It's Logan's turn

This week Logan has really, really improved his walking.  One night after dinner, all he would do is go from Troy, to me, turn around, go back to Troy and repeat.  It was cute too, to see Ellis just watch him and cheer him on from Troy's side.

 From Daddy to me...

....keep coming....

 ....back to Troy, with Ellis cheering him on...

 ....back to me, again.....

...literally ALL night...

 One perk of all this walking, 

 was how well he slept that night!

 Good job little guy!!!

Another fun picture I took this week was the view from the front seat, of the boys in their car seats, with their cute new little shoes, eating some Kix on the way to my moms!

They have walked primarily without shoes on, so I was a bit nervous if they would be able to walk with the shoes on, but I think it really helped Logan out with gaining his balance.

The majority of the week was pretty low-key, from their perspective.  They did go on a little field trip though (haha) if you want to call it that.  Thursday was "Bring Your Child to Work" day, so after my students asked if I was going to bring them up there (and me laughing right after), I actually called my mom in the morning to see if she would mind bringing them up there for the last hour of the day.  I thought it was pretty funny to see how excited my students were, to see them.  They haven't seen them all year aside from me bringing them in when they were less than 2 month old at the end of last school year.  The boys were a bit shy for a majority of the time, but once the kids left, they cruised around my room, walked right up to Pam, and played with some books and calculators while I got things ready for my sub the next day.  And unfortunately it all happened so fast, that  I didn't get any pictures.  I totally forgot...  =(

As for my perspective of the week, I would be totally fine if I didn't repeat another week like this one, for a while.  Between taking two math tests (one being a final), prepping lesson plans for the sub for both of my days off, two meetings after work, and 8th graders that are slowly losing any desire that they had to learn, I'm good with moving on to another week!

As for this weekend, we are just relaxing.  Nothing big in our plans.  Tomorrow we are going to head to the library to pick up some new books and to play around, but that's about it.  Hopefully everyone has a restful weekend....we are!!!

Week in Review

Yet another week has gone by...here is what we've been up to -

Sneaky little Ellis tried to pull a fast one on us with the food he doesn't want to eat, by putting it in the cup holder in his high chair.  Too bad we caught on to you buddy, but good try!

The week flew by, which is never bad for a work week.  Over the weekend, Troy and I even had a little date night.  Thanks to Sky, who came over to watch the boys, we went out to see American Reunion.  Hilarious movie for those that like a good comedy!

On Sunday, the Chandlers came over.  Their shy behaviors, at first, quickly wore off and before we knew it, Ellis was walking all over and right up to Val.

Then Logan started flirting a little bit...and of course had to look back to make sure we were looking at him!

After Delevan woke up from his nap, Logan was very interested in him.  Soon Logan, soon you guys will be best buds playing around...

Then after our walk, Ellis cuddled up to Val once again to check out his new friend...

Logan is warming up to the idea of wearing a hat and actually let Troy put his good ole John Deere hat on him.

And speaking of Logan, he is walking around a bit more.  Definitely not as much as Ellis is (who pretty much walks more than crawls most of the time), but a lot more than last week.  Today he was pushing his beloved train around and going so fast, it seemed like he was almost running....scary!  =)

Today after work, Troy was trying to finish up his paper work.  Well, we all know that the boys are uber interested in any sort of technology within their reach.  They were good with not touching all his keys and messing him up, but I thought it was hilarious when Logan sat down next to Troy and looked back at him like "Hello, dad!  It's time to play.  It's not work time!"

"dad....Dad....DAD!!  Pay attention to ME please, please...dad?!?!"

So Troy sat up to finish his report and Logan started playing again.  Then here came Bella, doing what she's good at....laying right on his arm so he can't type.  Now it was her turn.  "Dad...pet me...play with me...."

As for me, I will be very happy once this week is over.  Today was my 4th math test....with only one more to go.  My final is Friday.  I look forward to having more time left to relax, play with the boys, enjoy the weather that is warming up....ahhh!  Can't wait!

Well, enough for now.  Last night was a rough night of sleeping for Logan (and therefore me), so I'm hoping to get to bed early tonight...like right now!  Good night!

Confidence Booster

Apparently a pacifier and a play silk can boost a child's confidence.  After dinner, Ellis grabbed his pacifier off the table, along with the play silk that he found on the floor and just walked, walked, walked.  Once he fell about 10 feet later, he stood up without assistance and walked again until he fell...and again, and again. He's got to be one tired dude tonight!

Logan's talent today was dancing.  When I started singing a little song (I know, scary, right?!) he would start bouncing up and down.  So cute.  Too bad my video camera wasn't nearby to capture it.  Next time...

Well, its the end of a great spring break.  Back to the grind tomorrow at work.  Only 44 school days left this year though, but who's counting!  =)

Only the good

I'm hoping everyone had a better Friday the 13th than we did.  Although I'm still pissy from the bad that happened, its time to focus on the good we've had today (and yesterday).

Yesterday, Nicole brought the kids over.  It's always a good time to get together with Nicole and its fun watching the kids play together.  Now that Ellis and Logan are getting older, its fun seeing them try to "play" with Morgan and Parker and show interest in what they were doing.  And poor Morgan who just wanted to play by herself, but either Logan or Ellis would go up to what she was playing with and mess with it.  Sorry Morgan!

Morgan was so happy when all the boys were napping!  =)

Mark came over after work and we went to Pei Wei for dinner.  I totally wish they lived closer so we could do that more often!

Today was the boy's 1 year appointment.  Logan weighed in at 21lb. 4oz (a 3lb gain in 3 months) and was 29.75 inches tall.  Ellis weighed in at 20lb. 10oz (a 2lb. 6oz gain in 3 months) and was 29.75 inches tall.  I was actually quite surprised that Ellis gained less considering that boy can put some food down!  They got a clean bill of health though, so that was awesome.  The not-so-fun was the immunizations.  They got 3 today and the MMR is known to be pretty rough.  Logan was a champ and barely cried, yet Ellis (aka Mr. Fearless, usually) was NOT happy.  I think he was pretty hesitant with the doctor to begin with, so that didn't help.  They both got a snack though, and they were happy campers again.  It was actually quite funny to see where their hands were when we got home and found them sleeping already.

They just love their snacks!!

I wasn't going to share the next video quite yet, but I feel like overloading the good today to replace the crap that happened, so I will end with a happy little video of little Ellis as "Frankenstein"...

Tomorrow, more good is coming.  It's time for our (me, Nicole, and my mom) monthly scrapbooking day.  Looking forward to it.  Now time to enjoy some ice cream...

Spring Break Day 4

Today I was a bit antsy to do something.  We have a couple play dates tomorrow and Thursday, so I thought we'd take advantage of the day by ourselves, by running a few (fun) errands.  After lunch, we went to the library.  Right after the boys were born, I discovered that Rochester Hills Public Library has a "Raise-A-Reader" program, which means that every month, until the age of 2, the boys will get a new book to keep.  AWESOME!  Well, we haven't been to the library this month yet, so we went up there to get the books for the month.  We also get a little paper about developmental things, reading suggestions, etc. and this month we got a little envelope of goodies.  One thing I was excited about was a checklist of the "Top 100 books Every Child Should Experience."  How fun!  I'm always looking for good books for them.  Unfortunately I've come across a few stupid books (one board book was so bad that I didn't even finish reading to the boys, who probably don't know the difference anyway), so I'm sometimes skeptical to just buy books without looking through them or having suggestions.  There is a little play area for kids there and although most of the kids were a bit older, we decided to check it out anyway.  The boys were very observant for a little bit, checking everything and everyone out, but then quickly warmed up.  I think they enjoyed the oversized bean bag the most..they loved standing on it and looking out the window.

Then we were off to Old Navy.  Thanks to Pam, I had two "spend $20, get $10 off" coupons.  Awesome!  I was able to get 6 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts for the boys, for $25!  Go me!   Thanks Pam!!!!!!

Tonight, we just hung out.  The boys were ultra silly tonight and just laughing and gabbing away...and getting even closer to walking.

One video I thought I'd share was one that was taken the night of their birthday party, when my mom and I were giving them a bath after they had their cake.  Such a little sugar high they were on (and it looks like the sugar that covered them, totally ruined any chance for the bubbles to stick around for the entire bath).



Looking forward to tomorrow - play date with Sheila and Luke! Good night everyone!

Happy Easter!

What a beautiful Easter weekend!  We've had lots of fun already on my Spring Break and it is only Day 2.

First of all, thanks to my dad, Nicole, and Val for sending me some pictures and videos of the boy's party.  It was quite hard to narrow down which ones to put on here, but these were my favorite ones, mainly from opening gifts:

This picture is by far my favorite one of Ellis.  I don't know why
 he has the facial expression he does, but it just cracks me up.

Ellis was NOT enjoying the fact that I was holding him in my lap.  He just wanted to go play.  Guess I should've realized that one year olds don't really get the whole open presents thing.

Also, here is the video that Nicole edited down to about 6 minutes, from eating their cake:



Now for our fun the past few days.  What a nice surprise on Thursday when I got the boys from my mom to see that she prepared a cute little Easter basket for the boys (complete with a little treat for me and Troy too!).  How fun!!!  My favorite part were the little plates for the boys.  

We don't use plates at this point and just put their food right on their tray, so I wasn't sure how they would react to using them (whether or not the plates, along with the food, would end up on the floor, was my biggest concern).  Well, today I decided to give it a try.  Today's lunch, PB&J, pineapple, mixed veggies, and an arrowroot cookie.  And no that wasn't a typo - their sandwich had peanut butter on it.  They hadn't had peanut butter until this point since it is suggested to wait until after 1 year due to possible allergies, but I thought today was as good of a day as any to try it.

Ellis was up before Logan, so he was our "new plate and PB&J" guinea pig.  And he did awesome.  He gobbled up his entire meal and didn't throw a piece of it on the floor.  I did have to put a piece of sandwich in his mouth to get him started though.  He was a little skeptical at first, I think.  Usually we just put a little food on their tray at a time so he was probably wondering what all this food was!

A fun little tidbit about Logan when he was done eating:  I was taking this tray off his high chair and went to pick him up.  The second I grabbed him and lifted him up, he shouted out a big, animated "ma ma."  I heard it clear as day too, and so did Troy.  Although both him and Ellis have said "ma ma" in the past, it was maybe only a handful of times when they first started gabbing.  For months, they have consistently said "da da", then "ba ba", then "na na", but never consistently "ma ma."  How fun to hear that!

We started the transition to sippy cups for milk, now that they are off formula, and so far so good.  They've always had water out of a sippy, but I wasn't sure what their reaction would be if their milk was in it.  Well, today I actually put away our bottle drying rack, because they've been doing so well drinking  milk without their bottles.  I guess my biggest "concern" is that they rarely drink all that is in their cup while they drank every drop when it was in a bottle.  So, parents out there, is it a big deal if they don't drink it all?  Again, during the day it doesn't seem to be a big deal, but I'm wondering if their sleep will be affected if they don't drink their entire bottle.  Last night we gave it to them in a bottle, but tonight's plan was going to be putting it in a sippy cup.  Obviously we'll at some point transition them away from milk before bed anyway, but I'm sure hoping that less milk before bed (on their own account) doesn't translate into waking up earlier because of hunger.  Any thoughts, experienced parents?

Our other fun for the day was going on a wagon ride.  It was so beautiful, I couldn't resist.  And, since it was so sunny out, I thought it would be a good time to try out their new hats from Grandma and Grandpa Frahm.  They quickly took them off multiple times before we left, but once I started moving the wagon, I think they were distracted by the movement and everything else around them.  They didn't take them off once the entire ride.

No plans for tomorrow.  At some point, maybe next year, I'd like to start some Easter traditions, but I think they are just a bit too young now to understand any of it.  Happy Easter to everyone.  I hope everyone is having as good of a weekend as we are!