Update on the Boys

David (9 months old, March 12)

• Pulls up to standing on anything and everything including our legs, chairs, couch, toys, dressers, tub, toilet (so making sure the toilet seats are down!), cupboards,...well, you get my drift.
• Enjoys pounding/playing the "drums" on the toilet seats. Watched him throw both hands joyously in the air after playing an especially good solo the other day.
• He can walk, but just doesn't know it yet. He always has his hand on something to give him support and comfort, but really he could move between objects without touching if he wanted. Glad he isn't so sure of himself quite yet giving me a few extra days of a non-walker in the house.
• Can crawl SUPER FAST
• Follows Jay and me EVERYWHERE in the house. His preference is to be with Jay during play time. When he is hungry or tired, he prefers me (surprise, surprise).
• Enjoys dumping out the lego box best. Oh the fun loud noises the legos make when they hit against each other and as they fall on the floor!
• Loves to take sips of water out of Jay's straw cups
• Sits in his booster seat chair for all of his meals now (and loves it!)
• Still eats the homemade pureed food I make for meals, but loves to feed himself bits of food including cooked carrots, cooked broccoli bits, zucchini bread, banana bread, chicken bits with rice, Cheerios, Kix
• Babbles, squeals, makes sing-song-y tunes, and makes fun noises with his mouth (clicks tongue, etc.); increasingly more "verbal" in those ways
• Generally sleeps 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. (he wakes up and after gentle patting goes back to sleep); wakes again at 4:00 a.m. (HUNGRY) so he nurses and then goes back to sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 a.m.
• Has almost transitioned completely to sleeping in his crib (which is in the same room as Jay). I've been reluctant to move him out of the bassinet in the master bedroom closet in order not to wake Jay in the night, but because of David's increased mobility and his size, it's time. In fact, the jig has been up for quite some time but I'm just getting around to getting serious about moving him to the crib. (My baby isn't a baby any more!)
  

Jay (2 years, 9 months, 12 days old today)

• As you know from the last post, enjoys singing "E-I-E-I-O" and having us sing to him "Jesus Loves Me," "This Little Light of Mine," "The B-I-B-L-E," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and any others songs that come to our mind.
• Says lots of words now: wa-wa (water); peas (please); tank ooo (thank you); yes; no; more; Dadda/Daddy; Mama/Mommy; Nana; PopPop; Nana's house (he loves talking about going to Nana's house or Nana and PopPop's house); so (slow); fa (fast); mall (he likes to go to our shopping mall); bull (we've watched the cowboys ride the bucking bulls a few times on the ESPN channel); "huh?" or "hmm?"- equivalent to "what" and yes, he has hit the "what?" stage saying "huh?" "hmm?" or "what?" to almost everything you say/tell him which can get annoying at times; calls David "baby" almost all the time and will call baby "Day-day" if you get him to say baby's name; Jay DOESN'T tell you his name, (I've never heard him say his name before) but if asked how old he is he quickly answers, "two!" Instead of saying the names of animals, he still just makes their sound ("moo" for cow; "baa" for lamb/sheep; "bak bak" for chicken; etc.).
• Enjoys playing with his toys all morning - especially with his trucks and legos and trains.
• Talks his own words that don't make any sense almost non-stop if he isn't saying "real" words.
• Started going "pee" in his potty a few weeks ago. When asked/prompted he usually will try going pee on his potty which is great. We sing songs and read books while waiting for "pee" to happen. Sometimes after trying for a while he'll look at me, shake his head no, and say, "No pee, Momma" with a sad look on his face. Having him tell me he needs to go pee before he pees in his diaper hasn't happened, but we are one step closer to being potty trained!
• Has a cool new Ford GT Concept Coupe on a 1:24 scale on the back of the toilet to motivate him to go "poo" in his potty. He can't have it or play with it until that happens, so it remains there for now.

A Musical Performance by Jay

A musical selection by Jay

(2 years, 9 months old):

(If you didn't figure it out already, this is his rendition of Old McDonald Had A Farm - with a moo moo here and a moo moo there...)

*Sorry for the dark video. This was taken spur of the moment at 7:00 p.m. when it was almost dark out and I didn't have much light in the room yet.

New Appliance

Last Monday (President's Day) we chose and paid for our new appliance, and this past Friday it was delivered - our new refrigerator!! Our 21 year old refrigerator was only 18 cubic square feet, and with this growing family (of boys, no less) I wanted to be even more economical with meals than I am currently which involves needing freezer space. This new one is a beautiful 22 cubic square feet and I LOVE IT!! The other bonus to a new refrigerator means that we went from a cream-colored one to a refrigerator that matches our existing appliances. That's a nice aesthetic bonus when we eventually place our condo on the market. (It's also nice to use and live with something new versus upgrading something just so it will "show" better with the new owners actually enjoying the use of it.)

Here are pictures of our other two kitchen appliances...the Bosch stove, and the Kenmore dishwasher - both of which were already here when we moved in.

HOORAY for matching kitchen appliances!! :)

David's Tough Look

This is the tough look you get when your brother throws a book and hits you in the face (while Mom was busy in the kitchen fixing dinner). David was tough - he only cried hard for a few minutes.

President's Day Weekend

The three-day weekend is now coming to a close...so sad. We had a great weekend here at home this year thanks to Grandma Amy (my Mom) who came to visit us.

Here is a cute shot of 8 month old David (he turned 8 months old Feb. 12th) I captured Friday afternoon, February 18.


After dinner Friday night I took the leftover Cider Ice out of my freezer (apple cider, orange juice, lemon juice, sugar syrup that we chunk up into slush and pour lemon-lime soda over - so yummy). The 9x13 pan was taking up too much room in my freezer so I used the excuse of celebrating Mom's arrival to finish it off. Jay took one bite and decided it was too cold for him. We offered some of it to David and received this result:

David obviously thought it was too cold, too, but he kept wanting more. When Matt would pause or stop offering it to him, he'd whine and reach for another bite, silly kid.

Saturday morning and afternoon brought about a fairly typical home routine: french toast for breakfast, I planted some beautiful primroses in my patio pots that I bought at Costco, prepped and made homemade pureed food for David to restock his meal selections in my freezer, a new recipe for lunch - Food Network Giada's Chicken Carbonara (highly recommend!), and an afternoon nap when the boys were napping.

Saturday evening Matt and I got spiffed up and attended Matt's annual business dinner. Prior to knowing Grandma Amy was going to be here I had asked sister/aunt Molly to babysit the boys. The plan remained the same - Molly came over so it worked out great since Molly and Mom were able to enjoy some time together this weekend, too.

Since I rarely get dressed up these days ('ya know, the whole stay-at-home Mom gig doesn't come with too many reasons to get this dressed up), I asked Molly to take a picture of us to commemorate the evening (me in my altered matron of honor dress from Molly's wedding last July). Here is the result:
Matt and I had a lovely evening and Mom and Molly had a great time together caring for the boys. It was truly a win-win all around.

Sunday was a relaxing day, too. We attended church while Mom chose to stay home and put the rug cleaning machine she had brought along with her to work. The result is stunning! We have new carpet, people!! We had the carpet in our condo professionally cleaned before we moved in May of 2007, but since then I've just done spot cleaning. Mom's Thermax along with the enzyme cleaner and her elbow grease had amazing results. What a blessing!!

After the boys' afternoon naps Sunday afternoon we all took a walk - something that we haven't done in months. Yes, it was on the chilly side, but beautiful, so we bundled up as best we could and enjoyed some time out in the fresh air. When we got home all our noses ran (going from the cold to inside warm air), but it was totally worth it. It felt so good to breathe in the fresh air and to soak in the little sun we received.

This morning Grandma Amy returned home. :( Before she left Jay asked if he could go to Grandma's house, too. We reminded him he might not like waking up and not having Mommy to hold and comfort him. It just melted our hearts knowing he wanted to spend more time with Grandma. So cute!

Valentine's Day Weekend with Family

We took our 3rd annual trip to Oregon to be with our family and see our nephews (Jay and David's 1st cousins) play their basketball games during their Upward basketball season. Normally we go down President's Day weekend, but this year it worked out better to go the weekend before.

Here are most of us (from L to R): Alex, Matt's sister Shawn, baby David, Jay, me, Nana Carol, and PopPop Jim. Missing: Matt is taking the picture, Josh is playing his basketball game, and Mike was behind Matt.
Josh's basketball game - he is in the white jersey, #1:

Here is a picture of the darling cheerleaders. They did a great job.

After Josh's game finished PopPop, Jay, and Aunt Shawn went out to see Josh's team. I love that Jay is holding Shawn's hand.

Jay enjoying his Goldfish crackers and taking in the whole basketball game experience.

David enjoying hold time by Aunt Shawn and looking at his cousin Josh.

Alex's basketball game (orange jersey, #12):

Later that afternoon we gathered at Nana and PopPop's house for fellowship and dinner together. Of course before dinner the boys just HAD to have fun wrestling. Boys will be boys!!

Josh and Alex - the terrific athletes of the day!

Happy (Standing) David

The last several days I've tried to upload a video of David going from crawling to standing, but for some reason it just won't work. I'm giving up. This photo will have to do for now.