Friday, September 26, 2014

Happy Friday!

I loved watching the boys today just play with their kitchen using their microwave to heat up food - I had a longer time at home this morning because I had a doctor's appt and wasn't going into work until afterwards. They're so happy to play pretend. And last night - wow - it's become "All Star Wrestling" at our house. Suddenly they've discovered the joy of tackling each other and chasing each other from room to room - all while laughing deliriously. I had fun just listening to them (J and his friend were with them in the living room while I was cleaning up the kitchen). I so so so hope that G & W will be good friends. Watching them play & tease each other physically all in good fun feels like the start of that. We can hope!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

we just hung out last night

It's funny - sometimes I think the only/biggest reason that the boys are excited to see me come home from work is that they're expecting that I'll take them "bye bye".  I'm sure I'm just being silly, but it's still a thought I deal with. Anyway, we didn't go anywhere last night. I came home from work and actually, no one was home! Grandma & grandpa had taken them in their little cars over to the neighbor, Willard, for a visit and weren't home yet. So, that was an odd unexpected 20 minutes to myself. Then Grandpa & G came home and G was very unhappy - it was clear he hadn't wanted to leave - either because he didn't want to be without W (Grandpa's theory) or because he didn't want to miss out on any fun. So, I took G back over there and we visited a little while. But that was the extent of our "bye bye" time last night. We worked on puzzles and we read books and we had dinner and we had BATH time.  G loves "swimming like a fish" on his tummy, but he loves it BEST when he's in there with W and has his feet in W's direction and kicks him.  Not cool with W, so we have lots of re-directing.

This morning when I was getting ready for work in the bathroom, I let them use brushes to brush their hair in there with me and let them brush their teeth too. They loved it and didn't mind a delayed breakfast (J had to run a last minute errand for my coffee creamer so it was just the 3 of us).

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

one month left

Only one month left before we have two 2 year olds on our hands!  I'm really enjoying them so much at this age and while I know there are going to be wonderful things about every age, I'm going to miss our 1 year olds. The one thing I'm looking forward to changing in the next year is their ability to tell us what they want. They've been saying more words lately, but they still often just point at something and do a whining sort of sound. When they're actually able to "use their words" so that I can realistically tell them to do that instead of whining - that will be really nice. 

We did take them out in their cars to walk along the river, feed the ducks, and play at the park yesterday after work. They loved it. G wanted to go really fast in his car, loving it when I'd push him ahead of me and then run to catch up. W didn't really want J to do that for him - I guess he doesn't have the same "need for speed". 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Living on the Edge

We broke the rules last night. We fed the ducks.  I was nervous about getting caught and didn't like that we were doing something "wrong", but the ducks LOVED the bread and the boys LOVED watching the ducks swarm over to us to eat the bread. So, I guess I have some moral gray.

It was fun for J and I to take them to the river and push them along the path in their little plastic toy cars with the pushing bars.  They has so much more visibility and freedom in those than in their double stroller. Plus, that thing is really heavy & only one of us can push both boys. Their cars are fairly light weight, they have a front "hoods" for storage of fishie crackers and sippy cups, and we can share the load of pushing them. We're going to do this again tonight - we're supposed to have mild fall weather again and J will try to get home from work earlier than last night so that we have time to let them spend time on the playground in addition to being pushed along the river.


Monday, September 22, 2014

G's first two-word sentence!

Two posts in one day, following a nearly three week absence...but this one definitely deserves a writeup:

G said his first two-word sentence yesterday, just before he turns 23 months tomorrow.  I wasn't there for it, but Grandpa called to tell me that yesterday while I was away studying, he woke up from his nap and asked, "Mama home?"

I'm so excited & proud!

the longer I wait to post, the more I avoid writing ANYTHING!

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last wrote and that's just unacceptable!  I did start up my Master of Public Health class during this time and it's been a little challenging - but still...the boys are growing and changing and doing so many amazing & adorable things that I don't want to keep procrastinating.  So here are a few tidbits to get the ball rolling again. I'm planning to write every day for the rest of this month, even if all the post consists of is one sentence. Knowing myself though, once I get writing, the words will flow.

Grandma & I took them to the park one evening last week and spotted a big Little Tykes play kitchen sitting out on the curb. This phenomenon of just leaving stuff for free on the curb for anyone to pick up is new to me since moving from Minnesota. I can't tell yet if it's a local or a state thing, but it's actually really nice. Especially in this case, because I'd been thinking in the back of my mind that the boys would LOVE a play kitchen, especially when winter weather arrives and we need to find a way to entertain them inside.  So this was a BIG score. It's in great condition and has: a sink/faucet, microwave, dishwasher, oven, stove, cupboard, and a little attached side table.  And the boys adore it!  They love to pretend play that they're cooking or washing their hands or putting things away in the cupboard.  So much fun to watch them with that. Of course W's bowl obsession works well with this - he can stack bowls there to his heart's content.

Speaking of bowls, W finally had to let go of his favorite orange bowl that he took everywhere with him. After it broke into pieces on the bathroom tile floor, J used superglue to piece it back together and sanded the rough edges (what a great Daddy!) and it seemed that it would be saved. Alas, it was dropped again and the superglue didn't hold. So we had to say goodbye to the bowl. And W was devastated - it did take a full 3 days of him saying "BOOOOWL" with his lips puckered and sounding like a dog howling (that's the best way I can describe his anguished call for his bowl).  Finally he slowly forgot about it and he's OK now.

We were at the park again yesterday evening and the boys were loving the swings - which is such a change from before!  So I decided to try an "underdog", but not that high - more of a "side dog", I guess - getting them up in the air higher than I've done before and they LOVED it. They laughed and asked for "more"!  Lots of fun.

They also love to run, run, run. It's so cute to watch them run in the park. Their little run is so cute.

Diaper rashes have been BAD - but I think that's because both boys are passionate about the cherry tomatoes we have growing in our garden. They love to pick them and love to eat them. "more! more! more!".  Well, we obviously have to refrain from feeding them tomatoes, because I think the acid is causing the burning bottoms. Not fun.

Lots more I could write, but will wait for tomorrow.


Wednesday, September 3, 2014

don't want to miss a thing

So many new things happen with these boys seemingly daily.  Yet I struggle to take the time just to even jot down bullet points. I'm not going to get complacent!

Yesterday G was showing more playfulness than usual. W was wearing his orange bowl on his head and G kept trying to push it off, take it, and laugh. W wasn't really feeling the humor of the situation though!

Also, while G has for a long while been saying "Bye bye" (often with a hand gesture right in my face to make sure that I understand he wants to get out of the house), W hasn't yet said anything like this.  Well, out of the blue yesterday evening, he was driving their doll stroller down the hallway and called out to me, "Bye!".  He's got such a cute little voice.

I was playing with the boys outside on Monday evening and they wanted to use their play lawnmower. Well, they both "started it up" by flinging their arm away from the lawnmower, just like daddy does (we've got a push-mower that starts up this way).  It's really a big reminder that they are watching everything we do. Big responsibility to be good examples for them!

I was so angry with Grandpa last night, because J shared with me that Grandpa had been giving potato chips (with dip!) to G.  This is after I've told him not to and explained exactly why (we have obesity running in both families and potato chips provide zero nutritional value and are loaded with fat and salt). He'd previously agreed not to - so finding out that he's still doing it made me livid.  So we talked again last night about this and he agreed (again) not to give it to him. Part of the problem is that Grandpa himself loves potato chips and apparently struggles not to eat them in front of the boys - and then the boys beg for some. Grandma's solution was "maybe go into another room to eat chips".  It's not my place to tell him what to eat/not to eat, but my solution would be just don't buy chips in the first place - or keep them at your house so that you're not tempted to eat them at ours.  Augh.

Julie's purchased flash cards to use with the boys during their mornings together - I'm so happy with her drive to be productive with them and it's great that they enjoy being with her. Even though they were doing great with J in the mornings, I think we're all better off with Julie caring for them during that time instead.