RazNoggle

That one day I’d walk into my boys room to find my youngest actually LICKING lotion off the carpet where his big brother obligingly spread it.

That my potty trainee toddler would come waddling into the living room with a turd IN HIS HAND saying, “I found the poop!” Oh my, I certainly hope there are no more to find.

That I would find the “missing poop” from the last statement while trying to help clean up the lotion from the first statement.

That I would ever hear a huge splashing noise like the sound of a cup being spilled followed by the loud words, “Uh-oh, I peep!”

Or that I would be oh-so-thankful that it happened in the kitchen rather than anywhere with carpet. I just don’t think I could handle that after the above poop incident.

That I would find myself telling my son, “Go in the kitchen and clean up your pee-pee.”

That I would find both boys STANDING on top of the changing table in their room knocking their heads against the wall to create a huge commotion.

The bedroom door is now “off limits” to be closed.

Just thought I’d share.

Well, I figure it’s time to update y’all on the recent cute antics of the lads. When they aren’t barfing and throwing fits they’re really pretty fun. We bit the bullet and have been putting the boys down for bedtime in the same room. Before we’d been putting Myles down in our room then transferring him once Qade was asleep. Well, that’s not going to fly this summer at camp, but I’d been putting it off. I think that I’m the most resistant to change when it comes to ‘what works’ for us. Ha! Not willing to add any extra battles to my day even if it would be a big pay off in the end. BUT it hasn’t proven to be nearly as bad as I expected. Myles still goes to bed first, and then we have our story time and wind down with Qade in the living room before he goes down. There has been a couple of nights where Qade thought it would be a great idea to wake up his brother and have a jumping party in the crib, but that gets shut down really fast! Besides Myles is usually NOT in the mood for partying at that point. So it’s going good, and I’m encouraged, but not at all willing to try it with naps yet. Ugh!

Myles words are coming along nicely. He actually has quite a few and mimics just about anything you’d say to him. One thing that just makes me smile is his very hearty “Take-oo” whenever I say “There you go!” So after diaper change, or giving him a cup, or helping him get on the horse (Daddy) I’ll say, “There you go” and he’ll reply with gusto “Take-oo!!” So cute! He says and signs for please. He also says shoes, but it sounds like “zoose” and he’s ALWAYS excited about those because it means that we won’t be going bye-bye without him. He has settled solidly into his phase of “must have mommy!” and if he sees me put my shoes on, or sunglasses or anything that might indicated I’m leaving, he will plant himself in front of the door and say “bye-bye!” very pathetically. Poor lad. He’s usually fine within moments of being left, but it still makes me feel bad. Not bad enough to stay, but ya know. Myles also says his own name. This morning while I was changing him, he pointed to his belly and said “wha-at?” I told him it was his tummy, but then he said “My-a” which is as close to Myles has he’s gotten. We sometimes play a game where I’ll point to me and say “Mommy” then point to him and say “Myles” cute! Have I told you he’s obsessed with his toothbrush? Well he’ll carry it around slobbing it for hours. It’s major freak out if one of us takes it from him too, let me tell ya!

Qade seems to be getting more “big boy” by the day. Hopefully that will transfer over to potty training when we start it up again in a few weeks. *sigh* I’m not excited about it, but perhaps that’ll change. He still hasn’t shown the least interest in going in the potty again, but we’ll see. I’d SO like to have him day-time dry by camp, but that might be too optimistic. Anyway, he sill loves to “esercize” with us, and has his own exercise mat that he hops around on. He sings “Sunshine” to me if I ask him, and he’s getting more and more of the words. Also the other day when he was sitting at the table waiting for dinner I heard him hum through the entire alphabet song ON KEY! While playing with his “bike” in his grandparents back yard the other day he told me, “I need to move my vehicle.” Ha! Only he said “behicle.” He is doing much better these days at playing nicely with his brother. This “nice” play usually includes spreading toys with a million pieces all over the floor, but at least they’re getting along. Plus he’s also very good at cleaning up these messes, thankfully! Qade’s favorite imaginary game to play these days is to pretend he is a kitty or a dog. It’s usually a kitty. He’ll crawl around on all 4′s and talk in a high squeaky voice, which is annoying but it’s not the same as whining. He’s been doing this a lot more since we brought Liam home.

Well, I suppose I should stop. I can’t tell you every fun thing that they do just like I couldn’t tell you about every rough moment. Glad for you, but if you ever want a really good sample you’re welcome to come visit. Have a great Lime-green Thursday!

P.S. While writing this ode to my great boys, Qade crawled up on the table and got the salt and pepper shakers which he kindly shared with his little brother who sat on the floor happily shaking the salt out all over his pants and the floor. Happy times!

Today was the day I finally decided it was time to chop the mops. Part of this decision came when I happened upon Qade at breakfast happily wetting his fingers with his milk and running them through his hair. Ugh! Anyway, I’m still pretty intimidated by cutting hair, but I think with a little more practice I’ll be okay. These cuts were not stellar in ANY way, and I’m seeing “spots” that need some help still, and other spots that can’t be helped. Still it’s better than paying $7 a head to have someone else do it, I suppose. So here for your amusement is how it all played out in pictures.

Here is Qade’s before picture. They came out dark so it’s hard to see his hair anyway, but you can tell he’s pretty thrilled with his sucker. He got quite upset when it became covered in hair though. That was funny!

His mohawk after the clipping.

And my handsome Monkey!

Poor Myles. I had already started to wet his hair before I remembered to take a before pic.

Honestly it wasn’t THAT traumatic.

Awwww, handsome Monkey Too!

Well it’s done. I won’t have to worry about it again for another few months. Maybe by then it can be summer time and they can just be buzzed.

So tonight our darling, sweet son, Myles, has his first ever (I think) screaming, fit, meltdown. Guess why? Water. Yep, the lad wanted juice, of course, and instead got ice water, and so did Qade. Qade thought the ice water was pretty cool especially since he could see the ice floating in the cup. Myles on the other hand was NOT impressed and promptly began letting me know in very unmistakable tones. And if the screaming didn’t cut it, he also threw his cup a couple of times just for emphasis. Well, littlest buddy soon found himself where all good fit-throwers do, in bed. Yep, in his room with the light on, but no company. Poor guy. It was actually pretty hard on me, because he so seldom has issues like this… like I said, I think this was his first massive fit. So once he finally popped in the thumb and stopped screaming at the top of his lungs I went in to comfort him, and me. Well, he wanted down immediately and “talking” to me the whole time made his way straight back to the scene of the crime, and commenced a repeat performance. What in the world?!? So I put his cup “up high” and rocked him because the thumb popped right back in. THEN an amazing thing happened. Qade wandered over to us with his cup of water which Myles reached for. Hmmmm… thought I, then asked Qade if he would let Myles have a sip. I was totally expecting Myles would throw Qade’s cup the same way he threw his, but when Qade gave it to him, he started slurping water like it was the best thing he’d ever had! Talk about one astonished Mommy! I still can’t figure it out. They are both on their second cup of water, switched cups, and doing just fine. Go figure. I guess sometimes it just takes a little big brother know how.

Recently in our house these are some things ears have heard…
“Don’t worry, Mom” (didn’t think I would hear that one THIS early!) ~Qade
“Cackr” ~Myles
“Okay, Mommy!” ~Qade
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” ~Qade (this of course was in response to a time out)
“Qade NOT whining!” ~Qade (the answer to the question, *Gasp* “Are you whining?” ha)
“Myles whining.” ~Qade (he does feel compelled to let us know when his baby brother is whining)
“It’s okay, Myles” ~ Qade (comforting the littlest lad, so sweet)
“Ah-Duh!” ~Myles (this is said loudly and often whenever he feels he should be released from his high chair)
“Da-duh” ~Myles (his cutie-pie version of “thank you”)
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, I wanna show you somethin’” ~Qade (he was VERY excited about showing me something, but I don’t think he had the “something” in mind first, because we looked around for quite awhile before we found something)
“Mommy, “wotion” popped” ~Qade (sure enough I went to his room where some lotion had indeed “popped” all over the wall, dresser and floor)
“Hiiiiyyyyy” ~Myles (he says hi every time he hasn’t seen us for a little bit, after nap, in the morning, when Stu gets home from work)
“Ewww, Gross!” ~Qade (he was copying Mommy’s reaction to the nasty stuff being cleaned behind the bathroom faucet)

Our lads are quite vocal these days. Qade is so fun to talk with, and Myles is mimicking words like crazy!! I love hearing the voices of my little boys. Even when they are loud and screaming voices, I’m still thankful that they are here in my family now.

So today Stuart and Myles feel under the weather. At least Myles doesn’t seem to have the cough that Stu is dealing with, but he has had a temp, and been altogether not his chipper little self. I’m enjoying more snuggles consequently, though, so that is a silver lining for sure. I thought I’d do a post to update you on the boys a little bit. I haven’t really done as well posting Myles’ little accomplishments. He is walking, and running, everywhere now. He and Qade get the biggest kicks out of chasing each other around the house. It’s all fun and games till one of them crashes or just decides he doesn’t feel like doing it any longer… then Mommy usually has to intervene. Myles has 12 teeth! He still has his big wide smile and gaps between his teefers that make him look so cute!! I’m not looking forward to our next teething session because that was the WORST one with Qade, but perhaps Myles will surprise us. He certainly has before. As far as communication goes, Myles is verbal! I’ve been trying to teach him signs, because that helped A LOT with our first little lad, but Myles isn’t really going for it. However, he does talk… so I guess it all works out. He said “Ah-done” and “up” (only it’s more like “uh-PPPPPPPP” with a little spit involved, ha!) and he says “bye-bye.” He got a little helicopter from his Auntie, and when it’s done playing it will say “Bye-bye” and Myles will answer it. Very cute! The other morning as I was feeding him his oatmeal, Stu came out and kissed his head and said, “Good morning!” Myles replied with a “ga-monin” I was in shock! Myles also says “Ball” which is one of his very favorite play things. He also will say please when prompted, so he’s coming along in his language skills. Oh, I almost forgot, Myles likes to say “ta-da!” too. That is totally cute! He has a bit of an ornery streak in him when it comes to pestering his big brother. He certainly knows what buttons to push. I will occasionally hear a very irritate shriek followed by 4 running feet as Myles has “stolen” one of his brother’s precious cars and is running for his life with a rather hysterical Qade on his heels. We’re learning lessons about playing nicely, and sharing, and being kind, but well…. it’s slow going. And sometimes Mommy just has to laugh at the looks on BOTH of their faces. I know, bad me!
Qade is growing leaps and bounds in his own language skills. He is very fun to have conversations with now. Sometimes we have to remind him to use his “words” because he thinks that he can revert to “Myles-isms.” They do seem to communicate together, though I don’t think they have their own language. When he does talk like a “big-boy” he uses complete sentences and will actually talk to us about things. One thing he has recently picked up is “okay.” Sometimes when we ask him to do something he’ll say, “Okay!” He will also ask us if we are okay. That’s cute! We’ve been working on him (a lot) recently on his whining. He is making progress, but it has been hard on all of us. The “whining chair” was instituted and he really dislikes having to sit on it. Also he does much better when we remind him immediately not to whine. I get discouraged sometimes because there are days that feel like a battle from “son up to son down” ha ha ha! Still that’s where Stu helps me out so much. When I’m at the point where I’d like to just go stick my head in the snow, he will continue on and work consistently with the boys. Yay for teamwork!! I knew I picked a good Daddy for my little ones, but he still amazes me! We have learned recently that Qade’s attention span is about as long as a FOX news “anchor” so in order to pass along instructions we have to help him focus. He knows that he is supposed to look at our eyes when we are talking to him, and he’ll even repeat it “Wook at Mommy’s eyes” but even while he’s saying it, he’ll be looking out the window, at his little brother, up at the ceiling or more often at the floor. So now we cup our hands around his eyes (kinda like race horse blinders) and it has helped a heap at getting him to look at our eyes and focus on what we are saying to him. I know that he is making progress and I need to stop now and then to look back. It’s like I told a friend of mine in the same boat, we’re always moving on to the NEXT project parenting-wise so sometimes it’s hard to notice the victories that we do have along the way. I love my Monkey #1 and even though we plod through some difficult days he still is such a joy to us, and he’s a sweet little boy too.
Stu was noticing today just how athletic Qade has become in recent months. His balance and coordination have really improved. Sometimes I’m not sure that’s positive since it gives him even more climbing skills! For example, Start got me some magnets for Christmas that I put “up high” on the fridge because they’re chokable for Myles. Well, Qade had asked for them, and I told him they were Mommies. SO yesterday I was talking to Stuart in the office when I distinctly heard the bathroom door close. Hmmmm…. what could that Lad be up to? So when I came to check I found that he had fished his stool out of the bathroom to try and reach the magnets. Finding that inadequate, he had pushed over a box that has a little desk for him and Myles in it (yet to be assembled) and climbed up and did indeed have all 6 magnets in his paws. I was actually too proud of his ingenuity to scold him for taking the magnets down. I actually don’t mind if he has them when Myles is sleeping. Still, I’m gonna have to keep an eye on that dude as he is figure out things for himself.
So to end this incredibly long blog all about US I’ll just say that I hope you all have a fantastic New Years Eve and New Years Day! Watch football to your hearts desire, if you enjoy that (ugh) and eat lots of yummy things because the “resolutions” have to start the next day!!!!

As Qade would say.
We’ve had a BLAST this week!! Once we finally made it “over the interstate and through the traffic” to the fam’s houses we had a great time! Qade simply revels in the attention he gets from his grandparents and Oma. I love to watch him having fun with them. He cried when we left and wanted to “go back, gam-pa’s house!” That’s just because he didn’t know what was in store for him at OUR home! Yes, we are the odd ones who prefer to have our Christmas at home. We LOVE seeing family AROUND Christmas time, but prefer to have our actual Christmas at home with just us…. okay, we’re strange.
So as our “tradition” dictates we get to open something on Christmas Eve. Well, this year Stu said that we should open our stockings SO we did. Since we don’t ‘do’ Santa in our home it’s no biggie, and the boys loved getting their stocking goodies! They both got sunglasses, hoping that it will cut down on the “sun in ma eyes” screams that we get in the vehicle. Who knows though, Myles wouldn’t keep his on for longer than 10 seconds at a time and then scream for help to get them back on. Ha! They both thought they were pretty cool, and I’d have to agree!
Qade got “Cars” glasses, of course, and you can clearly see the McQueen and Mator. Very fun!! Myles glasses are uh… hot wheels I think. I’m not sure, but they don’t have any character on the front so who knows…. they did get schmoozed pretty fast, however.
I got a movie in MY stocking so after the lads went to bed (early, yay!) Stu and I got to snuggle on the couch and watch it. I don’t know who decided that if a baby goes to bed 1/2 hr early that it equals to waking up 3 hours early, but I believe it’s a BAD practice! No, it wasn’t so bad, but at around 4am I heard some squalls coming from the lad’s room and went to comfort Myles. By then he had roused his big bro, but fortunately Qade didn’t get up. I calmed Myles down, told Qade to go back to sleep, and then Myles joined us upstairs because I knew leaving them both in there awake would be a complete calamity!! Then we all got a couple hours more sleep and that made for a good Christmas morning.
We ate our TRADITIONAL Christmas morning breakfast of monkey bread!!!! It turned out so licky, sticky yummy this morning! LOVE IT!! And since the boys don’t have the actual idea of Christmas down yet, they didn’t mind waiting for gifts till after breakfast.
It was SO fun this year to watch Qade figure stuff out. He took an active role in passing out gifts with a hearty, “Mewwy Cwismas” and he took an even more eager interest in opening his own gifts. It has finally clicked to him that when ya tear the pretty paper off, there is something really fun on the inside! Myles is still much more interested in playing with the packaging and paper than the gifts but there were a few that sparked his interest.
We are determined to teach our children thankfulness, in as much as WE can. We want to teach by example, and also by helping them learn to give. This year at my family’s house we had Qade pass out the gifts we brought and tell each person Merry Christmas, by name. Then when visiting Stuart’s grandmother in an assisted living home, we encouraged Qade to shake hands with the residents and tell them Merry Christmas as well. He was so good about it! Sometimes going there makes the boys nervous, but this time they were both showing off for the amusement of the older folks. It made my heart glad to see the smiles that our boys were able to get from the people there. Next year, since the lads will both be old enough to participate, we will make “goodies” for them and have a great adventure “giving” day. Our little ones are very privileged to have so many caring people who want to give them good things. They have fantastic grandparents on both sides, and of course, WE even have a hard time restraining our ‘gifting’ when we see something we just KNOW they’d love! But more important than them getting all the things their little hearts could wish for, we want them to be thankful and ENJOY what they already have, and appreciate new things they get, rather than think that it’s just their due. We also want to help them learn the joy of giving. That is a treasure that can’t be taken away.
SO anyway, I hope that you have all had a very very fun and happy Christmas! Hope that “santa” whomever that is for you, was generous to you this year, and that you thought a lot about what it meant for “Baby Jesus” (as Qade calls Him) to be born for us. Merry Christmas!