A Few of Our Favorite Things

It has been a while since I have written about our favorite things the boys are doing now. I do this of course to update family & friends who care enough to read the blog - THANK YOU - and of course, partly so we don't forget these precious little moments.

The biggest kick I have gotten lately is from Augustus. Although, Raleigh is quite the comedian & will do anything to make you smile, Augustus has been cracking me up. He has this new voice. It only comes up when he is up to something & usually accompanies this crazy face where he tucks his chin down & sticks out his lower lip & sucks in his upper lip. Then if he talks it is this low, hilarious chatter to let us know what he thinks about what we are saying or doing. It truly is hilarious and reminds me soooooooooo much of Matthew and his stubbornness and maybe a little of my own failure to filter what I am feeling too.

Raleigh has learned "kiss" and does so most times you ask for a kiss. Tonight when I was putting him to bed I say "kissy, kissy" and he kissed me and gave me a hug, and I had to ask him again of course because I just had to have another one, and he did it again. I seriously cannot describe how amazing this feels. True love for sure! Augustus still does the whole open mouth kiss, and it does not have the same effect because it feels more like a slobbery dog kiss, sorry Gus, I know you will not be happy with that comparison in the future!

Raleigh is walking a lot more & a lot better. He no longer needs to have his hands up like a superstar (although he still does it for balance here & there). Although, he also added the chicken walk where he cramps his arms in and looks like he is making chicken wings or about to do the chicken dance! Augustus much prefers to crawl & if Rals sees him crawling he will usually follow suit.

Raleigh & the chicken walk

The boys are sleeping through the night with little interruption unless we have a crazy day making them overtired. I am afraid to put that in writing because I hate to jinx a good thing! Raleigh even slept through until 6 today, no rooster crowing at 5 am only to fall back asleep 10 minutes later; meanwhile, Mom & Dad can never fall back asleep in 10 minutes!!!

Both boys continue to add comprehension of many daily items to their repertoire as well. How awesome! They can point to their noses, hair, and bellies when you ask where it is. They also know the following words & will find them when asked...well, most of the time depending on how tired or otherwise engaged they are.

• Ball (first thing they understood, or at least could demonstrate they understood), truck, choo choo, Tonka (their big Tonka truck), kangaroo, koala, hat, book, airplane (and they usually run to the window & look up & all), and one of my personal faves is "shake it shake it" which is hilarious in itself to see them try to find a rattle & shake, or if they don't have one handy just shaking their little hands in the air. I know I am missing things, but this is a good start. They are getting better at pointing if I ask "where's Daddy/Nonnie, etc." but most of the time they will at least look at the person you are asking about. We are still working on "where's Mommy" because, really, how confusing is it for me to be asking where I am all the time...

Gus pointing to his nose...seriously, he is not trying to pick it!

Raleigh is the comedian, as I mentioned earlier, but Augustus is my little man who wants to be praised for being smart. He literally lights up when he does something & always looks for praise afterward. He just loves it. Raleigh is like "yeah, I know where that is, duh" and moves on, but Gus will look at you with these smiling eyes & squeezes you and wants a hug when he does something good. Funny, I am such a pleaser, and I think this is what he is trying to do too!

I am ecstatic that we can give them a few books & they do not just sit and chew on them. We have a couple of really cool texture/feely books for them and those are free game until we see them chewing them...then we ask them not to bite the book, and if they can't stop themselves well, we take them away for a bit. I hope they get the connection fully soon, but with their teething seemingly unending I won't hold my breath. They even sit for a while and look at their books, turning the pages, touching the different sensory items and are happy; that is until they decide they have to have their brother's book at that moment! Daddy has gotten really good at reading stories in the bathtub & they sit still for the most part during the stories now. We have so many great books from family in Australia that helps us introduce Aussie animals and colloquialisms. Fun:)

Speaking of Australia, Nannie & Poppy arrive tomorrow night. Everyone is super, super excited. I cannot wait to see how the boys react to seeing them in person again & not just on the computer screen through Skype. It has only been a couple of months since we saw them last, but the boys have changed so much in that short time.

This week we have tried to stay super busy again. We had a play date with friends. The boys had fun in A & A's backyard. See pictures below. Augustus even did a full tongue stick out...but I think it was just because he got some dirt in there, or he splashed too much water in his mouth...not sure which. Then went to the aquarium with our favorite other set of identical boys. Both Gus and Raleigh were walking around the same play area that they were crawling in just a few weeks ago, and it is kind of surreal. Wow, the older set of twins (D & C) can run...this momma is going to be tired in the future!! Today the boys went to another club for kids to run wild in with our twins group. They had fun. It is great to take them out as a family - much more organized chaos then when it is just the boys and me. The best part was seeing the boys play in the ball pen...and seeing Daddy playing with them. I really think Matthew had more fun!!! Also, it is great to catch up with other families & see where we will be in the future. Wow, kids running in all directions and having great fun with all their "twinkie" friends. Love it! We also went to the aquarium again this week.

Tomorrow will a late night, so the boys won't see Nanny & Poppy until Monday morning...look for pictures and updates later this week.

Raleigh says "I like dirt" - Gus looking a bit cheeky

The Boys sharing a motorcycle, both in cute AC/DC shirt...socks were mandatory, otherwise they would never be wearing them with their outfits;)

Gus - chilling in the ball pit

The Boys from behind...who's who???