Some days my life feels pretty crazy and chaotic but most days we find ourselves a pretty good flow and are able to enjoy most of the day - and when these boys aren't testing their boundaries (well, sometimes even when they are) they keep me cracking up a good part of the day. They are two busy, busy boys whose minds are always thinking about what or how they are going to do something next. They love to mimic us, especially their daddy and of course each other! Case in point, James has a blanket he calls his "nanny" (don't know where that came from but that's what he calls it) and he sleeps with it and anytime he has it in his hands he usually holds it close to his face and also sucks his thumb. John-Mark until recently hasn't really cared about his blanket but in the last couple of months he's started bringing me blankets and calling them his "nanny". He's funny because unlike his brother who has one very special nanny, john-mark thinks any blanket will work - just as long as he has one, like his brother does. Then we've noticed that he puts it in his mouth a lot and we figured it was just because that's john-mark - always putting something in his mouth (our little billy goat, as we affectionately call him) and then I realized that he is totally mimicking his big brother. He can't see that James is sucking his thumb because the way he holds his blanket over his face and thumb so he just assumed he must be putting it in his mouth of course! The thing about James and the thumb sucking is that he rarely ever does it without that nanny so John-Mark really probably doesn't even realize he's doing it - thank goodness or we would probably have another thumb sucker on our hands :)
Fun updates on the boys:
James is just now 2 1/2 and he looks more and more like a big boy everyday. The first time I put him in big boy underwear I almost cried! He looks so big with those long skinny legs running around the house! Where did those chubby baby legs go? Potty training is still a work in progress. I've started moving the potty in to the room we are playing in so he can see it and run over and tee-tee when he needs to, thinking maybe that will help. He does a good job but he's not 100% and he's not ready to leave the house without a diaper yet - and maybe I'm not either - I just can't imagine what I'm going to do when we're in publix or at chick-fil-a and he needs to go - how I'm going to do it with two other little ones! We'll figure it out I'm sure.
He is doing really good with is alphabet and recognizes a lot of letters now. Jeremy was watching the news this morning and the ticker was running across the bottom with news updates and he was having so much fun pointing out all the "E"'s as they went by - he loves E and M right now - they seem to be his favorite letters :) He can also tell me what sounds most letters make thanks to the Leap Frog alphabet video. I put an alphabet poster and United States map up for us to play/learn with. The map has pictures of things that are representative of each state, like Alabama has a space shuttle, which James thinks is an airplane so I'll ask him to point to Alabama and he will and then proceed to run around the house like he's an airplane. He can also point out Florida because that's where the "gators" are :)He's also still working on his numbers - he loves to count things but he likes to start at 3 instead of 1 for some reason :)
James loves to sing, dance, play his guitar and pretend he's playing the drums with anything in sight:) We have lots of songs that we sing together but he won't sing them totally by himself - sometimes when I start singing a song he doesn't want me to sing he'll say - "no singing mommy" - guess I don't sound as much like Whitney Houston as I've always thought - ha! He also hates for me to be tired. If he sees me yawn or lay me head back on a chair he comes over "no tired mommy, no sleep!" I'll pretend like I'm sleeping and he'll come over and lift my head and try and make me get up - because I'm really just that fun! :)
We continue to work on first time obedience but haven't really mastered it yet :) He does however continue to like to be a third parent to John-Mark and try to discipline him. I have to regularly remind him that he's not a mommy or daddy and he needs to take care of himself and let mommy take care of John-Mark. It cracks me up though because he totally knows all the rules and what punishments are for what "crimes" and is pretty spot on when it comes to disciplining John-Mark - if only he disciplined himself so well :)
John-Mark! What a fun boy he is! Even as "challenging" as he is to keep in line he is so fun! I think this age - 18 months may be my favorite age. He's still little enough to be my baby but he's starting to really communicate and it's just fun to finally get to hear what goes on in their little heads. He's actually getting much better at obeying us. For a while there it seemed like he must have been deaf the way he totally ignored what we asked him to do (which we knew was not the case) so it appears that it's true - consistency is the key because as we've just continued to work with him and he's starting to listen and obey - not without some testing still ofcourse :) He is loving getting to be a little helper just like his big brother. He likes to put things in the trash and go and get me a diaper when I need it. He also likes to bring me things all day long that need to be put away and tell me "tank you!" He is very good about saying thank you - without much direction from us he just started saying it whenever we give him his milk or a toy - so polite :)
He has also started with the "hold you" which means I now have two little boys at my feet saying "hold you" much of the day while Gracie says it not so sweetly at the same time too - I need octopus arms sometimes!
John-Mark loves to be around people but he's also very content to go off in a corner and do his own thing - this is different from his brother. Sometimes I'll find him just hanging out in his room flipping through books and I'll walk in and he'll look up and give me this big grin and then go back to his "reading". It's so interesting to see that how as many ways these boys are very similar they are so different as well.
The snow has finally melted away and the boys are starting to feel much better so they got to play outside this morning and "help" daddy get some things done - here are some pics of my busy boys in action - they've missed being able to run around outside this past week!
"Let me move this big piece of wood like daddy would:)"
Checking out his drill
Really checking out his drill :)
Wild man doing a dance on his picnic table while John-Mark is dying to get on it with him!
Finally up - everybody dance!
And lastly, yesterday we had a bit of an incident at our house - it could have been very bad but thank God the only thing that was injured was our door. James tripped and went head first into the glass portion of the door - thankfully he was wearing his Alabama cap and that's what hit the glass instead of his bare forehead. As you can see he busted the glass up pretty good - but thankfully he doesn't even have a bruise to show for it - it just scared us both! Praise God he's and Alabama fan :)
- James has started to really sing a lot! Jeremy and I LOVE it because we love to sing too! It's like all the songs we've been singing to him since he was a baby he's starting to sing with us! He loves to sing Jesus loves me - but just that part - over and over and over; he loves singing Happy Birthday and he'll pick different family members and friends to sing to each time - sometimes it's pretty random who he will think of that he wants to sing Happy Birthday to. Most mornings I make the boys oatmeal and add a little brown sugar to it and it makes me think of that song "brown sugar" - which is the only part of the song I know so I'll sing that and then kind of hum something. James has started singing this as well except he adds "oh yea, oh yea" I have no idea where he got that from! Hysterical!
