I Have an Idea and Other Musings

The boys kill me with what they say most days, and my favorite thing out of their mouths lately has to be when they say “I have an idea.” (Actually it is usually “me have an idea,” or “here’s an idea,” since they still only use the pronoun ‘I’ sparingly).  They will say it in the correct context, too.  You never know what the idea will be.  It can be, an idea to have a “muff” cake, or build a fort, you name it.  It is adorable!!!!  Today they were playing outside, yes, we are thoroughly enjoying the seventies again, and Gus was on his “motorcycle” or big wheel, and Raleigh was sitting on the porch watching him. Rals asked if this was a parade, and then yelled “beads!!!”  Love it.  They are so Tampa! Gasparilla veterans since they were nine months old will do that, I suppose.  Speaking of Gasparilla, here are a few shots of the big Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza from last weekend.  We did the preschooler’s stroll for the first time. It fell during nap time, but we survived.  They were extremely tired afterward, but still, we had a ball with our Mothers of Multiples friends who helped walk with us.

 

The boys giving their friends E & S a kiss during the parade, needless to say, the crowd loved them!!!

We had gotten into the spirit the night before by reading a new Mem Fox book sent to us courtesy of the boys’ great-Aunt Julianne, and great-Uncle Tony.  Boris the Pirate is a bit scary, but it certainly set the mood for us!

Here is a look back at the two previous Gasparillas.  Of course, you can click on the tag “Gasparilla” and see much more from year’s past.  Enjoy!!!

First Gasparilla 2009 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Second Gasparilla 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

The boys are still doing really well with their alphabet recognition.  Raleigh has caught up to Augustus and although, he doesn’t want to play with the magnet letters like Gus, he will point out letters when we are reading books. And they are still really into reading. Their favorite book right now is The Polar Express. Not sure if they are just missing Christmas, or just love the story.  If we read a a book right before bedtime, they wake up and immediately ask for the same book again.  Their memories still freak us out.  They seriously never forget.  However, if you ask them what they did today, sometimes they just start making up these elaborate stories…hmm, reminds me of a certain Uncle the boys have named Tommy!  If you ask them what they want to do today, Augustus will nine times out of 10 say he wants to go to Sea World.  I guess we need to start planning a return trip soon.  They have really enjoyed watching some football games with me this year.  The Packers are really the only team I will watch, being from Green Bay and all, so we don’t get all their games televised, but of course, with them going to the SUPER BOWL this year, we’ve watched the play-off games together, and the love it.  Yay!  Since Matty rarely watches it with me, it is nice to have some company.

 

In other news, the boys Nonnie turned 60 this last week. It killed us with the planning, but we were able to keep her party a secret!!! I really don’t think she had a clue.  We had a “Sweet 60” party complete with her favorite Hello Kitty decorations and all pink. Everyone wore pink to the party (well, two guys wore more maroon, but other than that, all pink).  My mom had to do a change into pink half way through the party, but we got everyone into pink.  The boys were so excited and never spilled the beans.  They did go to bed at 7 with some tears, but they did fall asleep soundly despite the ruckus downstairs! They were kind enough to let us sleep in until 7:30 as well.  After going to the Green Iguana after the party, I was grateful!  Happy Birthday to my amazing Mom!  60 is just a number because you surely don’t act your age, and I mean that in the best possible way!  Thank you for teaching me to stay young at heart and having so much fun with the boys all the time!!!!  Love you!!!

 

This is the CAKE!  Can you believe it???!!??  I did not get a great picture of it before we cut it…but believe me, it was amazing!  Thanks Eli for taking care of the cake, I could never have picked a better cake!!!

Lastly, Eli also had personalized M&Ms made for the event, they say “Sweet 60th” on them and have champagne glasses.  Cute.  It was sad that so many of my mom’s best friends and family live so far away and could not make it to the party, but it was great to see her so loved by all her friends in Florida.  She is truly a special woman!

Seriously, These Kids are Kind of Crazy!

I love them, to bits and pieced, but really, these boys are crazy.  But so is their momma, so not a big surprise, right?  Our breakfast conversation today centered around who has penises and who doesn’t.  Including Elmo and Cookie monster; which I said they did have “them.”  So both boys looked, or inspected, the monsters on their breakfast plates.  I then had to explain that they had fur, so you definitely could not see their penises.  Just like our kitty.  Then the conversation turned to why the cats don’t wear underpants.  I decided the best answer I could come up with was again, due to their fur.  Seriously?!  Where do they come up with this stuff? This is not even a few days after Raleigh started a conversation in the car with “I’m moving my penis, I’m moving my penis up and down.”  Dude, really, do men start this early???  I guess so.  To think, a few months ago I was concerned with his language skills and ability to put words into a sentence.  Ha, now I am amazed at what comes out of his mouth, and just trying not to laugh most of the day.

 

Today we spent time in the mall play area.  Not something we frequent, and man, it was more work than any of us mommies expected.  At least it was air conditioned.  At one point Augustus escaped out one of the two entrances.  Why would you put two entrances into a play area?????  Hello!  Fine for those parents with one little one running wild, but what about those of us with two…or more?  I had seen both boys running happily around, Gus with his friends, and Rals was sitting atop one of the large characters within the play area.  Then I suddenly could not see Gus.  I was there with several friends, and no one could see him.  Within a minute I found him happily in a corner of the Build A Bear store right across from one of the play area entrances…or exits in this case.  Whoa!  We had a little discussion about leaving where mommy could not see him, and the fact that someone may take him away from us. I think it is time to introduce a little stranger danger to get some fear into this boy!  He is fearless and just wants to assert his independence in so many ways it is driving me a bit bonkers! But, back to cuteness, the “older” girls that were playing at the mall were playing sleeping princesses, and Annabella, Gus’ older girlfriend, told her mommy she knew just who should be the prince to wake her up…Augustus of course!  He was far too happy to oblige her with a kiss.  The best part is Bell’s equal opportunity mindset, and her desire to be the prince too, and she had to kiss him to wake him up!  Augustus was also quite pleased with that arrangement as well. Sorry, Charlie

    

Raleigh fell asleep in the car, ugh! They never do this anymore. This five minute cat nap was all he got today! 

They were so excited about their day that they recapped it at the dinner table.  Gus wanted Bell to come to his house.  Oh, and of course, Ellie and Conner were invited as well.  I love to see how their language is blossoming and their interaction between each other as brothers is growing as well as with their peers. So fun! 

Our favorite sayings and things right now include Raleigh’s favorite saying of “that’s an idea” and he uses it properly.  He also says “maybe yes, or maybe no” any time I say “maybe.”  Obviously, that is how I explained the concept of maybe to him.  It is really cute.  I still love it when he answers a questions posed to him with a “yes.” 

 

I cannot stress how helpful the boys want to be.  If you praise them, they are all over anything you are doing.  They love to cook!  They love to clean; especially sort, fold and put away laundry.  They follow directions when it comes to helping better than any two year olds I know.  I know, a bit of a brag, but really, they are amazing little men! 

 

Raleigh just over night started counting to nine.  We have not really been working on numbers so this was quite the surprise to me.  He was sitting at a number book, looking at one of the pictures with trains, which happened to have nine, and he just rambled out one, two, three, and so on until he got to nine.  Okay, pride moment, but it could have been a fluke, so nothing to start scream at…until he did it again five minutes later!  He continues to get there in order, and not just repeating it, actually counting to nine.  Unfortunately, he then starts back at four and no matter how many times I point out that ten is next, he just says nine, contemplates for a second or two, and says “four.”  Hmm.  Gus can get to four still, and he still does not start at one.  He is hilarious.  He would much rather count in his head when you ask him how many X there are.  he just spits out the total.  As if counting is for babies or something.

The boys are done with high chairs.  We do breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. at the picnic table.  We have one booster seat at home, but for now, the picnic table is just easier. One step at a time people, one step at a time. I am impressed that they will sit at a meal without any restraints.  No walking around is a BIG rule in our house!  Oh, and you have to wait until everyone is done eating before you get up to clean up.  Happy Days! Today at the mall, they even sat at big chairs (no boosters) and ate their lunch without getting up or goofing around! 

Below are a few pictures from the week.  The boys went to a library program about didgeridoos and Australia.  They were not totally impressed, but that was mostly because the guy leading the program was a bit of a tool. He wanted a room FULL of kids to be quiet, not ask questions, and basically not move.  Our boys did awesomely, and sat for almost 45 minutes straight with some weird dude talking to them, so I was impressed!  In fact, Augustus was kind of scared of the dude.  However, the park afterward garnered a thumbs up from Raleigh!

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Pool fun with friends, and the camera that goes underwater!

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The boys eating and playing at a birthday party…mmm, they love themselves some cake!  Me, not so excited to see red frosting…it results in bright orange poo the next day;P

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Kids Say the Darndest Things

Okay, so it finally happened. I took the boys to the Post Office, to help me mail something.  Yup, may not sound like fun to you, but the boys are kind of obsessed with all trucks, as you may know, and the even know the mail truck and are excited to go in the Post Office.  When I turn right out of our development’s back entrance, they usually perk right up and say “mail.”  Anyway, Augustus really did not want to hold my hand in line once inside, or stay with me; the wall of greeting cards was just calling his name, you know, and when I asked him to hold my hand or sit down, he said “it” the dreaded “no” word.  Now, our kids say “no” often, preferably “no thank you” but, "no” nonetheless, but never “no” so blatantly to a request. Sure, they have totally disregarded our requests to stop, or wait, etc., but never a sure fire “no.”  Humph.  Another sign our babies are growing up!

 

In other funny things that come out of the boys mouths, we were driving back from the aquarium this weekend, and Raleigh was looking at the clouds trying to describe what he saw. First it was “manimals” then it was Mickey ears, then it was boobies.  Yup, that’s right, boobies.  Okay, Raleigh, thanks for sharing.  I had to chuckle at that one.  This kid constantly makes me laugh, but that was pretty priceless.  This was after we had been at a play date earlier in the week where I had been wearing turquoise beads and Raleigh told me that I had chocolate on my boobs.  Hmm…what???  Then he touched my beads and said “chocolate.”  No, honey, these are beads.  The “chocolate” was the brown veining within the beads.  Still, it was funnier to hear I had chocolate on my boobs, not something unheard of, but unlikely that day;)  This leads right into Raleigh’s newest favorite discussion as we are driving. He will just say “I’m touching my penis.”  Yup, you read that right as well.  Thanks for sharing, Rals.  We are not trying to scar the kids into not talking about these things or touching certain parts of their anatomy, but really?  Moving right along to his other favorite thing…when he does number two, he gets excited if you know what I mean.  Not sure why, but all of a sudden, bam, and then he starts to move his “excitement” up and down and say “I’m moving my penis.”  Wow, he really is a Hamilton!  I know, this is probably too much information for most of you, but those of you with little boys can probably really appreciate this.  Although, my best friend has some great stories about her little girl and her stories about boobies as well…so I should not be sexist;)  I hope Nanny and Poppy are prepared for all this craziness! Below is a picture of the boys tearing off another day on our countdown chart.  Today we are down to 9 sleeps!!!

Enjoy our week in pictures!  I know you will.

 

 

   

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