Photo Friday – 11.05.2010

Yes he grabbed two lighters and shared with his brother, and yes we took a picture before taking them away. That's what the child safety part is for right?

Noah doing his hair.

Sitting and playing. Okay Ez is almost sitting, but it's hard when your brother is hogging the toy!

Get ready.

Ahhhhh!

That just doesn't look comfortable.

Arm, arm, arm? Okay he says arm instead of hand.

Puzzles!

Abby's just chillin'

Just hanging out.

Cousins having fun.

Someone has been needing his blanket more.

DSC_4261 Blankets in the swings.
DSC_4270
Happy to have is blanket.
DSC_4266
Don’t mess with his blanket.

Lastly a short video of Noah reading to mommy. He loves reading to me. 😀

Noah Reading from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.

Halloween 2010

Cleaning the pumpkin together.

Ez loved it.

He takes after his mommy and likes playing with the guts. 🙂

Noah didn't have the same love. It's on my foot!

But he did like the blue bowl. 😀

Michelle and Jason working hard.

Carving away.

Ranger/zoo keeper found some wild animals.

Hooray! We got them to put the heads on for one picture. 🙂

Trick or Treat!

Photo Friday – 10.29.2010



Put lotion on himself.
Playing with Abby.
Let's just say I am now out of nutmeg.
Their favorite book right now. The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Reading
Cutie
Attack of the Ezra!
Fascinating?
Happy, Happy
The two cutest jack-o-lanterns ever. 🙂

Pumpkins at the Botanical Gardens

The Desert Botanical Gardens had a little pumpkin patch this weekend.  Unfortunately to get to the pumpkin patch you had to do a hayride and the line was about an hour long.  With three antsy toddlers we decided to skip that part.  We had a nice time running around the garden and seeing some pumpkins on a truck.

DSC_3387

Ezra ran so much!
DSC_3422

What do you think is so much fun?
DSC_3429

Water of course!
DSC_3433
DSC_3506

Peek-a-boo!
DSC_3483

I need to hold this?
DSC_3474

Almost got a shot of him looking at the camera and smiling.
DSC_3470

Happy girl.
DSC_3464

She reminds me so much of her daddy in this one.
DSC_3455 (1)

Why do I have to sit here?
DSC_3451 - Version 2

Three toddlers in one photo?  No one is ever looking.

Stagecoach Days’ Fun

Our little city had Stagecoach Days’ this weekend. We took the boys and enjoyed a nice morning in the park.

We tried our first bounce houses, Noah was more into than Ezra, but they both just crawled around.

We also went over to the fire safety trailer and learned to be fire smart.

First you play with the fireplace. Funny thing they decided to not turn it on because it was just a few toddlers in the trailer and our boys were still drawn to it, good thing we con’t have one.

Then you run from the exit.

And then if your Ezra you break out your dance moves.

We also tried out a photo booth for the first time with the boys, shockingly two toddlers weren’t very cooperative. They just wanted to push the button!

We also petted some of the local 4h club animals and played in the Montessori pre-school booth for a while (which the boys loved). Sorry no pics as we were also too busy playing. Matt also was able to do a little networking, life in a small city does have its benefits.

Photo Friday – 10.08.2010

Sharing legos

Sliding

We have been loving the weather

Trying to watch the game

The boys had gotten up early from nap and were falling apart before dinner time, thankfully the Wiggles worked to entrance them

He was seriously entranced

Noah is obsessed with my clogs, he wears them all over the house, and actually walks quite well in them

DSC_2695
Hi Hi!
DSC_2706
Ez 🙂
DSC_2709
Look closely, what is that in his hand? Yes a domino, he is obsessed with them.
DSC_2679 - Version 2
Got my hair chopped off. 😀

Potty Training

Our entire weekend next week suddenly opened up, so we are considering one of the three day potty training methods. The one that I read reported that 22 months is the best age to potty train, and the boys will be 23 months next week. I am wanting input from parents, but not on methodology or the correct age. (okay you can offer it if you want I won’t turn down free advise.)

But what I really want is a pro and con list of a potty trained child. I think a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about how to potty train, but I want to think of the after the potty training consequences and benefits.

If potty training next weekend doesn’t work out, we will think about it again sometime after the craziness of the holidays.

Please share your input. 🙂

Mommy’s Little Helpers

Funny Noah wouldn't eat the sweet potatoes off his plate, but when Ezra fed him he ate plenty.

The boys have really been into helping lately, and while it is often more of a hinderance than a help, I don’t mind one bit because they are trying their hardest. Here’s a few of the things they’ve done lately:

Ezra cleaned up all the clothes, toys, hangers on their bedroom floor and put them in the hamper. (never mind that some of those things don’t go in the hamper, or that most of those clothes were clean clothes they removed from their closet, and part of it was the basket of clean diapers)

Noah set the table yesterday for their breakfast. He place both bowls of oatmeal on the table all by himself with no prompting from me. He also cleared the dishes and put them in the sink. (at lunch he decided to dump the remaining food in the middle of the kitchen floor for the dog)

The above picture shows Ez feeding Noah. They have both really been into offering each other bites. (doesn’t matter that the food often ends up on the floor, table, and themselves)

Ezra recently spit out some ibuprofen I gave him. I handed him a rag and told him to clean it up, both boys then proceeded to scrub the kitchen floor. All the while Noah was warning everyone the floor was slippery.

They both frequently bring each other their sippy cups, often figuring out that is what was needed before mommy.

I am sure they would do so much more if their mommy would let them!

Car Wash

Matt wanted to wash the car this weekend and I offered for the boys and I to “help.” He knew we wouldn’t be a help, but was happy to have fun with the boys while getting something done.

Running from the water

Ez wanting to touch the water, but not get too close

Always with the tongue out

Showers 🙂

Bubbles!

Just a little soapy

The face?

Supervising daddy.

Trying to figure out the hose.

Noah

Trying to get a drink

Airplane!

Matt doing all the work

What did I do besides take pictures? Chase down the runners!

Guessing Game

I took a picture yesterday and didn’t realized how zoomed in I was. I thought it would be fun to have a little guessing game with it.

Guess WHO it is and WHAT he is stuck in!

Excuse me

We are working on the boys saying excuse me after they burp. When they burp we simply prompt them to say “excuse me.” Ezra says something that sorta sounds like excuse me. Noah on the other hand pats his chest and says what clearly sounds like “mommy.” Guess he is already blaming me? 😉

Where’s the Pause Button?

Noah is obsessed with cups.

Love how they both are staring into the cup as they drink!

My little guys are not wanting to be little anymore. They try so hard to do everything on their own. The new desire for independence is bittersweet. Hooray I don’t have to do everything for them, but oh is it so hard to wait and watch them do the little things for themselves! It can be a little bit frustrating. They don’t have the words to express what they want and the tantrums can be often and looooong. I am also struggle with finding the balance between pushing them to grow-up too fast and letting them grow-up at their speed without getting in the way. I often think they are not capable of doing something, but it turns out they are.

They currently would prefer to drink out of regular cups, no sippy cups please! I decided they can have regular cups at the table. They decided that they should start sticking their forks and then their food into the cups. Took the cups away after the appropriate warnings and full fledged tantrums erupted and no dinner was eaten. 🙁 They do a great job of drinking out of the cups. I am hoping once the novelty has worn off it will go smoother.

As noted in a previous post Noah is starting to have opinions about what he wears. Last night he was screaming for 15 minutes. Turns out he wanted to wear a red shirt instead of the green shirt daddy put on him. How did we figure that one out? I started un-packing their suitcase and he found a red shirt and held it up to me. I think we will work on re-organizing their clothes this weekend so they can find what they want more easily.

Thinking about potty training. Yea I am shocked about that too! I was thinking I had a year until I seriously considered it, but the boys are letting me know when they have pooped. Noah flat out refuses to go sitting down. Every time on the trip when he had to go, he would arch his back, scream, and try to get out of his seat. We would stop and he would go with in 5 minutes. He KNOWS when he has to go. Ezra I am not so sure about, he will let me know after the fact that he needs a diaper change. He also didn’t go in his car seat once and waited until we stopped, not sure if it was a coincidence or he just wasn’t as vocal. Currently I am just working on the words, because if they can’t use the words to tell me it will be much more difficult. I read an article recently about potty training boot-camp style at two years, I figured I would do it in January (after all the holiday craziness), but I am trying to feel it out and if the boys are ready sooner I will be doing it sooner.

I am continually amazed at how fast they grow-up!