Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend this year. Saturday Brendan let me sleep in until almost 10 which was so wonderful! Sunday, we had to get up and get everyone ready to go to the Arboretum to get a family picture taken. It was actually kind of fun and I was so happy to get it done - we sadly have never had a good picture of our family and never a professional one either. Then we met my mom for brunch and she offered to have the boys over to her house for the afternoon. So, Brendan and I went shopping for my new computer which I have desparately needed for a long time. It was so nice to be able to spend time making a decision without the kids there screaming to leave the store. Then we went back to my mom's and rested while they were sleeping. All in all a very nice day and relaxing weekend. I am so thankful for my precious boys and wonderful husband.

Wright made me a special card for Mother's Day at school that had a flower on it and each petal he said something about me. I was impressed at how well he knew me. Here were his answers:
- Her favorite color is purple
- Her favorite place is the beach
- She loves pepporoni pizza
- She plays Hungry Hippos with me
- She loves flowers

Wright Update

First of all, funny story. Wright is getting closer to making it through the night without a pull up. So as a result, he is waking up to go potty at all hours of the night. We have spent a lot of time and effort training him to never come out of his room without us coming to get him which has always been really nice. But having him call "Mommy Mommy!" when he needs to go potty in the middle of the night was getting a little old. So I told him that he was allowed to get out of his bed and go down the hall to his bathroom if he needed to. Well, this has opened all sorts of doors. So, last night Brendan and I were working on my new computer in the backroom and heard his door open. We both assumed he was going potty but did not pay enough attention to realize we never heard it close back. About 45 minutes later we heard someone running through the kitchen. I jumped up thinking it was an intruder and saw Wright in there. I went after him and he went in his room and closed the door. So I opened it and asked him what he was doing to which he searched for a lie to get out of trouble. At this point, I could hear the tv on from our bedroom. So I asked if he had been in there watching tv and coaxed a "yes" out of him eventually. After much scolding, I put him back in his bed and went to my room to turn the tv off. There I found where he had made a pallet out of his blankets and stuffed animals, gotten the flashlight out of the outlet to see better, and guess what show was on? Real Housewives of New Jersey! He can't work the remote, so he had been watching that for almost an hour. I will never get that part of his innocence back ;) I went to tell B and we both couldn't help but laugh and wonder how long he had been planning this stunt.

He is also (and has been for some time now) giving up his nap. I have been really holding on to it because it is the only time I can get work done. But recently it has gotten really bad and he just doesnt want to be in his room for 2+ hours. So Brendan and I decided we would let him watch a movie for an hour from like 1-2 to wind down and then go in his room to "nap" from 2-3 or 3:30. Today was the first day we tried this and so far so good. I had to post this pic of how I found him in the den when I went in to check on him. So precious...

Spencer 16 months

I have been telling people Spencer is 17 months old! So sad, I can't keep track. Then when I figured out that it was 16 months, I told Brendan and he swore he was 15 months. Poor child has 2 parents that can't keep it straight.

What he is up to:
- His favorite activity around the house by far is going into every room, saying "bye bye" and closing the door. I frequently find him closed in rooms by himself. He also loves going around and putting things in other things. We are always finding stuff in the trash or hidden in a cabinet.
- He is still very easy going. We are constantly being told that he is just an "angel" when we drop him off at church or bible study, etc. He never cries with strangers - seriously has no clingy or stranger danger bone in his body.
- He has mastered saying "bye bye" and waving and is so proud of himself when he does it.
- He is still a pretty picky eater and eats hardly any fruit or veggies and very few meats.
- He thinks Wright is the funniest thing in the world and cracks up at him all the time. He loves to wrestle with Wright too and is constantly initiating it.
- In the last month we have discovered that he has a very manipulative fake cry that he does a lot when we tell him no or if Wright does something he doesn't like. It is like this deliberate "wah" and sad face and then he stops immediately and is ok.
- His favorite toy these days is his new phone he got for Easter. He is very protective of it and will grab it from Wright and scream.
- He finally is interested in books although his attention span is still much shorter than his brother's.
- He still has no interest in TV.
He keeps us on our toes for sure but is also the cuddliest most loving little boy and we love him to pieces.

"Bye Bye"

Easter 2011

We had a wonderful Easter and the boys loved everything about it! Wright definitely has it down that we celebrate Easter because "Jesus is alive!" as he learned in CBS. So cute. He begged for a "Jesus is alive" book which meant the story of Easter. Both boys enjoyed the many egg hunts we had and of course their Easter baskets filled with toys and chocolate!

The baskets all loaded up and ready to go.

We were so concerned that Wright would not find his but he found it in less than a minute!

Checking out his basket. His favorite thing in it was the Lightning McQueen flashlight that makes different pictures on the wall.

Wright helped Spencer find his.

And Spencer loved his phone as we knew he would.

Wright posing before church.

My boys :)

Our church did a really neat thing where all the young kids brought flowers to decorate the cross out front. Wright loved this!

Poor Luke did not feel well the whole time, but rallied enough to hunt for eggs.

Max and all his eggs.

Wright looks so serious in this picture and so old!

The big boys even saved some eggs for Spencer.

Brendan was posing in a little chair - LOL

Our fam - at least everyone is looking at the camera.

Family Time at the Park

Good Friday Fun At the Arboretum

We had a fun morning at the Arboretum with the Croffords. I had such good intentions and even dressed the boys in matching outfits to take pictures. But then (not thinking) I let Wright get his face painted like Spiderman and gave Spencer some cheesy chips as a snack. So the pics are not as I had planned in my head but still cute, and probably more realistic anyway. :)

Spidey and Cheese Face.

Checking himself out in the mirror.

This was about as close as Spencer would get to the animals.

Wright was dying to see the Jack and the Beanstalk house again and wanted me to read the whole story to him.

Midland Trip

We went to Midland last weekend for a visit to see Brendan's grandmother who is on hospice. It was a good trip overall and nice to spend time with B's grandparents, parents and Megan. Here are some highlights...

Wright's favorite thing to do is play Gigi's iPad!

Spencer and Papoo wore matching shirts. Papoo calls Spence "Sluggo".

Gigi put together an indoor egg hunt that the boys got to do after naps on Saturday.

Spencer's eggs had marshmellows in them, which all ended up on the floor ;)

I thought this was a great pic of B and his grandparents.

Spencer with his Greatpa Paul and Greatma Virginia. Side note - Paul sang the boys an old-school children's song called "There was an old sow" and Wright has been asking me to sing it ever since. I guess I need to learn the words!

Wright Update

Wright is so clever and he makes up songs, stories and rhymes all the time. Last night he was eating dinner and started chanting to his food "Hot dog hot dog, what do you see? I see strawberries looking at me. Strawberries strawberries what do you see? I see rice looking at me." and so on. He made this up taking the idea from the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. So funny how his mind works.

Today at school the Easter bunny came. His teacher and many other teachers came up to me and told me how much Wright loved the bunny. All the other kids in the class were scared and hiding under the table but Wright was up at the front dancing with the bunny and singing! After the bunny left, he started dancing around the room singing "I'm silly Morris, I'm silly Morris!" and apparently all the kids were laughing and watching him. :)

Spencer with a Spoon

Spencer is trying to eat with a spoon. Here he is making a huge MESS of yogurt. Wright is below.

What We've Been Up To

Wright and his bible study class performed all the verses they have learned this year. Really impressive! We have had lots of fun playdates with friends - Wright and Eleanor always have a blast together. Wright and Molly entertained each other while eating dinner playing "Cry and kick", a game they made up. Grady and Spencer loved the train table. They are only a few weeks apart. And of course Wright has really loved playing with his new BFF from school, Jackson. Or as Wright calls him, my good buddy Jack. Side note - when Jackson was leaving today, Wright hugged him and kissed him on the lips! LOL!

Splinters are the WORST

Wright got a huge splinter in his big toe yesterday. It was an extremely traumatic experience to say the least. He was completely hysterical and would not let me touch his toe at all. After much coaxing, I got him to calm down enough for me to try and tweeze it out. When I was working on it, he looked at me and quietly and sincerely said "Mommy, I am just so afraid." It was so sad and sweet and made me think that I do not know what I would do if he was truly suffering with an illness or something. Anyway, as part of the bribery to get him to let me work on the splinter, I told him I would take him to get ice cream when it was all done. So he of course he asked for ice cream almost immediately after the splinter was removed. We went to McDonalds and got him a McFlurry and a sundae for me :) When we got home, he ran in and told Brendan "I got ice cream with candy in it and mommy got a Friday!" LOL!

Wright Saying The Pledge

I had no idea Wright knew how to say the pledge until today in the car he just started saying it out of nowhere. He says he learned it at CBS - pretty cool :)

Wright update

Wright is learning so much recently. He is much more interested in his letters and numbers in the past month or so. I think this started when he learned the letter W at school and realized his name started with W. Then he started spotting Ws all over town and pointing them out. Now he thinks it is really fun to learn his letters and talk about words that begin with that letter. This was especially fun last week when he learned the letter U and discovered underwear starts with U :) I discovered yesterday that Wright can count to 30! Out of nowhere in the car, he was saying to himself 21, 22, 23, 24... I was like, "Buddy, count for me as high as you can." And sure enough, he counted from 1 to "20-10" (aka 30). He only messed up once in the teens. Needless to say, I was quite impressed. I would say overall he is more interested in numbers than letters at this point. On that note, he is also fascinated with time. He has no real understanding of it, but always is inquisitive about. "Mommy, we will do that in 3 minutes?", "We are leaving in 2 hours?", "Last year we went to the park (ie yesterday)". This goes on and on all day long. His other favorite question is "How time is it?" - makes me laugh everytime. His imagination is awesome these days. He is so fun to watch when he plays with his figures and cars and acts out these whole stories with them. The theme is usually around some sort of conflict. Like someone is getting in trouble or someone falls off the car as it is racing off. Such a boy! Last night we went to dinner at Balls for Stewart's bday (my 9 year old cousin). We all sat outside and the boys ran around and played. There were 3 nine year olds, one 7 year old, one 6 year old and Wright - all boys. I was so impressed at how the whole time, Wright completely held his own with all those big kids. He never once came and hung out with Mommy or cried/complained about being left out or anything else. He just marched right over and fit in with kids 3-6 years older than he is! I have said before and will say again that he DEFINITELY has his father's personality and social confidence. A funny thing about when he is with his cousins is that they all have iTouches. So Wright always begs to use my phone so he can hang with his cousins and play Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds like they do.

More on Spencer

I was just reading back on some old posts and wanted to update a few more things on Spence, mostly so I will remember. He is SO much better at obeying us these days. When we say "No", he stops what he is doing probably 90% of the time. It used to be that he would just smile and keep on hence his nickname Gilly. We are not sad that Gilly is fading away. He has stopped the screaming thing. He used to scream all the time either to get attention or out of frusteration. Now that he can communicate better, he does not scream at all. He does whine though when he wants milk and refuses to sign for milk. We are still working on that. He is much more engaged with age-appropriate toys. He especially loves to push around cars and play with the train table. Sometimes, he even plays trains without ripping up the tracks, although that is still a favorite "no-no". :) He LOVES to wrestle with Wright. I would say most of the time Spencer is the one who initiates the wrestling. And he is super tough. There have been many occassions where I look over and realize Wright is rolling on top of him and Spencer is just laughing hysterically. Wright doesn't really understand why he should not pin his brother down when Spencer enjoys it so much. He has begun to stand up for himself a lot more. If Wright tries to take his toys, he screams so loudly and looks right at Brendan and me for his defense. On the down side to this, we have started to realize that he might be manipulating us a bit with the crying. Because he is the youngest, it is easy to assume he is hurt or Wright did something wrong when he is crying, and Spencer has picked up on that very quickly. He also starts to cry and looks to me for my reaction when he falls down. I am really working on telling him to brush it off now so he doesn't become a cry baby. :)

Spencer 15 months

Spencer just had his 15 month checkup. Interestingly enough, he and Wright were the exact same height and head size at 15 months (31.75 in and 18.75 in), but Spencer weighed 2 pounds less than Wright did (22.11 lb). The dr has always said he is going to be tall and skinny, so looks like he is right so far. I have always thought he looks so much smaller than Wright did, just leaner and definitely less broad. They are pretty different in every way. He is still not saying many words which the dr assures me is perfectly fine and normal especially for a boy. He will say things for about a week and decide not to say them anymore after that. And like I have mentioned before, the more we want him to perform, the less likely he is to say the word. Overall he is pretty quiet unless he is babbling dada or asking for mama. Poor thing has also been sick for almost 2 full weeks. He had a stomach virus that has made his bottom raw - like I have never seen with wright, blisters and all. That still has not really gone away and now he has picked up a cold. He has a deep dry cough and a hoarse voice. Sweet boy feels so bad, you can see it in his eyes. He has barely eaten in the last 2 weeks either and the whole BRAT diet thing gets old really quickly. Hopefully he will be better soon...we are praying.