Mattress Bowling

This one pretty much speaks for itself.  Let's just say I fear and look forward to these guys getting older, all at at the same time.  

He wrote his name!

So this happened.  May 8, 2014.  He got the A and the R on his own, then asked what came after R.  I said 'J'.  He asked how that one looks, so I described it.  And he gave me a quizzical look but I could tell he was trying to remember it.  So I wrote his name on a separate piece of paper.  From that, he finished his name here, all by himself.  No other questions, no suggestions, no tips, no tracing, no cues, no nothing from me.  I was amazed, jaw dropped, still am.   

The Zoo!

With all the working I've been doing recently, I decided it was time to take my boys on a momdate, to do something fun, away from home and our usual routine.  What better place than the zoo?!  

We hustled up to get there right at 10 when the zoo opened, to try and catch some of the animal feedings.  Elephants (a big hit with Gus) were at 10, so we started there. 

impossible to get 2 smiling faces looking at the camera at the same time

I promised Arjen we'd go see the zebras after the elephants.  Despite their lack of doing much of anything, he was not disappointed.   I even got him to take his hat off in hopes of seeing his whole face for a snapshot!

Then it was on to Gus's favorites, the Giraffes.  (I think we actually paused for the Camels in between, but managed to not take any pictures of them.  Oh well.)  The Giraffes were the next animals to be feed, so we got to see a little of that.

This guy was being fed whole bananas.  I never before had thought about animals eating the whole fruit, skin and all!

Gus decided he'd try to feed some leaves off the bush to the Giraffes

We did see many other animals that day, but at Arjen's request, we zoomed through the rest to get to the little train that is just outside the park.  We had a couple of tickets to the rides, so I told the boys we could ride the train (which Arjen kept asking about pretty much since after he had seen the animals he wanted - Zebras).  They've got free-roaming (within a large fenced area) Emus and Wallaroos that you get to see on the train ride.  This particular Emu decided to stand in front of the exit gait for the train, so we got to sit there fore about 10 extra minutes.  At lunch time, and nap time, and prime kids-can't-sit-any-longer-but-we're-not-allowed-to-get-off-the-train-time.

 We survived the wait with minimal problems, and I even managed to sneak in a little selfie.  :)

After the train ride, the boys used up their remaining tickets on the car ride.

Needless to say, staying at the zoo past normal nap time was sufficient to wipe both kids out for the ride home. 

Wednesday fun day!

A couple weeks ago, the boys and I drove up to Davis for the afternoon.  But before we left, we snuck in a playdate with our buddies Sophie and her mom Ranee. 

Considering every picture I took of these three has Gus with some variation of this "cheese" face,  I'll settle for at least 2 kids looking towards the camera, even if the smiles aren't fully there.  I promise, they were having fun!

Then of course, you can't go to Davis on a Wednesday in Spring/Summer/Fall, without staying for some Farmer's Market! The boys were quick to ask for a turn in the bounce houses, which I found myself way too easily agreeing to.  Such fun!

I had to include this pic…the PT in me is so impressed with his balance! (disclaimer: I have no recall of what happened in the seconds after this split second was caught on camera. I strongly suspect he was not in this position for long at all)

Wheee!

I'm pretty sure it'll be a lot of fun watching these two grow up together

I promise, I do make sure my kids are always dressed when we leave the house. 

See, he drinks too!  It's not just only always eating!

Easter came and went...

Perhaps I wasn't motivated to get an Easter post up here because I managed to let the whole morning/day pass without getting a picture of our little family all dressed up and looking nice.  Oh well.  I do have a few randoms from the day (and dying eggs the weekend before), that are at least worth documenting for memory's sake.  

Dying eggs.  Gus might have missed this shift due to napping.  He did get a chance to dye a few, but of course no one got any pics of the poor second kid.  Oops. 

This may or may not have come from Easter weekend, but Arjen has been really into helping prep meals lately, and his "thing" is usually making the pancakes.  For whatever reason this particular morning, he wanted to stir the eggs, so lucky Gus got in on the action to take over pancake-making.  As for the facial expression, all I can say is that's what happens these days when he's instructed to "say cheese!"

 The church where the boys' attend preschool hosts an easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter.  Gus was fearless, and somehow knew exactly what to do (this was his first ever!).  He managed to weasel his way up to the front of the line to get in to the yard, while Arjen hung back and kept it close…until he had one or two eggs in his basket, then he forgot about any fears he had about being more than a foot away from mom and dad.

Then there was the hunt at our house on Easter morning.  As it always seems to be at our house lately, clothing was optional.

Checking all their loot post-hunt

The small world story of the year though, comes courtesy of my Aunt Joanne and Uncle Bryan…again.   (My friend Kelley randomly was my aunt's PT, but that's another story).  Long story short, at the Church Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, we realized that this cute little girl Audrey, was the granddaughter of JoJo and Bryan's next door neighbors, who we've met a few times over the years, but not seen for about 3 years, or since I had just had Arjen, and Nancy (the neighbor) had just become Grandma to Audrey.  So of course, Audrey and her parents (who I then learned both also went to Cal Poly), came over to Joanne and Bryan's for their annual Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday.  As far as my kids are concerned, the timing of it all couldn't have been more perfect.  It didn't seem like Arjen had made any particular friends yet at preschool, but from that day on for the following week or two at least, Arjen and Audrey were BFFs at preschool.  Now Arjen talks about all sorts of different kids at school, and I feel better knowing that he really is playing and interacting with the other kids and making friends.
   

Again, clothing optional...

                         

Remember that one day ago?

As life has been busy, there aren't so many pictures to share lately. However, these kids keep surprising us and giving us a million reasons to smile every day. For starters, these kids say the darnedest things...

Arjenisms:

- "That one day ago" - his version of "remember that time we..." 

- "Babble babble" - okay, so that's not a direct quote, but he's into making silly, non-sensical words lately, and calling everyone goofy names like "poopy coconut" 

- "That sound like a plan?" or "no, that don't sound like a good plan"

- While reading letters in a book one night, he identified the letter 'p'. He then proceeded to ask "where's the elemenoh?"

Gusisms:

- Singing the alphabet. I've heard him go as high as Q all by his lonesome.  He also correctly identifies when there are two of something, 

- "I got chu!" as he grabs your face or neck or whatever body part he inadvertently-over-aggressively gets hold of
- "here you go Ar-ya" - as much as this kid may antagonize or provoke his brother, he still will get a cup for himself and for Arjen, or a toy, or a blanket, or whatever it is.
- "no go preschool" then when we get there, he's so quick to find his favorite toy that I have to chase him down for a hug goodbye

And Gus is finally showing interest in figuring out this whole bicycle thing:

Aaand...we're back.

For those of you who didn't hear, we've been trailer-less for a month or so now.  Our best, newest trailer, the "windsurfing trailer", disappeared from our street back in January. Welcome to the new 'hood. An unfortunate loss, but we were fortunate that it was relatively empty, and that we have good home owners insurance.  And then we were able to sell off our other two trailers that had been in storage.  So today, we took a family drive to the community of Galt, CA, to buy our replacement trailer. Now we are whole again. 

Don't worry, that massive thing is too much trailer, even for us. But it was fun watching the lady maneuver the various trailers around with her forklift. 

The boys were fairly entertained with the whole process, and the chance to "run around" as Arjen likes to call freedom-from-the-carseat. 

There it is!! (Okay, so it was actually the one that was parked behind his one, but you get the idea).  Trailer on!!