Dynamic Duo of Gus and Rals: fire trucks

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Where We Are & What we’ve Been Doing

First, I have to say, my awesome, smart, great hubby fixed the picture disaster and now we have everything restored and now we are currently working on backing everything up!

The boys are continuing to amaze us every day. It is not all roses, mind you, but in the bigger picture, they are truly amazing little boys. How awesome is it that they have built in play mates and a brother to challenge them, play with, love on, and talk to whenever they want to? They are really into being like Daddy right now. Gus loves it when I put his Daddy’s hair fudge in his hair and every time, he looks in the mirror admiring himself and saying how much he looks just like Daddy. Augustus also is quite the mama’s boy right now, too. He just comes up to me and gives me big kisses and hugs so hard that he basically jumps on me any time he sees me after a brief detachment (i.e. after I go to the bathroom). He also say “I love my mommy” ALL the time. Life is good, right? The boys are getting more affectionate with each other, telling each other they love them and giving hugs and kisses in between the occasional hit, or toy swipe.

Raleigh continues to astound us with his recall ability, in particular with direction, but it applies to everything. Both boys were read new library books yesterday, and were able to retell Daddy and Nonnie what I had described to them. This book was all about tractors and was not so much a story, but pictures with descriptions of what the tractors could do. One tractor was hauling manure, so I described that, including what manure was, and why it was useful and both boys were able to retell about the manure tractor in their own ways. Wow, development again at its best! Daddy found a cool show for the boys on PBS that he set up to DVR daily. It is called Word World. If you have not seen it, the characters are letters that together make up the word and it still looks like what it is spelling out. Here is a link so you can see what I mean. http://www.wordworld.com/ I think this shot is from an episode Daddy and Rals were watching so sweetly together.

The boys watched a particular episode with fire trucks in it and seriously, one time and the boys remember every thing about it. They constantly spout off that “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” That leads in to their seriously wicked imaginations. They not only drag their mini-fire trucks around everywhere pretending to climb the ladder, save the day, and yell “fire rescue,” they also spot fires out when we are driving and talk about saving the day and how to spray fire hoses and use extinguishers. Wow! GnR are so excited for Christmas! They say “Merry Mis-mass” all the time when they see decorated Christmas trees, and yell out when they spot a “ho ho man,” aka, Santa Claus. We have already gotten to see Santa Claus at Sea World as you saw in the last post, but soon enough we are going to ride to the North Pole with Nonnie, Auntie Peta and Daddy, too. I cannot wait to see how excited they are that day. Of course we need to celebrate Thanksgiving first, but they are not really understanding the concept yet. Hopefully they will soon. Of course, Grandpa Pickle’s birthday is the same day, so we’ll be celebrating that the same day…so they probably won’t really fully understand until next year.

We visited a fire station yesterday as part of our multiples group. The boys had fun, and were happy to volunteer to go first for every thing the firefighters let the do. They were really good about waiting their turns, too. Yes, the first shot looks like I took a pee right before they snapped the picture, but good news, is that it was just from the fire hoses the kids got to play with!

Ever the busy social calendar, here the boys had fun at their friend Hannah’s birthday party – where they got in touch with their feminine side and rode her pink scooter!

They also helped Daddy try to fix the sod yet again.

Here is a picture of the boys at the big boy table for dinner celebrating Pickles birthday a little early while his mom came to visit. Yup, the boys got to meet their first great-grandparent, Gigi Miriam who visited from Green Bay.

We’ve enjoyed Busch Gardens some more, too.

Gus chatted with Nannie in the car.

The boys celebrated Veteran’s Day in great style.

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I know we have a lot to be thankful for and I am working on remembering that when things are going completely nutso during those long days! We cannot wait to see Auntie Peta next week, too! Good luck on exams, Pete! The boys will see you next Monday morning!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Dynamic Duo-isms

The things these boys say. I know, I know, if you are reading this, you are probably sick of hearing about these things, but seriously, they are hilarious. Frustrating at times, but still hilarious. We’ve been MIA in blog world recently because the terrible twos are just tiresome on most days. Naps and bedtime are just a tad more difficult, although, all in all, I cannot complain. Sometimes I want to, but then they do something so sweet, or say the funniest thing and I have to remind myself that the testing phase will continue forever and it is not that bad…free will is a bitch, right? Or is it karma…food for thought today!

Hammer time!

Monster trucking at the beach!

Mommy’s hatching – This is probably the funniest, and maybe the most embarrassing thing ever said about me. Raleigh looks at my heel, mind you, I am in desperate need of a pedicure, and said, “mommy’s hatching.” I first thought he said “scratching” but no, he said “hatching” as in an egg hatching. Um, thanks, and ewww!
Muff cakes anyone? Never heard of a “muff cake?” Well, if you have, maybe you are thinking, does this belong in a blog post centered around kids? To let you know, a muff cake is a cup cake. I think it started out as a muffin and a cupcake, and now all cupcakes are “muff cakes” and muffins are just muffins. I cannot correct them when they say it because again, I am wrong, and just have a good old laugh every time they say it! Nothing like going to a kids birthday party and two little boys yelling with glee “MUFF CAKES!”

Donald’s House – the boys call McDonald’s “Donald’s House.” We have only been a few times, usually on special one-on-one occasions with the boys. I just think it is funny that they call it Donald’s House.
No, not yet, five minutes, or one minute, two minute, etc. They will ask for two more minutes of a toy, or one minute before we go, or two minutes before they have to switch toys with their brother. They know two is more than one minute, and five is a big request, so they save it for the good stuff. It has come in handy when we need them to take turns, we ask them to ask their brother or friend to switch or for a turn in two minutes. It generally cuts down on their fights, whew! It is hard to resist extra cuddles when they say, “no, not yet, Mommy, five minutes, cuddle me more mommy.” Awww!

Can we feed the ducks? So we are at Busch Gardens with friends. One of my friends is cool enough to have worked their pre-twinkies and still knows a lot of people at Busch. One of our favorite areas is the new Walkabout area with Australian animals. The boys are too young to feed the kangaroos and wallabies, but they can feed the ducks nearby. Well, our good friend Miss K did not know the person at the food stand, so we did not get duck food this particular day…until Raleigh walked up and batted his eyes and said “feed ducks, please.” Well, we all got cups for everyone and had fun feeding the ducks for free. Thanks, Raleigh! Here is the lady below, holding a little wallaby, named Stanley.

Starbucks, that’s mommy’s coffee place. They can spot a Starbucks about as quickly and well as they can spot a police car. For this, I am thankful! Don’t worry, in the shots below, they are drinking harmless chocolate milk – not coffee!

That’s a weed, and pull. Augustus is mini-Matthew ALL THE WAY! I love his OCD, as I know it will make him a great man. We were playing in the backyard, which is mostly paved, and he was mowing his mower – his fave – and saw a piece of grass sticking up through the pavers. He immediately yelled “that’s a weed” and proceeded to pull it. Such a good little-man!
gus happy face

New shoes! New shoes! The boys are obsessed with new shoes. Although, now they are not so new, but newer. The boys have been in size 7 for FOREVER! Seriously, almost a year now. We finally broke down and got some new size 7s and you would think Gus won the lottery. He immediately wakes up and wants his new shoes on. We have about 4 pairs that he considers new shoes. That is the easiest thing to make him happy without even trying!

They still bring their penis up at random times in conversation and this is quite amusing. Although, I have to try not to laugh. Raleigh has also taken to pulling his pants down outside for a fire hose pee every so often…we are trying to house train him again! However, it does come in handy when we are no where near a restroom out and about…does that officially make me a Redneck? For example, our multiple birth mom’s club was at a preserve walking the boardwalk with our littlies, and all of us just let our kids pee into the woods off the side of the boardwalk…much easier than running back to the restrooms a mile and a half away. I was pretty impressed with the little girls who could do as well as the boys;)

Augustus, enjoying his spaghetti thoroughly. this boys loves to eat and it shows whenever he does!

Making cheetah masks. Notice the clothespin holding the sponges to get the boys less dirty. Notice, I did not say, keep them clean, just less messy! More about this in a crafty blog post coming soon.

Daddy makes the best pancakes.

Fun food cutouts. We’ll try anything to help mealtime go well. Love the cookie cutter sandwiches, here we have a cow and a chicken with flowers. Also, we are getting on the bento bandwagon and trying to eat lots of food on sticks. Fun times. If you have not seen this web site, http://www.anotherlunch.com/ check it out! AWESOME!