Fun Day

Today was a very full, very fun day. Thought I'd share some of the pics and some video of our day. In addition to the fun a regular day brings, this afternoon we got haircuts and went sledding! Thanks Uncle Brandon for coming up to help with the sleds. I wasn't brave enough to take them anywhere to advanced, so we just used the hill in the back yard. Turned out perfect for what we needed!

Here is a picture show and video... enjoy!

Reading Time

A peaceful moment observed...
... They don't usually last too long, so we enjoy each and every one of them!

Nick - 15 months

Current stats:
Height: 31 3/4 in.

Weight: 25lb 4 oz

Teeth: 6 - 3 top, 3 bottom.
What he's up to now...

• Nick is very good and consistent at signing. He will sign "more", "sleep", "all done", "play" (although it's very close to all done and usually at the same time - all done, let's play) and "bath". He also can do some of the motions to songs like "If you're happy and you know it", "Patty Cake" and "Itsy-"bitsy spider".


• Likes to give kisses - big sloppy, wet, open mouthed kisses. Cute and gross all at the same time!


• Likes to sit down and read a book. He likes to sit in your lap (or between our legs while sitting on the floor) and read his book or have you read it to him. He's also often found sitting and reading a book by himself or more likely, reading it out loud to all of us in the room.


• Enjoys telling us what the tiger/lion/dragon/dinosaur says - "Roar". It's so cute to hear him roar!


• Likes to talk to us a lot. He is also pointing at things a lot more. He's either asking what is "that" or he's telling us a story about whatever it is.


• Enjoys climbing on the couch and playing with his brothers up there.


• Nick likes to dance too. It's more like his doing squats, but it's very cute in his little white boy way.


• Hates to have his diaper changed (laying down often causes tantrums). Hates to get out of the bath and is quite often almost dropped back in the tub due to squirmy activity (wet babies are very slick!). Hates to get his faced wiped really hates this and always has.

Logan - 15 months old

Current stats:
Height: 30 1/2 in.

Weight: 21lb 6 oz

Teeth: 6 - 4 top, 2 bottom. There may be more coming in, but he won't typically let me in his mouth to see. But the amount of drool coming out of that boys has to indicate something (and I think teeth is the safe bet).

What he's up to now...

• Logan is our biggest flirt. He loves to smile big and be all cute in front of strangers. He warms up to them pretty well.


• Pickiest eater! I know I'm picky so I can't talk much, but he continually changes his mind! In general, he likes things that are crunchy or mushy/liquid. But if it's somewhat firm, somewhat mushy (like little bites of carrots or rice), forget it!


• If he wants a kiss or you ask him for one, he leans in and offers his forehead to you. That's your sign that you can kiss him on the forehead and that's good enough. It's so cute to see him lean in towards you and know that is what he's looking for!


• Likes to sit down and read a book. Sometimes he'll go and grab a book, climb into your lap and let you read it, but usually, he'll just grab a book and read it to himself. He may do this for quite a while - so peaceful!
  


• Enjoys telling us what the tiger/lion/dragon/dinosaur says - "Roar". It's so cute to hear him roar!


• Loves to watch the birds and animals outside. He says "bird" and tells us they "caw". Also likes to lick the window while watching outside. The good with the bad I guess.


• Enjoys climbing on the couch and playing with his brothers up there. Climbing in general is fun. Logan has learned to take a box or toy over and use it to climb up. His brothers typically follow suit, but his is almost always the one to get the box in the right place. Sometimes he's just as happy climbing up and getting down and climbing back up and getting back down, etc.


• Loves to bite the diaper boxes! There are numerous chunks missing from the diaper boxes and I'd guess all the bites are Logan sized!


• Logan is a dancer... and not too shabby! If the music is on, he's bob his head and then start grovin' out. Much better rhythm than his brothers (and sometimes better than dad too).


• Hates to have his diaper changed (laying down often causes tantrums). Hates to get out of the bath and is quite often almost dropped back in the tub due to squirmy activity (wet babies are very slick!). Hates to get his faced wiped.

Alex - 15 months old

Current stats:
Height: 31 1/2 in.

Weight: 25lb 6 oz

Teeth: 7 - 3 top, 4 bottom. Just got a new one last week. If I didn't see them appear in his mouth, I'd never know they were there. They don't seem to bother him so far, and I'm grateful for that!

What he's up to now...

• "Fast Feet" - He loves to stomp and move his feet really fast. It's such a cute little dance thing. He especially likes to do it on a floor where it makes more noise - kinda like tap dancing.


• Loves to eat all things meat! Not sure how he can stand them, but he loves the little baby meat sticks (kinda like mini hot dogs only grosser). And any other meat is devoured upon putting it on his tray. He even refused to eat the other baby food the other night in favor of more chicken.


• For as aggressive he can be at times, it is so awesome to get a big hug that is very tight. And rarely but occasionally, he'll come over and give a quick kiss - then turn around and walk back to what he was doing.


• Love to have the water sprayed in his face during bath time. Sometimes he goes a bit spastic too, but still looks up and wants more.


• Likes to have books read to him. He'll go and grab a book, climb into your lap and let you read it. He's also just as happy joining his brother while you read a book to him. Brother doesn't always like it, but Alex will just sit (or stand) and watch without trying to take over the book (like his brothers do).


• Enjoys telling us what the tiger/lion/dragon/dinosaur says - "Roar". It's so cute to hear him roar!


• Very talkative right after he wakes up. He also has learned an evil laugh - quite hilarious to hear - and a bit scary too.


• Enjoys climbing on the couch and playing with his brothers up there. Climbing in general is fun.


• Hates to have his diaper changed (laying down often causes tantrums). Hates to get out of the bath and is quite often almost dropped back in the tub due to squirmy activity (wet babies are very slick!).

Comedians

This weekend, while they were supposed to be napping, Logan decided to take off his sock and entertain Alex with it... Check out the video below:

Morning Monkeys

This morning it is official... They have learned to climb up on the couch. They have been doing this off and on all week, but usually there just happens to be a box near by (or a brother) that they can use as leverage. Today, Logan specifically took a box over, climbed on it and then onto the couch... over and over again. At first I tried to discourage the activity. Yeah, that didn't last long. So, we moved the couch out a little so they couldn't grab the lamp and let them climb. They were having a blast. Alex did fall off the side (head first) once, but then was fine.

Here's a view into our morning...


Or view on YouTube.com

Long over-due update...

One of my goals for 2009 is to blog more often. The thought is if I do it more often, I don't save up so much information that I overload one post (like this one) with too much information. Or worse yet, I don't forget something that is post-worthy but because I waited so long to post, I forgot about it... like our visit with Santa last month! Let's just say the boys weren't fans. I updated the slide show in the right hand side of the blog with new pictures. There is one there that is a blur of babies sitting/screaming/trying to get away from Santa. Maybe next year will go better!

We love our new playroom in the basement. One of the fun things they can now do with so much space is races. They run back and forth chasing each other or just for the fun of it. Great fun for them and it tires them out - that's what we call a win-win situation! Alex is the fastest but Nick is the most "graceful" as Grandma Williams would say (i.e. not graceful at all). The boy can crash and get back up like a pro! They also love to climb. They each have their own favorite way to endanger their lives - I mean climb. They all like to climb up on top of the diaper boxes (more about those later). Alex will climb up on "his" little riding/walker toy and stand on the seat, look around very proud of himself to see who else is seeing him up so high. Logan and Nick like to climb up on the storage cubes. Logan has even climbed onto the top cube. I'm trying to teach them to climb down so that when they do it while I'm not looking (their favorite time of course), they at least have a chance to not bust their heads open. Let me be optimistic about this for a while longer please.

We love our diaper boxes! We pulled out 3 boxes for them to play with a while ago and they are still in love with them! First it was learning how to get in them and of course back out. Then they pushed the boxes (sometimes with a brother in it even) and became big enough to lift and carry the boxes. Now they have learned to turn them over and climb on top. For at least 2 days, Alex was so proud of it, he wouldn't get down. He'd sit on a box for 10 minutes (at least) and be happy - sometimes even if he didn't have a toy. Just sit there and watch his brothers. Of course, they've moved from just sitting on them to standing up on them. And the next progression... use the boxes to climb up higher! Tonight we were learning to climb up onto the couches and Alex was even using the height advantage to get a better view of the gate (I'm sure he was planning their next escape). They aren't able to breech the gate that is bolted into the wall, but the other adjustable gate is fair game. They have figured out that if they push it in just the right spot for long enough, it will tumble over - and they're free!!! Of course they make so much noise on the wood floor that we catch them before they get too far.

Another thing they have been doing lately is perfecting their tantrum skills. Originally it was just a whiny cry until you distracted them with the next toy. Then as their memories got better and they remembered that they didn't want the blue toy they wanted the green one... Tantrums turned into a complete collapse onto the floor in a heap. Occasionally this means bonking your head very hard on the floor too, but that just makes the crying sound more real (and makes it even hard to keep mom and dad from laughing). Now they're going full steam and have added some thrashing and rolling around in the mix. Here is a short video of Nick when he first started thrashing. The one I really wanted to get a video of was Logan the following night - he threw in a couple more roll-overs in each direction. Keep in mind, this is after I tried to comfort him and he wanted nothing to do with it/me...

The boys are getting much better at communicating with us. They have a number of signs that they use and it is so adorable! Not only is it exciting that they can tell us what they want or at least show that they know what we're saying. But the way their little hands do it is precious! The biggest one is "more" while they are eating and "all done". My favorites are "sleep" and "bath". We ask if they want to take a bath, no matter what they were doing, all three of them stop and start signing "bath". Granted, it isn't the right ASL sign for bath, but they all do it and are so enthusiastic about it that it makes it okay. They do have some words that they say (and mean), but some imagination is still required. "Birds" (which say "caw") is an easy to distinguish - and they'll stand at the window watching the birds for a while, especially Logan. "Duck" (that says "quack") is also pretty clear. "Dada" and "Momma" are clear, although I'm often Dada initially until they remember momma. I'll have to start a list of what all they are saying (and someone more than just myself understands) and post another blog about our words and communication.

Both Alex and Nick got new teeth in December. That brings Alex up to 6 (3 top, 3 bottom); Logan has 6 (4 top, 2 bottom); and Nick has 5 (3 top, 2 bottom). I'd swear they were getting more with all the drool lately, but I haven't noticed any. They're not fond of me sticking my finger in their mouths either. Although they do like to brush their teeth. Of course they prefer to not have mom and dad's help (which means they just suck on the tooth brush). I'm just happy that it helps get rid of the icky, stinky baby breath!

New foods and feedings are still my biggest struggle with them! Part of it is me not wanting to change what works (laziness kicking in - stay in the comfort zone). It's just easier to open a jar of baby food and shovel it in. We have a couple of kinds that are easy meals and some that we know we'll have a fight with (typically Logan and anything with chunks - especially carrots). If they could live on goldfish and yogurt alone they would be happy boys! We have been eating more new foods this week. I'll dedicate a future post to this topic so until then, be thinking of suggestions for easy foods to get them to eat... I need all the help I can get!

Last but not least, I wanted to close this post with a congratulations and welcome... We are very happy to have a new nephew/cousin - Halas Daniel Wise - who was born on December 30th. Both Halas and mom (my sister) are home and doing well. We're excited to see new pictures of him and hopefully get a chance to go down and meet him this spring. For more information about my sister and her family, check out their blog. Welcome to the family Halas!!!