A Day In The Life

The boys continue to impress and amaze us each day. They have started out life as little overachievers and they continue on this path. What are they doing to overachieve this time? The boys are 20 months old (gulp) and will not officially turn 2 for another 4 months. However, these little overachievers are beginning to act more and more like "terrible two" year olds even before their official birthday!

As they are learning to communicate their needs verbally, they believe that merely the act of saying or signing something should result in immediate gratification of the expressed request. A good example occurred tonight. We have a night time routine to get the boys dressed into their jammies and then we pass out their milk. Apparently, Wes felt he should have his milk before he was in his jammies. As we sat down to get them dressed, he said "Milllll... K" (it's hard to write exactly how he was it but the K is hard and clearly prominent) and began to feverishly sign milk in a very demanding manner. My reply, in the calmest Mommy tone, "we need to get dressed and then you can get your milk." He did not appreciate this reply and decided that kicking, rolling and whining would help drive the point home that he wanted his "Millllll.... K" NOW!!! He completely refused to cooperate and assist in the dressing activity causing a significant delay in getting to his precious "millllllll.... K." Don't you worry, Mommy stuck to her guns and milk was not distributed until we were in our jammies. I look forward to the day when they can use reason to understand they should cooperate more and you get to milk quicker. Dare to dream, eh?!?

This is just one example of many that are signals that 2 is right on the horizon! While there are a few other things the boys do that just make us want to pull our hair out.... like continue to climb on the end tables and reach into the baby-proofed kitchen drawers to pull out scissors and corn cob holders, we still manage to have more fun than I could have ever imagined!

Sunday was a day that was more fun than frustrating. We kept the boys busy with activities which usually distracts them from the temptations to drive us crazy. The first activity of the day was to play with the bubble blower that Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim gave us for Christmas. After breakfast and while the boys were still strapped into their table, we filled up the bubble blower and let the boys take turns controlling the bubble blower.
This model is really great and highly recommended. We had another one but the boys always wanted to grab it, carry it and dump out the bubbles. This one is designed to be controlled by them. It is a tea pot with a handle that controls the bubbles. When the pull the handle down, it blows bubbles until the wand thing is empty. Then they have to release the handle, fill up the wand and pull the handle down again.

The boys enjoyed learning how to use the bubble blower, controlling the bubble blower and when it was not their turn, they enjoyed playing with the bubbles. Apparently Wes thought the motor was a little loud...

Jared was in awe of the mechanical device that distributed bubbles, Andrew was in awe of the beautiful bubbles and Wes..... well, he was Wes... too cool for a bubble blower...

Andrew and Jared really enjoyed this activity....

Wes wanted Daddy to get out of the way of the TV so he could catch his show...

While the bubble blower did not excite Wes to the level of Andrew and Jared, he did enjoy his turn to control the bubble blower and is seen below telling Jared his turn was up...

After we cleaned up from the bubbles, we played for a little while and before we knew it, it was lunch time! We had lunch and then it was nap time. For Christmas, the boys received new toddler pillows from Grandma. At nap and bed time, the boys get to run in the room, grab a book and hang out for a few minutes reading before I collect books and turn out the light. On this day, the boys grabbed their books and we tried to actually lay them down using the pillow and "tuck" them in before nap. Andrew and Wes stayed in this position for the entire book reading time. It was so adorable to see them laying in the crib like big boys...

Jared did not want to lay down. He reads better sitting up...

While the boys spent their reading time resting their heads on their pillows, as soon as I collected books and moved to turn out the light, they reverted back to their traditional sleeping positions. Wes is a minimalist so he throws everything out of the crib. It's a mattress and fitted sheet for this one. Jared lays down tucking his knees under him, throws the blanket over him and tugs George close. While he read sitting up, he is the closest to actually sleeping under a cover. Andrew rolled over to a spot without a pillow and wanted 'his' blanket spread over him while he grabs a corner of it and shoves a fist full into his mouth to chew. The guys are starting to show more interest in sleeping with the pillows but I guess 20 months of sleeping flat on the mattress, it will take a while to make this transition.

Once the boys woke up from nap, it was snack time. After snack, we laid out some paper and passed out the crayons. They colored for a little while and then decided that ripping up the paper was more fun. This signaled the end of this activity.

Shoes - The boys love to wear shoes. They probably love it because wearing shoes signals we are going somewhere and it is usually somewhere fun, like outside! There were some shoes on the counter that they were able to reach and they started playing with them. A little while later, Andrew walks up with a left shoe completely on his left foot! He was able to put this shoe on all by himself and he did the right foot. I was impressed. I gave him the matching right shoe in the hopes of catching this on film but he was not able to get the right shoe on and moved on to another activity.

I was also impressed as these shoes are almost too small for the boys (size 7.5) and we use this pair on Wes because he has the smallest/skinniest feet. We have a hard time putting them on the boys so the fact that Andrew (biggest feet) was able to get it on by himself... impressive!

During the afternoon, the boys played (as evidenced by the toys in the family room) with their toys. One of our newest additions from Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim is the Sit and Spin. This has been an interesting toy to watch them discover. The boys are very creative in sitting and spinning but only Jared has figured out the traditional sit and spin method. He may not be spinning with speed yet but he is spinning...

I have not been able to get video of Andrew or Wes but they sit on the seat and push with their hand on the floor to spin around. They also sit on the handle part and spin the bottom with their feet, like running on a baby treadmill. As you saw at the end of that video, Andrew and Wes are silly characters!!!

Lastly, before this day was over, we were invaded by a bunch of frogs!! Ribbit... ribbit....ribbit....

The night prior to this video, when I told the boys it was ready for bed, Wes started hopping like a frog and quickly the other two followed suit. So that night, I put three little frogs to bed. The above video was taken on Sunday as the boys were waiting on their bubble bath to be drawn. The actually started at the near end of the hallway, hopped all the way to the end and then I got the camera. As such, I only caught the tail end of the froggy invasion!

At the end of the day, being able to kiss these three wonderful boys good night is all I need to wipe away the negative memories of attitudes and temper tantrums! It also helps that they go to sleep without any trouble so we always know that no matter how challenging the day is; it is quiet at 7:30pm!

Take care,