Happy Birthday Auntie Peta, Uncle Tommy & Poppy! And Another Sad Good-Bye

I have been a little slack in posting about birthdays, but since the boys are super excited to say "happy birthday" or at least the "happy" part, I figured it was a good time to post.  Today is Poppy's birthday in Australia.  The boys just called him to wish him a great day.  Raleigh was very excited, talked all about his birthday, and his dinner of rice and beans, and then kindly said "buh-bye" and closed the phone on him.  We have been cooped up much of the day inside, except a quick trip to Grandpa Pickles for breakfast with him and Uncle Jer-Jer, so I cannot fault his need to keep moving and say a quick bye-bye!  We are excited to catch up with Auntie Peta this weekend via Skype, and cannot wait to hear all about her big day.  Just to be safe, I am wishing Uncle Tommy - or "Bama" as Raleigh says - a very happy early birthday as well!!!

Unfortunately, another day with a sad passing.  My Grandma's husband Elmer passed away this morning.  He died peacefully and that is really all you can ask for when you have lived a very full and long life.  We are sad for the entire family, especially for my Grandma and Elmer's children and all the grandchildren.  I know he will be truly missed.

This weekend we have no big plans, just to get ready for the boys big day coming up.  We have lots of preparations to make for their second birthday party. Grandpa Pickles will miss the boys birthday party this year, but it is important for him to be there for his Mom!  We will sure miss him:( Of course, we'll miss all the Hamiltons and other family members who live too far away to make it, as well. Lucky for Matt, the boys amd me, we have made really great friends here!  Here are a few cute pics of the boys today at Pickles. He read the boys "Twinkle, Twinkle" and when Grandpa got to the part about a diamond in the sky, both boys made their diamonds with their hands.  Precious!

New Place to Run Free! Sunshine Days!!!

Today we hit a new play area with the boys and friends.  My awesome mom made the trip across the bay with us, too.  A short ride away, but it felt like another world away.  Sunshine, fresh air, and temps near 70 degrees made for a perfect day to try a new park. Well, it was more like a sanctuary.  There were trails, boardwalks, and lots of places for the kiddos to explore.  The boys had a blast, but I was a little disappointed we did not see more fish or crabs and the like.  I think the cold weather really impacted them. There were; however, many birds to watch, oh, and airplanes, lots of airplanes for the kids to check out.  Here are a few shots of the boys with their favorite friends, E & C.  Gus and and little miss E were very chummy today.  Maybe it was the new hair do?!?!?

Haircut. Seriously, Gus is a New Man!

Just a quick update on our weekend.  We had an amazing time at a two-year old birthday party with our good friends yesterday.  This picture of Augustus going down the slide with extra cool hair caused by static electricity was a big push for us to get his hair cut!!!

Today was an amazing weather day, and we enjoyed the morning with breakfast at Nonnie and Pickle's house with special guest, Uncle Jer Jer. Then it was a big walk to the park where the boys had so much fun running around the park. It is so great to do the park on Sunday mornings because no one else is ever there; I guess everyone else is at church! The boys took a nice nap and woke up in time for us to get haircuts. These were the first official haircuts outside of our house. Augustus' hair was just out of control!!! Not anymore. He is a real little boy now. Short and clipped properly. Raleigh is still rocking some major curls so we just took his up a little and thinned it out a little so it is not so heavy on his head this summer. Tonight we had a great dinner with family and friends. The boys were on their best behavior and had a good time with their little buddy. Now, on to watch the Oscars!

Here, Raleigh does his best "hmmmm" face, and yes, that is an awesomely-bad garden frog statue from my mom.  There are three frogs, one for each of the boys and one for their BFF Conner. 

Sickness Update, and More Favorites!

Here is Gus with Raleigh's girlfriend E - up to no good;)  I think she was tickling him...he obviously was loving it!

Well, we’ve been sick, again.  Seriously, this weather is just not helping matters out.  It is still so cold and that is making it hard for us to get over the coughs we’ve had since January.  This past week it turned worse for the boys.  Matthew had bronchitis and an ear infection the week before.  All of a sudden Raleigh was just not himself last Thursday.  I thought maybe he was getting another molar, but as the day progressed, it was clear he too, was getting sick. It took Augustus another 24 hours or so to catch up, but soon enough they were both sick.  This time it was fevers, cough, snot, etc.  Monday we paid our pediatrician a visit and it was luckily not ear infections, bronchitis or anything more than a sinus infection. She put them on antibiotics because they had been fighting the cold/cough so long.  After 48 hours on the medicine they took a turn for the better.  I of course got sick, again, too.   After my friend Manda gave me a tip to squirt lemon juice up my nose I finally feel like I can breathe again.  Hopefully I will be fully mended soon so we can all move on just in time for better weather.  We were so bummed to miss our friends two-year old birthday party last weekend, and we truly hope we are all good so we can make it to our other friends two-year b-day party this weekend.  We are still playing it by ear at this point.  The last thing we need is to infect a bunch of two year olds and their parents!!

I don’t really have much to blog about, just wanted to keep up the pictures and our new favorite things.  We are slowly approaching the boys second birthday too.  Wow! Time just flies by.  Each day the boys get more and more like little men.  They are putting more words together.  My new favorite word is one that Augustus says more than Raleigh – which is unusual since Rals is a bit more of the talker – “diesel.”  As in diesel trains!  Of course!  Trains, trains, trains, these boys love trains.  Their second birthday is a train theme, after much deliberation between trains and fire trucks.  Trains won out this year.   

The boys love to try to jump and it is pretty comical.  They will bend all the way down and then throw their hands up in the air and maybe get some air, maybe not, but they have a ball trying.  I laugh every time I see it! 

They still cannot really say “love” real well, but they will sign it, i.e. cross their arms over their hearts, and point to you.  LOVE IT!  I know it makes Nanny and Poppy happy to see it via Skype in particular, that and catching and blowing kisses.  “S” words and “F” words still come out strange…although they can hiss like a snake which is just a long “ssssssssssssss” sound so I am a bit dumbfounded by that.  They love Thomas the Train, we have lots and lots of the trains and a few books, and when we are at the store they are excited to see his paraphernalia, but when they say it, Thomas still sounds like Bama, as in Obama.  It makes me laugh, because their Uncle Thomas is a hard core Republican, so they call him Bama!  HA!!!  Raleigh continues to be a parrot most of the time and will attempt new words regularly.  Augustus does better when you are one on one with him asking him questions or reading to him and he will talk back more freely.

We tried toddler beds a little bit while the guys were sick and it was no big deal. They were not in real toddler beds, but they liked sleeping propped up a bit on their giant bean bags in their rooms, so we left them lying on them a few times overnight.  Only once did Augustus open the door, and he did not come out, he just stood the in the doorway until I came to say good morning.  However, when I went in to check on them I found Raleigh lying under his crib.  I guess he wanted the comfort of his bedL

My favorite thing right now is seeing the boys sing “twinkle, twinkle.”  They will sign along with me and do the stars, up high, and my fave – make a diamond with their fingers.  They know many shapes now, circle – which they still call round and round, triangle, oval, and of course diamond.  We are working on colors too.  They both know pink, orange, and yellow really well, but for whatever reason they still mess up red, green and blue.

The funniest thing this week is asking Raleigh questions.  You can ask him if he has a tail, ears, nose, anything and he will answer "no" every time.  It is hilarious.  He will argue about it too.  My favorite is when you ask him if birds have beaks.  He will stomp up and down and argue that they don't. Hilarious!  Such a little monkey. 

That is probably enough rambling for one day.  I really should be napping with the boys!  Hoping for better weather and better health!

Here are Gus and Raleigh getting some hugs and love from Grandpa Pickles while they were sick.

Cows! We Love Cows!

I am still a Wisconsin girl at heart.  Every time I see a cow, I have to say out loud "cow" and then proceed to "moo" a little.  It is not a new thing, not since kids, or anything like that. Matthew knows all about my love of cows and my need to roll down my window and moo at the cows as we drive by, and yet still loves me.  The boys love cows, as noted in their "moo" video - forgot about it click here.  Moo was also one of their first words.  Today I was very excited to see all the cows out in the field as we drove to my parents for dinner.  We packed the boys up and took them down to feed the cows some left over hot dog buns and it was worth the trip in the dreary weather.  The cows were extremely hungry and happy to come over and look at the boys.  Although, we were slightly disappointed that none of them mooed.  We were happy that none of them pooped, bucked us, or peeded around us ;)

Here are some of my favorite shots.  Most of them are of the cows, but there are a few of the boys enjoying them too.  Oh, and Nonnie too, she probably had more fun than the boys did!

On a totally different note, I am giving my first product review. A spill proof bucket of bubbles seemed like the perfect thing for the boys.  Here is a link to Toys 'R Us http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3581831. Of course, it is not where I bought it, of course it was a dollar more expensive at Target and that was their sale price...oye.  I would grade their design a C+, but after we added some bubble wands from a different bubble container, it is an A!  Most importantly, the boys love it and are entertained by it for hours at a time, I swear!   The wands that came with the bucket are impossible to blow bubbles out of.  However, that did not stop the boys from having fun with it!  There are three openings at the top of the bucket, so it is even more perfect for the boys and their BFF next door, Conner.  Of course, it does not mean that bubble time is all clean, but they are not spilling the whole bubble container over all the time, or needing me to hold the container while they fight over who gets to put their wand in first.  This one is even fun to tote around the yard, as Gus demonstrates below. 

I Know You All Know This, But Can I Just Say How Much I Love These Kids???

Yesterday was awesome because we broke free from the asylum, and ventured farther than Nonnie & Pickles house.  We made it to the zoo for some shenanigans with friends.  Here are some cute pictures.  There is also a great video of Augustus feeding a budgie.  He loved it!!! Raleigh wanted to hold the stick with the bird food on it, but would squeal if they landed on it, and would shut his eyes, or run away in fear.

Did you know we gave birth to sea gulls?  Yup, we sure did.  And, these birds are getting bigger.  If you dare eat in front of these children, expect them to devour anything you are eating.  It is accompanied by the squawk of birdies as well.  Seriously, this started from the time they barely had any teeth and has continued to expand.  We of course don't just let them swipe our food, but we are extremely good at sharing;)  Matthew recently mistakenly bought spicy barbeque chips, he thought they were just BBQ, and of course when they saw Daddy eating them the boys wanted to try them.  No, we don't usually give them chips, but to leave Matty alone, he gave them a chip.  We totally did not expect them to like them, but they did.  As a side note, if you like extremely spicy snacks these things are awesome - Lays Spicy Barbeque chips!

So, this post title is from yesterday's game they came up with.  I love this age.  They can change overnight and come up with the funniest things to entertain themselves with.  Yesterday after naptime we went outside for some more fresh air.  They both started to fall down and then wanted their brother to help them up.  I just about peed my pants watching them do this for at least thirty minutes straight.  Here is a funny video of their fall, pick up, thank you with a hug and just all around fun rolling around in the grass together.  How can you not love these boys!?!?!?!?!

In other news and some of my favorite things...both boys can say Raleigh.  Ra Ra is no more.  Their Raleigh sounds more like "Row-ley" - rhymes with cow, not row.  We have moved up to 2T jeans overnight because the 18 month jeans look like flood pants.  Almost all of their PJs we bought for the winter are too small.  Which is a bummer since it is STILL cold here and I don't really want to buy bigger fleece-style PJs for the Florida summer. 

It is almost one month until our babies turn 2; can you believe that?  I cannot.  We are prepping for their birthday party.  We of course will be incorporating a charity play date party for The Ronald McDonald House again.  This year I am also trying to get some friends together to make a meal at one of the local houses, so if anyone is interested in that please shoot me an email, or post here.

I love that they wake up and want to read immediately.  All the books Great Auntie Julianne and Uncle Tony, and Nonnie, among many others, have bought for the boys are going to very good use.  Seriously, Augustus will carry his books around and then go crawl in our bed to read.  How sweet is that?  They still love construction truck or fire engine books best, then anything train, and of course all the Aussie books with animals in them.  The boys' concentration level is truly amazing for being nearly two.  Both boys will sit and put every puzzle together, take it apart, and do it again.   

I also love that when they see a smaller object and a bigger object the immediately connect that one must be the mommy and one must be the baby.  Even smaller airplanes are called babies. 

Kites; Another Adventure Where Dad's May Have More Fun

BIG HUGE THANK YOU to my parents, in particular Nonnie Boni, for watching the boys so much yesterday, and cooking us all a fabulous Valentine's Day dinner the night before.  Matthew and I got a whole lot accomplished with the boys out of the house, including painting one lonely wall in our kitchen.  I was hoping for a more grayish-blue, instead of bluish-gray, but oh well. It fits with the Key West style of our house.  We also enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch at Acropolis where we were even able to dine outside in the warm sunshine - yes people, it hit 70 degrees!!!! 

So after our lunch date yesterday, we had to run to the store to return a few things, and Matthew and I went to check out the toy aisle since it would be so much easier to do this without the boys.  It will be the boys second birthday in a little over a month; which I am slightly freaking out about, by the way.  So, Matthew saw some kites and was so incredibly nerdy about them that we had to get one.  I did put my foot down and said "no" to the $20 kite.  I actually helped pick out two, but somewhere along the way he put one back.  Uh, big mistake, that should go without saying to the mom's of multiples out there;) So, here are a few shots of the boys, I would say with the kite, but really, Daddy was all about the kite, so there are a few shots of us, and a great shot of Raleigh having a major F-I-T when Matthew would not let him carry the kite.  You can see his smile when he actually got it!  Gus was more interested in the tail of the kite and running free, so there is just a shot of him and me thrown in for fun; note the hand, he is always helping me with my boobs.  Such a man!