10 on Tuesday

1. Sunday at the Symphony in the Park, Luke saw a bottle of wine that Erin had brought. He pointed it out to her and adamantly declared, "Mommy drink! Mommy drink!" Ha!

2. After two years of living in denial, I finally cleared out my closet of all the many beautiful shoes that my fat, post-pregnancy feet will no longer fit. ::sob:: These I will miss the most.



3. Joseph has a tendency to add an extra syllable to some words, particularly 'uh' and particularly at the end of words. For instance, when he hears a loud bang he immediately points in it's direction and says, "Bonk-uh head!" I think it's because he's a little on the clutsy side and every time he falls or trips he thinks he bonks his head. But it's not always at the end. When he says "buh-loo", it always takes me a second to realize he's saying "blue" and not "balloon". It's adorable.

4. The speed at which they learn is always amazing to me. Joseph now knows the entire alphabet and will orient the little foam letters in the proper way for each. Luke knows most of it - it's really hard to tell exactly how much because he's not as forthcoming about it as Joseph is. They count to ten, but Joseph skips the number 5, and Luke skips 3. What really surprised me was the other day. They climb down the stairs backward and tend to count each step as they go. I was expecting them to stop or start over at 10. Instead they went on counting! 'leven, twell, tirteen... They skipped around in the order and half-mumbled some of them, but surprise! They know some double digits. They're getting better at their colors. Oddly enough, they're really good at identifying pink.

5. I stumbled across this old video yesterday, and OMG...

• It's proof that little Luke wasn't always terrified of the happy birthday tune.
• He's actually in tune. And
• LOOK HOW TINY THEY WERE! Ah, kills me! So sweet at almost 3 months old that it pings the old ovaries.
  

6. We really have to watch what we say around the boys now. While I was driving the other day, Luke suddenly starts yelling, "Come on, cars!" I'm just glad that was all he yelled. Mommy has a lot of work to do on her driving etiquette... And then we were changing one of Joseph's particularly nasty diapers, and Luke comes running up, points at the mess and yells, "OH GAWD!" as if he were really horrified by what he saw. What?!? I honestly don't know where he picked that up, but now we're hard at work trying to change it to "Oh gosh!" Oops.

7. I think I've mentioned before that they call each other and themselves DeeDee. The other day we were at our friend Erin's house. Erin was trying to figure out if her son knew which boy was Luke and which was Joseph so she pointed to Luke and asked her son, "Who's that, Connor? Who's that?" Luke looked at her sincerely, pointed to himself and said, "DeeDee. DeeDee." And when they call out to each other, it's usually with a long, drawn out DeeeeDeeeeee. We love it.

Well, just yesterday it appears that Joseph has mastered the concept of formal nouns, specifically his & his brother's real names. He started pointing to Luke and very carefully & slowly enunciating each letter, "LLLUUUUKKKE" This morning he grabbed Luke's water cup, handed it to him and said, "LLUUKKE cup!" When I handed him his own and asked whose it was he said, "Joz[somethingIcouldn'tunderstand]" His name is going to be hard since they haven't quite mastered the 's' or 'f' sounds. Greg and I are actually pretty sad to see DeeDee start to go so we're using it a bit more in an effort to keep it alive.

8. Speaking of the 's' sound, Joseph & Luke are working hard on it. Their tongues get in the way, giving them cute lisps. Love it!

9. The day Greg has been looking forward to since before the boys were even born has come. They now help us CLEAN! Every night before heading upstairs, they help us collect their toys and put them away. They're also a bit obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and dust buster. Fits right into Greg's master plan of having a small army of little helpers under our roof.

10. And now here's a super-long video from tonight for the grandmas (because I suspect it's too boring for most other people). You can see how they sing with Greg, know their sign language, practice their colors (green-uh!) and the letter 's'. Yippee!




The boys are 2 years (+ 2.5 weeks) old.

Daddy Dash 5K

Our gym organized a small (tiny) 5K in honor of Father's Day this weekend. Strollers were encouraged. Doubles got a 2-minute advantage and singles got one.

As Greg was the only one pushing a double, he had to set out on his own two minutes before 9 with no one else to spur him on. In the heat, against the wind and pushing 65 lbs of boy. I was glad to be playing photographer instead of running in this one.

But Greg did great! There was one woman - all bone and muscle - who passed him. Other than that, the path was clear.



A speedy blur about the cross the finish line



We had practiced yelling, "Come on, Daddy! Come on!" in preparation. We'll have to coach them with more chants for the next race. It can't hurt, right.

My guys

Great way to start the weekend!

The boys are 2 (+2 weeks).

Our Day in Photos

Yesterday I finally read a few short articles on tips for how to use my fancy dSLR camera. I've had it over 2 years and have always relied on the auto settings, not once consulting a manual or even attempting to understand what all those buttons and symbols mean. Then for Christmas, Greg got me a 50 mm 1:1.8 lens that I've been dying to use. However, there's no autofocus with my camera body and getting non-blurry shots is no trivial matter. Out of 20, I'd maybe get one decent photo.

Well, I'm still not getting that many decent photos, but yesterday I tried using a "semi-automatic" mode, the shutter priority mode. It was tricky, but focus seems to be a little easier and I got a few shots that were a little better.

Here's the article I primarily used. And here are some of the products. (They come out a little grainy in blogger. Boo! But they're still cute.)

Greg set up a train track upstairs so it's now the first and last thing they do every day.

Hair envy

Wrestling with Daddy

I know I've said this a time or two before, but I am so very in love with these boys.


Joseph & Luke are 2 years old.

Ten on Tuesday

1. On April 29th, Greg and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Five years! I can't believe it's been that long. I can't believe how blessed I am, how much we've done together in such a short time, how lucky we are to have this relationship, this family, this much love.

My sweet surprise

I love you, Greg.


2. It's early May. And it's hot! Hot and dry. Time to bust out the water toys.


They are much more interested in using the hose to fill up their pool than actually playing in the pool. Typical.



3. Every drink they see in Mommy's hand is either coffee or wine. I know I should be slightly ashamed of this fact, but honestly I just find it funny.


4. This picture was taken just a few minutes before Joseph took a horrible tumble down our deck steps.

He was in the Cozy Coupe, and one of the wheels must have inched it's way off the edge. I saw it all happen in slow motion but wasn't fast enough. Poor baby got a good scrape across his nose, but thank goodness nothing else. We were so lucky. That car did an entire flip forward while I watched, helpless and scared to death. I cried about that fall on and off for the rest of the day and will have nightmares for a good long while. There is now a baby gate up at the top of those steps. It ticks them off something fierce but too bad, kiddos. Mama doesn't need a heart attack, and you don't need broken bones.

The most pitiful thing was Joseph's retelling of that story. Greg was holding him as he pointed down the stairs and repeated, "Staaaairs. Booooonk. Noooooose" in long, drawn-out, sad words. We know, buddy. And it was sad.


5. One of Luke's favorite activities is to run like a maniac, as fast as he can, from one end of a straight line to another. He's fast and coordinated and determined.

Little man on a mission

6. A few weeks ago we busted out some new bath toys, foam letters and numbers. In the process of playing with those, the boys seem to have learned a good chunk of their alphabet, which completely shocked Greg and I. Joseph is really studious and knows all of the following:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

They can't make the ess or eff sounds yet so no C, F, or S, and they call the X ek. Since they're foam letters, Joseph always turns M over to make W, and the J looks an awful lot like the L. They're still working on the distinction between U and V, which they call A much of the time. Luke can identify most of the same ones, but his favorites are I, O, R and X.


7. They'll both point and say letters that stand out in the books that we read. I'll be reading a Thomas the Tank Engine book with them. The first letter on each page is in a bigger font than all the others, so they point it out to me and shout the letter. They get it right more often than not. We have an old keyboard that Joseph plays with. He'll sit with it in his lap and point to different keys and say the letters. Who needs fancy flash cards?


8. We haven't been working too hard with the boys on their numbers, but Joseph understands the concept of two. He'll tell us he has two knees or two eyes. We have two cats. There are two cameras in his room (looking down into each of their cribs). It's very cute. I also occasionally hear him walking around saying, "...8, 9, 10." Three through 7 have gone AWOL apparently.


9. Luke is very particular about what he wears. Or rather, when he sees a favorite article of clothing, he'll insist on wearing it right then, which explains why when Greg came home yesterday, he walked in to find Luke in his flannel footy dog pajamas. Others he likes: his long-sleeved Elmo shirt, his tractor shirt, his truck pajamas, and mommy's purple shirt.



10. They have learned the power of hugs and aren't afraid to use it. When Joseph gets a boo-boo, he tells us about it, like Ninger. Ouch. or Head. Bonk. Then he sticks out his bottom lip, lifts his arms up to us, and plaintively says Hug. Of course, we oblige. But then he started using it at bedtime. Since we can't say no, it buys him a few more seconds before we tell him goodnight. And then this morning, he was being chastised for something by daddy. His response? Hug. Ha! Luke tried his hand at it this morning to get out of a diaper change. If it's a choice between that and pitching fits, I'll take hugs please.


The boys are 23 months and a bit.

Back Yard Bettering

In the interest of reviving this sad, neglected blog, I'm going to tell you about our super-productive week-end. Complete with pictures even!

Before getting into the productive stuff though, check out the boys' new toys. Their Grandpa Mac, who they lovingly call MAC!, brought these for them a few visits ago. They've been through each of his grandchildren and now it's the boys' turn to try to destroy them. Yay!


They're learning words like "gear shift" and "steering wheel" and "horn" thanks to this car. They love that horn.


Ok, back to the productive bit...

I've been in a crunchy kind of mood lately. And when I'm in a crunchy mood, Greg gets worried. It inevitably means he'll be roped into crunchy diy projects, projects like starting our own composting heap! Oh yes.

My grandpa used to compost. He'd dig a big ol' hole in the ground of his lush backyard and bury left-over food scraps in there. When it was full, he'd fill it in and dig another one. Since our backyard seems to consist of mostly rock covered with a smattering of dirt, we have to devise other means of crunchification.

After doing a bit of reading on the interwebz, I came across a remarkably simple set of instructions that involve a 30+ gallon trash can with lid ($15 at Lowes), a handsaw or serrated knife or strong pair of scissors and a drill. Oh! And a husband willing to manhandle all of these things so my nails remain intact.

First, use that handsaw/knife/scissors to cut the bottom off of the trash can.

Joseph, ever the helpful little guy, directing Daddy in his work

Luke, who is kinda in love with that swing, swinging

Back to little boy cuteness...

Gosh, being a mom is distracting.

Ok, back to productivity...

Next, take that drill and poke many, little holes all throughout the trash can to allow air flow through your compost heap.

Bored of helping Daddy so it's time for a few laps around the yard.
I love, love, love that look of determination on his face.

Luke, showing me his battle scars
Poor guy did a back flip off a ramp at our local garden center.
He landed on his face.
It was not pretty.
The battle scars, not his face. His face is always pretty.

This is why we were at the garden center.
2 tomatoes, squash, bell pepper, rosemary & parsley
Me = excited

Next day (because when you have twin toddlers, things always take 300% longer than you think they should)...

Dude. You missed a spot.

Yeah, Dad. HUGE hole. Right there. Between your legs.

::grumble, grumble::tyrants::grumble, grumble::composting::grumble, grumble::football...

In a few short hours (spread over a couple of days) Greg graciously finished the composting bin, and now it lives behind our storage shed.

We added leaves, some grass clippings, a bit of old potting soil and our first table scraps. Then we hosed it down a bit because it should be slightly moist (like a squeezed-out sponge), and we'll turn the pile to mix everything up at least once a month. (Table scraps should always be buried in the mix to minimize bugs.) And in 6-8 months, we should have a nice bit of compost to spread around our yard.


Delayed gratification? Yes, but I'm still happy we finally started doing something. Ideally, I'd like to have a few more of these to help deal with all the yard trimmings and autumn leaves that we obviously never bothered to rake, but we can see how this goes first.


Oh, and this is the reason we planted our container garden on Saturday night after the boys had gone to bed.

Dirt! YES!!!

Ok, Dad, now what are you going to do about this overrun containing wall?

From the mouths of babes, right?


The boys are 21-ish months old.

Get A Haircut, Hippie!

As you can see, we've been putting off Joseph's first "official" haircut for far too long. The problem is I love his hair. It's so fine and soft and yummy, but it's been getting in the poor boy's eyes. And recently he's started pulling on it sooooo it's time...


I'm especially going to miss these wispy bits in the back. ::sigh::


It's only hair, right. (By the way, I recently gave my own a big chop too as you can see from the pics above. Seven inches! It feels fantastic and is so much easier, which means fewer ponytail days. Yay!)

For Joseph's big chop we took him to a cute, little place that caters specifically to children, Pigtails & Crewcuts. The place was p-a-c-k-e-d with last minute back-to-school kids. We had a 45-minute wait and were in dangerous naptime territory. Luckily the place is specifically designed for over-stimulation, from the retina-burning wall colors to the TVs playing movies to the walled off playroom in the back. Thankfully the boys had no trouble entertaining themselves while we waited.

When it was finally our turn, we got the taxi chair! (There was also an airplane and a fire truck, both admittedly WAY cooler than a taxicab, but we figured he wouldn't mind. At least we have a few years before we have to fight THAT battle.)

Joseph wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He was draped and dropped into the driver's seat but now what?

Daddy convincing Joseph how cool it was to drive

I missed what Joseph's stylist's name was. It sounded suspiciously close to "curry". She had many tattoos and piercing and was totally sweet and FAST. I guess you have to be for this job. She's laughing here because I was sitting with Luke in my lap. When I lifted the camera, the straps were dangling in front of his face so he stuck his head through them as if he were the photographer, instead of me.

It was cute. You had to be there.

Whatever Greg told Joseph, it worked because he was completely engrossed in driving that taxi. He didn't make a peep when she sprayed his head repeatedly with water.


In fact, most of the time when she was messing with his hair, he sat perfectly still. He probably loved every minute of it - definitely gets that from his daddy.


When the car eventually got stale, we busted out the pinwheels, buying "Curry" 5 more minutes of happy boy.

Dude, your mom's going to be pissed when she sees that marker all over your arms.

Meanwhile Luke may not have ridden in the taxi but not to worry. He was having a great time too. And it's a good thing because at this rate, it'll be YEARS before he finally needs a cut.


I'm so happy they're content just to live vicariously through each other at this stage. Makes life much more peaceful.

Joseph's cut lasted for a total of about 10 minutes. As she added the final touches (gel!), monsieur enjoyed a refreshing snack before he & his brother were chauffeured home to enjoy a 2-hour reprieve from their busy, busy day.


So first haircut experience = SUCCESS!

I wish I had thought to take a good 'after' photo, but I didn't. Needless to say, hair will no longer be encroaching on the poor boy's eyes and ears. For a little while at least.




My handsome little men are 14.5 months old.