Friday, July 27, 2007

this twin or that?

Its fun to see Kellan and Ethan's developing personalities... I thought it'd be fun to record what I see every so often and then be able to see if the observations continued to ring true.

Ethan: He is a little more social. Our little outgoing, gregarious, charmer. He doesn't want to miss out on anything, and is usually the one to be awake more often when we are out and about. His smile lights up his whole face and is most often accompanied by wiggling arms and legs. If I am nursing them both together, he does not like to be underneath Kellan at all. He'll squirm and kick, and karate chop Kellan in the head. He also gets really scared and stiff if I carry him down the stairs too quickly. I have to take them very slowly.

Kellan: He is more laid back, and has the sweetest little sly grin. It melts my heart. "Sweet" seems to describe him very well. He's more content to just take things in as they come, and will sleep through more outings. His mantra is more like "whatever". I feel he will be a stable, loyal, dependable guy.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

melt my heart

Caleb redeemed himself in the middle of a exhausting shopping experience last night.
I had to go pick up the twins' pictures at Sears last night, and I wanted to look at some clothes while I was there. I had brought Caleb and Ethan along, leaving the other two with Daddy, and thinking it wouldn't be too bad. I was wrong. Caleb had a horrible attitude, whining about everything, pitching a royal fit, throwing one of his shoes out of the cart (which I noticed 10 minutes after the fact, and luckily found it after another 5 minutes of retracing our steps), and falling and bonking his head big time right as it was our turn to pay at the check out counter. Anyway, I had dragged them both into the dressing room with me so that I could try a couple of things on... Caleb was entertaining himself in the mirror, when all of a sudden he turned around and looked at me, and said, in a singsong little voice, "Oh, Mommy, you look so beautiful! You are a princess!" and then he came and gave me a big hug. I guess he hasn't seen me in a skirt very often, eh? It was pretty endearing.

Monday, July 23, 2007

His Daddy's Son



Weston has succeeded (without much effort at all really) in making Caleb into a huge Star Wars fan, already. Caleb LOVES to watch "Daddy's movies", and especially, to play "Daddy's video game" (Lego Star Wars) (and he is alarming talented at the game already, which is a bit unnerving). He also loves his Star Wars toys, especially the Light Sabers. His favorite imaginary play involves passionately knocking down Lego "robots" with them, making quite a mess I might add. He even has a shirt that reads, "Future Jedi". After watching the sad part of Episode I where Annakin is saying goodbye to his mother, Caleb was commenting on how sad it was. I agreed, and asked him if he'd ever say goodbye to me like that and leave. He responded, basically, that of course he would if it meant he was going on a space ship to be a Jedi! I also was explaining to him the other day about what an astronaut was, and mentioned maybe he could be one when he grew up. He pretty much told me he was not interested, because he is going to be a Jedi.
Oh yeah, even Aidan is beginning to be a big fan. He loves to see "robots" also and can sing the Darth Vader music fairly well.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

To Infinity and Beyond


In the last couple weeks, Aidan has developed and affinity for the Toy Story movie. Its one of the few he LOVES to just sit on the couch and watch (and its a long one, yes!). He loves Buzz Lightyear and Woody, so we found these Jammies at the Disney Outlet. So cute!


This is also a scene I want to remember, as its part of our daily routine at this stage. When Aidan wakes up, usually around 7:00 or earlier, we quickly take him downstairs (so as to not wake Caleb), change his diaper, give him milk, and set him up in the pack-n-play to watch a video so we can get ready upstairs, take care of the other kiddos, or just sleep later! He does GREAT down there alone; like his own little 'me' time. We hear him chatting and playing, and interacting with Baby Einstein. He's usually good for at least an hour, sometimes more!

I wish I could...


Lately, Caleb has been cracking us up with the method he's locked onto using to express his "wants". We thought he, like most kids, would use the annoying, whiny, "I want that!" type of approach. But no, our smart little manipulator deduced that it would be much more advantageous to say rather nonchalantly, in a really sweet voice, "I wish I could have ___________", or "I sure wish I could go to _________". Recently, he caught sight of a car wash and was intrigued with how it worked/looked. He tried his sweet little wishful thinking technique, and hey, it sounded fun, so we drove through one on the way home. It was worth the few dollars just to watch Caleb and Aidan's faces as the machine came over and washed our car. Very fun. But don't worry, we don't cave every time, and our van was awfully dirty anyways. :)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

We love Chick-Fil-A!

Since our friends opened a Chick-Fil-A in Upland over a year ago, we've become big fans and frequent guests. They have a family night on Tuesday nights that is fun to go to, and their playplace is great. There is almost always a great family environment. Anyways, I wanted to share some photos.


* Tonight was "Super Hero" night. Caleb and Aidan got to wear their Superman jammies, and looked 'oh-so-cute'. Caleb was thrilled with the Batman "guest" they had there; he just wanted to stare at him continually. And it made his day when Batman painted a "snake" on his arm. (He did face painting after balloon animals, what a talented Batman, eh?)


* Last Friday was "Cow Appreciation Day", and since Weston was out of town, I arranged to meet Laura there. Caleb and Aidan dressed like cows, for which they received free meals. Shelby and Kristin did too. We received quite the welcome when we entered the store with our cow entourage.


* Aidan, at just 16 months, has mastered the Chick-Fil-A playplace. He is entirely self-sufficient in there now. He climbs up all by himself, slides down, and repeats, over and over. Mommy is confident of his abilities and can just let him play, with only a twinge of worry... Its amazing and he has a blast! (Caleb was like 2 and a half before he was sure enough of himself to do it).

Monday, July 16, 2007

Tender Heart




Aidan seems to have such a sweet tender heart towards the twins. He loves to (self-initiates even) give them kisses, and usually makes sure to kiss each of them. He often lays down near them, and so on. When we leave the house it takes me several trips to get them all loaded in the van, and today, as I was carrying him and leading Caleb out, Aidan asked, "babies?", like I just might be forgetting them. :) Yesterday, it was so very cute when I observed this: Kellan was in the bouncy seat fussing a bit, and the fussing drew Aidan's attention, so he went over and climbed in the other bouncy and "played" with him. Today he did the same for Ethan, in the Bumbo seat. You can also tell by the picture that he likes to bring them toys.


Oh yeah, in case you're thinking its all peaches... I will admit that although he has good intentions, he doesn't realize his own strength and can easily turn a nice pat into a whack, or worse. Poor Kellan has tended to get the brunt of it here and there...


And here's a picture of Caleb being adorable with Kellan, also self-initiated. He is almost always an ideal big brother to them... Regarding Aidan, that's a whole different story.

,

Sunday, July 15, 2007

out of sorts


Aidan has had a slight fever and has not just been himself this weekend. And to make matters worse, Weston has been in IL for 3 days. To make matters even worse, he is currently stuck in Chicago; having missed a connection due to a delayed flight. Can I survive one more night and morning? Right now it feels pretty insurmountable. You know how you countdown the hours... and then the countdown is negated... Kind of like running a marathon, and completing the last turn expecting to see the finish line, and instead you see a sign posted that reads 'sorry, the finish line has been moved. only 2 more miles to go. " Ugh... We'll be fine, I'm sure, but I needed to vent. Also, I might have to report to jury duty tomorrow, because they didn't accept my mailed in "request to be excused" (due to providing care for my 4 small children and being a nursing mom). How crazy is that? Weston thinks I should just cart them all down there with me to make a point, but I can't get past the thought of trying to manage to get all of us through the security check point.

Anyways, Aidan has been very needy... poor little guy. Not sure if its teeth or not. No runny nose or other symptoms. Thankfully, Brandy had taken Caleb for over 24 hours, leaving me a lot more free to give Aidan the extra attention. And the twins have been pretty good.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

They found each other!



Okay, here goes... I'm diving into the world of blogging... Let's see if I'll be able to figure this out, and more importantly, keep this up (ha).

I feel as if Ethan and Kellan have discovered each other this week! (They are 3 1/2 months old) I've caught them smiling at each other, and "carrying on a conversation" in baby babble. And they've been consistently sleeping in such a way that they have to be touching... Today, when I went to get them from their crib after their morning nap, they were all snuggled and Ethan was sucking on Kellan's arm. (which further adds to the dilemma of just when to seperate them for sleep....) It is SO stinkin' cute I can hardly handle it! Two babies at once is definitely a sweet deal!

And oh yeah, both of them roll over now... Took Kellan a couple days longer to figure it out, but he did. Kellan also really found his voice this week- he can go on and on, pretty animatedly!