Snow Day

We didn't really have a snow day because the boys don't have school on Fridays anyway. So I'm not sure if the area kids had school today. After we had breakfast and exercised to, The Biggest Loser Boot Camp, the boys and I went outside and played in the snow. It is the first time they really ever played in the snow. They were either sick or it was too cold or storming last year so we never actually made it out. But they had a blast this year once I showed them what to do. I had to make a snow angel to show them and I just kept falling in the snow to show them that it didn't bother me. Trevor still only fell in the snow once. He would rather stand.

Alex was digging the snow angels. He really got the idea after I pushed him over and moved his legs for him to make his first one. But this one in the picture is the one he did all by himself. He was so proud of it too. After that Alex would fall in the snow and he was using the snow brick makers and making little towers of snow everywhere. Then he was the one that started the snowball fight. Though this snow wasn't very good for snowballs, the bricks he made for good packed snowbricks to throw.

Lastly, I taught the boys the joys of eating snow. Alex was mostly too busy to eat any snow. But this was an activity that Trevor digged. And don't worry I did warn him never to eat yellow or brown snow.

Long time no see

I know it's been a long time. But I've been busy playing with my boys and enjoying my time off. Unfortunately, the recession hit us hard in July of 2009. I may have to change my blog title though I hope to have another job soon. It has been fun being a stay at home mom though and especially easy since my husband is still home too. Finances have obviously been hard but we have been blessed with help from family and the state government. :-)

This year I have decided to start a new scrapbook which will incorporate daily pictures of my family. I got the idea from a fellow scrapbooker though I'll be doing my digitally so that I can fit it all in one book. I hope to have a lot of fun with it and hope that I have a better documentation of the year then I did last year. I have TONS of pictures from the second half of the year since I was not working and I did a lot with the boys. But the beginning of the year I apparently slacked off.

While I've been off I've managed to finish the boys playroom, and they love it. There's a train table, a kitchen and most of their Imaginext toys. They love their kitchen the most. They make noodles, cookies, and coffee all day long. It is hystrical. Even on Christmas Eve Alex was yelling at Brennan because he was using the noodle spoon in the coffee maker and that just wasn't right!

Some things haven't changed. The boys still wrestle and now Alex yells, "TAKEDOWN!" when he makes Trevor fall to the ground. However, when Trevor knocks Alex down, Alex starts crying and screaming for Trevor to stop. So now we are trying to teach Alex that if he starts it that he has to be willing for Trevor to stop it. :-)

Trevor was Spiderman for Halloween in 2009 and the costumes still fit them, so Alex turns into "Piderman" almost daily now. And he's usually chasing the Green Goblin, which is what Alex was for Halloween.

We have also started playing games with the boys. It is getting so fun that they are understanding the rules and actually doing pretty well. They really don't have the attention span for Shoots and Ladders or Candy Land yet. But they can make it through a small game of Memory and Go Fish (matching 2 cards not 4 yet) And they LOVE the game Cootie.

Here we are teaching the boys Go Fish. They loved yelling, "GO FISH!"

Since my new scrapbooking project kind of requires me to upload my pictures and document them more regularly I should have pictures more readily available for me to write in this blog more often. However, my most prospective job right now would require me to move to Alabama. So I would be relying on Kris to take the pictures, which I think he will doing willingly since I won't be around for all these moments either. We don't want to take the boys out of school in the middle of the school year and and the job may be a temporary job. I will hopefully know more after January 11th. Wish me luck. Actually wish me luck that I can find a job in Michigan more. Please comment if you read this so I know there are still some followers.

Happy New Year to Everyone! Here's to a spectacular new decade!

Alex is Tricky

Alex is blessed with being the only member in our family with no allergies. So recently we have started to give Trevor his Clartin at night to help with his excessive amounts of mucus. The poor kid almost never can breath through his nose. So every night while we are giving Trevor his medicine, Alex starts rubbing his tummy and says, "Alex, medicine, tummy hurts." He's showing his true colors too soon. Now we know he'll fake sick to get out of school! It is so adorable though.

Then this weekend with the AWESOME weather we've been having we were playing outside on Saturday and the boys were wearing sandals for the first time this year and Alex was running up the driveway towards his tricycle and BAM he's sliding on the ground on his knees. This is the first major boo-boo mommy has had to deal with too. But Kris told me I handled it like a champ. It is a pretty good scrape though. And now everytime Alex tries to get into his chair or on the couch he's has to stop and ask mommy for help so he doesn't rub his knee. The poor kids. However, I have also witnessed him crawling up the stairs without any problem... so is he milking the pain too????

Lastly, Alex is my boy who is not entirely potty trained yet. But we went out to dinner in Brighton yesterday. We left after the boys nap and after dinner I took the boys into the bathroom and Alex's pullup was still dry. AND he peed on the potty. It is so awesome. I think he may start training himself. He'll probably need help with the pooping on the potty though because he still does that in the corner in his pull up. I'm sure he'll get it though, and it looks like soon. He has also peed on the potty twice today and his pullup was still dry when they went up for their nap. We did lose his bandaid though while he was going potty, and he confused me because he kept talking about a "bunny". Turns out "bunny" is bandaid and he wanted a new one. Luckily, Mommy took the boys to Target this morning and got some new bandaid, Spongebob (Alex), Scooby Doo (Trevor), and some Cars Tatto bandaids. Not sure what those are yet but they really like Cars. I totally forgot the Hydrogen Peroxide though. All we have is rubbing alcohol. I'm not putting them through THAT yet.

Well that's Alex's recent history in a nutshell.

Easter Morning

The movie is a little iffy I think it was the compressing it looks fine full size. But you should be able to get the jist.

Happy Easter!

The Circus

Someone reminded me recently that I haven't written a blog entry in quite a while. Honestly, I didn't think anyone read these. I've also been VERY busy. Someone who shall remain nameless has been working me like a dog. :-) You know who you are.

But seriously. Lacey, found that the Shrine Circus was in town and because she works weekends and I work during the week we decided to go to the 7:30 pm show on Thursday night. Little did we know that apparently they do not quite gear their shows towards the family types. Because INTERMISSION was at 9:15 and we had to go to get the kids in bed. CRAZY! PLUS, where are the animals and the motorcycles. I honestly think I can only remember my experiences with the Ringling Brother Circus and never the Shrine Circus. My mom did tell me however, that for every ticket we buy 2 kids get to go for free. So at least we did good with our purchases. We also got to sit on the ground floor second row. We wanted the one row buffer to corral the kids a little bit. I really don't need my kids running under the horses (I mean unicorn's) legs. REALLY, a unicorn????

Anyway, the boys had a GREAT time. They loved the clowns and got them to give them balloons. And I showed Trevor that he could get the clowns' autographs. So whenever he saw a new clown he would grab the book and say, "clown". So we'd get another autograph. Then the show started with Chinese dancing dogs. All the boys thought that was great. Then came the trapeze artists. One of them fell twice, and Kyle and Trevor both took in a breath. Course so did Lacey, my mom and me. There was a net don't worry. However, the net did seem a little shoddy, which made me nervous. Trevor and Alex definitely liked it though. I just stared and watched them.

Then came the horses, I mean the unicorn and the pegasuses (is that a word?) I don't know if I'm just too old but I really thought it was REALLY cheesy. But the horses were pretty. They had lots of glitter and when they ran their wings actually did flap. The kids liked it too. I think they liked all shows but they all lasted too long so they got distracted and started playing and running back and forth between all our seats.

My favorite part was the contortionist. Okay I know my spelling stinks but you know what I mean. She was amazing. I'm pretty sure she didn't have a spine, and her legs were not connected properly. She spun some things on her feet but started them at different times. It was really weird. The boys also got cotton candy, popcorn, and flashy fiber optic thingys.

When we left Trevor noticed that the elephants were coming back out for people to ride. He thought that meant he was going to get a ride. So he pretty much screamed, "Trevor, ride" and "elephan" the entire way to the car. I was actually surprised he could say that much of elephant. So lessons learned:

1. 4:00pm showing, or earlier, never go to the 7:30pm with kids
2. Let Trevor ride the elephants
3. Show the boys the autograph page in their book earlier so they can get more clown's signatures
4. Sit in the front row
5. Be prepared for the older kids to try to steal the balloons from the little kids (that really annoyed me)

Now that I know what to expect, we should have a much better time next time. Hopefully, I remember to reference this blog next time I go.

Torch Lake 2008

Our vacation was last week. We went back up to the cottage at Torch Lake. The boys had a good time and we had a lot more fun with them this time. They were able to do more so it made it more fun for us. One very exciting thing about a vacation is that I get to see Kris with the boys all day not just at night so I get to experience how he plays with them during the day. I took this video of some of the things he’s teaching my children throughout the day.

Wrestling is just such a good quality for boys. We also started teaching them to clap for the really good burps. Kris had a really spectacular burp and I had to clap for it so the boys caught on pretty quickly.

We also played by the “beach”. The beach of our cabin is all rocks. Though it didn’t matter all the boys wanted to do was fill their buckets with rocks and water, dump and repeat. They really weren’t interested in going out into the water. I did get them to come out once a little past the man made reef but I think the waves were too big so they were getting a little scared. Trevor also got a mouth full of water trying to drink when a wave came up.

The sleeping arrangements were similar to my (camping trips). There were beds but we brought our travel beds and the boys slept on the floor. Trevor was freakin’ out the first night. We’re not sure why but he was acting like something spooked him and we couldn’t do anything to calm him down. So we finally just held the door closed and let him cry for a little bit. After some time had pasted (since the crying stopped) we checked on them and this is how they were sleeping.

We were so proud of Alex comforting his “little” brother. It was just the cutest thing. Course them sleeping on the floor also caused other issues. For instance, on Tuesday morning Trevor was under one of the beds and stuck. He was completely under the bed and just a foot was sticking out. I had to ask Alex where he was and Alex pointed to the bed. It was freakin’ hilarious. It’s hard not to laugh sometimes.

The boys also learned about some bugs during this trip. There was a caterpillar crawling across the sidewalk and I pointed it out to the boys. They giggled over it and Alex started doing his “voodoo” on it. I’m not quite sure where he picked it up or what he thinks he’s doing but he does it to the dogs too. He just flaps his hands over the object, this case the caterpillar, and starts talking gibberish. Course gibberish is all he says right now so I guess he may think he’s saying something meaningful… Unfortunately, I missed getting a picture of the caterpillar, it crawled super fast, but Alex continued doing voodoo after it was under the truck.

Speaking of gibberish we also had our first word from Alex then Trevor this weekend. They each said, “No”. We were so excited. They weren’t telling me no either so they weren’t talking back… So we’ve been trying really hard to get them to look at our lips while we teach them new words like, “Yes!”

Tigers Game 2008

On Aug. 10th I took my parents, Stephanie and the boys to the Tigers game (they were tickets from work so they were essentially free). They played against the Oakland As and won 6 - 1. It was actually a pretty dreay day and a little bit chilly. I had the boys in shorts and luckily when I stepped outside I decided to bring the boy's sweatshirts. They definitely needed them. It also rained a little bit too, which made it even colder. Not to mention we were in the upper deck and the common area up there was like a wind tunnel.

I wasn't sure how they boys were going to handle this because the game started at 1:05 and they usually take a nap at 2. But they did very well. We sat in our seats until the bottom of the 5th inning, which meant we got to witness a Tigers homerun that happened in the 5th inning. The boys did see the fountains go off. From our seats though I'm not sure they actually saw any of the the game.

You're looking the wrong way Alex.

After the 5th inning, we took the boys down to ride on the Carousel, they rode free since it was "Kids Day", some people had free tickets for adults too but not us. ..I'll need to look into that next time. As we were riding the carousel Trevor was hopping on his horse trying to go faster. Alex, on the other hand, was a little nervous and had a look on his face like, "Are you crazy, don't make it go faster!"

Trevor having a blast on the carousel. Grandpa is holding him.

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After the carousel we waited through the 8th innining then left and took some pictures with the Tiger out front. Here are the boys with Stephanie.

On the ride home both of the boys fell asleep, and Trevor took about a 2 hour nap. Alex, however, did not want to nap so he stayed downstairs and played with Mommy and Daddy and his new Tigers gear. Alex lost the jersey pretty quickly, he was getting warm in the house.

When Trevor got up he got to play with them too. So don't worry.

Mommy Separation Anxiety

Alex is finally over his mommy separation anxiety... for now. For awhile when ever I left Alex would cry and cry and cry even though Kris was still home with him. Sometimes he would cry until I got back 2 hours later. It was very frustrating. So this past weekend my mother-in-law, Sandy, was helping us with the kids while Kris and I set up the kids' new play thing in the back yard. So she was over all day Saturday and then on Sunday she came back. Well when she came in on Sunday, Alex brought me my shoes and put them on the floor in front of me, then he hugged and kissed me and waved bye-bye. So either Grandma is a lot more fun or he's finally comfortable with me leaving. Yeah!...but....

So what does Trevor do...he started his mommy separation anxiety this past weekend. When I left the boys with Sandy he would cry and cry and cry...So I'm sure when this passes they'll just flip-flop again...

Everything's OK

It was just one day of a fever and red thoart. We went to the doctor's today to make sure but everything is negative. He is feeling fine now, a little tired but he gets energy in spurts. But he hasn't had a fever since Saturday so YEAH!!! I just wanted to update anyone who reads this blog. :-)
Have a great week.

My baby's sick

Kris and I tried to get away this weekend, while my mother-in-law watched the boys. Well we had a great night. But Saturday morning while I was in the pool Kris got a phone call from Sandy, Trevor's sick, he didn't sleep all night and he threw up this morning. He has a fever and she was going to call the doctor. Well when I got back I took a shower and Kris and I just packed up and went home. Around 3:30 Trevor had just woken up from his nap, which was taken on me because he wasn't sleeping in his crib, and he was BURNING UP!!! We took his temperature and it was 102, then 103 so I took him to the Beaumont Medical Center. When we got there his temperature was 104. He did very well at the doctor's office. He let the doctor listen to his chest and he even did remarkably well with the thoart culture. His strep test came back negative though. So they gave us a dose of Motrin and sent us away. With the instructions to see the doctor on Monday. MONDAY!!! MY BABY IS BURNING UP NOW!!! But after about an hour or an hour and a half Trevor's fever was down and he was actually playing and running around. He's actually sleep now. Let's hope he sleeps long enough tonight to feel better and no ER visits tonight...

The next Bobby Flay?

This past Saturday I was cooking breakfast for the boys. They were being extra whiney so I decided to let them "help" me. So first I let Alex put the bread in the toaster and push the button down. That worked well though Trevor was screaming in the background. So next I let Trevor pour the egg beaters into the pan. While Alex was screaming in the background...

Next I let them sprinkle cheese on the egg beaters. Unfortunately I don't have a step stool so I had to pick each one up to do this. (I probably should've thought through this better but nothing happened so we're okay for now.) I know my next purchase. Trevor grabbed a hand full of cheese and just dumped it in the eggs. Alex on the other hand grabbed a hand full of cheese and actually sprinkled it around the eggs evenly. I thought it was so cute. And cool... I don't think he's ever been able to see what we are doing when we're cooking since I don't have the aforementioned foot stool yet. So it was just cool to see that he naturally knew to sprinkle the cheese around the eggs. On the other hand this could have been a fluke and he was just trying to get the most out of his cooking time.

FIREWORKS!!!

Last week was a very busy week for the boys and me. On Tuesday we went up to the Rochester Hills Fireworks. We have a friend that lives near the park so we go there for dinner and walk over to the spot that he put the sleeping bags down on the night before. This place is crazy for the fireworks. They are at Borden Park at John R and Hamlin. They have food vendors and a stage with a live band and they have music through the fireworks. They are one of my favorite displays in the area.

The last time I went was while I was pregnant with a big ole belly. So this year I decided to take the boys up to see. them. I had no idea how they were going to react since the fireworks don't start until after their bed time and I didn't know how they'd react to the noise once they did start. But I thought I'd try anyway.

First while we were eating dinner the boys kept looking at the neighbor's house because they had a lot of kids over and they were all playing. Their back yards are all connected. So when I figured they weren't going to eat anymore I said, "OK! Go play!" And they did. Trevor ran over there without hesitation and Alex ran over there when Grandma Sandy walked over there to make sure it was okay. I never thought they would just run over there so I was in shock and I was still eating. Paul is GREAT on the BBQ! There were actually 2 sets of twins over there one set was older than the boys and the other looked to be about the same age. The boys had a blast until Trevor got hit by a swing. But he calmed down fast.

Next we walked over to the park. The boys had it easy since they were in the stroller. We got to our spot and just chilled out. Trevor sat in Grandma's lap and looked like he was going to fall asleep but he never did. Alex just acted crazy and I think he was trying to make sure he stayed awake.

And once the fireworks started they were in awe for about 10 minutes. They just stared at the sky. They actually reached out for each other's hands too and held hands for a portion of the show. But after about 10 minutes they started playing until the Grand Finale when they watched again. There was no screaming and no fussing. The other couple that was with us told me I had the most well behaved kids. He couldn't believe that almost 2 year olds were able to sit through that and not cause a fuss.

Here they are watching the show.

Camping 4th of July

To take advantage of my super long weekend over the 4th of July I decided to go camping with my parents and bring the boys. We camped up by my uncle's place near Tawas and Oscoda Michigan in Old Orchard Campground. The boys had a blast though they really enjoyed their freedom sleeping in a big bed instead of their cribs. So we didn't get much sleep but they had a lot of naps during the day and had fun during the day so that's all that matters right?

One night I took a shower and left my parents with the boys. Every time they thought they were sleeping they would hear another giggle. So my dad went in to check on them and Alex had escaped and was on the bench next to the bed. My dad said, "What-are-you-doing?" and FREAKED Alex out. My mom said it was the first time that either of my kids really cuddled with her. On the first 2 days we went to my uncle's cottage. His entire family was up this weekend. So it was a full house. They have a sand hill in the back of their property so I took the boys up there to play and they had a blast. They just kept filling their buckets and dumping them out. Then I taught them how to knock down the sand castles... Whenever Alex is playing in sand he gets this hysterical giggle/screech thing going. It is just too cute for words. But I haven't been able to tape it yet. Everyone also rode on their four wheelers. So I got the boys' out and they rode for a little bit but they were more interested in playing in the dirt. Alex was in front and Trevor started going and got caught behind Alex. Since Alex wasn't moving Trevor just spun his tires. Then gave up and got off. The last time I used these were in the winter in the house. I CANNOT believe how much they've grown...On Saturday we had a fun packed day. In the morning we hiked the Iargo Springs. Which has about 270 steps. Going down was a breeze and once we were down there we let the boys run around. They were on our backs for a lot of the hike. I had Alex and my dad had Trevor. Now my boys are probably around 35 lbs each. So you can imagine the extra resistance we had during this workout. The trip back up was a little rough. We took many breaks and my mom dropped her camera so we waited, but at that point I had the dogs too and they helped pull my momentum up a little bit so they actually helped me going up.

While I was walking with Alex and he was bouncing he was humming or moaning or making his cute little baby noises in my ear. It was cute, I thought he was going to put himself to sleep in the backpack.

Apparently that hike was a little too much for Trevor. This was minutes after we were on the road.

After their nap my mom and I went into Tawas and visited the lighthouse and the downtown. The boys had fun they actually wanted their picture taken here. I set them on the rocks but I had to pry Alex away when I was done. Then we went into town and I let them pick out some books at the bookstore. I also bought some books for me because I can't go up-north without looking for some cool "Michigan" books. I'm working my way through the "Legends of..." books.

Then what is camping without getting Ice Cream at the camp store. When I was going to Higgins Lake every year I would ALWAYS get Blue Moon Ice Cream. And this camp store actually had it too. I was chicken though so the boys just got French Vanilla. But they also had a new flavor called Black Cherry. It was awesome. So I didn't get my Blue Mooon this year, but their is still time this summer.After our ice cream my dad and I walked with the boys and the dogs down to the boat launch. We showed the boys the lake. I didn't let them out of the stroller though so I don't know what the temperature was like. This lake is actually part of the Au Sable River. It looked really clear but I don't think I saw a single fish while I was there. Makes me think it's so clear because it's infested with zebra muscles...

The One where they Look Like Twins

One day Kris got up and dressed the kids like he always does. And they went downstairs and ate their breakfast. Then while they were playing Kris realized that something just didn't seem right. We have never dressed our kids alike except when we went to the Tigers game and there was only one cute outfit for them to wear so they were matching.

But Kris figured it out. He had accidentally dress the boys alike for a day.

Luckily there socks were different. Though I'm sure their socks didn't stay on long...

Terrible 2's

Why is that they completely understand, "sit still for a minute you're in a time out, you shouldn't have done_____" well okay I only know for sure that they understand the sit still part.

And "OK you can get up now" man they jump up so fast you can feel a breeze. BUT they won't listen to the original "do not hit Mommy, or you're going to get a time out." It's going to be a fun year....

In the back yard

After the race luckily for me the boys were sleepy so we put them down for a nap and Kris and I took a nap too. I really needed it. But afterwards when the boys got up we had lunch and then played in the back yard. The boys were having a blast. They are really starting to understand and be able to climb up on their toys and enjoy sliding down their slides. Here are some pictures...

Playing nice at the slide.

Trevor is peaking in on Alex.

Trevor, right from the beginning always wants to go up the slide.

Alex going down the slide.

"Helping" Daddy with the lawn work.

Michigan Traditions

Well if you've lived in Michigan longer than a year you probably have noticed that starting Memorial Day weekend and every weekend until Labor Day there are a lot of RVs, travel trailers, and campers being pulled all over the state. You may even notice tents on the roofs of cars as they all go "Up North" for the weekend. Well this weekend I joined the pack. (I usually don't camp on the holiday weekends because of the crowds and traffic. Or I at least travel on off days so I'm not with the majority of the traffic.) But this time I left my house aroun 1:00 on Friday (I didn't hit traffic until Chelsea), and came home Monday and left again at 1:00. Traffic wasn't too bad but it was definitely higher volumes. Granted the price of gas may have scared some people away.

So anyway, I went to Greenwood Acres and camped with my sister and her family and her in-laws and their familys. We had 3 campsites all together and 20 people all together. Me the boys and Lacey, Dan and their boys were all in one camper. This meant we had 3 toddlers and 1 infant in one camper. Which in turn meant that we adults probably only slept in 2 hour chunks the whole weekend.

First I'll talk about the nights then I'll explain the fun stuff we did.

Night 1: Friday night. Lacey and I were trying to figure out how to get my travel beds to fit in a space that barely fit two pack-n-plays last year. (The travel beds have a bigger foot print) Because where we had to put them would block the hallway to the bathroom we decided to nix the travel beds and put them in the lower bed of the bunk beds. It is a full size bed so there is plenty of room for them and it should be okay. (I should mention here that Alex and Trevor still sleep in cribs at home and they usually are in a corner or pressed up against the rail somewhere when we check on them at night...) So we laid them down to go to sleep and the novelty of being able to move and look out a window caused them to stay up for a couple of hours. I went in there and tried to let them sleep in bed with me, then I tried to go to their bed, then I tried to sleep on the upper bunk bed... I just didn't know what was going to work. I ended up sleeping in my bed, they were in their bed. Some time in the night Brennan cried and woke up (apparently I only heard a couple of times but I was told he woke up 5 or 6 times). Then around 2 or 3 am we all heard a THUMP - WHANNNNNN. So I went in and took Alex back to my bed and checked on Trevor. He was taking up the entire bed???? So I'm pretty sure he pushed Alex out. He probably just wanted to cuddle though.

Night 2: We think that Brennan actually got sun poisoning while we were at our family reunion. Which was outside at a metropark. He was just a miserable baby and only wanted to be held, he did not want to be alone. He also had a 101.4 degree temp. So he woke up a lot. I still didn't try to do anything to prevent Alex and Trevor from falling out of bed. So sometime in the night I heard a whoosh sound and then crying. Trevor had fallen into a hole that was created by the mattress, a cupboard, and my bags. His legs and arms were up and he looked like a turtle. He never opened his eyes while he was crying or when I moved him. I just picked him up and put him back into bed. But then a couple of hours later there was a loud Thump (noticably a head hitting the floor) and then Alex started crying. I picked him up and put him in my bed again. This time I'm pretty sure neither of them pushed each other out of bed though becasue they were in opposite corners when I checked on them.

Sunday morning I woke up to Alex pressing his thumb against my cheek. (That is sign language for mommy). Then when I woke up he kept pointing to me and signing mommy (on himself). How could I be upset at that???

Night 3: I finally got smart and got out the Travel beds again. I put Trevor in the bed and rolled a blanket next to the side to help keep him in. I put Alex on the floor so that he wouldn't have far to fall if he rolled out of the bed. (which he did. I would've left him but he was blocking the hallway to the bathroom.) I changed the boys into their pjs and took them for a walk trying to get them to fall asleep then I was going to just put them in bed. It was over an hour walk and Trevor fell asleep just fine but Alex was still wide awake and ready to go. He did not want to go to sleep. I put Trevor in his bed and brought Alex out with me at the Campfire. He was squirming and kicking and giggling so much, he was really fighting to stay awake. Lacey held him for awhile and he calmed down but when I got him back he started all over again. When I did get him calmed down enough to go to bed he immediately jumped up when I laid him down. He was looking all around him. So I pointed to Trevor and told Alex, "Trevor is sleeping up there. It's okay you need to go to sleep too." He then laid down and went right to sleep. It's so cute when you know they are concerned for one another. It began to rain that night and I woke up and started thinking, "I should've but the stroller away, I should've put their toys away, I should've put all our chairs away." My brain wouldn't shut down. Then Trevor woke up at 6:30 am screaming, I think because he couldn't find Alex who was on the floor. I put them in bed with me and tried to keep them quite because everyone else was still sleeping but at around 7:00 they started wrestling and giggling and there was no stopping them....

Some other Highlights of the weekend:

The boys became very attached to me. They really like it when I'm around, and every time I walked away Alex would scream and do his sign language for Mommy. Everyone around him would tell him that mommy will be right back but as soon as I came into sight again he'd come running for me. I don't know if that's a highlight, but being the working parent it makes me feel good that they still know I'm their mommy.

Trevor became very attached to Dan, Lacey's father in law. They went on walks with each other, and talked about all the dogs that were around and pointed out cars and bicycles. They had a good time and at least one child felt secure with someone other than me.

Lacey brings this big jumper thing. The boys had it at their first birthday party too, but they now are getting used to playing on it by themselves. They learned how to get from the slide to the otherside to get back in and go down the slide too. We just had to be careful because some of the big kids don't know how to play gently while the toddlers are in there.

Dan took Alex and Trevor on the golf cart for a little ride. Others were with them and he said Alex did pretty well, he just made a few hiccup crying sounds. But when they were back Alex came running for me signing mommy again. I can imagine that Alex will be saying Mommy non stop when he figures out how to use his tongue and can say Mommy. He says it constantly already with his sign language.

On Saturday Lacey and took the boys to the Myers' family reunion. That's our mom's family. A couple of our uncles live out of state and they were both in town so everybody got together. It was really nice to see everyone. I haven't seen my Uncle Chris or Uncle Paul in a few years. I would've like to have seen some more of my cousins but it was still a good time. The boys were outside all day so they crashed that night so it was a bonus for us. Plus my boys got two 1 hour naps that day driving to and from the reunion. That helped the crabbiness. Alex and Trevor were had a really good time playing with balls and chasing each other and my parents. They also got free bike helmets. Some one dropped them off at the office while we were there so we got them next size helmets and Lacey got some for her boys and her nieces and nephew. She was a hero when we got back.

Sunday my parent came to visit us. My dad somehow managed to get the entire weekend off. He also has 4th of July week off. It's his last year of work and he's finally getting the good holiday vacations. He also has a set last day of work for his retirement. Dec. 23rd, 2008 and counting. Anyway, they came over for the day and played with the boys. Because Lacey, Dan and I weren't getting much sleep (see above) Lacey and I were thinking of pawning the boys off on them when they got there. But Alex still wouldn't leave my hip and Brennan had his sun poisoning and wouldn't leave Lacey. But 1 kid each is better than 2 each...

Early Monday morning it started pouring while we were sleeping. I woke up to it because I wasn't sleeping very soundly the whole weekend (see above...) and all I could think about was that I should've started packing the night before because my stroller, chairs and all the boys' toys were outside. Luckily, the temperature rose very quickly the next morning and it got very steamy. I only had to put things in the sun for about 5 minutes and it was dry. The boys were still crabby so Lacey and I took a walk to the store and got some ice and all of them fell asleep. Everyone else at this point was at Bob Evans for breakfast so our campsites were quite for once so they stayed asleep for awhile. Then I let them play for awhile we at lunch and went home. For awhile the boys stayed up and Trevor was actually filipping through a book and making noises like he was reading it. It was really cute but by the time I got my phone out to record it he stopped grabbed his blankie and almost immediately went to sleep. It was a long weekend for them. But we had a great time.

Here's a picture when my parents took the boys. Alex is in the blue and he's doing his sign for Mommy. I'm only about 5 campsites away from this tank.

I'm not sure why the tank is there but we were at Greenwood acres which apparently, I'm told, was the location for the Michigan Woodstock that was held the year after the "Woodstock". It's a huge campground with a couple of golf courses and 1100 campsites. And I'm pretty sure all or at least most have full hook ups for RVs and campers. It's really nice to be able to take a shower where you know who's been in it.

Signing Trevor

As you may or may not know our boys are still not talking. A little frustrating but we know it will come in time. After they had accomplished walking we decided we'd try the baby sign language thing so they could at least communicate to us what they wanted while they were eating. Well they took to sign language like a fish to water and they now know a bunch of animals, foods, objects, thank you and please and I don't even know what else. Here's a video of some of them. Sorry the quality isn't great it was taken on our point and shot. I hope to get a better video sometime this summer with as many signs as they know. Though I don't know that I know all the signs that they know.

A trip to the zoo

Friday my sister, Lacey, and I went to the zoo with our kids. She has Kyle, who is 1 year older than my boys, and Brennan, who is 10 months younger than my boys. We walked around the zoo for a while then we stopped to have lunch. Trevor had fallen asleep in the stroller so he stayed there and I had Alex sitting on the bench with me.

Lacey asked Kyle, "Who is that?"

Kyle said, "Alex."

Lacey and I looked at each other amazed that he knew... Then Kyle turned and pointed to Trevor, and said, "That Alex is sleeping."

Lacey and I just bust out laughing. He was so close at convincing us he knew who was who.

Later, I went to the restroom and Lacey was trying to get Alex to say, "Aunt Lacey" Kyle noticed what was going on and looked at Alex and said, "Say Kyle." It's just too cute.

I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures yet but Lacey did get some. I know that my boys did see the Black Bears because they were actually moving that day and the boys did their sign language for Bear. They also saw the peacock that came to visit us during lunch. They both signed Peacock too. Then while walking with the kangaroos I was trying to show them the kangaroos and they both signed sleeping which is what all the kangaroos were doing in the distance. Other than that Alex pointed out all the birds and trash cans and Trevor just kinda stared around and fiddled with his pretzel stick that Lacey gave him before we left my house.

So close to talking...

I can almost hear words now. Lately, Trevor has started to imitate sounds that Kris and I say. We have him saying, "dewy, dewy, dewy" and "giggity" (Family Guy) and "gaa, gaa" and "naa, naa" Still can't get a "mama" or "dada" out of either one of them consistently.

Alex is more interested in MOVING so he's a little behind Trevor on that. But I'm sure it will be just like everything else and he'll watch Trevor for a while and then he'll prefect it and pass Trevor up. It has happened on every other milestone, crawling, walking, even eating with a fork.

Alex has however, been saying some really weird sounds. I'm not sure what he's trying to say or do but they are definitely very different. It's not the typical, "uhn" that we hear all the time.

Oh and I don't know if I've written about this yet (twinmomesia). But the boys definitely have their own language. There was one day that Kris was on the couch with Alex reading a book and Trevor came over and started trying to get up on the couch. Alex talked in what sounded like gibberish and was pointing away, and Trevor just did an about-face and walked away and read his own book in a corner. Can you tell who the dominate one is?