California

Ok, here are our pictures from California last week. As usual, we had a wonderful time, the boys loved being outside all the time and it was a welcome break for me from having to care for them by myself day in and day out. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and spending all my time with them, but sometimes it is nice to go somewhere by myself or with my sisters/friends besides the grocery store!

The weather was beautiful while I was there, warm and sunny and not too hot. We got to swim a few times, take walks, play with doggies, and go to the park a lot. A little boy's paradise!

Cullen

Jack sitting in the grass at my Mom's apartment

For some inexplicable reason, Cullen is deathly afraid of grass. If his bare skin comes in contact with it, he freaks out and tries to avoid touching it at all costs. He tries to lift up all 4 of his limbs at the same time, it's pretty funny! Poor kid, I don't think he knows yet that he can't levitate off the grass.

Jack and Cullen with Auntie Rachel

Mommy dancing with my boys

Peeking through Mommy's legs

What a big boy! Seriously, though, who is that kid?? That can't be the same baby I gave birth to!

They love their Uncle Jon because he spins them and throws them soooo high!!

We found a ball in a tree so Jon tried everything to get it out. He eventually got it, but then the kids who owned it came out and asked for it back. Bummer :-(

We were busy all week planning and running errands for my sister's shower, but we did manage to get to Disneyland for a few hours one afternoon. The boys LOVED this fountain in Toon Town! They were soaked!

I can't believe I let Cullen drink water from a Disneyland fountain, how gross is that?!?

Splashing away!

He's sucking the water out of his shirt in this picture...

Jackson and Cullen didn't have enough patience to wait in lines so the only got to go on two rides that each had 5 minute waits. The carousel was one of them, they really enjoy this but they are so impatient waiting for it to start. They shake the pole, bounce up and down, and when it starts to slow down, they get mad and try to fling themselves off of the horses. They are too funny!

Pirates of the Caribbean is the other ride they got to go on. It was past naptime though, so Jack fell asleep on it...

Admiring the flowers

Me, Anna and the boys

A little girl was blowing bubbles for the boys and they were completely entranced!

Cullen running with Auntie Anna

On Saturday, Rachel, Anna and I threw a shower for our sister Renee. She's having a baby girl in just about 8 weeks and they're going to name her Violet so we had a purple themed shower! Rachel and I made this sign for Violet's room. We were trying to think of something different than the painted letters hanging from ribbon that everybody does nowadays and this is what we came up with. We found the board and letters at Michaels (I swear, Rachel keeps that place in business all by herself!), then we spray painted the board a neutral tan color. Then we sprayed the letters with glue, covered them in purple glitter and added a few paper flowers as the finishing touch. Since the purple glitter was pretty over the top, we wanted to keep everything else really simple. I love how it turned out though! When Jon (Violet's daddy) saw the sign, he just rolled his eyes and muttered something about "too girly and frilly." Haha, isn't that the fun of having girls though?!?

Rachel also had this crazy idea to make a few dozen paper flowers for the shower. All but one or two of mine were really ugly but Rachel's turned out well and then our cousin Sheala came over and spent hours making the most beautiful paper flowers I have ever seen! I didn't get a picture of hers, but they could have been straight out of Martha Stewart! Thanks so much for making me and Rachel look good Sheala! Your flowers were incredible!

We played a few games and gave away these violets as the prizes.

And here is the masterpiece of the entire shower! Rachel (who is not only super crafty but also a fantastic baker) found a recipe for a super-complicated European cake and decided that it was "the one" and that we just had to make it for the shower. It took us several hours and there were 4 different layers, each brushed with a sugared rum mixture (don't worry, it was safe for Renee to eat), raspberry jam, and flavored pastry cream. Then we topped the cake with whipping cream and fondant, dusted it with edible purple glitter and topped it all off with violets! It didn't go perfectly, we had to remake the cake as the first version turned out more like a sweet, dense pancake and our pastry cream wasn't as stiff and fluffy as it should have been but we were so darn proud of the finished product! Can't you tell from the amount of pictures we took of it??

Rachel with her pride and joy

We decorated for the shower by hanging some of the clothes we'd bought for Violet from clothespins.

And this is something very special that I've been keeping a secret for almost a month but I'm just bursting to show it off now! When I first learned to sew, Sari and I were at Joanns and we spotted this quilt-kit of lavender fabrics. As soon as I saw it, I just knew that I had to make it for my niece Violet! It was my first big sewing project and it was very time consuming and difficult for me, but I did it! I sewed every stitch of it all by myself! (I took pictures to document my progress while making it, but I'll save those for another post). I smile every time I think that soon my sweet little niece will be all wrapped up in it!

One of my Grandma's friends tried to show me up by hand-crocheting this baby blanket with the alphabet on it. Uh, I don't think so lady! I'm the Aunt, my quilt is better by default! Just kidding ;-) Violet's a lucky little girl to have such cute handmade blankets!

Sister pic

The boys LOVED swimming in the kiddie pool, it was the perfect height for them to scoot around in!

Trying on Uncle Jon's sunglasses

Helping Nana make breakfast

So cute all snuggled up together at Auntie NeNe's for a nap in their makeshift bed!

Sheer Joy!

They sure do love their Uncle Jon! He's going to be a great father!

Chillin with Auntie Anna in the big pool

Chatting with Great-Grandma

We went to the park several times, but on our last day we were able to see a baseball practice going on and the boys were just fascinated! They stared longingly at the big boys dreaming of the day they can hit and throw and run like that. They already can't wait to play baseball!





Next time we go back to California will be meet our new niece/cousin Violet in the summer! And Daddy will get to come this time too! We can't wait!!

15 Months

We are back from California and I am still recovering from flying across the country with two 15 month olds, it was CRAZY!! Each time, I say "never again," but then a few months pass and I decide that seeing my family is worth it (though, during the 5 hour flight, I seriously begin to doubt it) and so I do it again! We also switched health insurances again so we had to schedule a doctor appointment for less than 12 hours after we got back to DC. Bad idea... but thankfully the boys never really adjusted off of east coast time, so they weren't total nightmares that day.

We woke them up just 10 minutes before we had to leave and brought some water and snacks along with us. We were 20 minutes late of course, because it took us a little longer than 10 minutes to get out the door but at least I had Brandon with me this time! Thank goodness they didn't stick to the "15 minute grace-period" rule!

But there's nothing like a doctor appointment in snooty DC to make you feel like the most inadequate parent on the planet. We currently go to a practice that has 5 or 6 doctors and we never know which one we're going to see. There are a few that we love (like the ones that cared for them during their pneumonia), but a few that aren't my favorite. We saw one of the non-favorites this week and he had a long list of things we were doing wrong:

*The boys are too old to still be drinking from bottles, we should have switched them to only sippy cups a few months ago. (They do drink from sippy cups during the day, but at naptime and bedtime, I still give them their milk in bottles).

*They're getting too much dairy which is the cause of their constipation so we need to cut back on the milk. (Hmmm... this isn't going to go over too well with Cullen. That boy LOVES his milk! But I am glad we finally know why they have frequent problems with constipation so we can remedy it)

*They should still be riding backwards in their car seats for another few months. (I had always heard that we could switch them once they were 12 months and over 20 pounds. We just switched them about 2 weeks ago because their feet were getting cramped against the backseat but I guess we'll have to switch back again)

*We should never give them juice. Ever. (They only get juice like once a week- tops. But I answered yes when he asked and then didn't want to sound like I was making excuses, so I just listened to the lecture about how juice is just added sugar and has no nutritional value.)

*We should be brushing their teeth twice a day, not just once. (Oops! That's a lot of teeth brushing for Mommy to do!)

*They also have a "slight delay" in their speech but not yet a "true delay" that we should worry about. (I already knew this but I'm not worried at all. I also wouldn't really be surprised if they still weren't saying anything at their 18-month appointment either, they don't seem very close right now at all. Who knows, though? Maybe that will change quickly and they'll be saying Mama and Dada by next week?)

*He also implied that the reason they're not speaking yet is because I don't read to them enough. (Really? I try to read to them a lot but after a few pages they just slam the book shut on my hand, laugh, and then throw it across the room. I guess they don't have much patience for books right now. But I do talk to them all day long, isn't that enough?)

*They have a few other small delays in motor skills but again, I'm not surprised, they've been late bloomers at nearly everything and always catch on eventually. Plus, I know that they can do some things like waving, but just choose not to most of the time. They've known how to clap and point for months, but just recently started doing both more often. They were late walkers but now they're literally running around. I know they'll do everything in their own time.

Don't worry, though, there were a few good things from the appointment ;-) They're both growing steadily and right along the curve based on their birthweights. Jackson weighs 22 pounds, 4 ounces and is 30 3/4 inches tall. Cullen is 23 pounds, 8 ounces and 30 1/2 inches tall.

The doctor was also very surprised that they had zero stranger anxiety. He said nearly every single child in the 1-2 age range has some degree of stranger anxiety, but not our boys. I've known this for a while now, and I am always amused by it. How many toddlers are literally jumping out of their parents' arms into a strangers' arms? Or straight-up refuse to hold their parents' hands when walking in a crowd? Or walk right up to a stranger and hug their leg in an airport? Or smile at the strange doctor sticking things in their ears and noses? I don't know where they get that from but I am glad for it now. It's nice that we've never once had to be paged during church, or that they don't throw tantrums when we leave them with babysitters. They may be slightly behind in motor skills and speech but they're socially advanced. Take that snooty doctor! Just kidding, I know he was just trying to be helpful and at the end of our appointment he said the boys are "just fabulous" and "very healthy."

Oh, and we took his advice and did try to switch to sippy cups at naptime and bedtime yesterday and it was a total disaster! The boys both went crazy, screaming at the top of their lungs, hurling the cups across the room and dumping all their blankets and stuffed animals out of the crib. At one point, Jack even tried to take his clothes off and throw those out of the crib too. I went back in several times to try to settle them down but each time I left, the crying just got louder and louder. I never realized they were so attached to their bottles until we tried to take them away! Well, I eventually gave in and poured the milk into bottles and they were happy as could be. They laid right down, closed their eyes, drank their bottles, and fell right asleep. Oh dear, I always thought we did such a good job training our kids to sleep, like that was the one thing we did right. They never cry at naptime or bedtime, we just put them in their cribs, give them a bottle and they don't make a peep until morning. (Yes, I know it's not best to let them fall asleep with milk because it's bad for their teeth but they fell asleep so easily with their bottles and I would have been giving them milk right before bed anyways so I didn't see the big harm in giving it to them while in bed. But I guess I did that wrong too!) Now we have to start sleep training them all over again but without bottles or pacifiers (they don't like these anymore) or swaddle blankets. How the heck are they supposed to fall asleep then? Should I just plop them in their cribs and let them cry it out? Should I gradually move onto sippy cups at naptime? Should I not give them anything in their cribs and just try to train them to fall asleep all by themselves? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Anyways, we have a very busy weekend and I really have got to straighten up my house because we're having company over tomorrow and Sunday (I'm making Easter brunch- yikes!!) I will try to post my California pictures soon though!

Some videos for the Grandmas

They're not doing anything particularly interesting in these videos... but I know of a few people who will watch them adoringly over and over and over :-) The first is of Cullen walking, he's really trying this week and doing really well! He's much more fearless than Jack and just sort of goes for it, he'll try again and again without getting frustrated. The second video is of both boys playing with the newspaper yesterday morning.

The Week

My mother-in-law Sari was here last week and we had such a good time with her! I especially enjoyed learning to sew on my new machine! Sari helped me do a lot of research and I ended up getting a Brother machine for a good price on Amazon. So far I love it! It's simple enough for even me to use and I don't think I'll ever need to trade up because it can do so much. Sari said the real test would be if it could sew through a few layers of denim without too much trouble so we tried hemming a pair of Brandon's jeans that were getting frayed on the ends and it worked like a charm! We took several trips to Joann's while she was here and bought lots of scrap fabric for me to practice on. I successfully sewed two pieces of fabric together in a straight line and I was ecstatic! While she was here, Sari taught me all the basics of sewing as well as a few harder things like putting in cording around a pillow and sewing really thin fabrics. I had quite a bit of trouble with the cording and I will definitely be practicing that a lot more before I attempt to redecorate my living room but overall it wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. And I had no clue that the majority of a "sewing" project is actually cutting the fabric precisely and the pressing of the fabric that needs to be done at nearly every step along the way. Who'd have thought? Anyways, I'm hooked and I can't wait to try my first real sewing project. What should it be???


Brandon was on spring break this week so he didn't have to go to class at all! Another reason why having Sari here was so great was because Brandon and I got to go on dates nearly every night! We went to dinner/dessert a couple of times, went to see a movie and got to go on a couple of walks together. And Sari was practically shooing us out of the house so she could have her grandsons all to herself ;-) I'm not sure who had more fun- us, the boys or Grandma Sari!

We went to the National Geographic museum one day to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. Apparently one of the first emperors of China had thousands of clay figures built and placed around his tomb to help him in the afterlife. Brandon had been wanting to see them and couldn't believe I'd never heard of them so we all went one afternoon.

Cullen entertained himself in line by repeatedly hitting Daddy on the head.

Poor Cullen didn't quite make it through the exhibit, he was out like a light.

We hadn't been to the park since November but it was finally warm enough to go last week and those boys sure enjoyed themselves! I think the park will be a daily outing this summer. Here's Cullen going down the slide. They're not afraid of it anymore, quite the opposite actually, they can't get enough of it!

Jack running around like a big boy. He looks so funny though because he walks with his elbows up for balance so he looks like he's flapping his arms.

More sliding fun

Renee, I know you'll love this picture. Cullen climbing his first rock wall! Well, he didn't actually climb it, but he tried!

And our old favorite, the swings. They still love it and still fit into the same swing together. Perfect!

Now the weekend's over, Brandon's spring break is over and we'll be back to regular life this week. I've so enjoyed having my husband around more, too bad it can't last! But next week I'm going to California for my sister's baby shower and I'm pumped for it!! Oh and we sure could use some California sun too, do you see how white my kids are? They're actually glowing in most of these pictures!!! (I know it's partly the exposure on my camera and the fact that it's overcast weather and that I don't take the time to properly edit my photos, but really, we're all as pale as vampires.) Bring on the sunshine!!

Still Climbing Everything In Sight...

My sewing machine came last week and the box is their new favorite toy at the moment. They have pushed it all around the entire house and climbed on it to get new places and views. Jack is using it to look out the window here:

And they're using it to watch Grandma making dinner here:

And Jack found out he could climb into this new perch yesterday and they had quite the brawl last night when both of them decided they wanted in at the exact same time. There was screaming, pushing, kicking, and even real tears. Who knew that a seat on a bookshelf could incite such passion and anger?

And no, this picture is not of Jack sitting in the shelf after he won the battle for it- I'm not that bad of a mother ;-) I broke up the fight and had them take turns sitting in there while I distracted the other one.

Cullen "Talking"

As I was posting this, he heard the video playing and came over and started talking back to the baby on the screen... that kid is too funny!

My Little Climbers

The past couple of weeks, the boys have taken an interest in climbing and they now climb anything and everything! I have been surprised several times at the places I've found them after looking away for just a moment or two. They have figured out that they can climb on boxes or their little table and chairs set to get where they want, so they have begun pushing these things around the room and finding new things to climb on. So clever, yet so mischievous. Here are a few places I've found them climbing just this week:

They overturned and then pushed a half-full cat litter box into the bathroom so they could reach their toothbrushes on the counter.

Cullen pushed his chair and table in front of the entertainment center and used them as steps to get to the TV. He pulled out a cord and then began turning the tv off and on.

I was doing the dishes and heard what sounded like glass clinking together. I am very careful not to leave glass anywhere they can reach so I thought I was crazy at first. But I immediately looked over and saw Jack standing on top of a file folder box reaching for the candles. We moved that into the bedroom right away.

And this next story tops them all. I was sitting on the couch reading and the boys were playing on the living room floor around me. All of a sudden I saw something out of the corner of my eye and glanced over my shoulder. There was Jack peering over the back of the couch! He was standing on his little chair and busted out laughing when I cried "Jack! What are you doing up there?" He thought he was so funny sneaking up on Mommy reading! We've had to confiscate the chairs and hide those in our bedroom too until they're old enough to learn not to stand on them.

So thanks GG Whit, your Christmas gift has inspired Jackson and Cullen to be the cutest little daredevils! They think they're so cool with all their climbing and it's their favorite toy... but they'll just have to wait until they can play with it safely ;-)

All About Cullen

Since I have so many posts that are somewhat Jack-centered (due to the fact that he usually learns new skills first), I want to dedicate a special post to my sweet boy Cullen. He is such a good baby, always so happy and smiley, and I love him so very much!

He nearly always has a big goofy smile on his face, he loves to share with Mommy and Daddy, he doesn't have a temper like his older brother, he gets genuinely sad when you tell him no or speak sternly to him, he is easily distracted and goes wherever the wind blows him, he's always on the go and doesn't like to sit still for even a minute, he never has time to sit and cuddle with Mommy unless he's not feeling well but he comes over for quick hugs and kisses all throughout the day, he laughs at the silliest things and at himself often, when he's sad his eyes get really big and he just looks so pitiful that you can't help but scoop him up, the only time he really gets grumpy is when he's exhausted or sick, he LOVES to eat and isn't picky at all, he acts very impulsively and spontaneously, he physically shows his excitement by jumping up and down or doing his famous "Happy Feet" kicks, he concentrates really hard on whatever he's doing but seems to completely forget about it once he moves on to something else, he loves to put his fingers into other people's mouths, he loves to chase the cats and gets a huge grin on his face whenever he manages to sneak up on them, he "waves" by holding out his palm to people and scrunching his face up like some weird salute or something, he's not as talkative as Jack but he does babble a lot more lately, he does lots of high-pitched chirps and low grunts, he is OBSESSED with cell phones and remote controls, but he also really loves to chuck things across the room and thus isn't allowed to have Mommy's cell phone anymore, he gets shy often and when he does he whips his head around back and forth really quickly as if he's thinking "Should I look at them? No, I better not. Well, maybe I want to after all," he can often be seen chewing on his pointer finger while he looks around, and he spontaneously claps for no reason at all.

I could go on and on about how sweet and lovely Cullen is. He lights up my day and always makes me laugh with the goofy things he does. What a lovable little boy I have!

Here are a couple of videos of him from last week. (For those of you who noticed that my kids seem to always be pants-less in the apartment, you're right. There's no real reason for it, though, they just seem to end up that way by the end of the day. It's always warm enough in here that they don't have to wear pants, they sometimes trip them up while they're practicing walking, they don't leave the house much, and to be honest, I get sick of wrestling them back into their pants after countless diaper changes so sometimes I just leave them off :-) ) Anyways, Cullen isn't wearing pants in either of these since they were taken the same day as that last video of Jack walking. But look at those chubby little thunder thighs, don't you just want to squeeze them so tight?!?! Lucky me, I get to every day ;-)

This first video is of Cullen walking back and forth... and back and forth with his little walker. He used to get sooo frustrated whenever he ran into a wall but a couple of weeks ago it clicked for him that if he walks around to the other side of the walker he can get going again. What a smart boy! He does this all day long, even if he only goes a couple of feet each time.



This second video shows one of the rare instances when Jack lets him have the big bouncy ball. Jack is getting to be quite the bully and often steals things from Cullen. But Cullen's so sweet, he usually just looks around and grabs for something else to play with. Lately, Jack's been hogging the ball constantly but Cullen gets to use it every once in a while. I think I'll go out and buy another one this week so that Cullen gets a turn to play with one! He obviously loves it!

The Weekend

I'm not even sure what round we're in now, but we are still sick somehow. I thought Cullen was recovering from a quick 24 hour stomach flu that started on Wednesday because he was fine on Friday and Saturday. He was happy, playing and not acting sick at all. Then suddenly, during his nap yesterday he barfed up everything he had eaten for breakfast and lunch. He set a new record for the amount of vomit that could come out of a baby so small. And this morning he had another case of explosive diarrhea. So many baths, so much laundry... when will it end?

I also got a touch of the stomach flu over the weekend but I must have a really strong stomach because I never really got sick, just a lot of nausea. And just to be on the safe side, we're all still on the BRAT diet. It has to be almost over, right? I mean, your kids can't be sick for 8 weeks straight, right?

We had a really low key week again, the boys only left the house a couple of times and I just did some grocery shopping. We did go to Ikea on Saturday afternoon to pick up some pots and candles and things, that was the highlight of the week for us. Everytime I go to Ikea, I remember just how much I love it there! I haven't been in over a year and I forgot how great their prices are! Our entire house is furnished almost exclusively with Ikea furniture bought off Craigslist. Someday, I would like to have a grown up home with real furniture, but for now I'm perfectly happy with my second-hand Ikea stuff :-) Besides, between our two kids and two cats, everything is scratched up and stained anyways!

My mother in law is coming to visit on Friday and she's been helping me to pick out a sewing machine. I'm going to buy one tomorrow and I'm SO excited to learn to sew. My MIL is a great seamstress and she makes beautiful blankets and curtains and all sorts of other projects. She was a tremendous help for our wedding too because she sewed all of the pink tableclothes we used. I have these grand Project-Runway-induced visions of creating high fashion with my little machine as soon as I get started. I know that's far from realistic because I remember from the one time that I attempted to sew anything that I had trouble even keeping it in a straight line, but I'm very excited just the same. My goal is to practice a lot and, sometime this year, make new curtains and pillows for my living room. I'm getting really tired of the old burnt oranges and reds we have now and I want to go for a more crisp blue/green vibe. I can't wait to get started! Check back next week though because I'll probably be cursing and vowing never to sew again...