old lists

Just pasting the boys' "word lists" below so I have them on record.  They're old and I stopped keeping up on them quite some time ago, but I want to make sure I don't lose that info!

A couple of my favorites lately are "pa-ly-ly" (butterfly), and "hockeh-hockeh" (helicoptor).  Can't seem to master those words, but Logan has no problem saying "Gitchigoomie".  :)

Caleb’s Words:

Mama

Daddy

bi (bike)

tree

no (nose)

Papa

eye

hi

la lu (love you)

baby

nigh nigh

choo choo

doggie

da (yes)

hello

me-me (amen)

ba-oo (dog)

car

uh-oh

no-no

bye-bye

Logan’s Words:

Daddy

Mama

coggee (coffee)

eye

baby

 choo choo

tree

Papa

nigh nigh

doggie

da (that)

hello

meh meh (amen)

ca (car)

ball

hi

uh-oh

bye-bye

magic

Mike likes doing magic tricks for 2-yr-olds, they're easy to fool.  :)  Here Caleb tries to follow in his father's footsteps and make a cracker disappear...

random

Nursery is painted.  Finally.  Had trouble getting the last little bit done, but did it last night.  Now to hang ceiling fan, get furniture in there, decide how to decorate, etc...

The boys, especially Logan, love having Mike tell them stories, and ask him for them often (Logan asks for specific stories).  Probably the most popular one is Grandpa Krol and the bear.  :)  I love it when Mike finishes a story and Logan says, "One more!" Or sometimes, when he's asking for a specific story he ends up telling the story himself, and very excitedly.  :)  "Grandpa Krol and the bear, up a tree, shoots it, fall down, boom!  Dogs eat bear..."

This morning I was out running errands by myself and when I came home the boys were 'helping' Mike outside and came running up very excited telling me about a duck, flying, in the house.  I was like, "Yeah, right." but looked over at Mike, and sure enough, they were telling me a true story!  They had been hauling boxes out of the basement and had the cellar doors open for awhile, and a duck got in the house!!  So crazy.  We've had a bird in the house before, but a duck is pretty random.  We see them fly overhead sometimes, of course, but they never hang out around here.  Anyways, it took the bit (with the boys yelling and excited the whole time), but Mike was able to catch it.  All three of them were pretty excited to tell me all about it.  :)

This morning at breakfast the boys were at the table and Mike and I were in the kitchen.  We were being affectionate (completely appropriate!) and Caleb says, "Daddy likes Mommy!"  :)

I just love having conversations with the boys and hearing their conversations the more they talk.  Today for just a bit Logan was playing in the playroom and Caleb was in the living room playing.  Logan calls out, "Baca!  Baca!" (He still calls Caleb that most of the time.), and Caleb's response was, "I busy.  I busy."

There are so many things they say that I wish I could capture on camera because I know I'm not going to remember everything and how cute it sounds in their little boy voices!

shower

A couple evenings ago we had a quick, random rain shower while playing outside.  (The cloud appeared to only be over our house, I'm not even sure if Mike & Emily got wet at all!)  Anyways, the boys got a kick out of it.

34 weeks

We're moving right along.  34 week doctor appointment the other day.  Some of the best news - I'll be done with my blood thinner injections in a couple weeks!!!  Sooooooooooo sick of them (they're not pleasant, they bruise, they're just a hassle, etc.), but, of course, I'll do whatever it takes for this little guy's health.  Once I'm done with the blood thinner I'll have to have Non Stress Tests to make sure everything's okay, so that means some extra appointments, but that's nothing new for us.  :)

Bedtime is still going rough with the boys.  Very frustrating.  Today I tried completely skipping nap/quiet time, and not only can I barely make it through the day like that, we only gained maybe 45 minutes at bedtime.  I was so exhausted by afternoon/evening today - no downtime and this heat doesn't help!

pics

 Enjoying the nice weather.

 "I have a stick!"

 Playing in the dirt.  (Yes, I still have fall clean-up to do...)

 Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

 At the park on Saturday.

 Kite flying at my Dad's birthday party.

 Mike managing the kids.  :)

 My Dad takes his turn flying the kite.

 33 1/2 weeks.

 Nursery primed and ready for me to decide on paint.  (And as of this post, the room is ALMOST done!)

 All 3 of my boys enjoying the hot weather on the first day of spring.  :)

 Caleb and Logan played awesome with the water.  Over an hour and a half - no whining, fighting, being naughty, etc.  Just a few buckets and a running hydrant and we're all set!

Watering my flowers.

roller coaster

Oh, the roller coaster ride of having two toddlers!  After being so pleased with their behavior the other day at our twin playdate, a few nights later I was ready to pull my hair out and it hasn't gotten much better.  :)  After three weeks of doing well in their beds, they are now not doing very well at all.  Last week I even had to call Mike at basketball because I was so frustrated, and even though I didn't ask him to, he was nice enough to leave early and come home.  :)  Just gotta keep telling myself, "This is just a phase, we'll get through this....This is just a phase, we'll get through this..."

Despite bedtime struggles and some extra attitude from Logan lately, we had lots of fun lately.  This unseasonably warm weather has been great.  Both boys love to play outside and get DIRTY.  I have never seen the bath water so dirty...  And, the amount of laundry is just as bad as when they were babies and spitting up all the time.  :)

Friday night we took the boys to open swim at Zeeland Rec.  We had a great time!  It's so interesting to see the differences between Logan and Caleb in the water.  Logan is fine being in a lifejacket and swimming around on his own.  Caleb has to hold on tight.  They did have a floaty thing that Caleb was happy to sit on for awhile and play with cups in the water.  They both enjoyed going down the slide into the pool.  When catching them Mike would let them go underwater just a bit and they both handled it fine, but it seemed to bother Logan less.  Logan flirted with the lifeguard a little bit when she was helping him up the slide.  :)  At this point Logan is more of a water rat, but at least Caleb doesn't put up a fuss about going in the water - he's just not as comfortable with it.

Saturday was a busy day getting things done at home.  We did go to the park for a bit in the morning as well.  One of the big things that got done was the primer in the nursery.  Yay!!!  Since we're going over wallpaper it's an oil-based primer, and my doctor said that I shouldn't do that so Mike had to do it himself.  (My doctor says very few things are off-limits, so when he does, I listen...)  But, I can do the painting myself, so it's all fair.  :)

Saturday night was a little surprise party for my Dad's 65th birthday.  We all managed to pull of the surprise, had a good meal, and then the kids got to run around outside for a while.  (In shorts.  In the middle of March.  Crazy!)  It was perfect for flying a kite, so Mike brought ours over and did that for a while.  Didn't load my pics onto the computer yet...  The boys always have fun playing with their cousins, and Caleb and Jason especially played nice flying the kite.

Yesterday I took the boys to a park and then over to visit Mike at work.  They were out doing field work, planting onions.  After we got home they ate their lunch outside - went okay sitting on a blanket, but I really want to get a kid-sized picnic table!

Today it's supposed to get to 85 degrees.  We need to run a couple errands, and then hit another park!

butterflies

For all the moments that are frustrating having two 2-yr-olds (yes, there are some...), I was so proud of my boys today.  We met up with some of our twins group for a playdate at Frederik Meijer Gardens to see the butterfly exhibit.  I was a little anxious about this outing that I was going to have two little boys running in opposite directions in the midst of lots of people, not listening to me at all, and my quite pregnant self not being able to chase after them very well.  (I guess if you prepare for the worst that leaves room to be pleasantly surprised...)  This scenario isn't totally out there - one of our issues that we're working on right now is Caleb often running away from us in public.

Anyways, the boys did AWESOME.  They either held my hands or stuck close by me, and they listened and obeyed if they were starting to get a little too far ahead of me.  They were fairly tired by the end and Logan especially wanted to be carried, but I just couldn't do it the whole way back to the car, and he didn't put up much of a fuss about that.  Granted, it was a VERY slow walk back, but that's okay.  :)  I've praised them up and down about behaving so well, so hopefully it sticks!

Also, they both really enjoyed seeing the butterflies.  There were lots to see, and they got a real kick out of it when they would fly close by.  One landed on Caleb's shirt for a second, and he really wanted it to happen again after that.  :)

easy

We were doing so well....  So, now the boys have decided to test us with their big boy beds.  Part of the problem was last week they started waking up TOO EARLY probably thanks to it getting light earlier.  Hopefully that will be less of a challenge now after the time change - this morning I went in and woke them up a little after 8am, that is much more to my liking!  :)  Anyways, Logan was the one that struggled during that morning time when they were awake and I still wanted them to stay in their beds for a bit.  His bed is kinda by a couple windows (I've wanted to rearrange the room since we got the beds, but, well, you know, it just hasn't happened...), and he ripped one of the shades.  They're cheap roller shades I haven't been real happy with anyways, but still.  Another morning he got out of his bed and went to Caleb's.  I think I would be fine with this except that I don't know if he understands to not do that until Caleb is awake and to not wake him up...hmmm...

Caleb has been having a rough time of it at naptime.  There were several days last week that he didn't nap at all.  It would be one thing if he were ready to give up his nap, but I don't think he is.  No nap = CRANKY for the evening.  Since I can't force the kid to actually fall asleep, I'm working on him just playing quietly in his bed.  He's not real good at that...  He did get out of his bed a couple times last week, and one of those times he got up on the dresser/changing table where I have their papers with stickers posted on the mirror, and was ripping stickers off and there was quite a mess.

BUT, they have been doing well when we put them to bed at night.  Gotta look on the bright side.  :)

Saturday morning we went to the Coopersville Farm Museum with my brother, Eric, and his kids, Boden and Heidi.  It was fun!  First, the boys were excited to be hanging out with Boden and Heidi.  Eric met us at our house, then we caravaned to the museum.  So, almost the whole way there we heard, "Where Boden go?" and "Where Heidi go?"  We kept telling them they were riding with Uncle Eric, but apparently they have some short term memory loss.  :)

At the museum we got to see a bunch of tractors, sit on one, and then the especially fun parts were the model train display, and the kids' play area.  In the play area there was a table filled with shelled corn (yes, you will have to wash clothes after a trip here) and they had toys to play with in it - the kids especially had fun with this.  Caleb was super focused on what he was doing, I didn't check the time when we started playing in that area, but I know it was at least 30 minutes, if not more like 45.

 Logan didn't want to go by the big cow at the beginning, but he warmed up to her at the end.

 Boden

 Caleb

 Logan

 Heidi

 Logan

 Caleb

 Boden

 Heidi

 The boys checking out the train.

 Playing in the corn.

 Mike and Eric got some playtime, too.  (Shelling corn.)

This is Caleb's face of concentration.  Love it.

poundage

Before I forget, last week when Logan was in to the doctor he weighed in at a whopping 27 lbs.  I think the last time Caleb was weighed (around surgery time) he was around 32 or 34 lbs??

Tuesday night Mike and I had a nice little date night.  I think I enjoy a midweek date better than the weekend, and of course, it's a little more doable this time of year than it is in the summer and fall.  Anyways, the boys' babysitter from last year was home on spring break, so we HAD to go out to give her a chance to hang with the boys.  :)  We went to a restaurant in Holland (family-style, good food, and I had 1/2 price coupon), took a walk on the boardwalk along Lake Macatawa (it was 60 degrees out!!), and went for coffee/dessert downtown Holland (on our "never ending" gift card that some of you have heard about...).

Yesterday the boys spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa.  At first Caleb had it in his head that someone was going to the doctor, and I had to remind him a few times that they were both going to play at Grandma's all day, and no one had to go to the doctor.  :)  I wasn't feeling all that great yesterday, but I did run a few errands, and spent enough time in the nursery to finish sorting through things.  Now I just need my man to move a few things for me and I have to decide on paint color...ugh...I am totally getting hung up on this decision.

march

March.  Yes, it is March.  What?  How did that happen?  I think there's some natural rhythm thing in my body that's messed up because we never truly got "winter" here.  I kept waiting, and waiting...  Sure, we could get a snowstorm or two yet, but it's not the same.

The boys have been doing awesome in their beds!  Actually, BETTER than they were in their cribs!  Now when we put them to bed they are quiet pretty much right away, whereas they used to be a little wound up and rowdy for awhile.  We have not had any issues with them getting out.  There was a morning last week that when I went in to get them Logan was laying on the floor under his blankets, but I don't know if he got out or fell out, and of course I can't get a straight answer from him.  :)  Yesterday I put clean pillowcases on for them, and Logan was thrilled at bedtime.  I came in the room and he kept saying, "Lookit!  I got new pillow!"  :)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to get away overnight on a ladies retreat with our church.  So thankful not only for a husband that is willing to let me go, but who also does such a great job with the kids that I don't even have to worry about them at all while I'm gone.  :)  Actually, one of my biggest worries was that the boys wouldn't even miss me at all (because it's been all about "dad" lately), but Mike said they asked about me quite a bit.

I have a little more clean up work to do in the nursery, and then I have GOT to decide on a color for the walls.  I'm really hung up on that right now...

hot dog

Meant to post this a couple weeks ago.  I got the camera out because the boys were having some other conversation (I think about mice?), but by the time I got the camera going they switched to hot dogs.  I love hearing some of their interactions!  (It's not so great when someone wakes up at an odd time and starts shouting for the other - even though it is kind of sweet that they call for each other...)

Btw - Logan does NOT like hot dogs (crazy kid).  He sees me getting one out for Caleb and starts flipping out thinking he's going to have to eat it.  I've forced him one or two times and that hasn't gone so well - he has quite the gag reflex (yes, Mom, I know, he gets that from me).