Going with the FLOW.

Casey is out of town for Porsche training.

It has been a fairly good week thus far. We've stayed busy. I've hung out with actual adults in the mornings. Kids have been happy.

We went to the Museum of Transportation this morning. CARTER.LOVED.IT. He walked around holding his Thomas train and wearing his Thomas shirt. Unfortunately the train got lost which I knew was going to happen but didn't want to fight it. The kid has to be holding something. We bought a pass so we will be frequenting that place.

He also loves firetrucks. I must mention that when we are looking at the firetrucks in a book he has to point to the ladder in the book and the one on his toy.

And the other day he said choo-choo book. Two words together. His language is slowly improving.

Cole is THE.CUTEST.THING.EVER. He loves his pointer. He says, "dog" "ball" and "bat." Went through a growth spurt this weekend. Same weekend Casey had a vasectomy. Fabulous timing. I WAS MENTALLY EXHAUSTED. Literally no one in this house could take care of themselves but sleep deprived me. Though I must say I am catching up on sleep these days. It's not as nearly as bad as it was and it's just for a short time....hopefully. Needless to say surgery and then solo parenting smack dab next to each other was not something I was looking forward to. But it is almost over.

Back to Cole...the kid loves the carts at the grocery stores that have steering wheels. Could it be mandatory that all stores have those? My kids love it. I might just go to Shop and Save to give the kids a ride in the carts.

Working hard on adding more GRACE to my parenting. The book "Grace Based Parenting" has helped me personally and in the role as a mother.

Enjoying being a mom. Trying hard to not sweat the small stuff. Not worry about perfecting the house and chores. Going with the flow.

Carter: 2.5
*He has to have booboos kissed. Even if you don't kiss the exact spot of pain, he still just needs a kiss somewhere.
*Knows lots of new words: house, rain, 
*He is currently in a transportation phase: buses, trucks, airplanes, tractors
*Still loves baseball. Had to learn to share bat with neighbor kids when playing outside. Always wants his Cardinals hat on. Gets his feet ready by marching them in place before pitch. Runs the bases. Slides. He watches all of this on TV and then does it. Visual learner. 
*Waves goodbye when he wants to go somewhere like neighbor kids. 
*Throws tantrums. It's fun.
*Sssshes when cole is sleeping. 
*When reading a story with a "mommy" in it, he will point to me. And then point to himself when it's the little kid. Even if it's a dog character. 
*Read a Easter book that went through the events of the Easter story. Each event ended with "Why did Jesus....die on the cross? Because Jesus loves Carter" and he would point to himself. 


Cole: 9 months
Likes praise baby. 
Crawling everywhere. Army crawling
Into his pointer finger.
Always gets excited when we open door to get Carter from his room.
Eating a lot more. Likes healthy things. 

It's been awhile. They have grown.

Carter:
-Knows a lot more words and letters. Like BUS. AND BASS-BALL. And LeapFrog is teaching him his letters and numbers. At the park today, he pointed to each letter correctly on a sign after I said it to him. Makes me smile.
-Obsessed with his baseball glove. Favorite Christmas gift hands down. He goes everywhere with it and won't put it down for anything.
-ALSO obsessed with his fireman rain boots.
-Loves church and his class. Says Jesus. (I think.) But he will point to him in his books.
-Have a nightly ritual of getting in the crib with him to read books. He points to the mattress when he wants you to get in.

Cole:
-Can hold his balance when sitting up.
-Starting giving him chunkier pieces of food. He thinks he is awesome because of it. He isn't really wanting purees now. He shakes his head when I put a spoon near his mouth. It's funny but not all at the same time.
-He is army crawling all over.
-He is busy.
-Loves to take baths. Loves the water coming from the faucet most.
-Gets the biggest kick out of Carter. He will just stare at him.

The things they do.

I keep forgetting to do a post about what the boys are doing these days. I want to make sure I get it down in some form because I will forget. And I don't want to forget. :)

Carter:
*He's big. He's dense.
*Throwing some more fits.
*Love going downstairs to the man cave with Casey and hanging out.
*Still a little parrot. Watched Uncle Dan build a cabinet with a pencil behind his ear so he tried to put a pencil behind his ear.
*Loves to say "hot" about everything. He puts his little hand out and aims it at whatever he thinks is hot.
*Our nighttime routine is to get in bed with him and read him a book. He makes sure we get in with him by pointing to his bed
*Loves the arcade at Walmart. He marches right to it.
*Knows how to work a iPHone.
*Roars when he sees lions.
*TV addict.
*Bat addict.
*Starting to really like animals. We saw penguins at the zoo and he loved them. A few days later while at Whole Foods, he saw a stuffed animal penguin which was about the same size as the real ones and he went up to it and softly tapped it because he thought it was real. So funny.

Cole:
*He's a talker.
*Loves to look in mirrors.
*Rolls both ways.
*Started to eat solids this week. Started lapping it up like a puppy.
*Pat my arm continuously when happy.
*Likes Carter. Watches him.
*Easy to make him smile.
*Pinches my skin (lightly) and touches my face while feeding.

Our Christmas 2011 card. Didn't actually end up printing the cards with the back. 

Thanksgiving.

Preciousness.

one weekish old.

4 monthish old

Carter-2 years

*Can point to objects in a book when asked where they are, knows his body parts...even the important boy one :), and is starting to say a few more words.

*Loves to tackle people at their legs.

*When he watches TV, he completely zones in on it.

*Loves to draw with a pen. Also loves painting in bath tub.

*Loves baseball....everything about it.

Cole-4.5 months

*Loves to talk.

*Loves to smile. All you have to do is talk in a high voice and he starts beaming.

*Starting to really move. Especially in bed.

*Rolls from tummy to back.

*Puts everything in his mouth....especially his hands.

Photo Dump.

Thankful for Daddies that love their boys.

Thankful for smiling and cooing babies.

Thankful for learning new things.

Thankful we are all healthy.

Thankful for lots of play time.

Thankful I get to stay home with my babies.

Thankful for good memories. Go Cards!

Thankful that we will have plenty of able bodies to mow our yard in a few years.

Thankful for spit up. Just kidding. :)