A Whopping 35 Degrees!!!!

Yes, the past two days have been in the mid-30's here. We are thrilled and have been out playing a lot. It has been such a cold winter with so little snow for us that we haven't played outside as much as I thought we would therefore we took advantage of this "warm" weather. It is like Spring fever here. Last night we went out to play after dinner and I could smell someone grilling. :) I had to laugh at that although a lot of Michiganders do grill all winter long.

Anyways the boys are thoroughly enjoying the weather and napping BEAUTIFULLY! Here is a little bit of our past couple of days!

They enjoyed their swings and slide

the fort that Daddy built

and despite having on snow boots, a scarf and my big mittens and even with the snow beneath my feet I enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my face.

Alright, Spring, don't tease us. Send some more sunshine our way!

Eli-isms

Eli talks a lot and usually pretty clearly. He is saying adorable things on a regular basis so I had to devote a post to it. I wish I would have kept better track b/c there are a million more but these are the ones that come to mind.

He calls eyebrows growls.

Recently he said to Jared after he shaved off his moustache and goatee: "Daddy your moustache is gone?? It's o.k. Daddy we'll find it. It's o.k."

Last night we had this conversation:
Eli: Mommy, can I talk to you?
Me: (Stifling a laugh) Yes, baby.
Eli: Are you Becky?
Me: Yes
He stopped a moment to think.......
Eli: No you not, you Mommy.
It was as if he was uncovering a huge conspiracy and this lady who calls herself Mommy is really named Becky but then it became too unbelievable. I just have to laugh at my 2 year old asking to "talk to me". So funny.

My sister was in the nursery with him yesterday and said he kept saying to the other kids. "young man, hey, young man". I don't have a CLUE where he has heard this phrase. I really do not call people young man mainly because I think it would make me feel 150 years old. :)

Last night I discovered that someone put his diaper on a bit loose in the nursery and it was falling off. I told him to wait a minute while I grabbed a new diaper. I am 1/2 way down the hallway and he says "Excuse me, man, my diaper is falling off. Excuse me, man!" My guess on this one is that he has heard me in stores, and other places when I am addressing a stranger and say "Excuse me, Mam."

Last but not least I overheard Alex and Eli have this conversation recently:
Eli upon hearing a train horn outside: You see train?
Alex: No, my ears.

We have a train track near out house and Eli usually hears it and says "you see train" to which I respond no I don't see it with my eyes but I hear it with my ears. I loved to hear the way Alex explained it though. Scary that this is an understood conversation. :)

He is currently obsessed with cars and carrying 5 or 6 of them around. He becomes very frustrated when he drops any. He doesn't like to share them and many a war has occurred when Mommy or Daddy suggest that he has enough and needs to give Alex one.

He requests "sing songs" at every nap time and at bed. If he wake in the night and it is 3 in the morning he will still request a song before you leave his room. His current requests are: "Away in the manger", "children" which is "Jesus love the little children", "Jesus" which is "Jesus loves me", "O" which is "Oh how I love Jesus", "Praise Him, Praise Him" which is called just that. He sings with you in his sweet little voice too. It is one of the most precious time of the day. If it weren't for the fact that I am usually pretty tired at these particular times of the day I think I would sing to him for hours.

I had to add this on: Whether it is a Winnie the Pooh video or book Eli refers to Christopher Robin as "Christmas-er Robin". :)

An "Alex Post" is on the way just in case anyone is concerned I'm not keeping things "even". The constant concern of a parent of twins. :)

As far as any other updates. The baby is keeping me quite nauseous and tired but I am managing to keep up with the boys most of the time. I wish I could say the same about laundry, dishes, general cleaning and walking for #500in2010 but I cannot. I am looking forward to 2nd trimester and hoping the sickness lets up a bit.

Potty Training Woes

Are we there yet???? I want to have potty trained children without having to potty train them. Is that TOO much to ask? Yeah, I know, it is. We are on day 2 and have had NO success. I put them on the potty regularly and they get up without going potty only to go on the floor. So far "potty training" in our house has consisted of "training" me to sanitize my floors 3x/day.

Not that anyone wants MY tips but I read a book called "Potty Training Boys: the easy way" (WHATEVER!) that suggest training in sessions. This way takes a bit longer but it seems less stressful to me. I am not sure this is the best approach but it is currently our approach! Despite what I originally thought I'd do I am training both of them together. Neither seems "more ready" at this point so I figured I'd just gut it out.

Doing this while dealing with morning sickness is less than thrilling but not buying diapers for twins will be an AMAZING accomplishment and our bank account will thank us. Everyone says that one day they will just get it and that is my current life boat that I cling to each time I clean pee up off of my floor.

After this accomplishment we will move on to putting the boys back in the same room. Yes, my favorite transition of putting them in separate rooms must be undone for our new arrival. I honestly think potty training will be easier than trying to get them not to party like rock stars until all hours of the night once they are roommates again.

The good news is after these two huge transitions are over the boys should be as ready for baby as we can possibly prepare them to be. Have I mentioned that I have thanked God on a regular basis that we ditched the binky months ago. I cannot imagine having to deal with that before September too! So that is a little bit of what is currently on my plate. I'm off to put some big boys undies in the washer.

Brothers

The boys are at a really funny stage. They are either best friends or mortal enemies. I sometimes think how easy this is getting (for about 2 seconds) and then I hear screaming evoke and remember that "easy" has NEVER described parenting. :) Today for instance I managed to walk 4 miles WHILE THEY WERE AWAKE and they played beautifully BUT we also started potty training (again) and I had to clean up a few messes, none of which landed NEAR the potty seat. Yeah, not a big success. It definitely has its ups and downs but like I mentioned so does their relationship. I thought these pictures beautifully displayed their love/hate relationship.

This sweetness......

led to this continued sweetness....

which inevitably led to a take down by Alex.

I regularly hear "Come on, Eli" and then moments later "NOOOOO ELI, NOOO!" Yesterday I told the boys to go and get in their beds while I finished picking up the front room and then I'd tuck them in for nap. I walked in Eli's room to see Alex rubbing Eli's head and singing lullabies. PRECIOUS! Moments like these melt my heart while the other not so sweet moments usually end up making me laugh (later, that is, much, much, later)once I am over the pure frustration of it all.

Thank you for all of the congratulations on our upcoming arrival. :)

A New Addition

I have to admit I am AS surprised to be announcing this as you probably are hearing me announce it but Jared and I are expecting baby #3. We are thrilled of course! We did however just sell or donate all of our baby stuff and we were quite settled into the idea of growing old with our two boys BUT God had a different plan. Unlike with the boys we needed NO additional intervention to get pregnant (much to our surprise). :) ALSO unlike with the boys there is only one baby in there. We are thrilled about this because it should be MUCH easier on my body and we pray for a full-term healthy baby.

The Dr.'s are watching me like hawks and I have already had a lot of appointments. My blood pressure has been perfect thus far but it is of course quite early. I am due Sept 12 and my mandatory C-section will be scheduled a week before assuming I haven't had any issues that would result in me having to deliver early.

Thus far the pregnancy is going well but I must admit I am not one of those women who "LOVES being pregnant". Although I am quite thankful for this addition I am less enthusiastic about the morning sickness that is currently lasting all day and the exhaustion that accompanies it. Thankfully, I am at home with the boys so when they sleep I veg out and that arrangement has been working beautifully. I am also thankful that Jared continues to put up with "pregnant Becky" although it is still early in the pregnancy I am pretty sure his love and patience will endure. We have an ongoing joke about him "going out for bread" and he is yet to do it. You see apparently, back in the day, in his family anyways, men would go out for bread and just sort of take a hiatus from family life. I think I will just make sure I have plenty of bread each time I hit the grocery store throughout the rest of this pregnancy and we should be safe. :)

In Teddy news, we have been calling him via skype the past couple of days and it is so amazing to see his progress. He is able to do so much more than when Jared was in Colorado with him a week ago. He showed us yesterday how he moves his head from side to side and lifts each leg. He was also able to sit up. He is really progressing well but you can imagine the frustration of a 10 year old boy trying to retrain his body to do these things. Please pray for him and his family. Alli's (Teddy's older sister) 13th B-day is on Tuesday and they will not all be together. I think they are all adjusting to their "new normal" but nobody would choose this. I am praying that the hospital time will pass quickly and that they will all be together again SOON!

I almost forgot to mention that the boys response to Mommy being pregnant goes as follows:

Me: Alex, Eli, do you want a new baby brother or sister? Alex and Eli: NO!

This is their response EVERY time without fail. Alex has also told me that he has a horse growing inside of his belly as well. My response to him was "Good luck with that!" So, hopefully they will warm up to the idea and if not, well, things should be interesting!