Favorite Things

The past few weeks we have been miserable. Sick and cold, cold and sick. Boys have been sick and cold, cold and sick. Makes for long days as a stay-at-home mommy! We've colored our hearts out, even made Valentine's Day cards, read every book we own, torn apart the playroom at least twice daily, played trains, and yes, even watch a little television. We've worked on shapes; their favorite is emptying the dish washer EVERY morning - yes we have that many dirty dishes - and pointing out and saying "circle, square, rectangle, fork, spoon “and the like. It is a great game, and can be very entertaining. You can even play "which one is bigger" if you have different sized forks, spoons, whisks, bowls, etc. I have to laugh, because their language is still truncated, and they still struggle with "s" and "f" so spoon is really 'poon' and fork is something like 'pork.' But, close enough for now;)


Here are some snapshots from the week. We have bundled up and ventured outside to chase ducks, draw, and have snacks. Mostly, we have stayed at home though.

As we've been locked up in our insane asylum I like to call home, I have been lucky enough to experience all those little things that make me smile, and sometimes make me say 'hmm.' And, sometimes want to pull out my hair and pour a stiff martini...but alas, I am on meds and the two don't mix well!

Favorite things at 22 months:

• Pooping on the potty. Raleigh has done it for almost two weeks straight now. Not every single one, but almost every one!!! Yay buddy!

• Putting words together in some sort of sentence, or at least so I get what they are asking. Like "Daddy doing?' with a little head cock, or shrug of the shoulder, means "what is Daddy doing?" To which I answered something about working, which they immediately repeat. I say, yup, "Someone has to bring home money." Raleigh looked at me and says "mon mon" - his word for monkey and starts saying "ooh, oooh, ah, ah" like a monkey. Yup, Rals, daddy is making the monkeys!

• We've watched the Polar Express movie while everyone was really sick, and I mean, they sat and watched the entire movie. Wow, that is some attention span for almost two year olds. Now, almost daily they ask "choo, choo, all aboard?" and point to the TV. No, no, TV. It reminds me of my friend Maritza telling me a story about her twinkies at this age and them asking for Dora, when she would say no, they'd move on to Diego, and on, and on.

• So, this is not really a favorite thing per say, but it is pretty funny. I always ask the boys if they went poopy, or if they have to go poopy, and today I was sitting on the floor and Raleigh came up behind me, pulled my pants down and stuck his hand in my pants and said "no poo poo." Thanks buddy, yup, mommy poo poos on the potty, there is no poo poo in my pants.

• Oh, no bottles at all anymore!!! Yeah, we were closet bottle drinkers. They were holding on to it mostly because I was. We enjoyed our snuggle bottle time, especially at bed time. I knew as they were approaching two at the end of next month it was long overdue to ditch the bottles. It was no big deal and went off without a hitch last weekend. I guess it was less painful for everyone waiting until we were all ready.

• Augustus is truly one of the most polite little boys. He constantly says thank you. Which, he still signs most of the time and says please always! Okay, maybe not always, but more than Raleigh at this point. Gus gets such a proud look on his face when he does it too. He knows it makes me happy.

• Raleigh does this funny thing he saw in the movie Madagascar and Nonnie helped reiterate. He lifts his hand in front of his face, and when it goes down over his mouth he does a sad face, and then pulls it up over his forehead and makes a happy face. Hilarious!!!

• They are growing up. This means independence and free will. Great to see, I know they are strong and will be just like mommy and daddy with their stubbornness and feeling that they are not going to do anything they do not want to do. However, wow, there have been some colossal tantrums lately. Particularly by Raleigh man. Wow! That is really all I can say about that right now.

• Another less than favorite thing is spitting. Seriously, that is the grossest thing ever. They will spit their water out and think it is the funniest thing ever. Me, not so much. Like the food throwing this is high on my gets-my-goat meter. I have tried ignoring it...they keep doing it. Counting it like the 1, 2, 3 Magic book instructs...still spitting. I have tried yelling, saying it is gross, whatever I can try, and still going. My neighbor is doing the same thing, so I think it is a phase they are all doing together. Lovely. This too shall pass!!!!

Well, that is a snapshot of our lives right now. We look forward to getting out with friends soon. The boys miss all their friends, although they love to pretend to be talking to them on their phones. They can say Abi, Belle, Ellie - which is now more like Eadie, Conner, and lots more. I love to see them call their names out on the phone. Super cute. Hopefully we'll get some truly Florida weather sooner than later!