We're Home!

After a week of being here and there, we are all finally at home. Thank goodness!! I had to be in Raleigh last week, so I dropped the boys off at Grandmother's. Then husband arrived on Thursday night for a meeting, stayed until Saturday. Meanwhile, I had a meeting Friday-Sunday in RTP, and I finally got home a little after 4pm on Sunday.

So..........I don't know exactly what the boys were up to last week. I did hear snippets.

• B got carsick going to visit his great great aunt in Oxford. It's not the first time.
• Both boys love to play in the sandbox at Grandmother's.
• B is an expert with the shovel.
• S can crawl out of the playpen, which is his bed at Grandmother's.
• S shook the powder bottle (which was open because no one knew he could get out of the playpen) so much a vacuum was required to clean up. And his clothes had to be shaken outside.
• B loves to slide down the slide. And swing. (Grandmother and Granddaddy bought a swingset for the boys.)
• S might have had a little bug over the end of the week. He had a fever, but the doctor at Urgent Care on Saturday couldn't find anything. He seems better now. We think he might be teething: 2 year molars.

More to come this week. I'll put some pictures up. Only two more days of being one year old -- Thursday they will be TWO!!

Shad Festival!

We took the boys to the big city of Grifton for the annual Shad Festival! I didn't get any pictures (more on that later), but I'll just tell you all about it.

It started off on Saturday morning with a parade. My parents have 2 tractors they ride in the parades. Except now husband has been commandeered to drive one, and my mother helps me with the kiddos. So mom and I went a little early, to let the boys ride around town in the stroller. We thought they might even like to ride the hobby horses. Everything was fine until we saw the petting zoo. It was time to leave the zoo, and B had a meltdown. Tears, flailing arms -- the whole nine yards. I tried to give him food, drink, nothing would work. EXCEPT when I picked him up. Now, remember, B is heavy. He weighs about 33 or 34lbs. I had to carry him around for an HOUR. I think he was tired and wanting a nap, and everyone in town was looking at him, which I think he didn't like because he doesn't like strangers at all.

My mother pushed the double stroller that S rode in, alone, while I walked around holding heavy B. So soon enough the parade started. S was in heaven. A band (the Marine Corps band came, they were fantastic), lots of trucks pulling floats, some boats, and the most wonderful item of all -- the firetruck!! Yes, that thrilled little S, so did seeing his daddy and granddaddy drive the tractors. He stamped his feet to the music, clapped his hands -- all in all, S had the time of his life! And B did perk up a little.

After they ate their lunch and ran around a bit (we let them go play in the church nursery and eat their lunch), we bribed them back into the stroller so the rest of us could eat lunch. Everything was great for about 10 minutes. Then B had another meltdown. For probably 15 minutes. Finally I took him back to the church (thank goodness my parents' town is small and the church is only a block from the main action of the festival) and rocked him for a few minutes until he fell asleep.

We never got to ride the hobby horses, and I don't even know if that ride was at the festival. But the boys did see the parade, and even B liked it at the end. They got to eat a chocolate chip cookie!! And of course lots of play time with grandma and granddaddy.

Some new favorites: playing Ring Around the Rosie. Singing the alphabet song. Eating ham. (S loves sandwich ham. It's a miracle.) Clementines, or "osh" (oranges) as they call them. Oh, and climbing. At church, S climbed on top of the changing table all by himself. What a monkey!

Little Things

I forget to tell you about the little things. Yes they can count, sometimes, and they do other big things, but sometimes the little things are the best.

They have learned the oven is hot. No matter if it's on or off, they have no idea -- it's always hot in their minds. And if the light is on, they love to move aside the dish towel and look inside. Lately they have started to say "hot" and then blow on the oven door, like they do with their hot food!

A favorite hobby is running naked. S would be thrilled to live in a nudist colony, well, until he figured out mom & dad weren't going to join in! Before bath time S will run and dance around the kitchen completely naked. And he says "naked". B likes it too; I don't want to leave him out.

B has become very independent. When I first started taking them to Community Bible Study (CBS), B would hold my leg and cry -- not wanting me to leave. Today I walked in, and he held to me for just a minute, until he saw the toys on the floor. He promptly sat down, still in his hat and coat, to play, and completely ignored me. Even his "teacher" has commented on it. He also loves to play on the slide.

Clementines have become a new favorite. They call them "oranges", which is almost correct. Anyway, I think if they could have a solely-clementine-diet, they would be thrilled. And today, they ate their "oranges" and sandwich before eating their goldfish (I put everything on their plate at once, usually I give them courses). That's a first, just one of many firsts to come!

You'll Never Guess.......

B can count. Yes, friends, he is a genius. S is pretty smart too -- he can count, a little. B can count from 1 to 10. S can do 1 to 4, and some of the numbers after this. I'd like to put a disclaimer here: I'm not that great of a teacher. They watch Sesame Street.

I went to our new Michael's last week. The boys got some new toys! They each got a desk (that you see B using in one of the above photos), and a matching bag. They love both of them. My boys like to put toys into things, any kind of container. So first they put their blocks into their bib pockets, then transferred them to their bags, and finally put them on their new desks!

Also new is drawing. They like to draw, particularly with a pen. Forget crayons, or colors as we call them.

Husband and I went camping over the weekend with our church, and boys went to Camp Grandmother and Granddaddy. I heard they played tee-ball. Yes, they are budding baseball players.

B can put multiple words together now. He is also a tattler. Whenever we reprimand him for doing something he always says "S"; as if he wasn't also guilty!

They are doing great, running, jumping, playing, getting dirty -- being little boys! And B learned a new word last week. Sheet. I was washing sheets and he kept saying a word, but it didn't sound like sheet. You can use your imagination. Let's just say I did verify it was indeed sheet he was saying before we went to mothers morning out at the CHURCH!!

Phrases & Big Boy Bed

B is in a big boy bed now. Well, kinda. He's gotten so heavy that when he falls asleep in the car, I cannot get him into his bed without waking him. We've had several disastrous naptimes because he's too heavy for me to lift over the crib rail. So we bought a safety rail, the kind that slips under the mattress. S has one on his bed because he kept crawling out of his bed in January.

For the most part it has gone well. The first night husband sat in the room with them until they fell asleep. Yesterday B would not go to sleep in his bed for naptime. So I rocked him to sleep and then I fell asleep! Last night B was very tired to he went right to sleep in his bed. But S had a more difficult time. At one point, husband went to check on S, and (through the crack in the door) saw that he was not in his bed. So husband went in to get S, and found him lying in bed with B! How sweet! Had he known that, husband would have left S in B's bed. But oh well, we can't see B's bed without opening the door.

I know I am always commenting on B's vocabulary, but he's just always coming up with something new! Yesterday he said a phrase, well, two phrases. First he said "ice cube car", because I was trying to hustle them into the car to go to Bible Study, so I bribed them by putting ice cubes in their water cups and putting them in the car. Then he said "mama wash" when I was washing dishes!!!! Wow.

Both are liking drawing right now. They take a piece of paper -- any paper -- and bang the crayon around. S's new favorite activity is yelling out "TRUCK" whenever he sees a truck pass by. He also much prefers to ride in husband's red pickup truck rather than my car. In fact, we think S thinks our red truck is a fire truck, because the word he uses for firetruck is the same word he uses for our truck. But they are both big and red, so I can see the confusion.

Mr. B has just woken up and run into the living room. He's so big he can get out of his bed all by himself!!

Everyone have a great Thursday!

23 Months!!

Can you believe they are 23 months old!

B is really talking up a storm. He's putting 2 words together now. His main phrase is "ice cube" because ice cubes are very exciting to him. But yesterday he was trying to tattle on S, and he said "S eat". (S was chewing on the wipes they got into while we weren't watching.) And yesterday they had Mother's Morning Out. So husband asked B what did he do at church, and he started clapping his hands and pointing to his face (they sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" and when it says "your face will surely show it" they point to their faces). How amazing he can communicate so much!!

S is pretty wonderful too. He has become quite social. He will say "hey" and wave to anyone, including people sitting beside us in traffic. S has also become attached to his lion, which is his semi-stuffed (only the head is stuffed, body is just limp fabric) night-night toy. Yesterday lion had to go with us to church. They got these little wooden train cars that are magnetic in their Easter baskets. S lines them up on the window sill and likes to play with them.

And they are sleeping later. This is extremely exciting for me, because S used to stroll in our room at 5:30am. Husband figured out if S has his pacifier in the mornings, he won't wake up as early. So every morning when he wakes, Husband goes into their room and puts S's paci in his mouth. It will be a sad day when the paci has to go bye-bye.

Here are some recent pictures:

These first two are of their snack on Friday. A chocolate chip cookie. You see, I am a mean mommy who doesn't let her children eat such things. But we decided once in a while wouldn't hurt them. And how they enjoyed it! These with their hats on: they've recently discovered how to put their hats on backwards, and think it's really funny.