hurt

Normally when one of the boys gets hurt they do NOT want to be comforted by their mother.  They would rather stand in the middle of the room and cry than have me hold them.  (Mom & Dad, yesterday when Logan got hurt that was an abnormally long time for him to sit on my lap afterwards...)  Drives me crazy.  Every motherly fiber of my being wants to console them when they are legitimately hurt.  So guess what Logan started with the other day?!  He wants a kiss from Caleb when he gets hurt.  I don't remember what happened the other day, but I asked Logan if he wanted Mommy to kiss his owie.  His response, "No.  Baca (Caleb) kiss."  :)

The last week has been AWFUL with the boys getting out of bed.  Naptime, bedtime, in the morning...  It's both of them, and neither punishment nor rewards works to keep them in bed.  It's pretty exhausting, and I hope we figure out a solution soon!

We finally got some snow to play in the other day!  Had just a little bit on Christmas Eve, and got some playtime in before it melted.  Mike had the boys geared up to have a snowman and he managed to scrape up enough snow to make a little one.

Christmas Day the boys were up and out of bed early.  We hadn't really hyped up opening presents and all that too much, but maybe they still knew...  So, we opened presents, had a nice breakfast, tried taking a family photo (with moderate success), and went over to my parents for lunch and to hang out.  Our marathon officially begins tonight - something going on every night this week.  Should be interesting.

proud

I am so proud of my little boys who are growing up too fast!!  Yesterday was their first time in Sunday School, and we got a great report from the teacher.  :)  They drank from cups without spilling (!!!), they sat and folded their hands to pray before snack time, they were interested in the story, and they played real nice.  When Mike and I went to pick them up they were so focused on what they were doing they didn't even realize we were there for awhile - Caleb was working on a puzzle, and Logan was working on something at another table.

Friday night we went to visit my grandpa's girlfriend, Lila.  They boys did pretty good.  It's a little hard to play in a small room with tons of things you can't touch, but considering they're two-years-old and had a bunch of sugar :)  they did fine.  We went to supper before the visit and they had a little ice cream at the end.  Then, when we got to the nursing home some of the residents were decorating cookies and a nurse gave the boys each a cookie (Lila had told her we were coming and to be sure they got a cookie), and then of course Lila gave each of them a sucker.  Yikes!  They survived, and so did Mike and I.  :)

Saturday morning Logan and I went out for groceries while Mike and Caleb stayed home to play.  It's been quite a while since we've had a chance for one-on-one time and it was nice.  Probably whoever stays home to play has more fun than whoever goes out to get groceries with me, but I think Logan enjoyed it at least a little.  :)  For some reason, though, he got cranky on the way home and didn't really seem to shake it the rest of the day.  He wasn't terrible, just a little 'off'.  Later on we went to Mike's mom and stepdad's for cooking baking day.  Thankfully, most of the time the boys stayed busy playing in the basement - two two-year-old boys and decorating cookies don't exactly mix well.  :)

Last night we visited my parent's church for the "family night" they do every Christmas.  Several people in the church participate by singing, playing instruments, doing readings, skits, etc.  My mom usually reads a story to the kids.  We started with the boys in the service with us, but unfortunately my mom's turn was way too far into the service for the boys to make it that long.  There was a meal in the gym afterwards, and that got interesting.  I gave each of the boys a stalk of celery to munch on because they've seemed to enjoy that when we visit Mike at work in the summer.  Of course Caleb stuck the whole piece in his mouth, started to gag, and proceeded to throw up everything he had already eaten.  Nice.  I saw it coming and grabbed a plate to catch everything on (once he starts to gag I know it's all over), so clean up was minimal, and I think the only people that saw it were my parents and my dad's friend that was sitting across from Caleb.  Still, Mike and I had a good laugh about it on the way home.  :)

Logan was in Caleb's crib this morning when I went to get them up.  Ugh...he's been doing so good...

We may have a couple backseat drivers on our hands already!  Whenever Mike or I start to slow down, even just for a turn, someone yells out, "stop!".

The last couple of days Logan has started lining up his cars, trains, etc. when we have them out to play.  Not sure if this is something he saw from someone else, or if he just started doing it on his own.

We're going to have to find somewhere to drive and look at Christmas lights in the next week or so.  Both boys love seeing different lights when we're driving somewhere.  I hear alot of, "Kee-mas tree on!" or "Kee-mas tree off." (They consider regular spruce/pine trees outside to be Christmas trees, and notice if they don't have lights.)

Now that they've recently had a birthday and know what opening presents is all about, they've been pretty excited about the presents under the tree.  I didn't have anything under it since their birthday until a few days ago, and at first we really had to stay on top of them about not opening the presents, but now they're doing better.

I love the random things they say sometimes.  We still hear alot of "Mommy Daddy obey".  Last night during the church service (thankfully not too loud) Caleb said "Mommy gorgeous" - Mike's been teaching them that. They say their names alot now - Caleb will sometimes call himself "Caleb" but sometimes he says "Baca" and that's what Logan always calls him.  Logan is "Ogan".  :)  They definitely interact alot more now.  It's hard to say when it really happened, but for a long time I just felt like they basically co-existed, and now they really interact with each other.  When one's getting changed, the other will come up and tickle his head, sometimes they refer to each other as "brother", which is pretty cute.  And of course, there's Logan wanting to go climb into Caleb's crib to hang out.

owies

Caleb has been pretty rough on himself lately.  On Sunday he was trying to climb onto one of the stools by the counter, it fell over, and he's got a small scrape and slight black eye.  A day or two later I was looking at him and realized his front right tooth looked a little funny.  I got a closer look, felt it, and sure enough, he chipped his tooth just a little bit.  Really don't know when it happened, but the stool incident is my best guess.  Today when we were visiting Mike at lunchtime, Caleb was messing around in a tractor, slipped, bumped his face, and cut his lip.  Hopefully he just sticks with the small stuff and doesn't break any bones!

Did I mention before that I plugged Caleb's info into a couple height predictor calculators?  One predicts he'll be 6'5" and the other said 6'6"...  I don't know about the accuracy of these things, but one of them said that the child has a 90% chance of being within 2 inches of the predicted height.  Hmmm....  As far as I'm concerned, he can wait to do all that growing until he's buying his own clothes!!  Logan's predicted height is about 5'10".

Random tidbit about the boys:  they both love sauces.  Ranch dressing, salsa, guacamole, whatever.  Logan especially has a tendency to dip his food in, lick off the sauce, then dip his food back in.  Caleb many times ends up just using his finger to eat the sauce.  We're working on them.  :)  I'm just glad they like that kind of stuff!

Mike took the boys shopping for my Christmas present the other night.  I've been trying to get the boys to tell me what they got, but they won't give in.  :)  Yesterday I had the day to myself and I pretty much started and finished all our Christmas shopping.  Feels good to just get it over with in one shot.

Logan has been doing great staying in his crib!  It probably helps that it's cold enough now that they're wearing their sleepsacks at night, but he still gets a sticker each morning for staying in.  :)  And, he's actually started calling it a "sticker" instead of a "tattoo" now.  :)

snow

Woke up to some snow on the ground this morning.  When I got the boys up this morning I told them it had snowed, and we'd better get downstairs to look at it.  Caleb hurried up and got downstairs to look out the window.  On his way down, Logan said something about "my snow".  (It's "my" everything around here now.)  I told him it was actually God's snow and He gave it to us to look at - well that stuck with him and now when they're looking at the snow they say, "God's snow!"  And, they started saying "thank you", too.  Pretty cute.  :)

This has been going on for awhile, but copying is a big thing in our house.  Seems to happen especially when the boys are at the table, at opposite ends from each other.  One does something and the other has to copy exactly (only with bad things, of course).  Or, almost without fail, when one does something and gets in trouble for it, the other has to immediately do the same thing.

Last night was the first night in a week that Logan stayed in his crib!  This is pretty major, I was beginning to feel like we were never going to conquer this.  A couple different nights I had tried telling him that he would get a treat the next day if he stayed in his crib, but this didn't really get through to him.  But, yesterday morning when Caleb got a sticker for staying in his crib and Logan didn't, Logan was pretty upset about it.  Last night I made up a paper for each of them with their name on it to hang in their room.  I put one sticker on Caleb's and none on Logan's.  Showed them to Logan and explained that Caleb had a sticker because he stayed in bed the night before, that I really wanted to put a sticker on his paper the next morning, etc., etc.  Talked it up real big.  After putting them to bed we checked in a couple times (have to go in and check because he can get out so quiet we don't hear him), and Logan was in his crib so we praised him and reminded him about getting a sticker.  I was nervous about this morning, wondering whether he'd remember.  I didn't give him much of a chance, as soon as I heard some waking up in there I went in to get them.  When I walked in the door Logan had his leg up on the railing like he was about to get out...  Since he was technically still in his crib I gave him a  sticker, but I'm curious to see how things go tonight/tomorrow morning.

Wednesday night Mike was at a work dinner, so I took the boys out for a 'special' evening.  Just as much for my benefit as theirs.  :)  First we went to McDonald's for supper.  Just did drive-thru and then sat in the car to eat.  I let them watch a dvd while eating.  :)  Then we went to Target to look for something, and then went to the play area at the mall.

Yesterday morning was a playdate with my twin mom's group.  This is the second year that we've done a cookie exchange, and I love it!  Now there's a nice variety of tasty treats in the house to tempt me.  The boys played very nice.  Caleb even played a little t-ball all on his own - I didn't get him going on it or anything.  We did a group picture at one point and Caleb sat for just a bit then wanted nothing to do with it.  Thankfully, I wasn't the only mom having trouble.  :)

And today was a church playdate.  Phew!  Busy, busy.  But, it's nice to get out of the house, the boys enjoy playing with other kids and different toys, and I enjoy having some adult conversation.  :)

info

If you can find the right stuff, my 'little' (okay, maybe not so little) ball of energy, i.e. Caleb, can really concentrate on what he's doing!  For example, if sitting at the table doing a puzzle (when there's no other options of things to do) he'll really focus on it.  Or, now that he's got a bunch of cars, trucks, tractors, construction equipment, and trains, and we borrowed a rug from my parents that has roads, tracks, etc. on it, he'll play real nice.  And, he's very good at puzzles and shape sorters - he sticks with it and figures it out.  Whereas, Logan gets frustrated and gives up pretty quick.  I hear alot of "Help?  Help?" and whining from him.

Logan seems especially good at repeating words we say.  Almost always willing to try a new word.  And the things he observes and remembers still surprises me.  He's also very good with his colors.  Caleb is good, too, but I think Logan gets his colors right more often.  Both of them are pretty good at recognizing when there are two of something - they've done this for awhile.  Funny, Logan has a couple owies and he keeps saying "twos (like toose) owies".  (One is a spot on his foot from a blister this summer, and the other is a scrape on his knee.)

The last couple days we've been struggling with Logan climbing out of his crib.  At least now he climbs all the way out safely, rather than climbing up on the railing and then falling down...  And, what really surprises us is that when Logan is doing this, Caleb stays in his crib!  Hoping we can teach him to stay in as we'd like to transition to beds in a few months.

Both of the boys do pretty good at following directions.  Just things like putting shoes in the closet, picking up some toys, getting in their chairs, etc.  It's kinda nice!  :)

Had to hold my tongue a bit when at the grocery store yesterday.  Took the boys and when we got there found out all the bench seat carts were out for repair.  Nice.  So I had the boys standing in one cart and I pulled another to put groceries in.  They were doing pretty good.  At one point they were ramming around a little bit, but nothing terrible.  Some older lady made a comment to the effect of hoping they were okay because they were riding in the cart like that.  I *nicely* said I had no other option.  And she said something about how she had an option - to move on and not have to seem them riding in the cart like that.  Thanks, lady.  As if going grocery shopping with two 2-yr-olds isn't stressful enough...

In the middle of a busy weekend.  Last night was our Ladies Christmas Tea at church.  I'm on the committee that put it on, so I helped get ready for it, but really didn't have to do anything last night.  Mike was one of our servers, though!  Looked pretty handsome in a red bow tie.  :)  The boys got to go play with Boden and Heidi - I'm sure they thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope Boden and Heidi had fun, too!  (And Eric and Lea Anne, of course!)  Tonight Mike and I are going to a dinner at Freedom.  My niece, Natalie, is part of the entertainment - I can't wait to see it!  The boys will be going to play at Grandpa and Grandma's - they always enjoy that, too.  Tomorrow afternoon is our church class Christmas party.  Interested to see how the boys hold up through this weekend...

doctor

This afternoon was Caleb and Logan's two year well-child visit to the doctor.  They did GREAT!  They hardly fussed at the poking and prodding, and they didn't get any shots so that helps, too.  :)  They even showed off a little bit for him.  They didn't get much of a chance to talk and show the doctor how good their vocab is :) but Caleb jumped off the exam table step and the doctor was totally impressed.  He was talking about how that's really good, and most kids his age would just kind of walk off not actually jump, and he jumps more like a three-year-old would.  (And that step was about half the height of what he jumps off of at home!)  And just so you know, our doctor is a pretty down to earth kinda guy, he wouldn't get excited about nothing.  :)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we've got a child off the charts for height.  Can you believe it?  They both started off too small to be on the charts and took awhile to move up, but now we've got one off the chart on the other end!  Caleb is 37 1/2 inches tall (>100th%) and 30lbs 4oz (75th%).  Logan is 34 inches tall (40th%) and 26lbs 2oz (25th%).  Both are growing and healthy, so that's wonderful!

We always go to the doctor in the evening so it's easy for Mike to go, and the office is just down the road from our favorite Chinese place, so we just had to go there for supper afterwards.  :)  The boys did great there, too!  Sometimes taking them out to eat is not ideal, but they did really good tonight.

Here are a couple action shots of Caleb jumping from the last week or so:

birthday

Tuesday was Caleb and Logan's second birthday!  We had a fun day.  In the morning I took them to the play area the mall.  They really enjoy playing there and it's totally manageable for me, so it's a win-win.  :)

 Checking out the Christmas display at the mall.

Caleb especially enjoys jumping off this turtle at the play area.

After the mall we went to visit Mike at work - always fun for the boys.  There were two hi-lo's in the shop, both with working horns, so this was a great thrill.  They could each sit on their own and just honk the horn at each other.  :)

In the afternoon they each took good naps, which helped me enjoy the day.  :)  I had a bunch of balloons blown up for them when they got up from nap, and they loved them, but it proved to be too much of a distraction for Logan during supper.  He hardly ate and wanted to get down to play.  After supper the boys each opened a present from us (John Deere tractors, of course...).  

 Didn't want to give up balloon.

 What is it?

 Love the look on Caleb's face here.

 Caleb wanted no part of sitting for a photo.

*hugs*

Then, all the grandparents came over for cake, ice cream, and presents!  Both boys seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.  They love cake and ice cream (much more than last year!), and they had fun with all the presents they got.  Logan blew out his candles on his own right away, but we couldn't convince Caleb to be forceful enough (I know, surprising) so he needed a little help from Mike.  After playing with new toys for a bit, Logan did end up spending most of his time playing with the balloons (and they've still been popular yesterday and today).  The boys got tractors, cars, construction equipment, Elmo dolls, books, cds, puzzles, and phones.  Lots of fun stuff!!

 I LOVE the look on Logan's face here.  That little smirk is the funny smile he gets when he's getting special attention.

Everybody is singing for me!!

 Caleb would rather carry his box over to stack on top of Logan's and then climb on top than open it and see what's inside...

 Elmo!

 And a book with Elmo in it, too!  (That wasn't even planned. :)

 What's in here?  (Steenwyk's, does that bag look familiar??)

 Loving the attention.

 Getting cozy with Papa.

Our little fam.

I wasn't sure if the boys would really be into their birthday this year yet or not, but they really seemed to get into it and enjoy the attention and special activities.  Maybe it helped that we psyched them up for it for a few weeks beforehand.  :)

on/off

Caleb is REALLY into pointing out whether lights are on or off.  This has been going on for probably a couple weeks.  If we're in the living room, for example, he'll go around and tell us about every light he sees - the "hallway" outside the playroom, the stairs, every light in the living room (which now includes the Christmas tree), the dining room, and the lights we have on the porch now...  I love watching him look around for a light to point out.  :)

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend here!  The boys and I really liked having Mike around, and it was hard to get back to reality today.  This was our "off" year for family stuff, so on Thursday we had some friends over for dinner.  (The year the boys were born the schedule got switched up, so both of our families are on the same year.  So, last year was crazy, this year was relaxing, and next year will be crazy again!)  Anyways, the friends we had over don't have family in town and the husband was working, so it worked out nice.  We had a great meal with all the traditional stuff!  (As if Mike would have it any other way...)  I guess this was the first time I ever cooked a Thanksgiving meal.  It went well!  (Thank goodness for crock pots!)

Friday the four of us actually went out and did some shopping.  Nothing crazy.  :)  Mike had seen the weather forecast and wanted to see if we could find a kite to fly with the boys.  We did, and when we got to flying it later they LOVED it.  They helped fly the kite, tried to help launch it after a crash, and just had a good time watching it, pointing it out, saying, "Kite up high!" "Fly kite!"

Saturday we worked on some Christmas decorating here.  So far the boys are doing fairly okay with the tree.  They certainly aren't trustworthy to be near it unsupervised, and there have been plenty of reminders to look and not touch, but it hasn't been terrible.  They do love looking at it ("Kee-mas tree"), and pointing out a few different ornaments - specifically the two with their names on them, and a soccer ball one.

There are also a few presents under the tree for their birthday.  They haven't been too much trouble, but I'll be glad when they get to open them tomorrow.  :)  We've talked up their birthday quite a bit, so they actually seem kinda into it.  I don't think they have a clue what it all is, but they can at least answer our questions:  How old are you? "I two!"; When is your birthday? "Soon."; Are you excited? "Yeah!"; etc.  :)

chicago

Mike and I had a little getaway over the weekend.  We think this is the first time we've taken a trip with JUST the two of us since February of 2008!  We had a great time and even though I came back with a cold (and Mike got it a day or two later) and thoroughly exhausted from all the walking, it was totally worth it.

Friday morning we took the train from Holland to Chicago.  Mike hadn't taken the train before, and it was a nice ride.  He was a little bummed when I saw a deer first and he didn't see it at all, but later he saw a big buck and was pretty geeked.  :)

Once we got to Chicago (train takes you right to Union Station downtown) top priority was finding someplace for lunch since breakfast had been minimal.  We came across Elephant & Castle an Irish pub type place (for those of you in the area here, think Curragh in downtown Holland).  After that we made our way to our hotel.  Our hotel was in a great location for all the walking around we did, and thankfully we were able to check in early so we could drop off some stuff and have less to lug around.

For the afternoon we headed up Michigan Ave, walked around Water Tower Place (where I dropped my lens hood one floor and cracked it...) and checked out the Lego Store and the American Girl store (where Mike had to hear how much I would have LOVED that store as a little girl).  We headed to the top of the John Hancock building to watch the sunset from the Signature Lounge - our timing there was perfect.  We only had to wait a bit to get up and get a seat, and when we left the line to get a table was long and the line at ground level to take the elevator was even longer!  It was a great view of the city, but I didn't mind getting my feet back on solid ground.  :)

Then we headed down to Gino's East for supper.  We had great timing there, too!  Helps that our bodies were on Michigan time, I guess, and so we were eating on the early side.  We didn't have to wait long for a table, but while we were in there people were starting to wait in line outside.  Great food!  And I'm full just thinking about it.

We definitely needed to do some walking after supper, so we headed out to Navy Pier.  Had a beautiful night view of the city.

We got back to the hotel and crashed pretty early.  I was already tired from all the walking and we still had a whole day ahead of us!  The next morning after breakfast we walked over to Millennium Park.  I have been wanting to see "the bean" for so long - and, yes, it was everything I hoped it would be!  :)

Walked over to and along the lake for a bit, then started making our way along the river back to our hotel.  Starting to move slower at this point, thankful for my patient hubby.  :)  Found a safe spot to set up my self-timer so we could try and get a photo of the two of us.

We also came across this Marilyn Monroe statue.  Had no idea they had this!  And, yes, we were curious and looked up her skirt.  :)

We had to check out of our hotel by noon, but they were able to hold the bag we didn't want to carry around for the afternoon.  After taking care of that we went back up to Water Tower Place for lunch.  Ate at a trendy cafeteria type place that had good food, but for us Dutch people it was a little pricey.  :)  But, we couldn't feel too bad about it - we were on vacation after all, and the only money we spent was transportation, hotel, and food; we didn't do any museum's/entertainment or other shopping.  Anyways, didn't mean to get sidetracked into our finances.  After lunch we made our way to the subway - finally admitted I couldn't walk anymore and had to sit down for awhile.  Connected to the "el" and rode it all the way out to Midway and back!  Now there's a cheap way to get a different view of the city.  Was a nice ride.

After the subway ride there was some walking around to do, but it was leisurely.  Got our bag at the hotel, and stopped in a few stores on our way back to Union Station.  Had plenty of time there to walk around and get some food before catching our train home.  Was a very nice ride home, better than the ride out there.  Got home and fell into bed completely exhausted!

I was worried the boys weren't going to be excited to see us when we picked them up, but I think they were sufficiently happy.  :)  I was pretty miserable with a cold on Sunday, which was not cool, plus the boys were totally acting up after we got them back home.  But, we're pretty much back to normal now (be that good or bad).  The boys have had runny noses, but it hasn't gotten any worse, and Mike got the cold, too, but is also on the mend.

my almost 2-year-olds

"My" has become a very commonly used word in our house.  Actually, I expected it much sooner, but it is now in full swing.  I'm not so sure that the whole concept of twins learning to share easier than singleton's is correct.  At this point the boys aren't terrible, but we certainly have our moments!

Caleb, Logan, and I have a new little tradition that started a couple weeks ago or so.  After getting them up in the morning before going downstairs, we sit at the computer and watch "old" videos of them.  They really get a kick out of it.  I think they know it's them, but I'm not totally sure.  Caleb will point out "Ogeen" (Logan), but never himself.  But, when there's a clip of him and I say, "That's you!", he gets a cute little smile on his face.  They come out of their room asking for "babies", and then when we're done they say, "Bye-bye, babies!"

There are so many words they say that I NEED to get on camera!  A current favorite of mine is "onion".  Also, when Caleb says "I ub (love) you" my heart absolutely melts.  It's the best late at night when he's sleepy and we've had to put his pj's back on before we go to bed (yes, he's still into stripping) and I get him tucked back in, give him a kiss, tell him I love him, and he responds with a half-awake "I ub you".  Sigh.  Last night when we first put them down Caleb kept saying "Mommy Daddy obey" - I'm not so sure the concept stuck with him, though...  :)

Last week there was one night that Caleb climbed out of his crib twice!  There hasn't been any climbing/falling in quite awhile.  The first time Mike heard him messing with the keyboard in the office, the second time I could hear him fooling with the monitor.  The second time we snuck up so he wouldn't hear us coming, and as soon as we walked in the room he made a beeline for his crib.  I caught him and he immediately started saying "Sorry, Mommy.  Yes, Mommy." and folding his hands (something we JUST started working on).  The kid has already learned all the right things to say!

Both boys have been into pointing out colors lately, but especially Logan.  And he's getting better and better.  Yellow, blue, and green are good, and he even does pretty decent with pink, black, and white.

Logan has started saying "bless you" after he sneezes.  Takes some prompting to get him to say it for someone else, but he does good for himself.  :)  We're still working on getting them to say "excuse me" after other bodily noises...

Logan is our shoe lover.  And I have to admit that sometimes it drives me crazy, but I figure there could be worse things.  :)  Today he wore a pair of snow boots around the house for most of the morning, and he was as happy as could be.  I managed to get them off for naptime without too much of an issue.

Speaking of naptime.  For the last while before the time change they weren't going so well.  I think the boys were sleeping in too long in the morning.  (Yes, I could wake them up, but that's much easier in theory than in practice.)  Anyhow, after the time change they are getting up a little earlier in the morning and naptime is mostly going better.  Not quite as long as it used to be, but it could be worse!

memory

I am continually astounded by what Caleb and Logan can remember!  Things like:  Once this summer with Mike they looked at a caterpillar by the back door of the garage.  Even though they don't go through that door very often, when they do, they stop, look, and say, "bye-bye, caterpillar".

A couple months ago I had made cookies, the boys were having one after supper, and before putting them away Mike was being silly and acted like he was putting them to bed.  Now this past week I made cookies and they (especially Logan) say, "nigh-nigh, cookies".

A couple weeks ago they closed our road at Chicago Dr, so we had to take Riley/56th around to get to Chicago Dr.  This is just on the other side of the expressway from my parents' place, and we pointed it out to the boys the first time we went past.  Then every time after we'd go by and they'd say, "Papa's house".  And that's without prompting!  They're already better at directions than some adults I know!  :)

Last week we were at my parent's for supper while Mike and my Dad were harvesting corn.  They ate in shifts and while my dad was in for supper he sneezed.  Anyone who's ever heard him knows this is no pansy sneeze.  I mean, he sneezes with all the gusto he's got.  It scared the kids, especially Logan.  Poor guy, you should have seen the look on his face.  The next day after I got him up from nap I told him we were going to see Daddy and Papa harvesting corn again, and the rest of the evening he kept saying, "Papa neez".  :)

retreat

We had a great weekend!  We are looking forward to a weekend with no major plans since we've had alot going on over here for quite awhile now, but we really enjoyed our weekend.

Friday night we had a family date night.  :)  We went to El Rancho for supper - yum!  Overall, the boys did very well.  They didn't eat much, and at the very end they got antsy, but still it was a successful going out to eat experience.  After dinner we went to the playplace at the mall in Holland.  The one there is perfect for us - the toys are a good size for the boys to play on, and it's easy for me (in this case, us) to keep track of them.  I've never attempted taking them to the play area at the mall in Grandville because it would just be too hard to keep an eye on them.  Plus it's always mobbed there and I've heard a few getting sick stories...  :(

Saturday, Mike and I were able to go for the day to our Young Married's retreat.  Most of the couples were there for the weekend, but there were a few of us that just came for the day.  We were glad we could at least be  there for some of it.  (Also, we're in the middle of coming up with a new name for our class, since we hardly qualify as the "Young Married's" anymore...)  It was a great day with a couple sessions, plenty of free time, group games, and good food.  Speaking of group games...in the afternoon the whole group played Bunko.  For those of you who haven't played, sorry, I'm not going to explain it.  It's basically a dice rolling game.  Anyways, Mike and I won and we got to choose something from a prize table....Eric, you're going to love this - we chose a gift card to Rainbow Grill!  :)  In the evening we played the Newlywed Game, and that was a hoot.  Loved hearing everyone's answers.  Mike and I did not win that one...

Today started out kinda cloudy and rainy, but ended up being nice and I squeezed in one last fall photo session right in our yard.  Thankfully most of the trees in our yard change on the later side, so things are still looking nice.  I should still try to take the boys' pics...

talk

Caleb started saying "Logan" the other day!  Sounds a little more like "Logeen".  :)  They'll try and say almost anything we ask, within reason of course.  2-3 syllables is probably their max.  But they've been putting words together for quite some time now.  I especially hear alot of "Mommy shoes", "Mommy car", "Daddy truck", "Papa cows".  :)

I can't get over how observant they are.  They notice the smallest things!  Also, they've been getting the concept of day/night.  Logan started with it first.  When it starts to get dark they say "night" and the way they say it really cracks me up, I gotta get it on camera.

Can't remember if I posted about this before or not, but out of the blue Logan knows a few colors.  I had no idea.  He does especially well with yellow, and can also do pretty good with blue and green.

Caleb is still doing alot of stripping, but the duct tape on the diaper seems to be doing the trick.  Generally when we go check on them at night we have to put his pj's back on, and then when I get them in the morning he's got them off again. At naptime he usually at least gets his pants off.  (I think it was Monday I forgot to duct tape and he once again got EVERYTHING off.)

name

I think I posted about this when it first happened, but Logan is consistently calling Caleb "Baca" now.  It really sounds cute.  Can't get anyone to say "Logan" yet.

Logan more so than Caleb will repeat words we say, and for the most part does very well.  Every once in a while he gets consonants mixed up or something, but not too bad.

Some favorite words of mine that they say are "bubbles", "sun", "bus", "pancake", and "cozy".

weekend

Friday morning we left for our trek down to Wooster, OH for Steve and Erin's wedding (Mike's stepbrother).  We stopped at the outlets in Howell for just a bit.  The boys had fun playing while I did some quick shopping (the day before I ruined the shirt I planned on wearing to the wedding...).

A little further down the road we stopped at Cabela's.  The boys enjoyed seeing the animals, we found Mike a new jacket for work, and we ate lunch there.  Also were there at the same time as Harold and Kara!  Overall, the driving down to Wooster went pretty well.  A few times the boys got a little whiny, but not too bad.

We got to the hotel late afternoon and had to get ready for the rehearsal dinner with the family.  So, imagine this.  Two 2-year-olds who have been confined to their car seats all day, now in a teeny hotel room with all sorts of things to get into that they shouldn't, and two parents trying to get ready for dinner.  Thank goodness Mike and I complement each other - we talked about this, if we were both laid back like him we wouldn't get anything done, but if we were both uptight like me we'd be miserable.  :)  We balance each other out!  Anyways, Caleb was trying to jump from one bed to the next, and he actually made it once.  And the times he didn't and got hurt didn't slow him down.  They had fun pushing buttons on the safe, playing with the toilet paper in the bathroom, etc., etc., etc.

We made it to dinner on time and all in one piece.  Had a nice time visiting with family we don't see very often.  For the most part the boys did pretty well - could've been better, could've been worse.  After dinner everyone went bowling!  Erin's dad manages the student center at the College of Wooster, and they have a bowling alley - they rented out the whole thing for us.  I forgot what it's like to be in college, living on campus, and see little kids around - it's a pretty big deal.  The boys got some attention.  :)  When we were on our way out some girls were coming out of the cafe and were "ooo-ing" and "ahh-ing" over the boys.  Then we were outside where it's a wall of windows to the cafe, some students were sitting at a table by the windows and noticed the boys.  Logan stopped to wave, and then (after Mike's prompting) started blowing kisses.  Oh my word.  It was so cute, and the students thought it was pretty funny.  Caleb went back to wave, too.  So wish I had that on camera.

Caleb hangin' with Uncle Tom.

Sleeping in the hotel did not go so well.  I didn't have expectations that it would, but still, it was frustrating.  

Saturday morning we went swimming at the hotel for awhile.  It took Caleb a bit to decide he wanted to come all the way in, but Logan didn't hesitate.  Actually, Logan doesn't have enough fear!  I want them to love the water, but understand that they need to be careful!  Coming in off the steps, Logan would try to jump away from us so we couldn't catch him.  Once he jumped before Mike was ready, he floundered for maybe two seconds, and that didn't even scare him or bother him.  

At lunchtime my college friend Laura was able to come to the hotel and have lunch with us!  She lives about an hour away from where we were, and I was really hoping we could fit it in the schedule to see her.  She came up with her husband (whom I also graduated with) and two daughters (the youngest is almost 3 and I hadn't met her yet!).  We could have talked for hours, but didn't have that much time.  :(  I'm so glad we at least had a little time, though.  The kids seemed to play nice together.  Of course, we both forgot to take any pics.

After lunch, Mike and I headed up to Medina to bring the boys to Amma and Papa Churgovich.  :)  My sis-in-law's parents live not far from Wooster, and agreed to take the boys overnight so we could go to the wedding in peace.  :)  It was great!  As far as I know, the boys did great at their house - new place to be in, different toys to play with, and they have a cat, which I think they loved.  We heard alot of "bye-bye, Charlie" on the way home Sunday.  

So, after getting back to the hotel we were able to take our time getting ready for the wedding (I guess I took my time more than Mike did...), and not worry about our kids getting into stuff.  Then we enjoyed going to the wedding and having a chance to just relax.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being with my kids, I just need a breather sometimes.  :)  The wedding was beautiful, the food was good, of course we enjoyed our company, and it was just a nice time.

 Beautiful setting out at a country club in Orrville.

 Steve was a gentleman and there was no cake smashing.  :)

Not a great pic, I know, only had my point-and-shoot.  Anyways, it shows her dress, which I loved.  Lots of ruffles and lace and beading, but yet it didn't seem way overdone, it was very classy and elegant.

Sunday morning there was a breakfast at the hotel for all the out of town guests.  It was great!  And it gave us a chance to visit with some family we hadn't really had a chance to talk with yet.  After breakfast we went and picked the boys up in Medina.  They seemed happy to see us.  :)  And, the Churgovich's survived and said they're willing to do it again, so that's a good sign!  I was worried the boys weren't going to go to sleep good, but it sounded like they did alright.

Caleb wasn't too keen on having a picture taken, and Logan had some major bedhead going on.

We took a more scenic route for part of the way home - it was a beautiful day.  The first half of the trip went decent.  When we stopped for lunch Caleb was acting up, so while Mike and Logan ate I took Caleb to just walk around outside.  The last half of the trip was pretty miserable.  Near constant crying.  It was obvious they were tired and if they would just close their eyes for a second they'd fall asleep, but they would NOT.  We were very glad when we finally got home.  Mike asked if I'd like to take a trip to Florida now.  Ha!  No way.

hats

My boys love to wear hats.