A trip to the dentist

This is Oliver's third visit to the Dentist, and he totally seemed like an old pro. He patiently sat on a chair in the corner of the room while I got my teeth cleaned, then he hopped up onto the big chair to get his teeth looked at. He allowed the lady to clean his teeth with the picks, floss, polish and do the water squirt/ suction thingy.

Lucius had his first Happy visit today as well. He wasn't all that excited about it all cause he had already waited in the lobby for quite sometime. Thankfully he loves getting his teeth brushed, so he got a few teeth polished before he started eating the polisher tool. After two hours, we all walked away with clean shiny teeth.

Lucius at 18 months old

Well, lets see. Lucius is growing and eating very well at his current 24 pounds and 4.5 ounces. He's about 32 inches tall compared to his brother who is just now 39 inches tall. He does use sign language for a majority of his communication with us. Signs that he uses: Please, Thank you, more, help, food, drink, ball, milk, and he'll blow kisses.
Words that he somewhat pronounces enough for his parents to barely comprehend: Thirsty, daddy, mama, thank you, please, cracker, cat, no, and a few song lyrics like "ashes, ashes".

If asked what sound a Lion makes he will respond with a very loud "ROAR!!". Most other animals apparently also say "roar", unless I ask what a bear says to which he'll "GRRRR!"

As far as other "tricks" he can point to the following body parts: ear, head, eyes, mouth and...

Where is your nose Lucius? Oh yeah, there it is.

Are you at all curious (I know I was) to see how this list compares with Oliver at 18 months?
Poor second born,  we haven't had quite as much time to spend with you one on one as we did with you're older brother. We do love you very much for who are and try very hard not to compare you to Oliver.

A day in the life

Saturday we woke up and it was fairly nice outside. I thought it'd be fun to go talk a walk around by a waterfall. The weather changed from nice to rainy. I got a few shots off before we headed for the car.

We drove off to Auntie Mick's house for lunch. We walked through a local, very small festival in their neighborhood. Then it was home for a much needed rest. When everyone and I do mean everyone (except Oliver who watched a movie while I napped beside him on the couch- I know, great parenting!) woke up from a nap we took yet another drive up to Uncle Scott's house.

It was so nice to spend time with family. I really wish Uncle Scott didn't hate the camera in his face, otherwise I'd be able to take a movie of him talking to Lucius. Part of their conversation when something like this:


L: "blah, woa, da, blah, blah, da"
S: "Oh, and then he bit you?"
L: "Dah"

Makes me laugh over hearing little things like that. What a great Uncle.

A Family Reunion Slideshow

A few of these are actually movies. I can't get them to upload through blogger, so you'll have to click on it to play the movies. It was quite a busy day with so much family to see and play with! We had so much fun.

Two Handsome Dudes

 A couple of pictures that my cousin Kylee took of my little misters at the reunion:

Thanks Kylee for the pictures and for watching them most of the day!

Family Reunion 2011: Morning Activities

We were able to get to the park where the Family Reunion was to take place by 8:30am.  We enjoyed greeting Aunts, Uncles, and several cousins. The boys played with bubbles and rocket balloon and some of the old playground equipment. There were plenty of watchful eyes and lots of things to do. Lucius out ate us all with five pancakes, that boy sure can eat.

I do have a funny video of Lucius pushing the merry-go-round, but it's in a different format than my dead camera used to take, so it's not working to upload it. Anyone have any thoughts?

Family Reunion 2011: Camping

We arrived down in NE early afternoon. Lucky for us we were able to set up our little 4 man tent in my cousins camp site. Of course, I don't think I remember camping anywhere where the mosquitoes were so plentiful. Ouch! After the tent was set up we walked down to the beach to go for a swim. Thankfully the mosquitoes didn't follow and we had a ton of fun. We had time to kill and wanted to spend time with family, so I called my Aunt Connie to head over for a visit. It was so nice to get some one on one time with her, except I think Oliver stole most of her attention asking for more toys and talking her head off.

We went out for dinner and then it was back to the campground where we thought Lucius would fall right to sleep. Oliver and I went for a walk together and spent some quite time listening to the lake wash up against the rocks of the jetty. Bonus, it was quiet with a gentle breeze and no mosquitoes. It was really fun to have him just sit on my lap close to the water listening together. Something that I love to do and calms me. I had to go back to the tent to grab the camera so I could take pictures because it was wonderful lighting and Oliver was so sweet I wanted to visually remember our night together.

 Oliver and I spent about an hour and twenty minutes out on the jetty and then we walked to the bathroom before heading back to the tent to get ready for bed. Lucius was actually still awake at that point- I think that was around 8:30pm. Oliver fell asleep first at 9:15pm and Lucius finally crashed at 10:15pm after three hours rolling around in the tent. WOW.
Needless to say Marmee and Daddy weren't all that happy to hear the boys wake up at 5:30am the next morning. I got up at that point and took Oliver with me back out to the lake, while Daddy cuddled with Lucius in an attempt to sneak in a little more rest. Not that I was excited to be up that early, but I'm glad I was because when we made it to the lake all the fish were jumping. A fisherman told me that the carp were spawning. Basically they were climbing up the rocks and jumping out of the water to mate- it was very cool and strangely interesting. Oliver and I sat and watched for almost an hour. It was a fun morning.

Family Road Trip: Family Reunion 2011

Friday morning we were off on a road trip to see Marmee's Mother's side of the extended family for a reunion that's been almost a year in the making. The boys woke up as usual to get us out the door and on the road by 7 am. Breakfast was served in the car, on the go, which was followed shortly with second breakfast and then again with more snacks to while away the time.

We stopped briefly at a rest stop along the highway to stretch our legs and might have stayed longer to play on the playground except the mosquitoes were out in full force. So we piled back into the car, against our three year old's will (as the face will surely tell you).

To Be Continued...

When did he get so big?

When did my little man turn into this? Wow, look how much he's grown.

 

The photo on the left was taken when he was about 11 months old at the children's Museum.

The one on the right was taken just last month when we went back with Auntie Em.

Speaking of growing up- Happy Birthday Daddy/ Jerimy- we love you!!

Oliver's "new" bike

A co-worker gave me a hand-me down 16inch two wheeler for Oliver. We spent a couple of dollars putting training wheels on the bike. It was such a wonderful gift, as Oliver was getting a little too big for his tricycle. The evening we got tires pumped up and everything ready to go, I took Oliver around the block. For I while I thought I'd be pushing him the whole way, but eventually he saw another biker on the road peddling and he started to understand a bit more. He was actually starting to get going pretty good.

Lucius is also ready to be riding, or at least he is in love with Oliver's helmet (hand-me down from a different, yet another co-worker). I suppose it's about time we get one for him as well so they stop fighting over it.

Lucius has been push peddling this racer car that Grandpa bought for the boys a while ago. It's getting well loved. But not quite fast enough to keep up with big brother. If we're going for a long ride little brother has to ride in the stroller.

Quotable: Pooping

Oliver usually has a running commentary or narrative telling us about everything he does. Maybe it's because when he was younger I talked about what was happening. I had heard that if you want your children to talk and learn words just start talking out loud. It was really weird to be narrating my actions out loud to a quiet audience but I suppose that's why he does it now. It's hard not to laugh about some of the commentaries he has, like this one the other night in the bathroom:

"Pooping is weird. Some times it's hard. Some people poop, some people don't poop and that's okay. But if they want to that's fine. It doesn't want to come out. Pooping is weird."

*My apologies to anyone who could have lived their whole lives not hearing such things.

Friday fun

 Friday was supposed to be our ECFE year end picnic at a local park, but since it rained through the night the park was too wet to play at. So we met at school to see friends for one last time and to play at their gym. Oliver has enjoyed the small ball pit they have there. Lucius enjoys climbing over all kinds of different objects in their child freely play area. The boys will miss their friends and Oliver will miss his favorite teacher- they really bonded over the last couple of months.

 Then it was off to Auntie Em's house for some extra play time in the sandbox and with all their toys. Can you tell that Brianna loves her cousin? Probably not from this photo but she just loves watching him whenever we get together.