Kisses and a Boxed Lunch

This week, Henry learned to kiss.

And when I say that he has learned to kiss, I mean that he really knows how to lay one on anyone close enough to flirt with. Sometimes he'll already be sitting in your lap and other times he'll crawl to you with the goofiest grin, but as soon as he gets close to your face, he becomes all business, grabs both of your cheeks, and leans in with nearly-puckered lips. Then he plants one on you (complete with drool), flutters his eyelashes against you, and pulls back smiling like a fool. And if you're lucky? He'll do this several times in a row. It makes my heart slide down my chest and into a pool of total butter, but I'll be honest: I'm not sure whether I should be proud of him for knowing how to kiss at seven months old or if I should be embarrassed that I taught him how to kiss by kissing him constantly since the day of his birth. I mean, I just can't help myself!

Also, this week, Maxwell packed his very first boxed lunch. His choices? An apple, a cheese stick, and a leftover dinner roll. He took it to the park where we ate lunch with friends and he was so proud of his Batman lunch box (read: Andrew's Batman lunch box that we swiped from the top of the fridge) that he didn't even mind when everyone else showed up with Chick-fil-a. If anything, he showed off his self-packed lunch instead. I mean, maybe we have a little chef in the making. He also tried out Lunchables for the first time this week and, to put it mildly, they were a hit. Obviously, if he's going to be a chef one day, he's going to specialize in gourmet dishes.

Annnnd in brotherly news, Max has stopped calling Henry "Henry" and now solely calls him "Huckstabull" which is pronounced "Huck-ta-bull". It is awesome. Also clever, which is good because Andrew came up with it several months ago.

Andrew the Clean Shaven

After two years of sporting long locks and a full beard, Andrew plopped down at a new barber's shop in town and said "Give me a Macklemore and a clean shave" and walked out an hour later looking like a completely different person.

And me? I LOVE it!

I mean, the beard was fun and I have no doubt that it will eventually return, but in full disclosure, I'm thrilled to be able to smooch these cheeks again.

Huck at Seven Months.

Seven Months?!?!?!?!
How did we get here already?

Days with our little Hucklebuck go a lot like this:

Bed Invasions + Nursing at least once every two hours (!!!) + Refusing baby food from Mom + Loving baby food from Dad + Stalking Napoleon to pull his hair + Knocking over Max's breakfast + Long morning naps + No afternoon naps + Lots of giggles + Constant babbles + Swinging in the swing after too much excitement + Crawling after Max + Jumping in the jumper + Getting sat on by his brother + Pulling Napoleon's ears + Playing with Max's toys and thinking baby toys are lame + Sitting in his high chair banging measuring cups and spoons on each other + Long spring walks + Bath time with brother + Lots of photos + 8:30 Bedtime + Making people stop in the store + Eating his feet when Dad's not around + Looking at people through their eyes and straight to their hearts + Lunches with Daddy + Giving Mom heart attacks by always finding paper to eat + Kisses + More Nursing + Trying to stand up + Screaming if Max and Dad leave the room without him + Distracting mom from work and chores + Play dates at the park + Riding in the Ergo + Being the happiest and most gorgeous and most overly-adored baby in the whole world.

So yes! It's hard being a seven month old with the nickname of Huckleberry Finn, but somebody's got to do it.

One of Those Annoying Posts

Y'know those really annoying posts on Mommy Blogger websites where the mom (that's me, in this scenario) posts a whole bunch of phone photographs taken by their precocious toddler?

WELL.

Those posts always make me roll eye so hard. I mean, sure, it was probably cute the first time I saw a post like that, but is it cynical of me to think that sometimes bloggers instruct their kids how to take a photograph on their phone? Perhaps? Probably not?

Anyway!

I kept getting notifications that I didn't have any memory on my phone anymore and, when browsing my photos, I found 300 photographs like the ones below plus fifty black rectangles. It's been a week or so and I've held out posting these, but I can't help myself!

I guess that's what I get for giving my toddler my phone when he won't sleep during naptime. All this time, I've thought he was watching Dragon Tales on Netflix and Jake the Pirate on PBS Kids when really he was taking selfies while wearing a Batman cape.

At least he's not sporting duck lips?

Cabin Photos.

I found these tonight and they just made me feel all kinds of nostalgic.

These are from a Chandler family reunion a month before we got married. The reunion lasted for a weekend and, every night, we fell asleep on twin beds in the corner of a huge room that somehow kept scooting closer to each other while we held hands between them. I baked homemade bread the morning of our trip and, as we drove for several hours to the reunion, the sun set as I had my feet on the dash and we held hands and talked about all the future had in store for us. It was scary how fast we fell in love and committed to each other and my stomach twisted the entire weekend we were there. On one of the afternoons, we got into a pretty large argument and we sat on one of the beds in an enormous room filled with bunk beds and Andrew held me as I cried because he had hurt my feelings but also because I had become that girl who fell in love in an instant and was marrying someone I had known for only a few short months. I was so excited and so happy but also felt like cut and running because I'd never been good at being someone's girlfriend and I was terrified I'd make a horrible wife and I was absolutely petrified of marrying into a tight knit family that I was only meeting for the second time. Afterwards, we went out on a walk in the woods and held hands and talked until our lungs hurt and we ate more of the homemade bread leftover from our trip and, that night, I slept in one of his shirts and made him wake up whenever I woke up in the middle of the night because I didn't want to be the only person awake in an enormous cabin filled with more people than I could ever count. We'd whisper and laugh and, when he fell asleep first, I'd pull his hand even closer to me and think about how, for the rest of our lives, this was how things were going to be- minus sleeping in separate beds and minus the other thirty-five people in the room.

Our non-married life is a blip in our lives together, but it sure was a sweet time.