Last week of freedom

It has been quite a week! Starting with last weekend, we've been quite busy around here -- not much resting, as I had hoped for my last week home, but busy with lots of good things!

Last weekend, my parents came over and we tackled the flower bed in the front corner of our yard. It was just overgrown and out of control. Aside from the lilies that Troy wanted to keep, everything else is removed. Unfortunately it started raining, so we weren't able to completely get it cleared up, but a huge portion was taken care of. Now it will just be a matter of making sure all the bulbs are out (the previous owners were quite "bulb-happy") and level it out a bit and we'll be good to go. There are a few patches here and there that need some work, but nothing huge. Thanks again mom and dad for coming over and helping us so much with it!

This week, Nicole and I took our last trip to the zoo. It was probably the best trip yet because the weather was perfect and lots of the animals were out and closer than usual. We made our way to see the chimpanzees, gorillas, lemurs, rhinoceros', giraffes, and much more. My favorite for this trip was the chimpanzees. They were all in their little "house" swinging from the ropes, hitting each other with some cloths that were in there. It was just a neat little show with all of them being so active! I had lots of fun taking our every-so-often trips to the zoo with the kids, Nicole -- thanks for the fun times (and the idea to get a membership, to begin with)!! Hopefully we all can meet up to go some weekend in the fall!

The majority of the end of the week has been spent with Dan and Rosie. We are ever so grateful that Dan has volunteered his time and expertise in helping us finish our basement. They've completed the framing and electrical, and as we speak, they are hanging drywall. It already looks so much better, so I can't wait until it is completely done. Troy has taken pictures of some of their progress so far, but they are on his camera (and I'd hate to interrupt them now!), so I will post those later.

Thursday, we took a trip to see Great Grandpa Perez. He has not yet met the boys, so Rosie suggested taking them out to meet him while the guys started working on the basement. They did very well on the 2 hour (1 way) car ride, and it was great introducing the boys to Great Grandpa Perez and Great Aunt Dora!

The only other major thing around here is the eating situation with the boys. As you remember from the last post, both boys (especially Logan) were quite unhappy when it came time to eat their rice cereal. We tried feeding them a few spoonfuls, then gave them some of their bottle, more cereal, more bottle, etc. That is what our pediatrician recommended as far as trying to get them to practice moving their tongue to swallow. Well, that wasn't working out too well because the second we removed their bottle, they screamed their heads off until we gave them their bottle back. So we tried feeding them their bottle first and then giving them the rice cereal afterwards. WOW -- talk about night and day! They were totally fine with taking it and didn't scream one bit. Also, since they've been having cereal for about a week, we thought we'd introduce them to applesauce (we actually got some thinking that maybe they didn't like the taste of the rice cereal, so maybe the applesauce would make it taste better). After their mid-morning bottle, they have been getting 1 tbsp of applesauce and they absolutely love it. It is so cute seeing their little tongues move it back and forth in their mouth. Here are some "happy" pictures of them eating:

Ellis was so content after his applesauce!

Another fan of applesauce. Logan couldn't get enough.

He actually got a little fussy after it was gone, so he got just a little bit more!

You know, this rice cereal isn't too bad, is it Ellis?

Look!! Logan isn't screaming after his rice cereal this time!

Tomorrow, sad but true, I will be heading back to work. It has been an awesome 4.5 months home with the boys but I guess its back to reality. As a co-worker on Facebook said earlier "it seems like more of a long weekend than a summer vacation"...it really did go that fast. On a good note though, I am so happy that my mom will be watching the boys. Although it will be sad not being with them every day, I will have no worries that they are with her, and I know she'll love spending time with them too.

Well, time to prep dinner and enjoy my last few waking hours with the boys. Have a great week everyone!!!