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.  :)