October 17, 2008

We celebrated Ben's 3rd birthday at the end of September. We now have a three year old and a two year old but not for long. Nick will turn 3 in early to mid November and he is very much looking forward to it....but first we have the dad's birthday next week:).....and we have my niece's birthday celebration this weekend, where we will also celebrate the boys' birthdays with my family. Cake, cake and more cake; gotta love it!

Anyway, back to Ben's birthday. We do low-key birthday celebrations at our house. The day of Ben's birthday, the boys helped me make Ben's cake and they had a fun time decorating it. We had to go to the store for a few things. While we were there, we celebrated by riding some of the rides they have (they rode them, not me:). I wrapped gifts while they napped and, that night after dinner, we had some close friends over to celebrate. We all sang Happy Birthday and Nick helped Ben blow out his candles. We had cake and watched Ben open his gifts. Nick got one of his gifts that night too so they both had a lot of fun playing with their new toys.

Tomorrow we go to my sister's house for the combined celebration for my niece and the boys. They are both very excited and I am very excited to see my niece again, as this will be our first time to see her since she has gone off for her first year of college.

Here are a couple of pictures from Ben's birthday party last year. Boy do they change so quickly when they are little, don't they? It's incredible.





I'll post other pics in a separate update so the post won't be quite so big.

October 7, 2008

So, I am still sick and feeling pretty badly. If there was ever a day that I needed a sick day, today would have been one of them. But, alas, I no longer have the luxury of sick days.

I have no voice. I am struggling to talk and most of what I say comes out as a whisper. So keeping two little boys in line has been quite the challenge, yesterday and today both, but especially today.

I even broke down and let them watch TV yesterday afternoon and this morning. They don't watch for very long though before they are ready to go play. Behavior has not been very good overall lately. Not sure if they are insecure because of my sickness or what but it has not been great, which makes this more difficult.

I had a great idea today though:). I sent one to play in the library/playroom and the other to play in the living room and set the timer for 20 minutes. They did great. So I had them switch rooms and reset the timer for another 20 minutes. They are still doing great and we have 9 minutes to go.

I think I will make this a daily thing going forward. I think it might make them appreciate each other a little more and it definitely gives me some peace and quiet for a short while. I plan to extend it to 30 minutes sessions so I will be able to look forward to one hour of peace. Yeah. Oh happy day. The Lord knew I needed help today and he sent me this idea.

Our second 20 minute time period ended and we all sat down to talk. I asked them how they liked playing alone and they both said they liked it and wanted to do it again. Who knew?? So we are doing a third 20 minutes of play-alone time now:). Isn't that wonderful??!!

October 5, 2008

I now have the virus/cold that Ben had and today is my worst day so far. I stayed home from church while the three guys went so I have a bit of peace and quiet and am hoping to take a nap too.

We ended up not moving the piano after all. It was raining yesterday morning and it turned out that it was not the ideal day for everyone involved. Also, I thought my sister was anxious to get it out of her house but she said it's no big deal so we will get it another weekend.

The boys received a birthday package from their Aunt D, who lives in Arizona. D, the entire package was a huge hit. You definitely know what kids like! They loved the stickers all over the boxes and in their cards. The monkeys were especially the big hit. They were getting ready to go for a walk with the dad when they found the package so they ended up taking the monkeys with them. This morning, Nick had stuck his monkey's hands together and was showing his daddy how his monkey was praying. It was very cute.

The clothes are also adorable. They are both wearing 3T's right now but I'm sure they will grow into the 4T's very soon. If they don't fit by the end of winter / spring, I'm sure they will fit in the fall. I like your taste in clothing:).

Not much else to report around here right now. I have some cute birthday pictures and other pictures but I can't load any of them until I get my laptop back. You'll know it is back when you start seeing pictures again:).

I'm going to take a nap now and try to get over this cold virus quickly.

October 1, 2008

My laptop is in the shop and I won't have it back for at least 10 days. Unfortunately, all of my friend's and family's email addresses and blog links/addresses are on my laptop so I now have no access to anything, as I have a horrible memory:).  I am really missing reading the various blogs I keep up with.

Today we stayed home all day and rested / relaxed ....... or at least as much as one can with a just-three year old and almost-three year old running around all day.

Ben is still getting over his illness. He still has a cough and stuffy nose and congestion, is not eating his normal amount and still needs more sleep than normal. Nick seems fine, as does the dad. I still have a scratchy throat but have yet to figure out if I am coming down with something or if it is just allergies. I should know in another day or two.

September 30, 2008

Boy, have we been busy!

First, my little Ben is now 3 years old. We had a fun time celebrating his birthday. Ben, Nick and I baked Ben's birthday cake together and they both helped decorate the cake. That was a big hit and I think that will be our tradition going forward. It was a lot of fun.

We had a very small birthday party and Ben enjoyed having everyone sing happy birthday to him, eating his cake (finally!....it was difficult for the boys to wait all day to eat that cake!) and opening his gifts. Our friends who live nearby and are like another set of grandparents to our sons joined us for our little celebration. They got Ben a play microwave for his birthday and it came with a couple of handfuls of different kinds of fake food that you might heat up in a microwave. Ben was playing with it and someone asked him what he was cooking. He said "a mouse". He was actually cooking a whole chicken but I guess it looked like a mouse to him:). It was funny.

We are still fighting this illness that is going around our house. I thought I had beaten it but today the scratchy throat started and I had a fever of just under 100 degrees so I guess I have not quite beaten it yet. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Must go. Exhausted and time for bed:).

September 26, 2008

As I was fixing lunch today, I told the boys to go wash their hands. I normally go to supervise, as they love playing in the water and will make big messes at times. But I am ready to quit supervising so I thought we would see how it went today. They were taking quite a long time and I could still hear water running so I went to see what they were up to. They had put both hand towels in the sink, soaked them with water and had also put some soap on top. They were having quite a good time. I was not so happy about it, although if I am going to have to clean up a mess, I prefer this kind of 'clean' mess to the yucky ones:).

In other news, B woke up from his nap yesterday with a fever and he still has it today. When given ibuprofen, he seems perfectly fine. Without it, he wants to be held all the time and, when I can't hold him, he curls up in a chair and pretty much stays there. Hopefully it will be short lived. He has not had any medicine since early this morning and he seems fine right now and his temp is good so hopefully he is on the mend.

The dad's week of vacation is quickly (too quickly) coming to an end. We have had a nice, relaxing week though and I am very thankful for the break. Yesterday we received the climbing dome I mentioned in an earlier post. (Google climbing dome if you want to see what one looks like.) We finally decided to go ahead and order one so it arrived yesterday and the dad and I set it up yesterday evening. He finished it this morning and the boys had a ball climbing on it. I was quite surprised because Nick is usually the more athletic and coordinated of the two but it was Ben who took off climbing like a little monkey and Nick who wanted help. They never ceased to surprise me. I think it is going to be a popular outdoor activity and am very thankful we were able to get it for the boys.

The dad is putting the boys down for their nap and I have not had lunch yet so I am going to go eat and take a little break before they wake up in approximately one hour or so.

September 22, 2008

We had such a fun time. This was really the first real vacation we have taken as a family. We spent a week in Arizona last year but we were visiting family and friends and introducing the boys. We had fun then too but that was a different kind of vacation than this one was. Granted, this was a mini-mini-vacation, but it was nice nonetheless.

We went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I had been there a couple of times over the years but it had been a very very long time since my last visit and it had really changed a lot. It had been so long and things had changed so much that I only really recognized a few things. This little town is in such a beautiful area. The views are lovely and the town itself seems like it might have stepped out of another country. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the town itself:). We really didn't take very many pictures at all but I will include a couple of the few we did take.

On our way to Eureka Springs, we made a couple of stops along the way. We stopped at this little state park that had a small water fall. It actually looked bigger in person:) and was in a very pretty area. The boys enjoyed getting out of the car and walking around too. It was nice to break up the drive a bit for them.

Just before we reached our destination, we saw these signs advertising Pivot Rock and the natural bridge that were on Ripley's Believe It Or Not so we decided to take another side trip and stop to see it. It was another nice little hike for the boys but we were not very impressed with what we saw, especially for the money we had to pay to see it. But, again, it was a very pretty walk and we had beautiful weather for our whole trip.

The hotel we stayed at was very nice and we all enjoyed it. They had an indoor heated swimming pool so we all went swimming a couple of times. Before we went, they were both very excited and could not wait to get to the pool. Once we were in the pool area, they were a bit reluctant to get in to the water at first. They both got in with a bit of coaxing. It did not take Nick very long to feel at ease in the water. He wanted to try everything and he stayed in the water for quite a while. He had a couple of times when he was playing on the steps, with us very close by, and he accidentally slipped off the steps. He caught himself quickly two times and the dad caught him once. He never went under much but it scared him. He whimpered a bit, as a complaint, letting us know it scared him, but he stayed in the pool and within a few seconds he was happily playing again.

When we first got into the pool area, Ben quickly decided he didn't want to go in after all. I worked hard on coaxing him and he got in but wanted back out quickly. We did this for quite a while, he wanted in and then out and then in and then out, over and over again. Eventually, his times in the pool were longer than his times out of the pool and he didn't want out as much. The second day we went to the pool, he pretty much stayed in the whole time, so he did very well.

We had planned to take the boys to see the old locomotive trains they have and to take them for a ride on the trains. We were all very excited to go but we were bummed to find out they were closed on Sunday and Monday. If we had known that, we would have gone first thing when we got there on Saturday. We'll have to catch a real train ride some other time. I think Ben was actually relieved, as he was worried the train would go through a tunnel, which he does not like. They have a small train at our zoo, which we have ridden a few times, and it goes through a small tunnel and is very loud. He does not like the tunnel at all but he likes the train ride.

After the disappointment of the train, we needed something fun for the boys to do so we found the local park. They had a huge, commercial Lil Tikes play system and it was the best one I have ever seen. I didn't know they even made them like this. It had lots of climbing stuff and the boys really enjoyed it a lot. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and cool, and it was so quiet and peaceful. The dad and I enjoyed it a lot too. Just a very relaxing time with no time schedules. We took a tram ride around the historic part of the town and the boys enjoyed that a lot too. We ate lots of good food and some amazing ice cream. This morning, before heading home, we went on a guided tour of two caverns. They were both amazing and we all enjoyed it. I was a little concerned that the boys might get scared but neither of them did. For the most part, they both really enjoyed it and they were very well behaved. Towards the end, Ben started getting antsy when we stopped to look at something specific and listen to the guide but they both did very well over all.

They were so excited to get to the hotel and sleep in their bed together. It was so cute. We took their bed rails with us and the dad laid between them until they fell asleep. That was the only way we were going to get them to go to sleep at a decent time, since they were so excited. They also woke up very early both mornings we were there.

So, over all, we had a wonderful time and I am now very much looking forward to our next trip. I think this was kind of a trial balloon for us...or maybe just for me. I have tended to be a bit of a homebody since the boys came home. But we all did so well together that I think we are ready to really dive in now and start taking more vacations and maybe longer ones....if/when we can afford them of course. I really like being able to drive to where we are going. It's just so nice to be able to take whatever you want with you and to be on your own schedule. There are so many places in the U.S. that I have not been. The dad and I were discussing it on our way to Arkansas and we really want to do a lot of traveling around the U.S. with the boys. Since we will be home schooling, we can choose when to travel to miss the crowds and we can all really enjoy all of the educational aspects of our trips too. I am excited about it. Hopefully we will enjoy many more fun trips over the years.

Sepember 15, 2008

One day last week, I was almost finished fixing lunch for the boys and they were patiently waiting while sitting right next to each other at the kitchen island. They had just gotten up there and sat down when Ben said to Nick, "How was your day today Honey?". Without missing a beat, Nick replied, "Much better, play with Ben much". I was cracking up laughing.

They were so funny that day. Later they were pretending to dive into water, as they fell onto the living room floor. Then it became snow and they were pretending to play in the snow and then to throw it at each other. Then I heard one of them say "do you like it in your face" and the other one said "yes, I like it any place". For those of you who are Dr. Seuss fans, you might recognize those words from the Snow book.

Today I took them out to buy some new sneakers. We ended up buying the ones that light up when they walk. This is the first time they have had the ones that do that and they are just thrilled over their new shoes. It is so funny to watch them walking, running and jumping while trying to watch the lights. They don't even want to take them off when they come into the house, which is normally the first thing they want to do.

After shoe shopping, we went grocery shopping, which took a while because we really needed a lot of groceries. Today was one of those kind of days when I just wanted to ring their little necks many times throughout the day. Whew! I don't like days like that. Tomorrow I am going to get out of the other side of the bed and see if we can't get started off on a different foot.

Don't have much time to write this evening as I have to look up hotels. We are going to spend a few days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas soon...just a short family vacation. The dad has all next week off of work so we are going to do this and maybe do a few other things locally. We also have a whole bunch of things to get done while he is off, such as rent a UHaul and borrow a truck (hopefully) so we can move a piano from my sister's house to our house. I bought this piano a long time ago when I lived in Houston and was single and I took lessons for a short time but then my job began to interfere to much because I had to do some traveling. I ended up moving the piano to my sister's house because my niece was taking piano lessons and I knew she would get a lot of use out of it. I really meant it as a gift but my niece has now gone off to college and they said we could take it back if we wanted it. We have thought it might be good for the boys to take piano lessons for a year or two so we are going to take them up on their offer and bring the piano back to our house. Must go now.

September 8, 2008

My little boys are growing up so fast. I have been going through old pictures and it's hard to believe how much they have changed. The dad and I were talking about the boys yesterday and how we can actually carry on a conversation with them now. It is so amazing how children develop so quickly. They want to do everything for themselves and I try to let them do as much on their own as they can. They are such good helpers. Nick tends to be the little shadow who is always at my elbow wanting to help. Ben usually tends to go off and play by himself at these times. Sometimes Ben wants to help too, especially if we are cooking something yummy. If we are folding laundry or putting dishes away, Ben usually escapes to go play by himself. I am starting to try to pull him in more often and give him tasks to do, sometimes much to his dismay.

From what I have seen so far, Nick tends to be the happy helper and Ben tends to be the reluctant helper. So I am working with Ben, trying to focus in on that and help him learn how to enjoy work:).
We took down the cribs again last night. The boys are sleeping on their twin mattresses on the floor again. I thought it would be good to go ahead since we are sitting with them until they fall asleep anyway these days.

Our potty training approach has once again changed too:). Ben is back to wearing big boy pants during waking hours and Nick is wearing pull ups during waking hours. I started a new sticker chart for them, because Ben had been asking for it and he normally does so well with using the potty, while Nick was totally refusing. So I thought Ben needed some type of recognition for his efforts and success. It was a very positive thing for both of them. Ben continues to do well and is very happy with the sticker reward and Nick now wants to use the potty sometimes too. He still wets his pull ups and is an ace at being able to squeeze out the smallest amount of pee so he can get a sticker too. But at least he is wanting to sit on the potty again and I think that's a move in the right direction.

The dad and I both have noticed that Nick is really initiating a lot of affection these days, though Ben is not normally very happy to be on the receiving end of Nick's affection. Ben initiated a kiss on my cheek the other day too, for the first time, which was very sweet. I love it when they initiate affection. It is so sweet.

The other thing I have noticed lately is that, not only are the boys playing together more these days, they are also behaving better overall. I am not having to correct them as much as I once did. As I listen to them talking to each other when they play, I often hear them self-correct nicely when one of them upsets the other one by not sharing or taking a toy or something. Of course, there are still plenty of times when I have to help them resolve their differences but it is nice to see them starting to do it themselves sometimes too.

And, as for the boys playing together, they now tend to play together very well while I clean and cook. However, if I want to just sit down to read to myself or work on something, they have a hard time with that sometimes.

They are very into pretending to cook these days and also playing with their trains and cars, trucks and bulldozer-type vehicles. With birthdays approaching so quickly, I really need to decide what to get them for their birthdays. I was going to get them a pretend coffee maker and toaster but then my sister said she would like to get it for them. They are both intrigued by the dad's coffee maker and they love to help make toast so I think they will enjoy these toys a lot. They can also use the coffee maker in the bath tub or the kitchen sink and water can actually run through it. They are going to have a ball with that but I will probably end up wishing we had two coffee makers. I just keep reminding myself that it is good for them to learn to share and we are building character:).

We were reading our "cookie book" the other day and N jumped up to pretend to cook something so we decided to make cupcakes together. They thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes and so did I:).

Here are also some pictures of our "preschool" time together this morning. Our preschool is very spontaneous and normally happens when they are interested in doing something that fits in nicely with what we need to be learning anyway. We have lots of fun learning letters and letter sounds and also numbers and counting. The dad likes to read counting books with them, which I don't enjoy as much, so that works out pretty well. Most of what we learn just happens very naturally in our day to day playing and living and we all love it....and yes, they both love wearing my reading glasses, although I am sure it is very difficult for them to see while wearing them:).

And now, I am going to go have a cupcake before the boys wake up from their nap:).

September 5, 2008

We were busy busy busy last week so this week we have been taking it easy. My mom and sister came to visit last Thursday, two other families came for a play on Friday and then our friends from K.C. came on Saturday and stayed until Monday afternoon. The boys have been having a blast (so did I:) but we all ended up with colds this week so we have been laying low.

It is finally cooling off around here so we went shopping for fall/winter clothes for the boys yesterday. Fun times. Today we had another play date and I am very thankful that tomorrow is Saturday:).

I have not been blogging much lately because I am spending what little free time reading about the current political happenings and watching the speeches. I am a political junkie so this is my super bowl season:).

Don't have much time, since nap times are so short these days, so I will post a few pics and sign off til later.

August 25, 2008

A funny thing happened in the bathroom this morning. As all mom's of small children know, it is pretty much impossible to go to the bathroom without company during these days of toddlerhood. So today I went to the bathroom and, just after I sat down, Ben came in, pulled up a small stool and said, with a big grin, "Let's talk." That was a first and I couldn't help but laugh. I said "OK, what would you like to talk about?" and he said, with another big grin, "Porcupine."

This is such a cute age:). The boys are so much fun. I love to watch them play together. They are really enjoying each other these days, when they are not aggravating each other:). Three times now I have heard one of them (usually Nick) ask the other one (usually Ben), "Can I play/sit/read with you?" and the response was "Yes, please." I just heard it again this morning when Ben was getting up in a chair to play with this Leapfrog alphabet toy and Nick asked if he could play too. I love hearing them be nice and sweet to each other.

Favorite things to play these days are:

bus - lining up the tall chairs for the island, bringing along some stuff animals or the boy dolls that Aunt Kathy gave them, one of them (usually Ben) with the little steering wheel toy that makes noises like a big truck. If Nick gets the steering wheel first, Ben just can't stand it. Eventually Nick usually gives in and gives it to Ben and then everything is once again peaceful. This happened just today and, once Nick gave the toy to Ben, Ben said "I so happy now!".

shopping - they take their shopping carts and drive them around the house, pretending to shop for groceries or other things. They also like for me to write out a grocery list for each of them sometimes.

driving - they frequently pretend they are driving their trikes, 'bike' or big truck to the grocery store, Home Depot, Sam's Club, daddy's office or to Aunt Kathy and Mama's house. This can keep them busy for quite some time. They will also take other toys or animals along with them sometimes. They are getting better at pedaling now and they practice this while they are driving to where ever they happen to be going. They always tell me, multiple times, "goodbye" or "see you later".

trucks - they enjoy getting all of their matchbox-size cars and trucks and playing with them on the couch. They make mountains and valleys from the cushions and pillows and they have a ball.

trains - they enjoy playing with their train table and have started putting together long lines of trains and moving them around the tracks.

dress up - they dress up in the dad's old ties, any hats that happen to be laying around and their policeman, fireman and cowboy dress up clothes and they pretend to ride horses or motorcycles.

cooking - they love pretending they are cooking up all kinds of foods and then bringing them for me or anyone else who happens to be here to taste.

other - they also enjoy coloring, cutting, pasting, painting and putting together puzzles.

outside - they love being outside, although we have not been out quite as much lately. Now that it has cooled down a bit, we will start getting out every day again. They love playing in the water (pool, hose, sprinkler, spray bottles, etc.), in their sand box, on their swing set/slide, with their wagon, and with all of the other little push and ride on toys. They enjoy digging in the dirt and playing mud pies, coloring with chalk on the sidewalks and blowing bubbles. I have been wanting to get them this for quite a while now. The dad just agreed yesterday that we could go ahead and get it but now I can't find the deal I had found before so I don't know what I am going to do now. I'm thinking about it but I think it might be a good thing to have, since we will be homeschooling and they can't really ride bikes around here safely. We really need to have some things they can do to get some good exercise. I'll have to think about it some more though.

In other news, Ben has had a few accidents lately. I think it is confusing for him because we use pull ups when we go to church and some other places where bathrooms may not be easily available. We are back to square one with Nick. He is now wearing diapers again and he is very happy about it. He wants to lay down for his diaper change and will say "I baby". Not sure what this is all about but he has clearly regressed and is enjoying it. I thought he might refuse to wear the diaper and want to start going to the bathroom like a big boy but NOT. I guess he is just not ready yet. I have no doubt that he can do it if he wants to. He just gets busy playing and does not want to stop to go to the bathroom. Ben will say "I big boy" and I praise him for going to the potty. But today, after he had had an accident, he said he wanted to wear a diaper. I did not let him and I told him he is a big boy and knows how to use the potty and he seemed OK with it. It is a difficult situation, since they are so close in age but I am not ready to go back to square one with both of them. He is normally pretty good about it though. I think I will retrain Nick after he turns three and the holidays are over, unless he shows interest again before then.

Our friends from Kansas City are coming to visit for Labor Day weekend. I am so looking forward to seeing them. The kids will have a ball together and it will be nice to catch up with my friend. We are also planning a short vacation sometime in September, although the details are still a bit fuzzy. It will be nice to get away though. It's been a long time.

Naps these days are getting shorter and shorter. I am lucky if I get an hour to an hour and a half for a break. I miss my breaks, although I am thankful the boys are playing together more these days. They are also very funny and fun to hang out with but I am not getting done all that I need to get done. They are napping now but not for long.

I must get busy now. Sorry I am not updating as much these days. With the shorter naps, too many things to do on my list and all of the election news to keep up with, I don't have much time left for updating now days. I have more pictures to post but will have to do it later. See ya!

August 17, 2008 Part 3

The dad took these pictures. The boys are still in their P.J.'s so this must have been in the morning. Not sure where I was at the time but they were having fun.















Pretending to drive a bus.




















I have no idea what the attraction is to sitting under the table while eating a snack. They are waiting for me to be ready to go somewhere and, for some reason, this is a popular thing to do these days. If you look closely, you can see that they are holding hands and Nick has his eyes closed and is praying.


Dancer was sitting in this basket and Nick decided that he wanted to sit with him. I was surprised that Dancer hung around for this close-up attention from Nick but I think Dancer really likes Nick most of the time.










This is my nephew, reading to Ben, as Ben is dressed up in his police uniform. They are starting to really get into the dress-up thing now days.



And here is a picture of my sister, with Nick on her back and Ben standing on her legs, as she crawls around the room giving a horse ride. Ben was pulling her pants down and he is quite heavy so I am sure he did not feel too good on her legs. She is quite the trooper:)!






Here is one of our painting sessions. Ben and I were using paint brushes. Nick was using his fingers and paint brushes.


















This is the fish I painted this time.













Here are the yummy muffins I made. We ate them while they were still warm, while we were painting. They are chocolate chip, banana walnut muffins:). (must have chocolate!)











Here is Ben, just as his new black eye was starting to emerge. You can still see the bruise on top of his scar too.




One day we just got out a bunch of craft supplies and started gluing and coloring. The boys had fun but I did not have any crafty ideas that we could make. Now I have this book so we will have good projects for a while.











Ben got caught up in the spider web I made:).















And here is the spider.












Unfortunately, none of this was any where near toddler proof so it didn't last very long. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

August 17, 2008 Part 2

I'm back from nap duty and have thought of a couple more things I want to document.

Ben thinks he is so funny these days. He will do something, laugh at himself and say "I funny!", with a great big smile. He cracks me up. Other things he says a lot these days is "mommy, come see!" and "you like it?". He is still stuck on this porcupine thing and, most of the time, that is the answer to the question "what would you like to eat for breakfast/lunch?". It is also the answer to any question to which he does not know the answer and it is normally accompanied by his big, beautiful smile.

Ben has this thing about computers. He just can't seem to resist pushing buttons, even though he knows it is a no no. Today, I caught him (again) playing with the dad's computer and I disciplined him for it, as he knows very well will happen in this situation. I was holding him afterwards and he said "I turn three, I computer, I turn three". I cracked up laughing. He knows that when he turns three he gets to start watching a little tv so I guess he thought he might also try for a computer of his own. He wants one "like daddy's" because, as he says, "I wike it best". I saw a Leap Frog type letter/phonics-learning thing at the homeschooling consignment store yesterday for $10 and I almost bought it. It opens up like a computer and it has a small (very small) screen in the part that folds down. It also has a keyboard of sorts so it looks very much like a laptop. I know he would love this thing and now I'm wishing I would have bought it. I'll have to go back over there sometime and see if they still have it or something similar. His birthday is at the end of September so it will be here before we know it.

This morning at breakfast, Nick said "I want milk please". Both boys are doing very well with their pleases and thank you's, although they are still learning when to use want, would like, etc.

It is so funny having toddlers because, one day, you are suddenly hit square between the eyes with something you have been saying all the time but you never realized you said it that much. The word that recently hit me in the eyes is "need". Suddenly, out of the blue, both boys started saying "I need that", "I need to..." or "but I neeeeeeed it", etc. to me and to each other. It really cracked me up because it made me realize how often I tell them they need to do so and so or I need to do so and so. Very funny. The other popular thing to say now, if things are not going just the way one of them wants it too, is "I so sad". This is usually Nick's saying and he says it with so much inflection and meaning in his voice that it just takes everything I have in me not to crack up laughing, especially since it is usually said about something really funny, like the cat does not want Nick's display of affection, or Nick does not get his way about something he wants. Very funny. I really love it that they can communicate so well now. It is so much fun. I frequently tell them that they are two of my favorite people in the whole wide world. So now they will sometimes, out of the blue, say "mommy, whole wide world". Very cute. Nick is especially very affectionate these days. He is definitely our little touchy-feely guy but Ben does not appreciate it much when Nick is touchy-feely-huggy with him. On the other hand, Ben does need a lot of hugs and holdings at various times too.

In other news, the dad is working on finishing up the master bathroom floor, from the tiling project. He is still doing hospital duty, rounds every morning, on-call until 6:00pm weekdays and all night on Sat/Sun...or something like that. We have had a lot of things interfere with finishing up the bathroom floor, most significantly the dad's recent hospitalization. But he has it almost finished. He has put all the baseboards back up, the nail holes are caulked and he is now doing the final touch-up painting and some final caulking. He has done a beautiful job and the tile looks really nice. He really pays attention to the details and does a wonderful job. We are both very pleased with the tile that we picked. It ended up looking very nice in our bathroom.

I have a list of things that I need to finish but I can't seem to spend enough time on any one thing to be able to mark it off my (mental) list. I really need to write down my list, as I might be more focused and be able to accomplish more that way. I am still working on analyzing our grocery bill and we still have more work to do on our budget. I am still working on lifebooks for the boys and am feeling very guilty that I am not further along. At some point soon, I will need to start shopping for fall clothes for the boys, as I am sure nothing from last year will fit them. There are many of other things on my list of to-do's but those are my top priorities right now.

Pictures to come. Happy Sunday!

August 17, 2008

....so little time. There is not enough time in a day to do all of the fun things that there are to do these days.

The boys and I have been having a great time lately. After receiving some great advice from an experienced homeschooling mom and also reading the articles on this site: http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/early.htm, I have changed my philosophy on my homeschooling approach for preschool...or maybe it is that I have finally come to a conclusion regarding my homeschooling approach for preschool. Either way, it is a good thing.

Most (pretty much all:) people that I know who have children 3 to 4 years old are sending their kids to preschool one, two or three days a week. So, I started really feeling some pressure (from myself!) to start 'doing preschool' at home a couple of days a week. I kept thinking about it and pondering it and wondering if I should start this but, after the advice and the articles I mentioned above I am no longer putting pressure on myself about this.

Our approach with preschool homeschooling is that we are pretty much not going to do it:). What we will do is lots and lots of reading, cutting, coloring, reading, running, jumping, skipping (once they learn how:), reading, painting, playing with playdough and modeling clay, reading, going to the zoo, museums, parks, the library, reading, etc.....pretty much what we have already been doing:). Doesn't that sound like fun?

I am really excited and having fun with the boys again, now that I am no longer worried about 'doing preschool' at home. The really neat thing about it is that I finally realized that we were already doing all of the things we need to be doing and we just need to keep doing it. We need to do more field trips type things (zoo, museums, library, etc.) but, other than that, we are doing great and the boys are learning all kinds of things along the way.

We are really getting into the painting thing lately. I really enjoy it a lot and could spend a lot more time doing it if the boys had longer attention spans. Yesterday I visited the local homeschool consignment store and got some great deals on some simple art books. One of them shows great examples of some simple things to make with finger paints. Another one shows some great things to make with playdough, which will be very fun. The third one has lots of great projects, from drawing and coloring to painting and also making crafts. We are going to have a great time with each of these books.

The weather here is now a bit cooler and more tolerable. I am not much of a morning person so I really prefer to have our outdoor time in the afternoon, after nap. The cooler weather helps with this. Yesterday I showed the boys how to make mud pies:). Now that is the first time I have made mud pies since I was a little bitty kid and we had a ball! They really enjoyed it. After we were done, we hosed them down and then put them in for a quickie shower with the dad. That was the first time they took a shower and they really enjoyed it.

One of the things I love about kids this age is how any new thing is such a novelty to them and will keep them busy for the longest time. It does not have to be anything fancy or special. I can just find something in the back of a kitchen cabinet and pull it out and they have a blast. The other day they were having a grand time with the colanders and one day they had a fun time with these two little lunch type bags that keep food cold. It really does not take much.

Another thing I found at the homeschooling consignment store is a set of sequence puzzles. Each puzzle has three pieces and, when you put them together in the correct sequence, they show a "story". An example of one: the first pieces has a picture of a caterpillar crawling along a leaf; the second piece has a picture of the caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon and the third piece has a picture of the butterfly that the caterpillar has become. The boys really like these more than I thought they would. This morning they spent quite a long time working the puzzles. When they finish putting one together, they want me to tell the "story". They love that part. I had been wanting something like this for quite a while and I got this yesterday for $5, which I thought was pretty good.

In other news, Ben is sporting his second black eye in the 20 months that he has been home. We went to "the jumpy place" the other day. That's the indoor jumping place where they have those big blow up things that kids can play on. Ben was jumping off one of them onto the floor and he fell and hit the side of his face, just beside his eye. This happened when he still had a nasty looking bruise on the other side of his face, right on top of the scar where the mole was, from a fall he had at the mall play area. Fortunately, the first bruise was pretty faint by the time the black eye really made it's appearance. I was telling someone about it over the phone the other day and B was listening to my conversation. I said "poor kid!" as I was telling the story and B turned around and smiled at me, laughed and said "no poor kid!". It was funny. They are talking so much these days....I know I say that every time. It still just amazes me how well they communicate already.

As for the potty training, we are basically back to square one with Nick. He just does not have the time nor the desire to go to the potty, unless we are out and about and Ben has to go. They both like seeing all of the public bathrooms so they do great when we are not home. At home, Nick might as well be in a diaper these days and we are discussing doing just that. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not so sure that Nick would really care one way or the other but I really cringed at the thought of doing that to him at this point.... mostly because I think he understands potty training and he can do it if he wants to....he is just not interested just yet. He does not turn three until mid November so I think he is still somewhat young. I am content to let him continue to wear his pull ups. They are easier, he can undress himself, which he likes, and he does not have to lay down (like a baby) when he is changed. The dad was pondering this too and was wondering if it might be a good incentive for Nick to put him back in diapers and lay him down to change him, so he sees the distinct difference between himself and Ben. I have thought this too, at times when my frustration level was high, but I am pretty much past that and I have just accepted that he will start going when he is ready. What do you think? I would be interested in hearing the opinions of other experienced mom's out there, especially those with boys.

Ben, on the other hand, is really doing very well. He usually just runs in the bathroom, pulls down his pants and goes when he needs to go. He might or might not yell "I have to pee/poop" on his way to the bathroom. If he does yell it, he will also yell "coming?". But other times, he just disappears and I later see him come out, naked from the waist down, saying "mommy, I done!", with a big smile on his face. He still has an occasional pee accident, although I am not quite sure they are truly accidents so much as on purpose to get attention. When it happens, he is usually standing at the bathroom door or just in front of his potty chair and when he tells me about it, he has a huge smile on his face, as he says "mommy, I pee pee floor". And it is that kind of smile that says "look at me, look what I did, isn't that funny?". I believe I am correct in my interpretation of this, since I have seen him have one accident that truly was an accident, when we were at church one day, and he was not happy about it at all. But, the vast majority of the time, he is an ace at going to the potty and I am very appreciative that he is doing so well. If both boys were doing what Nick is doing, I would have put them back in diapers and waited a while before trying again.

I have nap duty today so I must run now but I plan to post a bunch of pics a little later.

August 12, 2008

Whew! I have been so busy lately that I just never feel like I have any time to sit down and relax, much less update the blog. We have not been doing anything special, just living every day life, but boy has it been busy.

One of my nieces is starting college on Thursday at a university near our house. She went to church with us on Sunday and has been hanging out with us a couple of days. The freshmen move into the dorm earlier for freshmen orientation so she had a couple of free days to hang out with us. We really enjoyed having her here and are happy that she will be so close by. The boys love having her around and I enjoy her company too.

My brother has also been around some, as he has a friend who has been in the hospital in our city. My brother has been hanging out with his friend at the hospital during the days and then staying here at night.

My sister, her two kids and my mom also came and spent the night with us one night recently, which was nice. So we have had a lot of company and the boys have been in heaven having so many people to play with and entertain them.

Speaking of the boys, they have really been getting along nicely lately. I'm not sure if this is just a fluke or if maybe they are hitting an age where they are playing together better or what, but it sure has been nice.

Nick is really turning into quite the little helper around the house these days. He wants to help me do everything from laundry to cooking and putting away dishes and loading the dishwasher. He can really do quite a bit too. I am going to have to start working on Ben though, as he tends to disappear during these times and does not seem to be the type to hang around and want to help as much. They often go through various phases at different times though so I am thinking maybe that is all it is....although he is sometimes less than happy to help out when it is time to pick up toys.

Speaking of picking up toys, the boys are both getting pretty good at doing more and more on their own. We sometimes have a pick-up-toys-time just before nap and then we normally have one just before the dad gets home from work. It is getting to the point where I can tell them it's clean up time and I don't have do spend quite as much time giving them specific instructions.

They talk all the time these days. When we are riding in the car, they normally talk to each other or to me. They were very excited to see the school buses out today, as schools are starting here this week.

We let them watch some of the Olympics the other night and they really enjoyed it. They were pretending to dive into the water. The living room floor was the water.

They are asking to watch more TV these days so we have told them that when they turn three years old they can start watching 30 minutes a day.

Well, it's bedtime and I hear some crying going on so I must sign off. It is also my night to sit with the boys while they fall asleep. We now take our laptop up with us and play songs for them. They love it! And they settle down and go to sleep pretty quickly. Gotta go now.

August 2, 2008

I have a cold and my throat feels yucky. I thought Nick was having allergy problems but, turns out, he caught a cold, probably from church last Sunday, and now I have it too and the dad's throat is not feeling too great either. So, not much going on around here today, other than just trying to get some rest and trying to have more patience than I feel like having.

For lack of anything else to say, here are some pictures for your entertainment:).























Playing 'train'.


















Ben loves 'driving' and constantly asks to go back to our friends' house to drive the car.







The boys had a very fun time pretending that their stickers were bandaids and they were hurt. They kept coming to tell me 'I hurt mommy', in this little, pitiful voice.










The dad was getting ready to go out for his early morning bike ride, before it got too hot. They each have one of his bike shoes on and they are trying to tie a bow.




Here we are painting. We all really enjoyed this and I'm sure we will do it more often, now that we have some paints and paintbrushes. I especially enjoyed this and would really like to take some art classes someday. I have never taken an art class in my life but I just have this feeling that there is some sort of art person locked up inside me:).

































Here is my finished painting. I think it would have turned out better if I had not been sharing paints with a 2 year old. The boys kept mixing the colors so I would go to get a nice bright orange and end up with brown.

My husband said he thought we should frame this picture and hang it in the boys' bedroom. I asked him if he was making fun of me but he said he really meant it, he thought it was good. Makes me want to try again with my own set of paints:).

July 29, 2008

Did I mention it is very hot here? Whew! I am so thankful that we have air conditioning. It is so hot that I pretty much have to get the kids outside in the mornings because the afternoons are just crazy hot. The weird thing is that it often feels very humid outside and yet my lips are chapped, my feet are cracking and my sinuses are totally messed up, all indications that it is very dry inside our house at least. Nick is also suffering from some bad allergies and/or messed up sinuses. His nose ran all day today and he complains about his eyes hurting when it is bedtime/nap time. Poor little guy.

We played outside this morning and the boys had a great time playing in the water, spraying the hose, playing in the sandbox and swinging. We really need some trees out back around the swing set though. It gets too hot to swing quickly if you are the one pushing the swings, although those little guys riding in the swings don't seem to notice or mind much.

We have several trees that we thought had some type of fungus. I had called several arborists, trying to get someone to come look at them, and nobody called me back. I finally found one who actually answered my call yesterday and came by this morning. Turns out several of our trees are still in distress from damage done when they built our house, long before we came along. One of the trees in our side yard is losing leaves like crazy. It most likely will not make it through the hot month of August, although if it does, it might be able to pull through. Anyway, the guy was really nice and provided me with a lot of information about the issues our trees are having and the best way to deal with it. He did not charge anything either. When I asked him what he charged he said not to worry about it this time and just to keep him in mind if/when we have more business for him in the future. We will likely hire him to do some special root feeding in the fall, which might help save the other trees. We really need to plant some trees.

I took the boys to the mall to play this evening. The dad had to work late so we ate at the mall food court and then the boys played for a while. It made for a much more relaxing evening for me, although I think we were all tired when we got home.

I have started singing songs to the boys at night, when they are lying in bed, the lights are out, and I am sitting in the chair in their room with them until they fall asleep. We spend the first 10 or 15 minutes singing songs and I think it really relaxes them and helps them fall asleep sooner. I think their favorite song is still I Dig Dirt but they also really like this porcupine song that my sister made up for them when she was babysitting for us recently. She is so funny. I love her sense of humor.

We are going to my sister's house to visit her family and my mom and another niece tomorrow. I think we are anyway. My sister's daughter had her wisdom teeth out today so we'll see how she is doing tomorrow before we take off. If we go, it will be the first trip we have taken out of our little city in our new van.

Something I wrote up above reminded me of something funny that Nick said the other evening, when we were reading stories before bedtime. I can't remember the sentence exactly but he was talking about something we had done the evening before and it called it "yesternight". I just love to listen to them working out how to put sentences together. Ben said something yesterday that was a very good sentence but some of the words were in the wrong place in the sentence, which made it funny, with his 2 year old cuteness. I should have written it down because I can't remember it now but I was impressed that he had all of the right words in the sentence, even if they were in the wrong order.

Well, I have not been very good about updating lately...must get better at this, but it is late and I'm exhausted, as usual:) so I am off to bed.

July 13, 2008

Not much new to report around here. We have had a pretty laid-back weekend. I took the boys to the park Saturday morning and we arrived early enough that nobody else was there. The boys had a great time and it was relaxing for me, not having to watch them quite so closely. It was also nice and cool out, although that does not last for long around here these days. The highlight of our park visit for the boys was swinging on the "big boy" swings. They really enjoyed swinging on the big kid swings and I enjoyed it too. It had been a while since I had been swinging and it was fun to go high again:). Nothing quite like that feeling. I think we are now ready to take down the baby swings and put up the big-kid swings here at home.

On the potty training front, things are going very well these days. Nothing has changed with Ben; he hardly ever has an accident. The only accident he has had in quite some time was last Sunday, just after we picked him up from his class. One of the caretakers had said to me that Ben had gone to the bathroom "all by himself" and I wondered what she meant because he can't pull his pants up completely, all by himself. I think he probably went into the bathroom all by himself and that is all he did. He was wearing a pull up, which we are still using for 'just in case' situations. Right after we picked him up, he said he needed to go potty so the dad took him to the bathroom, which was about two feet away. Before they were able to get his pants down, he had an accident and it went everywhere. Since he was wearing a pull up, it seems they probably had not taken him in quite some time. I'm not surprised though because his class has some kids who are potty trained, some who are potty training and some who are in diapers. The caregivers during the first hour of the class are the same every week so they know the kids, who is doing what and who to take to the potty. The second hour is with parents of take turns volunteering each week and they do not know the status of all the kids so you just never know whether they will take them or not.

Nick has been doing much better though. I decided to chill out and let him take the lead. I now ask him if he wants to wear a pull up or underwear and he chooses. He usually chooses a pull up but he normally keeps it dry all day, even during naps. It is kind of interesting that, when I started paying very little attention to his potty training, other than complimenting his efforts and success, he started doing better. Now he is having very few accidents and has not pooped in his pants for several days. His timing is not great though. He always needs to poop just before nap and night time bed time...and he is not just faking it, he really has to go. Maybe it is because he hardly ever slows down during the rest of the day. Anyway, they are both doing very well and they really like telling me what big boys they are.

On the crib VS bed issue, we are back to sitting in their room with them until they they fall asleep, for naps and bedtime. They are happy to be in their cribs but I think it is because they are very into the challenge of climbing and jumping these days. They can climb out of them now so we are now leaving the side of the crib down to make it easier. They really like it down so it is an incentive to lie down and be quiet. At nap times, they fall asleep very fast. At bedtime, not so much and it doesn't seem to matter what time we put them down, although they are a lot more cranky when they go down later.