Joseph & Luke's 2nd Birthday Party

This party was brought to you by the letters J & L and the number 2!

Cupprimo cupcakes. Mmmmm.

The boys woke up from their naps, thrilled to see the Elmo balloons waiting for them. Lots of screams - "Eeeeeeellllllmooooooo!" - with frantic pointing to make sure we were all seeing the same thing. Yeeessss, Elmo!

But being my children, what really excited them was the food.

Luke in a state of stunned euphoria

As Greg likes to say, these boys could eat for the U.S.A. If it ever becomes an Olympic sport, we're bound to medal. They ate their weights in tomatoes and fruit and relished every second of it.

Quality assurance team

Around 3 in the afternoon, our guests began to arrive...


...and rip the house apart. :)




Now would be a good time for the (non-pregnant) moms to grab a beer, sit back and bear witness to the destruction. There's really nothing else to be done when a dozen 2-year-olds are set loose in a house full of Other People's Toys.


I tried and failed to get a shot with my big boys, but they were a bit distracted.



Mimi & MAC! came to help us celebrate - and Mimi to cook and clean and prep and generally manage the chaos. Thanks, Mimi!



Since last year's EPIC birthday song meltdown, Luke has been scarred. When he hears the song, he screams, comes running, and clings to me like his life depends on it. Poor kiddo. Joseph is usually fine unless he sees his brother panic and thinks there's something to panic about. We've been working on it, singing it to him loud and often. When we're at other parties, I always make sure he's in my arms before the song begins and that we have a quick exit strategy just in case.

So here, the moment of truth...





Not bad, I'd say. As soon as Mommy stopped singing, he was a-okay. I'm trying not to take it personally.

Joseph watching calmly as his brother pitches a surprisingly manageable fit

Perhaps it was all a ploy to get the cupcake that much faster.

The boys' first cupcakes

They approve.

And so did everyone else

Convincing Mimi to share her fruit - she did

After most people left, the hardcore partiers started a mosh pit. It was positively encouraged.



Joseph and Luke had such a fun time. We were sorry to see everyone go, but it did take it's toll.

Pooped

After a night of sound sleep, it was time to bust into the presents. A group of friends went in together to get the boys a Learning Tower...

New perspective and higher trouble-making potential

...providing life-saving sustenance to my starving boys.

MMmmm, tomatoes

Practicing his alphabet

Big boys use big boy spoons

Composing original tunes with MAC!

The boys had a GREAT time at their party and so did we. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

My babies are TWO!

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.

I Don't Know What Daddy Put In Their Cheerios...

... but can I have some?




A rather long video of some wired, bouncy boys. You'll want to turn the volume down around 2:20. Trust me. That boy is all mouth when he screams.



My monsters are 22 months & 3 weeks old.

Consolidation

This is how we spent our Saturday afternoon.


Converting the nursery back to it's original purpose, housing both of our guys. Luke is getting a bunk-mate, and Joseph is no longer taking up residence in the spare room with all of our leftover, rag-tag college furniture.


We have no idea how this is going to go since they've spent the last year and a half having their own rooms. Not that they spend much time at all in those rooms. They're basically just used for pre-bedtime book reading and sleep.


But that's the thing. They've had no one to wake them up in the middle of the night with the tossing and turning and grunts and whimpers. Joseph has occasionally shared his space with Mimi, but I'm assuming she's probably a little more considerate of a roomie than an almost-2-year-old wild child.


We've tried moving them into the same room twice in the past, both times ending in major disaster. And when I say disaster imagine hysterical screaming and gnashing of teeth at around 3 a.m. Yeah, not pretty and I imagine somewhat traumatic for all involved. But this time Joseph has his full crib, not just a pack n' play. And we spent several hours playing in that room with both of them, letting them each get used to the new set-up.

I'm hoping this transition will be an easy one, but frankly, it'll be an Easter miracle if we make it through the night 100% peacefully.

Wish us luck!


The boys are 22 months & 3 weeks (almost) old.

Gonna Get Himself a Scholarship!

All his frustrating practice finally paid off.




This boy. He gets an idea in his head, and then he's like a dog with a bone. He was determined to dribble that ball, just like Mommy & Daddy. And he worked hard until he got it. Honestly, Greg and I are kinda in shock at his overall coordination - how quickly he went from walking to running, his balance, how high and controlled he jumps, and now dribbling.




Obviously we need to get this boy a basketball.



Luke is 22.5 months old.

Happy Discoveries

I just found one of the thousands of little spiral notebooks that I have stashed all around the house. I keep them handy for the times when my brain simply will not shut down because of all the random, miscellaneous tidbits or to-do's that are bouncing around in there. Or when I'm reading up on one of my many projects and want to take notes. It's a useful place to purge and collect info, info that is often never seen again, but hey, it makes me feel better to write it down and, in a sense, wipe the slate clean.

As I rifled through these pages, I realized that the content of this notebook spans the past four years of my life! With pages filled with notes from researching the installation of our wood floors, to our 2007 Christmas card list, to the tallying of bills, to sweet notes I wrote about us while I was pregnant, to musical playlists, to notes I made about my mother-in-law's cancer, to shopping lists for converting one of the upstairs bedroom into the nursery, to flight information. And on the back of that page? Luke's pen scribbles. With a more complex set of scribbles on the following page. And then as I flip through the rest, I can see his progression. At first he'd turn one page at a time. Scribble, scribble, scribble. Then in his impatience, he started grabbing wads of pages. Flip. Scribble, scribble, scribble. Flip. Scribble, scribble, scribble.

Now the otherwise empty pages are dotted with his little masterpieces.



It's silly and probably overly-sentimental, but I'm never throwing this notebook out.

Those little hasty scribbles are going to bring me smiles for the next four years. I'm already looking forward to future mindless note-jotting and purging, only to stumble on one of Luke's circa spring '11 creations. And it will bring a bright spot to an otherwise mundane task. Thanks, little man.


The boys are 22.5 months old.

22 Months

In case you hadn't noticed, during my blogging hiatus my boys seem to have somehow, magically, grown even cuter.

Exhibit A:Enjoying their favorite Sesame Street sketches

I know. I know. I didn't think it was possible either. But apparently we were both wrong.

Exhibit B:Carrots, anyone?

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Must I go on? Ok. If you insist.

Exhibit C:Balance

Cool

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.


They haven't felt like babies in quite a while, but in two short months, it'll be official. Today they turned 22 months old.

Frankly, that realization shook me. Two years old. Such big boys. This past year has flown by so, so quickly. Last June they were these growing babies just figuring out how to take their first steps. I blinked and suddenly they're these handsome, strapping boys who literally run circles around me. I'll blink again, and they'll be 5, starting their first day of school. Another blink and they'll be walking across the stage at their high school graduation. Blink. Going off to college. Blink. Beginning their careers. Blink. Marriage. Blink. Starting families with their own babies. It all goes by so quickly. Too quickly. In fact, when I stop to think about the whirlwind pace of it all, my chest grows tight and my breathing becomes shallow. My heart is just on the edge of breaking into a million little pieces. They're growing up. Inevitability doesn't make those pangs any less difficult.

But right now they're here. And there's no place they'd rather be than with their mommy and daddy. I have to remind myself that they won't always be quite so willing to be held or to give sloppy wet kisses with those sweet, little puckered lips or to sit and read books in Mommy's lap. Some day they'll be old enough to read their own books, ones without 'choo choo twains', 'moo cows' or friendly, fuzzy monsters. They'll be able to articulate their every need and won't require me to solve a puzzle in order to figure it out or translate so that Daddy will know they want the whole banana, not those puny cut-up slices. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited about each and every little step along the way in the long process of "growing up". I'm excited about new adventures and discoveries. I'm excited to see how they'll transition from these wild, sweet toddlers into grown, young men. I just wish it'd slow down a little. What's your rush? In the meantime I try to soak up every little nuance and quirk into my memory and appreciate each moment as it comes.

By the way, I am loving, LOVING, this age. Tantrums and all!


The boys, 22 months old today.

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.

Blogging FAIL

Oh my.

My last blog post was in November. And the one before that... Ugh. I'm really pretty upset with myself. I'd intended to use this blog as a baby book of sorts, a place to note the firsts, the funny stunts, and all that jazz that comes along with adding new people to the world, and it's just been a massive fail lately.

My usual habit when I get behind like this was to do some SBDP's (sneaky back-dated posts), but even that is just too daunting at this point so I won't even try. I'll just post some highlights, and we'll call it square. Okay?

Let's see... It's been so long that even highlights are kinda hard. In early December Joseph had surgery. His adenoids were removed, and he had ear tubes put in. The gunk that was finally out of his ears meant that he had a language explosion soon thereafter. I knew his hearing was being affected but don't think I realized how much it was holding him back because suddenly his interest in books and learning new words took off. I have no idea how many words he has now, but I find it endlessly fascinating to see him assimilate all this new information so quickly after having a somewhat slow start. He has a real & earnest interest in learning, and I love it.

Then shortly after, we had a 3-week visit from Greg's mom over Christmas and New Year. The boys took to her immediately and had a great time playing & reading books with her, and they got and gave endless hugs and kisses. The Polish word for grandma is babcia (pronounced bob-shia), which was a little too complicated for the boys so they shortened it to baba. Baba, as it turns out, means something not too nice in Polish, but we'll let it slide since they're, ya know, 21 months. Our favorite night time routine during Babcia's visit was the night-night one that involved first a hug & kiss, then waves and bye-byes from the foot of the stairs, then more waves & byes-byes from about midway to the top of the stairs, followed by a quick intermission that included teeth-brushing and stories, but concluding again with persistent top-of-the-stairs bye-byes and kiss blowing. What a production! But adorable. After Babcia left, it took quite a while for the boys to stop trying to find her for bye-bye kisses before bedtime.

After seeing Joseph's immediate improvement from his surgery, we decided to also get ear tubes for Luke, who did not have the same snot issues but whose ears always seemed a little worse off than his brother's. His vocabulary has also improved, as well as his love of books, but we are still waiting for the follow-up exam to see if they're helping with drainage. Ew, right. Poor boys.

I celebrated a birthday, first with girlfriends who I adore, next with my dashing husband, and most recently with one of my best friends in the whole wide world. That was part of my birthday present, a trip out to L.A. to go visit her & her husband & her growing baby bump. I had a super-fantastic time and a much-needed break. It also meant my first real time away from the boys, almost 4 whole days! I'm happy to report that they were complete angels while I was gone! Well, as much as you can expect any 20-month olds to be complete angels.

The first morning they saw me after my absence, I got some extra smiles and cuddles from both, but the drama level was lower than I had anticipated. I'm going to chalk that up to how much fun they had with Daddy & Mimi while I was away - and not to how little they seem to have missed me. :) It made my vacation time that much more relaxing knowing in what good hands I'd left them.

Since then we've pretty much gotten back to normal. I'll probably post some pics from my blogging hiatus just because I can't resist, but other than that I'm going to consider myself caught up.

Done and done. And I'll try to be better. I promise.