January 25, 2009

One of my nieces came to stay with us for a couple of days this past week, which was wonderful. The boys really enjoyed playing with her and I enjoyed her company also. I was also able to take some time out to declutter the house, which felt great.

I recently ordered a few new (new to us but used:) books for the boys so we were receiving a book here and a book there all week and it felt like Christmas:). I so enjoy receiving new books and the boys get real excited about new books too.

I dropped by my favorite used bookstore yesterday to see if they might have the Square Foot Gardening book. They did not have it but I ran across a new kid's section where they are now separating out kid's books that have won awards so I had fun looking through those. I found the book "The Mitten" (I think that's the name), which is an adorable Ukranian folktale. When I got home, the boys wanted me to read it to them right away and then they asked us to read it to them several more times that evening. They really liked it. It is a cute story. I did not find the gardening book I was looking for though so I am thinking about ordering it. It looked like it would be a good book to have, since I really want to start doing a bit of gardening (vegetables).

The boys are both doing great and we have not had any further illnesses around here, after our couple of colds at the beginning of the winter, for which I am very thankful. Ben continues to do wonderfully with the potty training, especially if the reward is an M&M or gummy bear. Nick has really surprised me at how well he has done lately, most likely due to the candy rewards. He is still very hit or miss, however, and he wears pull ups full time. Ben wears them if we are going out to church or somewhere where a bathroom might not be easily available, although I think we are probably being overly cautious with this, as he is quite good at waiting until we can get to the bathroom when he needs to go.

The boys have so much fun playing together now. I am always hearing one of them call the other by name and say "let's play puzzles" or "let's play trucks" or any number of other things they like to play together. They play very nicely together most of the time, although they have their moments, like all children

One of the things they like to do now is a little flip-over thing when they are jumping on their mini-trampoline. It has a rail for them to hold while they are jumping and they like to pull their legs up, put them over the rail and then push off and flip their legs over their head and land on their feet. My niece was showing them how to do it and helping them learn when she was here last week and now they are pretty good at it.

As for bedtime, it seems we are regressing in that department. We never made any further progress really so we decided to move the chair back into their room today, although I'm not so sure I have given up on this completely yet. I am still considering finding some kind of stories for them to listen to while they fall asleep. That might be just what we need to keep them in their beds. If anyone has any other solutions, I would love to hear them.

I really have mixed feelings about it because I know this is just a temporary age-related issue. I have recently thought I should just enjoy it while it lasts and maybe read to them or something, while they are falling asleep. I think I will pray about it for a while before I make a decision about which way to go next.

As for eating, they still pretty much eat anything and everything. We were at a Home and Garden show yesterday, the boys were hungry for their snack, we had accidentally left their bag with the snacks in the car and it was very cold outside. So we stop by the snack bar to see what they had to offer. They had the usual menu of burgers, hotdogs and such. When we were standing there reading the menu, Nick said "I want rice and broccoli". We usually have pizza on Saturday evenings and last night was no different. I usually fix a salad to go with it, so it is not 100% unhealthy. Last night I fixed a big salad and I like to put a little fruit in with all of the veggies. Ben ended up eating a huge bowl of salad, while a slice of pizza sat on his plate untouched. I think he may have finally eaten it, once he finished his salad. That child really amazes me though. He would be quite happy as a vegetarian, I believe. He eats tons of fruit and veggies. I always give him big servings of veggies with our meals and he normally asks for more. When we have a snack, they will both frequently ask for baby carrots with whatever else they are eating.

We were eating out one day and the dad had spinach on his plate...the cooked kind that Popeye used to eat. They wanted to know what it was and then they wanted to try it and they both said they liked it. I, on the other hand, don't even like to look at it:). They like to eat and they like to try new things, although there have been a couple of times recently when Ben said "I don't like that" when I put something new on his plate. I told him that I knew he would like it if he tried it because it was really yummy so he tried it and he did indeed like it. There was something recently though that I told him I didn't think he would like....can't remember what it was now. He tried it anyway and, I was right, he didn't like it.

Well, I think I have sufficiently made up for my lack of posts lately so I had better sign off for now and go spend some time with my cuties.