Big Red Dogs

J & Y gave us a couple Clifford videos, and so yesterday Matthew and James informed me that they were both Clifford (note the red shirts).  James was Big Dog Clifford and Mattie was Little Puppy Clifford.  :)

Mattie has been making us smile recently by using adult-sounding phrases that he's picked up.  The boys are already very excited about their birthday ("what month is it now?  when will it be May?"), and I asked them if they wanted to have a pizza party again.  Mattie joked about having a "neat-za party" (which I then told him was a party where everyone helped clean up), and he ended the conversation with, "Whenever you want to have a neat-za party, you just say the word!"  And before dinner the other day, he asked Mike for a graham cracker, informing him, "That will tide me over until dinner."  So cute. :)

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter, and we hope you did, too! 

The Easter Bunny hid the boys' baskets (although we didn't make a big deal of this in advance, so they weren't really expecting it.)  Matthew happened upon Jamesie's basket when they were playing, and then they went on a hunt to solve the "Mystery of the Missing Basket" to find Mattie's. 

Since neither of them eats much candy these days, the contents of the baskets were a bit minimal, but they were very happy.  Mattie especially was so excited about the Hot Wheels coloring book and his orange bouncy ball.  (He was going on and on about how "it was just what I wanted!"  Sooooo adorable.) And James was delighted to have bubbles, especially since we blew bubbles for him when he sat on the potty.  (Normally bubbles are an outdoor activity.)

 J & Y and the girls came over for dinner, which gave Mike an excuse to cook a big ham.  :)  To our great sadness, they are moving away soon, so we're trying to see them as much as possible before they depart for their wonderful new adventures!

Kicking Off Grilling Season

  Our Easter Saturday continued in wonderful fashion with a visit from N's family, and then a cookout with friends.  Mike finished up the "fort" and the kids had fun climbing on it (with lots of adult supervision, of course). 

Earlier, Mike had told the boys they could come up while he was finishing putting on the floorboards, and Matthew said, "You have to be careful, Daddy.  You have to watch us and be careful with James."  (Mike's reply was, "Yes, Mom."  Heh!)

Happy Easter Saturday

We took the boys to an Egg Hunt this morning at one of the historic houses downtown.  The hunt started at 10 AM, and I'd estimate the eggs were all collected by about 10:03 AM.  The toddler and preschool set descended like a swarm of locusts.  :)

Mattie was very excited to have his face painted like a tiger, and he also enjoyed doing the "bunny craft" (a felt Easter bunny that was very cute but didn't stick together too well, even with plenty of glue.)

James (and the other kids) had fun ringing the big bell (which Mike and I thought was way too loud!)

Early Easter

The boys were thrilled to get an Easter package from Grandma and Grandpa B yesterday.  Mattie was so excited when a box arrived with his name on it. They really liked the Easter baskets, but they also loved jumping up and down on the bubble wrap!  (The Hot Wheels were also a big hit.)  Thanks, G & G!!

Applied Math

James is very interested in exactly what time it is these days.  Yesterday morning, he looked at the (digital) clock and said, "It's 9:02!  N gets here at 9:05.  Three more minutes!  Two minutes and one minute!"  (Yep!)

Brains

Not pictured here, but Daniel was very excited to introduce us to the computer game Plants versus Zombies.  (It is not as gory as it sounds -- the animation is pretty low-key and kid-friendly.)

Daniel informed Matthew that the zombies eat brains, and Matthew replied, "Do they eat acorns?"  (The answer was no.)  Later, Daniel told us, "The zombies have eaten my brains hundreds of times!"  (James liked to play the game, but he wasn't really playing to win -- he just liked it when the lawn mowers rolled over the zombies.  And when the zombies got in the house, which happens when you lose the game, he said, "They ate my brains!  And your brains, too!"  Later he changed that to "They didn't eat my brains!  I wasn't in there!")

Early Easter Party

 The boys (and the grown-ups) had a wonderful time at Cousin Daniel's Easter party this weekend!  (We headed south before the snow arrived this afternoon!)

In addition to the ever-popular egg hunt (which went much faster this year with the addition of more and older kids!), Auntie Nora also had sack races and a homemade pinata.  Daniel liked the egg and spoon race better, though.  (And James was just happy to kick the soccer ball!)

Half-New

James got his new hearing aids yesterday.  He was an extremely good boy at the doctor's office! Unfortunately, he had a bunch of wax clogging up his left ear, so we're supposed to leave the hearing aid out and put ear drops in for two weeks.  Poor kiddo!  He really can't hear anything out of that ear right now without the hearing aid - hopefully getting rid of the wax will help.

30 lbs

James weighed in at 30 lbs, 1 oz at his feeding therapy appointment today (with clothes on, as they do at this age).  Pretty good!  He's 95 cm tall. 

Matthew was funny this morning.  We told him James had an appointment with K, and he said, "But if he goes to the hospital, James might get sick!"  I told him that no, we weren't going where people were sick, and he said, "But last time he went, he came home with the tummy bug!" That's true (good memory, Mattie!), but I don't think that's where he picked up the germs, so I reassured Matthew that James would probably be fine.  :)

James has also had some good potty success.  In fact, I had a work event last night, but when I came home, he greeted me with, "Mommy!  I pooped and peed in the potty!  Hooray!"  He went in the potty again today (and after he told me about it, said, "Are you so proud of me?" -- and of course I said yes!)  He also had some accidents in underwear -- he's much better if we let him go bottomless.

Don't Knock It

Going along with the boys' continued enthusiasm for building is their almost-equal enthusiasm for knocking their brother's tower down. 

Yesterday Matthew said that he wanted to keep his brick castle up "forever." 

Alas, I think it's too early to introduce them to Ozymandias. 

Zouse

The boys like to play "Animals" right now -- which means that we say an animal name, and they have to guess what letter it starts with.  When they play with Mike, they usually say the real letters (and are quite accuate), but when they play with me, they always want to do the silly version.  So, I'll say, "What does mouse start with?" and they'll yell out "Z" or "Q" and I'll say, "Zouse?  I never heard of a zouse!" and they crack up.  :)  This is how we usually spend the ride to preschool. 

James also likes to "do numbers" which means he asks arithmetic questions.  "What's three plus seven?" etc.  He's getting to know a lot of them (and mostly has the hang of the rule that adding zero to a number makes it stay the same and adding one makes it the next number).  Just for the record, this is not something we're pushing at all -- it's all him!

We've also started "I Spy", but they're a bit random at that one -- for instance, I think James will just say "I spy something black" but without any actual object in mind.  :)

Mattie continues to amaze and amuse us with his turns of phrase.  The other night he was having ice cream, and he asked what flavor I was getting out. I told him cookies and cream (his favorite), and he said, "And maybe a little bit of vanilla if you don't mind?"  (How could I refuse?)   Of course, this weekend he said, quite sweetly, "The only way you can stop me from whining is if you give me some colored Cheerios!"  I informed him that this was not a winning strategy, and he immediately went back to "May I please have some colored Cheerios?"  (That's what we call the fruit-flavored Cheerios.)

Mattie is pretty good at saying "No, thank you," but we're still working on it with James.  Occasionally when I ask James to say it, he replies, "Sometimes we just say no."  (That kid has a mind of his own!)

Little Helpers

 We had a brief hint of spring yesterday (temperatures around 70!).  Mike is trying to finish fixing up the boys' new fort.  It was passed on from our neighbors (R doesn't use it any more since he's now in high school!), but some of the wood needs to be replaced. 

The boys also had fun "washing" the car.