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!

irrational fear

Caleb has developed a strange and irrational fear; kangaroos. Who knows where this came from, and who knows exactly what it's all about. I can't quite get a grasp on it and feel like I'm missing out on something vital that's preventing me from fully understanding. He just gets scared, and when you ask him what he's scared of, he says "kangaroos". Something about when he lies down, and them being in the sky, and them being scared... crazy kid. It's sure hard to be a parent though when you can't fix everything and calm every fear...

A few cute things I want to remember...

some cute things...
I'm sure not updating this as much as I'd hoped to, but I guess anything is better than nothing! :)
Aidan has been learning words and signs now, but he kept refusing to do "please" until the other day... I was eating Doritos, he had some goldfish, but I guess that wasn't good enough for him. He toddled over to me (yes he's walking now, very well!) and I said, "no Aidan, these are mommy's, you have your own snack". He proceeded to give me a puppy dog face and clear as a bell signed, "please". That little stinker! He was saving that for just the right moment to manipulate me! (and yes, it worked). :)
Caleb has a couple of cute verbal generalizations that are currently making me giggle... he calls all types of cones (like orange road cones) "pine cones", and all belts are "seat belts". He cracked me up the other day when he was sitting at the table, waiting for food, and I had Aidan's food ready, so I prayed with just Aidan so I could get him started. Caleb spoke up, "Mommy, I'm here too...".
Today Caleb met a new friend in Sunday School named Ethan, which confused him a bit when he had to conceptualize that that wasn't our Ethan (in mommy's tummy), but a different Ethan.

This picture is from yesterday, when we took the boys (okay, mainly Caleb) ice skating. Caleb got a hockey set with some of his Christmas money and both boys have been playing a lot. So, we thought it'd be fun to go to the rink. Caleb did have a blast. Daddy got a little tired of holding him up around and around the rink. Very pregnany Mommy got a lot tired chasing newly running Aidan around the place. But they sure looked cute in their hockey jerseys...

Potty Training

Well, we finally took the leap and have started to potty train Caleb. We sent Aidan to grandma's (which was a HUGE help) and spent last Friday and Saturday being pretty intensive with the training. Unfortunately, Caleb caught a touch of his brother's cold and was not very attracted to liquids, despite all the salty food we gave him! He drank way less than normal, and only peed 4 times all day. 3 accidents and 1 success. It was kinda frustrating since we were taking him every 15 minutes or so all day. But he was a trooper, and had a good attitude regardless, other than a couple "I don't wanna use the potty" glitches. Saturday was a little better, only one accident, but still only a couple successes because he just didn't go! The nice thing though, we caught #2 in time and he did that on the potty that day! Hooray!
I stayed home from church Sunday to keep with it, plus the boys were too mucusy to send to the nursery anyway... And lo and behold, it seemed to click. We have not had an accident since then (as of now; Tue. night). The only thing is he hasn't told me yet when he needs to go, I just take him every hour or hour and a half and he makes himself go. (the couple of times he has told me he needs to go have been stalling tactics, get out of bed tactics, or visit a new public bathroom tactic, but basically false alarms). Although he did wake up crying at 12:45 AM last night, screaming, "I have to go potty!" And he did, quite a lot. Hmm... I am still putting him in Pull-ups for trips out in public, I'm just not ready for the hassle. About half the time he's stayed dry and clean in those though... And we use those for naps and at night.... Its a learning curve I guess. We'll see how the next few weeks go. I just refuse to have 4 kids in diapers! and I'm already thinking of the money we've saved just over the last 4 days! :)
We're so proud of our big boy! (and those little underwear look SO cute! We haven't graduated to the boxer briefs yet, but even so, very darling...)

Aidan loves Malachi

Aidan is infatuated with our cat, our evil cat, Malachi. So far, Malachi seems a little intrigued with the attention, and has behaved himself or, most often, just run away. Yesterday though, I caught the cutest scene. Aidan was playing down the hall, and I noticed it had gotten awfully quiet. I peeked down there to see the hallway closet door open (where the kitty litter/food is), and I could tell Aidan was sitting behind it. I also saw Malachi right there, and him actually tolerating little hand reaching out and petting (okay, kinda harshly petting) him. As I poked my head around the door, there was Aidan, with the dry cat food dish in his lap, cat food all over. He'd figured out how to get the kitty to accept him; with food! It was quiet a cute scene, even though I think Aidan had probably chomped a few pieces also...

Halloween 2006

Caleb LOVED Halloween this year! It made the night SO fun! When I brought the costume downstairs around 4:00pm, he was SO excited he HAD to put it on right then. (and a week ago I was afraid he'd be scared to wear it).
Once he had it on, he wanted to watch "Peter Pan". And as soon as Daddy got home, he was ready to go "trick or treating". I'd been explaining the concept to him for the past few days, but wasn't sure if he got it. Oh yeah, he understood. :) We went to a few houses (him practically running with glee between houses) and then to the church carnival. He LOVED playing the games there, and putting candy in his pumpkin, etch. He loved bouncing in the bounce house also. His enthusiasm was so precious. He and Aidan looked SO cute. Of course they were oohed and ahhed over by many adoring fans (esp. grandma) :) . It was a very fun night. One of those times when I was in tears with so much joy thinking about how these are the moments I have always looked forward to, and God has blessed me so incredibly.
My favorite part came when we got home, and I was being silly, talking to him with a bad english accent as if he were Peter Pan, and he answered, also in an attempted bad english accent, "thank you, Wendy". Playing along and improvising totally on his own! Very cute!

twins?

I haven't got around to blogging much about the twins yet, but had to share this. We picked up our new van today, an amazing blessing. I had been talking it up with Caleb, and he was very excited to ride in it. Once we were on the road, he said in an excited voice, "Yay, let's go see the twins!". It took me a second to figure out that when I had been talking about the van with him I told him it was "for the twins", and his mind didn't quite grasp that. How absolutely sweet and adorable though, that he was so excited thinking he was going to get to meet them today!

Banana Moon

Just a quick cute moment from tonight... I took Caleb grocery shopping with me, and in the car on the way there he started talking about a banana. Finally I realized he was saying, "look, a banana moon", because it was a crescent moon. How cute is that?

Camping

We were so excited to take the boys camping for the first time at the end of August. El Capitan State Beach Campground is a wonderful facility located very close to the shore. Our new 3-room tent worked wonderfully, with the boys sleeping better than we even expected. Caleb loved his inflatable spaceship sleeping bag/bed, and Aidan slept in the pack-n-play. We stayed 3 nights. Caleb loved being outdoors, favorite memories include; climbing a tree with daddy, playing with this cool stick he found, having a tree frog jump on his arm, feeding the blue jays, standing on the rocks as the waves splashed in, eating s'mores, playing with the flashlights, sitting in his own little fold-up chair, hearing the train pass by on the nearby tracks, gazing at the stars while lying on a blanket, and hiking around proudly in his new "Diego" boots. Mommy loved waking up in the tent, with each child joining us to cuddle on our air mattress as they awoke. We also got to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo one afternoon, with the highlight of feeding the giraffes.

Go Diego Go

Caleb's become a huge fan of the cartoon "Go Diego Go". Diego is the boy cousin of "Dora the Explorer". He had watched Dora with his friend Hailey, and really liked it. I thought it was well done (lots of interactive learning), but wasn't sure about him liking a girlish cartoon. Lucky for us, they started this spin-off recently, and he loves it! Diego is an Animal Rescuer. They've just started really marketing him too. I didn't think I'd ever buy "character" shoes/clothing. But, I caved. He loves his "Diego Shoes" so much, and luckily, they're done pretty well as cute hiking boots. Grandma Joy bought him a cute Diego shirt. He got to wear both to Hailey's Dora Party. I love seeing his enthusiasm!