Friday: Leah and Ethan

We visited our friends again today!  It's so fun to have two boys that can somewhat play by themselves.

Today they played outside with their lawnmowers.

Leah and Joshua spent all of lunch time looking at each other.  Leah left for a few moments and Joshua was so sad.  He was also in a bouncy seat and had things to kick with his feet which he seemed to love.

Thursday: noggin bops

Noggin bops (wind-up toys) have been a big hit in the house...for both boys.  Although Isaac calls them robots.  I suppose they do sort of look like robots.

Joshua tried really hard to grab them.  He succeeded once.  (This was also the time I realized that someone had changed the exposure settings on my camera, which could contribute to why I've been having a hard time getting good pictures without the flash.)

Isaac's two pictures of the day were "of all of us and the robots."

Also, the exersaucer has been great for having the boys play "together" a bit more.  Isaac likes to run around it and play with the toys, and Joshua watches.

Tuesday: 35 months

Isaac is 35 months old.  I know, it's a weird milestone.  I feel weird every time I write it.  But he's still changing so much that it's nice to have a quick update.

Sleeping - he is still nicely sleeping until at least 7:15 most mornings.  We're working on getting him to get out of bed and go to the bathroom without me telling him to do so.  The number of naps is quickly declining though.  At the beginning of the month is was about two days out of three.  Now it's one day out of three.  We still have rest time though!!  And there are a few advantages to him not needing a nap...life is easier to schedule, especially with all the holiday things happening.

Pretend - Little Monster still shows up sometimes and he still does a lot with traps.  I think the biggest thing this month is getting "stuck".  As in, his feet are stuck to the floor when he doesn't want to do something.  He's been doing this for a while, but this month seemed especially bad.  Jumping and hopping tend to get him unstuck.  He also really likes to celebrate birthdays.

Eating - I've noticed that if I change how something is delivered, he'll start to eat things that he wasn't.  Spinach?  Puree it.  Yogurt?  Back in the bowl this month.

Praying - Isaac still thanks God for Jesus and thunder and lightning every time, but sometimes he includes "nothing" too.  "Thank you for nothing."  We're not really sure what to do about it, so we usually laugh behind our hands.

Potty training - not great, but not too bad.  I feel like we're getting close.  He's usually accident free during the day, but the last hour or so is when there is a problem.  But I usually forget to help remind him in that last hour too.

Singing - Isaac has started singing more this month, and often things I didn't realize he was actually paying attention to quite a while ago, including "Pop goes the weasel" and some songs from story time at the library.  His "Happy Birthday" song melts my heart too.

Lawyering - I get lawyered so often.  He was eating the cookie part of his snack and I asked him to go to the bathroom when his cookie was done, so he put down his cookie and ate the rest of his snack first.  Or when most of his body was on the bed and I needed to put his socks on, so I asked him to put his feet on the bed.  He got off the bed and put just his feet on, which really didn't make it any easier to get his socks on.

Monday: 4 months/18 weeks

Joshua is 4 months old!

Sleep: we've gotten into a nice routine - Joshua wakes up around 5am and will usually go back down with a pacifier.  He'll wake up again at 6am to eat, but goes back to sleep in the swing until about 8:30.  He'll take a short (20-30 min) nap around 10/10:30.  Then everyone is supposed to take a nap from about 12:30-2:30.  It sort of works.  Joshua takes two more short naps at 4:30 and 6:30, and then goes to sleep at 8:30.  I'll feed him at 11pm, but he's usually good at sleeping from 8:30-5am.

Eating - he's super fast.  It's rather nice since there are two kids.  When he's done he's done.

Alertness - he's quite alert, grabbing toys and giving smiles.  We've started using the exersaucer so it's nice to have another place to put him.  He watches Isaac a ton.

Rolling - he's started rolling onto his side, which means he spins around his head.  I'll often find him in a completely different orientation than I left him.

Crying - for the most part he is a rather happy child.  But the 5-5:30pm time he's usually rather grumpy.  And if he gets woken up from a nap too early.  He sleeps in his room with the door closed, but that doesn't mean that it is quiet.

(Sorry for the blurriness of some of the pictures - pictures turn out better with the flash but it is so hard to get the right look.  So I put it on burst mode but then the picture quality isn't as good.)

Sunday: finishing up Legos

Here are some of the last pictures from our Lego weekend.

The Legos expanded all weekend.

 The "barn" and "house" that I made for Isaac.  Both of them weren't finished, but they worked for the city anyway.

Isaac took some pictures of Ben and me.

Ben's castle grew.  It was slightly taller than Isaac.  There were even people trying to infiltrate the castle.

update: Isaac really wanted to play Legos on Monday too.  But we had put them away.  There were tears.  So I expect they'll come out again before too long.

Breakfast conversation

Isaac: what did we do last week
Amanda: um, we went to the library, and played with Ethan, and...yeah.
Isaac: no. What did we do last week?
A: what do you think we did?
I: bowling
A: we did that two days ago, not last week. Do you remember what else we did.
I: we went up some stairs.
A: yup. What else.
I: we went up some stairs again.
A: true true.

(There was a viewing platform for laser tag at bowling. He went up it twice. It must have made an impression.)

Thursday and Friday: pictures

My wonderful boys before leaving for Thanksgiving dinner:

Bowling after dinner.  Isaac was so excited to be bowling.

Joshua enjoyed some time with Grandma.

On Black Friday we stayed in our pajamas all day and played with legos.  Isaac didn't really put any together, but he liked finding some of the things that were already put together and exploring all the new pieces.  So it worked, but it will also definitely be put away after this weekend for a later date.

Near the beginning.

Middle-ish.

My finished forest.

I really liked this tree:

I started the forest as a home for some of the monkeys we found Isaac.  Unfortunately for the forest, the monkey had to go home right after the picture was taken.

Lunch break.

Ben's finished castle:

What Joshua thought of the whole day: