Liam's Halloween Costume

Liam LOVES the Geico commercials. He loves them enough that he's decided that is what he wants to be for Halloween. What three year old wants to be car insurance for Halloween?? Yeah, mine.

Wanting my children to match, I was unable to find a Gecko costume...so Sean is a dragon (let's just call him a Gecko).

I was able to make Liam's costume because a coworker gave me a giant piece of green foam. Some ribbon, two foam balls lots of hot glue and two googlie eyes later, we have a Halloween costume. I've uploaded a video for everyone to see...enjoy.

Sean's six month birthday

Turning six months is funny!!!



The week is a very busy time for us, school, work, gymnastics etc so I apologize for not posting this sooner.

Our littlest guy turned 6 months on Tuesday. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he thought it was great.
















And then he was attacked by sticky tabs...




And we now have two teeth! Such a big boy!!


I can't believe he's six months old already! Before we know it, we'll be having his first birthday! Happy six months, Sean. I'm so blessed to be your mommy.

Happy Six Months!!

Happy Six Months Sean!! It's hard to believe it is his half birthday already!

Sean's First Solid Food...

Sean had his first solid food last night. Enjoy the video below...he nods and even thanks us at the end of the video!

Piglet...

Sean earned this nickname after going through all of my frozen stash of breastmilk his first few weeks at daycare. I've been able to keep up with his needs with fresh milk, but I don't have any reserves...even with lactation cookies and fenugreek.


But he sounds like a piglet too...when he eats and sleeps. I was able to capture this last night...enjoy!

Sean laughs....a lot

Laughter is something we cherish in our home. It is one of the reasons I fell in love with David, he can always make me laugh. And baby laughs, well, you can't miss em.

Friday, August 14th, after a long week of work, we were watching "The State". It was a gift for my birthday and is one of my favorite shows ever. It reminded me of the early 90's and my childhood and it was great to watch it with our kids. Well, Liam was watching Nemo on his dvd player but he would occasionally check in. Sean was seated in his bumbo in the middle of the couch between Dave and I.

We had been laughing all evening, so maybe that's what brought on the giggle fit. When he started, David and I looked at each other and laughed. It was his timing. The skit included people on a game show and rather than winning money, they were winning orphans. After this discovery, they started answering questions wrong.

"Mick Jaggar is the lead singer of the Rolling _____?"

Participant rings in: "The Rolling Bears?"

And Sean started laughing. We laughed with him for a bit before I thought to grab my cell phone and capture it. At this point, I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

Take a look for yourself and try not to laugh.

Family Reunion 2009

Now that my brother has three boys and lives in Cedar Falls and we have two and live in West Des Moines, family weekends at my parents house have turned into family reunions...and I am sure my parents are thankful for Sunday evening to come. I'm sure they love having their two children and spouses and their FIVE grandsons all under one roof but it does get a bit hectic. 5 boys all under the age of 6? Crazy.


My mom's family has their family reunion on the same weekend in July and we always try to make it back. It was great for Liam to see his cousins as its been 2 months since we were all together. He loves to play with Mitchell and Matthew.

Liam seemed to be having a good time at the reunion...

It's nice for Crystal (my brother's wife) and I to talk about our new babies, our big boys and breastfeeding. And of course, there's always "baby fight". We face Sean and Mason near each other...and at first they hold hands and smile and coo at each other...but boys being boys, "baby fight" always seems to break out.

Its always good to be around family. Being apart does seem to make the heart grow fonder...you have to be apart in order to miss someone and enjoy time spent together...as shown by baby kisses.

The Dark Side...

If you know my husband, you know he's a Star Wars fan. Apparently if you were a male born in 1977-1981 you MUST be a Star Wars fan. As any father does, he introduces things he likes to his boys. Liam LOVES Star Wars, but thinks every Star Wars movie is titled "Star Wars: The Clone Wars".

We were discussing Halloween costumes for the boys. Liam thinks he wants to be "GEICO"...the money with the eye balls. It would be a cute (and easy) costume to make. Then I suggested Luke Skywalker to which Dave said, "No, Hans Solo. Nobody wants to be Luke. Besides, Liam's got the hair to be Hans." I said Sean should be a ewok and Liam thought Sean should be Darth Vader...lol. That would be funny!

For Father's Day, the boys got daddy a Star Wars card. Sean is not a fan of the dark side.

I survived!!

My first day back wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My thoughtful coworkers brought in treats, I got a really sweet card from a co-worker and my manager was more than understanding if I wanted to make it a short day. But I did it. I stuck it out, lasted all day long and only called daycare once.

And I didn't cry.

I am a rockstar. :)

Now let's see if I can do it tomorrow!

Sean Smiles and Sings

I'm getting all of the smiles I can today. I have to go back to work tomorrow. While I am dreading it, I'm also looking forward to it. It will be nice to have a more set routine, adult conversations and, well, money.

So today Sean and I sang songs together and smiled. A lot. He's super cute when he smiles (he's cute when he's not smiling) but I thought I'd share.



Sean singing and smiling

Tiny Dancer....

Sean loves to dance...he kicks, he punches...so we played some "Dropkick Murphys" and he LOVED the Irish tunes.



Go Irish Boy! Go Irish Boy!

Mommy "The Princess"

Last weekend we had a Bowman family get together for our birthdays. David and his dad share a birthday, and mine is 6 days later. It makes it easy to do it all at once! Grandma Bowman asked Liam what kind of cake she should get for me, and Liam said "A Princess Cake!"

Today, when I informed him that my birthday is tomorrow, he informed me that I should have a mermaid cake. I said, "Mermaid?" He continued, "Yeah! And I will stir it with a pogo stick!"

Being the only female in the house does allow me to have Princess status. But I'm not sure if I'd want to eat a mermaid cake stirred with a pogo stick. Sorry, Liam.

The "Family" Bed...

Our bed is being overrun. It's a good thing we purchased a King size bed when I was expecting Liam, as the full size bed we had before would be really crowded!!

Liam is still adjusting to his "big boy bed" and usually ends up coming into our room in the middle of the night. Sometimes we return him to his room, other nights we are too exhausted to fight him, so he ends up in the middle. Sean is in the bassinet next to our bed, and in the middle of the night to nurse him, I usually bring him into our bed. One morning, I had to take a picture of my Bowman Boys in the bed.



Everyone is asleep except for Sean and me. Sean's got the look of, "Hey Ma! You wanted to go back to sleep? Yeah. Not happening."

The Bowman Boys all snug in our bed.

Brotherly Battles....

I thought I'd have a few years...maybe even a few months before the first sibling battle. But they've begun. One Saturday morning I sat Sean on the couch (near Liam) while I went to throw away a diaper.

Then Liam started to cry. I rushed into the living room to Liam yelling, "HE HIT ME!" Rather than setting them in time out, I grabbed my camera. Our three year old was upset that his one MONTH old brother had just hit him. Thankfully, big brother did not retaliate.

So here's the picture of the first brother battle. Notice Sean's Kung Fu stance. As for battles, I'm sure there will be more to come...

Ch ch changes...

This blog was created for family and friends to keep up to date on Dave while he was in Iraq. He's been home for a year now and just a few things have changed since then.

Meet Sean Anthony Bowman. Born April 20, 2009.



Viva la Bowman Male Revolution.

When David and I met, the house was in balance. 1 male, 1 female. Then we welcomed our pet, Samuel Beckett the Cat (aka Beckett) in the mix. No biggie, he's a cat. In November 2005 we had our first child. A boy. William Alexander Bowman. And then Sean was born.

People ask me..."Are you going to try for a girl?" People were asking me this when we discovered we were having a second boy. My response, "Can I birth this child first before thinking about another one??"

We've discussed it. It will be a few years down the road, but we'll probably have one more. That is, if I can survive being a mother of two boys and willing to chance a third. Then again, would Barbie dolls and dresses fit into this household?

So I decided this blog is being transformed from Dave's Army Survival to my Mommy survival. Enjoy the ride. I know I will.