Dancing with Elmo, etc.

I call this my "Series of Cuteness" photo post.

• Dancing With Elmo - We got the boys a singing Elmo doll and they love making him sing and then dancing around the room with him. The song is pretty short, so they run back over to you to let you push the button again, then go dance again. 

• Playing with Blocks - the boys are so big now! They love playing with their duplo blocks and I love watching them put the different size pieces together and make different things. They also like to pull them apart and it's so cute to watch them concentrate :) 

• Playing with Blocks & Buddy -  They try to entice Buddy into a rousing game of building blocks, but Buddy is usually not interested. Before anyone gets concerned with Buddy's welfare, he always has the option of leaving his crate; I don't know why he sits there and lets them put stuff in with him. I'm sure he's figured out that this somehow earns him sympathy and is hoping for extra doggie daycamp days at Dee's. :)

• Puzzle lovers - Ben & Jack have discovered a love of puzzles! It's so cute to watch them put puzzles together; after each piece successfully placed, they usually clap for themselves. They also love moving the gear pieces around. 

• Climbers - They love climbing, leading to the loss of quite a few of their big toys, as we have had to put some stuff away to keep them from climbing. But they think it's clever any time they stand on something and balance.

 

• Huh? I love, love, love Jack's response when I ask him a "where" question. If I ask where something is, he lifts his hands with his hands very rigidly held up, his mouth is in an "o" shape, and he says "huh?"  It's so cute! Ben just shrugs and goes about his business. He can't be bothered with silly questions, mom. 

• Jack sitting - Jack's new thing is to SIT on things. He will try to sit on Buddy, me (if I'm on the floor) and Ben any chance he gets. Poor Ben, he frequently doesn't want to wrestle or be sat on, but Jack will sit and grin like he's king of the world.

• Feeding the dogs - Their new favorite thing to do is feed the dogs. They love scooping & pouring the dog food into the bowl, then telling the dogs to eat. Jack, especially, gets very animated and waves his arms around, points at the bowl repeatedly, and talks enthusiastically to the dogs, like, "eat, eat!"

 

 

• Sweet faces! These boys are so happy and sweet - I'm such a lucky mama :) 

Fun with Uncle Luke

Sami is in Paris for fashion week (luckee) so we got to spend some time with Godfather Luke last weekend. The boys had a blast with their sports-watching guy time, and when they saw Luke in the morning, ran over to him at the couch. They also got to face-time with Sami!

In the pics below, the boys are shirtless because they had just eaten dinner and I finally started taking shirts off before giving them pasta to avoid stains. No more bibs!

1.5 year olds

Ben & Jack are a year and a half years old - that seems so big! Can't believe my babies are growing up so fast. They went in for their 18 month well visit yesterday and did great! Their Apgar scores were off the charts again, which makes us feel good about their development. Smart little dudes. More importantly, Dr. D. was pleased with their developmental progress. :)

Poor babies have had allergies and a little cough, so their eyes are red-rimmed. I hate that they have allergies like their mom - yuck. On the plus side, only one shot plus flu shot today.

Ben: 24 lb.s (30%), 32.5" head (50%), 18.5" length (25%)
Jack: 23 lb.s (18%), 32.5" head (50%), 18.75" length (40%)

Family visit

We were lucky enough to get a visit from Auntin Erin last week! However, I don't know what's wrong with me and I didn't take any pictures. Poor Erin - her visit happened to be timed with the boys' first week of school, so they were suffering some major separation anxiety. I am baffled by this, as they have always done SO well with Nanny Mercedes, but I know it's a normal toddler stage, so we are being patient. Anyway, here is the only one we got with Erin over the weekend.

Seriously? Not a single one of her holding the babies? They did warm up (of course!) and loved showing off for her and playing with her. Auntin Erin's animal noises puts mine to shame, and she is hereby banned from reading anymore "noise" books when she comes over, lest when the boys start talking, they demand the crazy horse neigh that she does.

We enjoyed our visit with Erin, and then Gigi & Poppy came to visit with cousin Connor! The boys had so much fun running around the house following Connor. He is very sweet with them and I love watching them play together. And of course they always love time with their grandparents :) We went to the Science Museum together and loved it - such fun.

At one point, Poppy "helped" Gigi into the ball pit and the boys attacked!

And here are a couple of the boys. Love them!! Missed little Cooper (and heard he really missed his brother)!

Sillies

I snapped a couple of photos of the boys last week playing in boxes. When I get my "Toddler Busy Boxes" out, Jack's favorite part is the box - he loves to get inside, carry it around, fit the lid on, and take things in & out. When Ben decided that looked like fun, too, I got out a second box for him. What a couple of silly boys I have.

 

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day weekend! I love when we get extra family time with J home, so it was a really nice 3 days.

Saturday was of course the first UT football game, and I am happy to report that Uverse now carries the Longhorn Network, which makes my husband very happy. We had J's family over to watch the game and it was really fun. Of course, Jonathan wasn't entirely pleased that Ben & Jack have learned to "Sic 'em" before they've learned "horns up" (or whatever), but we have a whole lot of "bear" pictures in our animal books and not too many longhorns, so, sorry babe. I have a cute video that I'll upload later.

Sunday we had dinner with J's family and had a lot of fun at the Shops @ Legacy - any time the boys can walk, they have a blast :)

Monday we decided to take the boys to the Children's Museum and it was so much fun! We got a family membership so we can go back, which of course we will because J&B loved it!

And that was about it! When is the next 3-day weekend? :)

First Day of School!

Today was Ben & Jack's first day at Mother's Day Out. They looked so cute in their little first day outfits and tennis shoes we finally got them last week.

It was really hard leaving them, but I fought back the tears. Poor Ben & Jack didn't understand why we were leaving them - I hate that it seemed so traumatic, but I know that in the end this will be a great experience for them. I did get a call later in the morning letting me know that they were doing fine and had really enjoyed the "abc" song. :)

On their way inside:

 

 

Meanwhile, I have gone grocery shopping, cleaned the house, got dinner prepped and ready to pop in the oven later, and now I've blogged. And I'm about to leave to go pick up my sweet boys, which makes me one happy momma. :)