Poop, Poop and MORE POOP!

I don't even know where to start. This morning Gary and Will were playing so nicely upstairs together. They were laughing and having a big, big time. Then my mom and I spot a big clump of something brown on the leather couch. OH GOD! Yep, it was poop! Right then I knew what my darling children had been up to. They were having a poop fest. I rounded the corner to look up the stairs, and oh dear Lord, there was poop everywhere. It was all the way up the stairs, on the landing, all over the boys' brand new comforters and sheets and all over Bubba! He had it up to both elbows, on his legs, on his face, everywhere. The worst part is it was Gary's poop! He had removed his diaper (yes, I said diaper) and crapped a big man-size crap right in the middle of his bedroom floor. I guess Bubba thought it was play dough. He went to town smearing it all over the place. I'm glad I had the presence of mind to take pictures. I just wish I had taken pictures of WIll. I was just in a hurry to get him into the tub.

Needless to say, diaper days are over for Gary except for sleeping. If he's big enough to pull a stunt like that, then he's big enough to put it into the potty. About 30 minutes after this incident he peed in the potty like a champ. Maybe the poop debacle was a blessing in disguise. I'm just glad I survived it, and it's over. Thank you to my brother-in-law for buying us a Bissell Green Machine. It made clean-up almost (I said almost) pleasant.

Gary Reading to Mommy

Gary loves books about trucks, any kind of trucks. He likes garbage trucks, flat-bed trucks, dump trucks, monster trucks, fire trucks, cranes, buses--anything big with wheels. His three favorite books right now are I'M DIRTY (about a front-loader or "digger"), I STINK (about a garbage truck in NYC) and SMASH CRASH. Here are some pictures of him reading I'M DIRTY and I STINK to me one night before bed. He knows most of it by heart.




Do you remember when books were this exciting?

My Baby's Turning Two

My goodness. Will is turning two on Friday. I can't believe it. It seems like yesterday that I was holding this brand new little squeaky baby trying to figure out how to get him to sleep on his back. Finally, I gave up on that and prayed that he wouldn't die because I let him sleep on his stomach. He didn't. He slept like a dream.

I can't believe my little baby is turning two. Last week we had a doctor's appointment, and he weighed 29 lbs and 7 ounces. Gary weighed 30 lbs on the dot. They are 17 months apart. Will measured 33 1/2 inches tall. I read somewhere once that you take a child's height on their 2nd birthday and double it, and you get their adult height. If that's true, then Will is going to be 5 ft 7 inches tall. He'll tower over both of his parents.

Bubba has been in speech therapy for 6 months now. We are getting more and more worried that he isn't talking. Today, though, he said "bubble" very cleary and only one time. We were blowing bubbles in the living room, and I guess I paused too long. He looked right at me and said "bubble". I tried and tried to get him to say it again, but he wouldn't. Still, I celebrated. He knew I was quite pleased.

Bubba's favorite activities right now include coloring (well, he likes holding onto the colors) and watching TV. That boy LOVES the TV. Gary was 18 months old before he would sit and watch anything at all. Will has been mesmerized by TV since the very beginning. And thank goodness for it! When he's being a nightmare about getting a diaper changed or getting his teeth brushed, all we have to do is turn on "Bob the Builder" or "Pocohontas" and he settles right down. Will also really loves to be in his swing outside. Sometimes he'll just climb up into it himself and sit there holding one of his big, chunky pieces of sidewalk chalk. He has it just in case he comes upon something that he might want to draw on.

Lately Will has really turned into a lover. He's always been very sweet, but these days he passes out the hugs to anyone who'll take one. He especially loves hugging his speech therapist, Joyce. He opens his arms really wide, lays his head on your shoulder, and squeezes tight. What's really sweet is you hear "ohhhhhh" while he's hugging you. Sometimes, we'll be sitting at the table eating dinner, and Bubba will just reach over for love, and if he can't reach you, he'll just lay his head on your hand or even on the table. If he can't love you directly, then he'll love something in close proximity to you. It doesn't matter if it's the table. He used to kiss, but he won't do that anymore.

Bubba, my sweet baby. I'm not ready for him to be a big boy yet. He needs to slow down.

PUBLISH POST

Looking Out the Front Window

My mom is here visiting for a couple of weeks, and she's more nuts with her camera than I am. These are some cute pictures that she took of them from outside the window. We were having some work done on the road in front of our house, so there were front-loaders and dump trucks and pavers and all kinds of things that boys love. They were perched up on the back of the loveseat looking out at all the activity.

Gary Gets a Skuut!

Here's Gary with his Skuut from Uncle Rick. Isn't it the cutest little thing you ever saw? Rick says it's cute enough to hug. I first saw this little balance bike on "Sesame Street" when Grover went to the Netherlands on vacation. People there ride bikes as their main means of transportation, so children learn very early. This bike allows them to learn to balance and coast first, and then they transition to a regular bicycle. They never use training wheels. The little girl on "Sesame Street" looked like she was having so much fun riding across fields and coasting down hills. I really hope Gary enjoys his as much.

The neat thing is the first one Rick got had a small defect in one of the tires--it wouldn't hold air. Well, he wasn't asked to send it back. The company just sent a new one. Now all we have to do is fix the tire, and Will will have one, too! They're going to have so much fun!

The Easter Bunny Came!

Man, was the Easter Bunny generous this year! The boys got stuffed animals, puzzles, books, Bob the Builder machines, Thomas trains and lots and lots of candy. Gary had tons of fun making his little plastic eggs "hack" (hatch), and Will entertained himself for a long time trying to refill them. Of course, having a breakfast of chocolate and Peeps was the very best part of Easter. 

It was so much fun shopping for the stuff that went into their baskets and putting them together last night. It felt like Christmas all over 

again. 

We didn't have any company, so there were no big meals cooked. The day was low-key and low-stress. We just played and made a big mess of the living room and took naps and ate chocolate. Great day! Even though he took a nice nap, Will was so sleepy by 6:30 that just the mere mention of bed sent him running for the gate at the bottom of the stairs. He was practically begging to be put into his crib. Poor guy rubbed his eyes the whole time he was getting his diaper changed and his pj's on. Gary, who hadn't eaten a real meal all day, decided at 7:00 that he wanted some of Dada's cereal (Lucky Charms) and some strawberries. He stayed up a little longer tonight eating and watching one last episode of "Bob the Builder" before heading upstairs for story time. His current favorite library books are "Dinosaur Train" and "Get to Work Trucks!" His new words today are "bar", as in candy bar (go figure), and "stop". 

I wonder if they'll wake up tomorrow thinking they get to eat chocolate eggs and M&M's for breakfast again.

Oh Spring! Happy days are here again.

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted. Happy St. Patrick's Day for another half hour. (It's almost midnight.) I forgot to wear green today, but nobody pinched me. 

Tomorrow is Gary's first day back at work since his injury back in December. He's had 3 1/2 months of being a stay-at-home-dad, and I think he's sick of it. I'm going to miss him, and I'm really going to miss getting to take a nap when the mood strikes, but I'm also looking forward to getting back into my routine with the boys. And it's SPRING! I'm so happy to be able to go outside again without layers and layers of clothes. Oh, and sandals! It's such a pain trying to hold two wiggly boys down long enough to put on sock and sneakers. Velcro sandals, here we come! And speaking of sandals, my 8 year old Birkenstocks desperately need to be retired this year. Now if only I could manage to scrounge up an extra $100 or so. 

Little Gary is now going to preschool two mornings a week from 9-12. Neither one of us is used to it yet. He started at the end of February, and he still cries every time I drop him off. Each time I drive away I question whether I'm doing the right thing. He has the next 13+ years to be in school, so I wonder why I'm putting him through this now. Is the chance to interact with other kids his age important enough to his development and happiness to warrant all of the crying and anxiety? I don't know. Learning to talk and express himself is slow-going, so I haven't really been able to get his take on it yet. We're going to complete this year, which ends in May, and then spend the summer thinking about attending next year.

Both boys are in speech therapy. Will has an unofficial diagnosis of Apraxia of Speech--unofficial because he's not yet two years old. He still will only occasionally say "Mama" and nothing else, even though he's 21 months old. You can look at his sweet little face and see that's he's trying so hard to get some words out, but he just ends up kind of yelling at you. It's sad. I'm trying to be patient and hopeful.

Gary is coming along nicely. He's adding words to his vocabulary every day. We have a list written on a large piece of art paper taped to a door in our living room. It's "Gary's List of New Words." Today's additions were moon, sun and walk. He's so cute. When he's trying to say something by just making guttural noises with the inflections of speech I tell him to "use his words." His eyes will brighten and he'll say, "List?", like those are the words I mean for him to use. This morning he said, "B-O-D, Bob (as in Bob the Builder)." I couldn't help but laugh.

OK, it's almost midnight. I should scoot off to bed. Must dry my hair first, or I will wake up with a rat's nest on my head and will scare my children.