Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Winter Walk

We took the boys for a walk yesterday in the "warm" weather. They look so cute in their coats!!! (Of course, I'm a little biased)

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bennington Christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas! We were surrounded by family and the boys loved it. We started the morning opening gifts with just the 5 of us. There were some grumpy boys, mainly frustrated by not being able to immediately play with their new toys. They were much better once the toys were out of the boxes ... there were new toys after all! They did enjoy the wrapping paper though - tasted yummy. In the afternoon we had both sides of our family over to the house. The boys loved the attention of being surrounded by adults all wanting to help them get those toys out of the silly boxes again!



We have such a great family! Everyone spoiled the boys and the boys loved every minute of it. I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did! Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bed Head

I promise I'll post a real entry soon, but for now, here's an adorable picture of Nick right after he woke up from his nap this afternoon...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Awkwardness of Being 14 Months Old

The boys are at a very interesting time in their development right now and its creating some unique parenting circumstances.

The entire world is (literally) new to them. They have the energy and a new found mobility to explore it. They are testing & investigating everything. Its really fun to watch them with a new toy or encounter a new situation for the first time. They are learning at a faster rate now than they will probably ever learn in the future.

And yet... Its seems like such an awkward age, although its probably a lot more awkward for us than it is for them. They lack language, emotional skills, and fine motor skills. They can't tell us what they want quite yet (although they are all getting pretty adept at signing), but they are developing likes and dislikes. They can't quite keep themselves entertained during a meal out and yet they don't sleep in the carriers any more. But they thoroughly enjoy Olive Garden bread sticks. They haven't learned some of the finer motor skills like "touch nice." (They tend to slap, crush, and headbutt.) Which means they want to touch everything, but unless its made for kids, it gets beaten up. (My parents golden retriever is dumbfounded by them.) They aren't interested in specific toys (any box will do fine), but they like to play. Their attention span is longer than it was, but still not terribly long. And they are very mobile, but not quite mobile enough for us to, say, let them run free at a park while we watch.

In essence, we want to take them everywhere, but most of the time we don't feel like we can. They are just on the cusp of "getting it" but not quite there. For Tiff & I as parents, its both neat and a mildly frustrating.

Which isn't to say we are shut ins and never take the boys out. It's just hard finding experiences and places that match this age. Any suggestions???

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Where once was a basement...

Now is a PLAY ROOM!





My brother helped us transform our basement into a play room for the boys. We needed to "cage" the boys in and make is more toddler proof. Our original idea was to put some snow fence up - cheap, quick - not exactly Home and Gardens though. Brandon had the idea to do a picket fence. Now the boys can play "out in the yard" all year long! We even found some green carpet for the grass. The boys love the new space and new toys. We were finally able to get out some of their birthday gifts since we have more room! Thanks Uncle Brandon for an awesome play room!!!