stand

Caleb pulled himself all the way to standing up today!  Earlier in the day he pulled up on me - I was pretty sure I hadn't helped him at all, but was anxious to see him do it again so I could make sure.  :)  Tonight we were all playing in the living room and right in front of Mike and I he pulled himself up holding onto the end table.  He was so proud of himself!!

Logan was sitting up on his own a bunch more today.  He's pretty proud of himself, too.  I love seeing that look of joy on their face.  :)  Otherwise he's been pretty out of sorts today.  I hope it's just teething!

wow

Caleb and Logan are 9 months old today.  Wow!  Where has the time gone?  Let's see if I can quick sum up where we're at right now...  Caleb gets around very well by scooting (no crawling with tummy off the floor yet).  Does get up on his hands and knees and rock, but that's it.  He can get up to a sitting position on his own and does this alot.  He can pull himself about halfway up, but not quite all the way.  He loves to 'talk' and seems to be quite social.  We went to the fair again the other night and he got so hyper, I think it was just from being around so many people!  He also seems quicker to throw a tantrum - if you take something away from him, sometimes changing his diaper, etc.  His two bottom front teeth came in a while ago, and I can see his two top ones just about to poke through.  He loves to eat, and will generally eat more than Logan.

Logan also scoots around like crazy - what's funny is they scoot the exact same way.  He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks alot too, seems very close to actually crawling.  He can get up to a sitting position by himself, but hasn't done it alot yet.  Many times he seems to be a little more serious, and a little quicker to cry.  He has his two bottom front teeth, and I haven't seen any others yet, but the last couple days he sure has been acting like he's teething. 

Yes, it is exhausting, but it is also so much fun having two babies at once.  I love watching them interact - a firstborn singleton must be so lonely!  :)  Generally, they follow each other around when playing, which is mostly a good thing for me.  That means they are getting into trouble together, but that's easier to deal with than getting into trouble separately at the same time.  I can only be in one place at the same time!  They 'talk' to each other, laugh with each other (my favorite!), and crawl over each other (sometimes Logan doesn't like this...).

The love the dogs - and something interesting that Mike has noticed is that when he shows them the pictures of the dogs that we have up in the hallway they pay more attention to Sadie and Macy than Brandy.  Hmmmm....so, they've already got it figured out that they don't know Brandy?  I'm fascinating by this whole learning and developing process and am often wondering what's going on in those little heads as they take in this world.

I wonder what I'm leaving out that in 20 years I'm going to wish I had recorded about this stage in their life...  :)

fair

We took Caleb and Logan to the fair last night.  We'd really been looking forward to taking them to see the animals.  Right away we were watching them move some pigs and one was trying to go the wrong way, it squealed super loud and we were RIGHT there - didn't seem to bother Caleb too bad, but I guess Logan got a little scared.  I'm not sure, but I think Caleb was more interested in watching people as we walked around.  :)  I don't know if they quite know what to think of the horses and cows, they're a little on the large side.  Logan did pet a horse.  Just so they don't start thinking we need to get one of our own.

Last night before bedtime Logan was sad and needed some snuggle time with me.  I'm not going to argue!  I don't get that very often.  I thought that between two babies I'd end up with at least one cuddler, but not so!

Tonight the boys got to ride the lawn mower for the first time!  Caleb was having a blast, Logan was a little more subdued, but I think he liked it.  Caleb was looking at me, smiling, and squealing while he rode with Mike, but of course he was doing the same thing for the dogs.  :)

fun

It was another beautiful summer day to be at Harold and Kara's cottage yesterday!  Mike only had to work a little bit in the morning, then he had time to come home and clean the garage (something that's been bugging him for awhile and just hasn't had time to do).  Next on the list, the basement!  :)  I ran some errands to contribute to garage cleaning - brought old newspapers to recycle, and returned pop cans.  That is so gross.  Felt like I needed another shower after that.

I think every time we go swimming the boys enjoy it more and more.  Yesterday was the longest they've stayed out in the water.  First they floated on rafts with Grandma VanBeek and Great Grandma Rotman, then they played for awhile in little floaty thingies.  And then they took a nice long nap!  Wish I could take them swimming every day.  :)  I do hope we're able to go swimming a few times over the winter so they don't forget how much they like it.

Yesterday I decided that I would be spotter while Mike took Harold for a tube ride (Someone has to sit backwards on the waverunner and watch the tuber).  I figured that I've been getting more comfortable on the waverunner (when I'm driving...), so I could handle this, right?  Well, this is younger brother pulling older brother, you know it's not going to be an easy ride!  I was hanging on for dear life - I seriously thought I was going to fall off a couple times.  From the tube Harold could even see that we were having a serious 'discussion' at one point.  :)  Well, Mike did manage to make Harold wipe out at the end right in front of the cottage, I stayed on the whole time, our marriage survived, and I probably won't be spotting again!  Harold took Mike for a tube ride next (and yes, made him wipe out good at the end in front of everyone) and Kara was spotter instead - she's braver than me.  :)

time

Had some much needed time to myself last night and it was great!  However, I probably shouldn't have had that large iced coffee...  Generally I don't notice that caffiene affects me, but maybe that was just too large of a quantity.  I was tired, but just not sleepy - so annoying!  I played Freecell on my phone for a while, then read a while, then spent a while trying to fall asleep.  Eventually I got up and sat at the computer for a bit.  Then I tried sleeping again, it took some time but eventually I was successful.  :) 

I was too worn out last night to actually put on make-up and decent clothes to go out, so I just hit the McDonald's drive-thru and then found a nice spot to park and read a book.  The only problem is that the days are getting shorter!  I headed home when it got dark. 

Logan can get sitting up on his own now!  What's neat is that it happened the instant Mike walked in the door from work last night, so we both got to see it.  He hasn't done it just in the middle of the floor, but he can get positioned just right when he's by his carseat.  (They've been into playing with their carseats lately.)

sigh

I guess that's all I can say right now...I'm feeling pretty worn out!  Dealing with two little boys on the move is exhausting.  And they're not even walking yet - how much worse is it going to get???

Caleb can get to a sitting position by himself now.  It still cracks me up to go into their room and see him sitting up in his crib.  He can't quite pull himself up yet, but I don't think that's too far away.  If you're on the floor playing with him he'll pull himself halfway up on you.  He'll get up on his hands and knees, but not move forward in that position yet.

Logan sits well on his own, but still needs to be set up like that, he can't get up on his own.  He's probably not far from pull himself up either, he was pulling up a little on his crib railing the other day.  He also gets up on his hands and knees alot, and he'll do push-ups.  :)

I discovered the other day that the boys are afraid of cats!  I was at a friend's house and as soon as they saw her cat they started crying.  Later on they were on the floor playing and they saw the cat again, started crying and Caleb scooted right to me.  Logan began to warm up to the cat and even pet it a little bit, but Caleb still seemed afraid.  I was very surprised because they LOVE Sadie and Macy.  They get so excited when they see the dogs.

We had a couple more chances to go swimming this past weekend.  Both boys thoroughly enjoy it.  They love to splash, and they even kick their legs a little.  I hope that over the winter they don't forget how much they like it and get scared next summer.  Maybe we'll have to think about some swim classes or something just to keep them going.

recent pics

Hard at work!

Cousin Boden playing with Logan.

I only had time to quick run out with the point-and-shoot, but just had to try and capture the amazing colors in the sky!