A Teacher in Training (2-21-11)

Cash has always liked to explain how his toys work. Now with baby Ryan around he has more of an audience. Today we brought up the "Open when baby turns one" tub that had a bunch of Cash's old toys.

The Drop and Roll Dinosaur was truly a favorite for Cash on his first Christmas! Now we had resurrected him and Cash wasn't exactly sure he wanted baby to be right next to him. I asked if he could explain how to play with the toy hoping that would help facilitate the sharing process.

Well, maybe not such a helpful idea?

Baby Ryan says his first animal sound & surprising sleeping positions (2-20-11)

You always have to wonder when someone starts out with "You gotta see this" and in our house we say that a lot. This time it was Ryan who said it and I followed him upstairs to see what was going on in Cash's room. Once in a while we let Cash stay up and read books in his bed for a while, and he takes it upon himself to do so even when we don't tell him he can so I expected to find him in his bed covered in books. Not exactly.......

Yes, that is Cash's head at the top right of your screen with his Cars bed flipped over on top of him.

Earlier today Baby Ryan surprised me by saying "Moo" and so I grabbed the camera and tried to get it on tape. Notice how he completely ignores me and goes about his business at first, hmmmm reminds me of someone else I know. 

The sensory table experience or "Stop eating the rice baby Ryan!" (2-19-11)

It took about 2+ months after we received the sensory table from grandma and my brother so easily built a table for it that I finally tried putting something other than toys in it. Water or rice? That was the question. Rice can be vacuumed, and water might cause enough damage to need a deductible of some sort so rice it is! Baby Ryan was getting observed and I wanted Cash to be occupied so I started with a small amount of rice to get our feet wet so to speak. Little did I know baby Ryan would stop at nothing, hurtling his chubby little legs over mountains of pillows, crawling through and quickly thereafter crying out in frustration as he became stuck in between the legs of a child rocking chair, and even pushing his brother a good foot and a half taller out of the way to get to that table. Once he "made it" to his destination things always started the same. First he may wrinkle his nose and make some snorting sounds, a sign he is being silly or gotten away with something. Then, he may pick up a tool and play around in the rice a while. But, inevitably he always goes in for the kill, he is quick and he is precise, and in a matter of seconds his mouth is full of dry rice. You'd think one bite and he'd be done with it, but alas we are on day 4 of rice in the sensory table and I just may be asking Ryan about that deductible tonight.

Step 1 - Step 2 (2-18-11)

Step 1: Make sure brother is not around his Diego toy and attempt to press the blue button.

Step 2: Delight in my abilities to problem solve and repeat task to check for repeated results while simultaneously hoping brother does not see what I am playing with!


Meanwhile.....

Step 1: Play tug-o-war with dad and make a silly face to help aid in the winning of this game!

Step 2: Try to remember that dad is a lot stronger than me and playing tug-o-war can be dangerous for me.

I see a pattern! or the Gene Simmons Affliction (2-16-11)

So there are some nights where I seriously chase the boys around and say "Come on, just smile once for the blog!" It probably sounds easy 365 days of pics, but I am definitely challenged some nights. Tonight I sensed a theme in our pics, "Open mouth syndrome" which for baby Ryan is a teething/clogged sinuses issue and for Cash is a stinker/I'm not going to smile issue. :)

 The more I open my mouth, the better I play the guitar!

The more I open my mouth, the higher I can jump!

Mom's Birthday Presents (2-15-11)

On my birthday I was not excited to add another year, I have been saying 34 for so long I almost believe it. But as I go to bed I am overjoyed at the evening's events. Cashy made me an incredible mug, he painted all by himself. Baby finally used his first sign language sign AND we got it on video.

You demonstrate and show your children how to do things and you wonder if they "get it" or when they may show you what you want to see and then you hold a piece of asparagus in front of them and presto, you see the results. Now using sign language isn't the be all, end all, but I am all about solutions before problems and I know that using signs kept Cash from getting frustrated before he started talking, so you go baby Ryan,


Cash would not let me take a picture of him and the mug he made but he did have a pretty funny story to tell about his stuffed animal.

Had a fantastic birthday with my boys!

Valentine Day Prep (2-13-11)

It was hard to know if I should just fill out Cash's Valentine Cards or try to get him to do it. I decided to test the waters and have him try a few, he went ahead and filled out 20 of them! He was pretty funny about it too because by the end he was putting a C in one corner an A in the other and making a game out of writing his name. He also tried to hold back several of his 3-D Sports Valentine cards for himself.

I was pretty proud that he stuck it out until all the cards were done.