. He certainly throws himself around a lot. At least he's having fun though.

More babies, more babies...

We made our first trip to go meet our city cousin, Jack. He's SO wonderful and gorgeous. Its hard to believe how big Rory is now. I can still remember so clearly the day we brought him home from the hospital. I'm so excited that Mike and Lisa got to experience that joy so soon after us. The cousins are going to be such good friends. Here's a few photo highlights of our trip.

Fortunately I didn't get any photos of the low point of the trip. I flew out there and back solo with Mr. Rory and he did really well on both flights. He was happy and giggly and made lots of friends. However, just as we landed and pulled into the terminal in Portland on the way home, he sat up from nursing and looked at me with a huge smile, and projectile vomited all over me, himself and the seat next to me. Luckily, the woman sitting next to us had just stood up to get her bags from the overhead bin, so she didn't get hit. Apparently little man gets a bit motion sick. Who knew?! Otherwise, it was a great weekend.

Gramma and Rory in NYC.

Hanging with uncle Mike. I think he accidentally bit his own finger, which is why the long face (Rory, not Mike).

Gramma and baby Jack.

Jack showing off his long fingers to Rory.

Hanging with cousin Jack.

He's very serious about his balloon.

A couple random photos...this is on our way to Easter brunch with the neighbors.

And, his tough guy look in his shades and favorite sweatshirt.

As of today, 4 of the 5 babies we knew were due this month are here. Its such an exciting time. Rory is going to have so many new friends and cousins to play with. Congratulations to all the loving parents who are home at this moment getting to know their new little ones. And welcome to the world Jack, Luke, Allie and Ava.

So, Rory's newest fun noises all start with "B". We think he's getting ready to welcome baby Bayla, the next baby to join us, hopefully soon. He says a lot of "Boi, boi, boi" and "Baa, baa, baa" and sometimes a little bit of "Babba, babba!!". He's very excited about his new sound and he tries it out at all different volume levels. Sometimes he yells it, sometimes it comes out as a raspberry, sometimes he whispers so low you can only see his mouth moving without any sound, but he always does it with a huge smile on his face. He loves his "B"s!! Perhaps its because Mama Bev is now most often abbreviated as "Mama B" and he's giving her a little shout out. Which would be nice of him, since he's also hit a stage where he only has eyes for me at certain times. He's gotten a bit clingy to the milk Mama when he's tired or grouchy, which is sort of nice on the level of knowing that he needs me, and sort of overwhelming on the level of feeling like he's being totally irrational for thinking that I have anything more exciting to offer than Mama B or anyone else especially when its not time for milk. Worst of all, this doesn't leave me much time for helping out with any of the list of house items we're trying to get done before we put the house on the market next week, which means Mama B is doing all the hard work to get us ready (Thanks Mama B). I suppose I should just enjoy it while I can, because this time of him needing and wanting me so much is certainly going to be short lived in the grand scheme of things. Soon he's going to be a teenager who wants nothing to do with us and we'll have to chase him down for a hug. :) For now we'll take the snuggles any time he hands them out.