Busy Boys

Jamesie's recent words: snack and stool (illustrated in the second picture), both without really an "s" at the beginning, and "open" (can't remember if that's a new one).  He also said (or maybe repeated) a practically-perfect "elephant" this morning when we were reading, but I couldn't get him to say it a second time!

Mattie, meanwhile, is all about the verbs.  (Mix!  Cook!  Fix!  Move!  Sweep!  Sit!  Walk!  Kiss!)

Work Ethic, Part 2

This evening, Mattie begged to have the vacuum taken out, and then after Mike picked him up and they vacuumed the floor together, Mattie was very upset that Mike turned the vacuum off and wouldn't turn it back on and let him vacuum some more. I'm going to remind him of this when he's a teenager!

[Photo from 3/21/11.]

Work Ethic

Mattie wanted to play with the rake today, but when we brought it on to the deck, he was disappointed that there were no leaves there for him to rake up! (He kept saying, "Leaf!")

Jamesie's new word for today, appropriately, was "Brrrr!" (Temperatures were in the low 40's.)

And my favorite new Mattie sentence is "Mommy, kiss." :)

Having a Ball

Mike resurrected the home ball pit, and the boys have been having a great time playing in it.

They are so cute playing together. They like chasing and hide and seek, and they often imitate each other -- the photo from the "Numbers" post below was after Mattie ran into the kitchen, and put his hands down on the floor, and James did the same thing, and then Mattie laid down, and Jamesie did the same thing, and Mattie rolled over, and Jamesie did the same thing. :)

The other day, Mattie got the two roller toys, and brought one over to James and started playing with the other one himself. Such nice sharing! (That night at dinner, Mattie hadn't eaten one of his pieces of cheese, so I asked if he wanted to give it to his brother. He said, "No!" and put it in his mouth...and then took it out again and handed it to James. James didn't want it, and I don't blame him!  Of course, I don't think James cared that it had been in his brother's mouth, he was just done eating.)

James's new words include rice, applesauce, yellow, blue (although he doesn't always match them with the right colors), and "ride-rides."  (We go ride-rides in the car.)

Mattie continues to be talking up a storm as well.  He was looking at his Brown Bear book by himself the other day, and one of the refrains of the book is "I see a [animal] looking at me."  He was repeating "I see, I see" and then he got to the duck page and said, "I see duck."  He also said (later), "I hear brother" and the ball pit inspired him to say (repeatedly) "in the balls."  And after Mike was showing him how to steer his tricycle yesterday, today he was saying "turn the wheel." 

We went over to our friends' house this evening, and James especially loved chasing around with four year old N.  (Mattie's favorite thing was playing with N's guitar.)  They were also excited to see the babies.  Twins C & A are almost four weeks old -- so cute and little!

The Bird Center

Last weekend in Charleston, Uncle Isaac took us to the Center for Birds of Prey, where he volunteers. (In fact, he was recently named Volunteer of the Year -- go, Isaac!) We arrived in time to see the bird flying demonstration, which was really cool. The giant owl you see in the first photos swooped right over our heads.

We thought that James would really like the Center, because he's very into birds right now, and he and Matthew both like owls (at least, their stuffed owl and owls in books). And they did enjoy the first few minutes of the presentation, and then they decided that the exploring the ampitheater steps would be more interesting. :) Fortunately, we were over in our own section so I don't think the little ones were too disruptive for the rest of the group.

We also got to see the baby owls (about two weeks old) being fed, and one of the bigger birds having his lunch (which turns out to be a littler bird -- frozen chicks ordered from a supplier). Feeding time at the Bird Center is not for the squeamish!

It was a neat place! We didn't see everything, because it was getting toward lunchtime, but we had a great time. Thanks again, Uncle Isaac!

So That's What Numbers are For

I was holding Mattie this morning, and he wanted one of the Beanie Baby bears on the shelf. I gave it to him, and then he said, "Two!" and pointed to the other one! So, of course he got that one, too. :)

Happy Baby Hour

It was nice enough to sit on the deck this evening and catch up with our friends, including sweet Baby E who is getting to be almost as big as James, despite being much younger! :)




In other news, Mattie wanted to (and did) use his kiddie potty today. It's great that he's interested (and James is also more willing to sit on the little potty, so that's good, too), but man, those things are kind of disgusting. Diapers don't bother me, getting peed on accidentally doesn't bother me, but there's something about the kid potties that just seems icky. (Especially since with our two, the likelihood that somebody is either going to stick his feet in it or spill it on the floor seems rather high.) Ah well, I guess I'm just going to have to get over that!

Outside

The cousins love the outdoors!

Recent James words include "tail" and "hide", although by far his favorite words these days are bird and outside. :) And today when I said, "There's Daniel", Mattie said, "Cousin!"

Storytime

Auntie Nora, Uncle Adrian, and Cousin Daniel are stopping by on their way home. Bonus cousin time!


Happy Birthday, Aunt Kimberly!!  (Or, by the time you see this, I should say happy day-after-birthday!  We hope it was wonderful!)

Charleston Sunday

We had a nice morning at Uncle Isaac and Aunt Erin's place before heading home. All the boys enjoyed Auntie Erin's slide, and Uncle Isaac may have moved into the lead in the "favorite uncle" category by letting Mattie and James splash in the birdbath. :)

Hermanos a la Playa

We didn't get to spend too long at the beach this afternoon (because of all the time sitting in traffic to get there!), but the boys loved it!! They had no fear at all of the water, and waded right in (just up to their ankles, fortunately), even though it was pretty chilly. Jamesie was very excited by the seagulls, and Mattie seemed to like watching the waves.

Mattie didn't like falling over into the water much -- and who can blame him -- but that didn't stop him. And Jamesie dunked his face in on purpose (and of course, when I told him it wasn't good to drink this water, Mattie had to immediately do the same thing).

Cousin Daniel, meanwhile, was having too much fun with his sandcastles to be interested in the water at all.

Poor Jamesie has the most terribly mismatched outfit -- alternative title for this post was "You're Cute and Your Daddy Dresses You Funny." :)

South Carolina Weekend

We are off for a visit with Uncle Isaac and Aunt Erin -- a visit to the Bird Center is on the agenda for today.

James's recent new words include knife, bike, juice, and bubble (which may be an old word, but he's saying it more clearly now.)

Cowboy James

James had a surgery follow-up appointment today. He weighed in at 19 lbs and almost 9 oz, which was a nice improvement over last week's appointment. They thought everything looked fine, but they still want to see a few more months of weight gain before they take the g-tube out. They also recommended that we try adding pectin to his diet to possibly help with weight gain (apparently it helps with absorbing fatty acids), and also recommended that we restart him on some vitamins just to be on the safe side. They also gave him a teddy bear, which he liked. :)

We tried again with the new formula today (chocolate version this time). James tried maybe a sip but then didn't want any more. Mattie seemed to like it, at least out of Daddy's cup, but then, he's not the one that needs to drink it!

I wonder if they make a version flavored like baby shampoo, since James seems to enjoy drinking from the tub. :) Silly boy.

Jamesie's new word for today was "butterfly." He's also been repeating a lot of words after us (hand, no, and I'm sure others that I can't remember with the sleep deprivation of Mattie waking up multiple times last night).

Little Engineer

Mattie's latest pastime is figuring out how to snap together the straps on James's high chair. (He has the idea of how to get the straps apart when they're already snapped, but fortunately not the ability yet to do it himself -- we don't need the little guys to be any better escape artists than they already are!)

And in other cuteness, I discovered this evening when I went into the nursery that Mattie had put his stuffed beagle to bed on Stanley's dog bed. :)

P.S.  Happy Pi Day!  (Math joke -- 3.14...)

Outside Sunday

Another nice day for the outdoors!

Jamesie said "swing" today (though without the "s" and not much of a "g", but still!) The boys both love the swings!

Mattie got mad this morning when I took away the crayons, because he put them in his mouth after two warnings. Then, this afternoon they were coloring again, and James put the crayon in his mouth (and was told no). Mattie looked a little upset and said (to me), "Brother -- no mouth!" That's right -- I guess he learned the rule!

Double Playground Fun

The weather was so nice today that the boys got to go to the playground twice -- before and after their nap! In the morning we just went to their usual playground, and in the afternoon we did an expedition to Carrboro (including a walk to the used furniture store and a dinner out, which worked out great because the restaurant/sports bar tucked us away in a little corner with no other people around -- the boys were really good, but even under the best of circumstances they are not the most civilized diners these days).

James's new word for the day was "circle", and he also repeated "red" and "yellow" after we said them.

[The second picture -- you can click on it to see a bigger version -- cracks me up because of the little kid in the background chasing the giant eyeball.]