More Bow-ties

The boys were busy "wrapping" presents for each other this morning. They were taking toys and wrapping them in blankets and riding in their imaginary sleigh down the hall. Thomas wrapped up the hand mirror on my dresser and gave to me. After the normal exclamations upon opening it, he asked me where I thought he bought it. I didn't know, so asked him. He said he bought it on-line. : )

Thomas took left over material from a skirt I made and made two bow-ties from it. He just folded up some larger pieces into rectangles and then took some stringy pieces and tied it around the rectangle to draw the center together. The strings were long enough to tie around his neck....his creations entirely.

Over-all Dudes

Thomas and his grandpa looking pretty spiffy!

Cute kids!

Thomas wants a bowtie so he took a clip-on and tied it around his neck. Look closely at Nathan. His teddy has a tie on. He has wrapped his belt around one belt loop so that he can hang his drill and phone from the new loop his belt makes. He also has a pencil behind his ear. He has what he calls his knife hooked on the belt too although I can't see it in this picture. It's a hook from his tonka crane and not sharp but he has deemed it his knife.

The joy of outdoor iceskating

Our neighbor's field floods and freezes making for a great little ice skating rink. We went Friday and Saturday last week to get our exercise! I love having ice skating partners! Check out Nathan's face in the second to last picture and look at Thomas' tongue in the last picture.

Boys in their Plaids

Both Grandpas wear plaid flannel shirts....so their grandsons want to too! Nathan took the last picture of his little bears. He gets attached from time to time to a stuff animal (or two) and currently it is these two beany bears.

Children's Museum in N. Easton

A nice Children's museum to spend not such a nice November day.

The boys have started their ice skating lessons again this year. They are so much faster this year! Just stronger, more agile and not afraid to fall! It looked like they were chasing each other around on the ice during freeskate at the end of the lesson. Just another time, I think to myself how lucky they are to have each other as a friend! Nathan seems to be the faster of the two right now. They are learning the snowplow stop amongst other things.

With today as a holiday, we went over to the school to do some bike riding. Nathan asked me to take his lone training wheel off. Without a wrench, I couldn't so I just kicked it way up and off he went. Wow, even in the time we were there, he just picked up things he'll know for life! Like needing me to push him to get started but before long, I wasn't close enough, so he got himself going on his own. He is good at pumping standing up which takes even more balance. It's fun to go to the school where they'll be going next fall. I think it won't seem so scary when the time comes because we've been there so often....or not! They have 3 playgrounds that we circulated between. After 1.5 hours, I was ready to go...it was like pulling teeth trying to get out of there. It's great exercise and lots of fresh air.

Thomas can whistle! So far, just a single note but he practices regularly so soon Beethoven's Fifth. He also has learned the art of forced burping which he does on a far to regular basis. It's not loud and obnoxious (yet!), just mildly disgusting.

October Happenings

Just a few pictures from October. Yes, a birthday. Then, pictures from a bike ride on the Cape Cod canal bikepath. Thomas goes just as fast as he can on his bike. His face, tilted forward as if to propel himself even faster, licking his lips and while his wheels are humming. Nathan, goes slow enough to check out the scenery. I kept telling him to hurry up, good job!(if he actually started to catch up) and about three-quarters of the way through, I decided to not say another word and just let him enjoy his bike ride! Isabelle's mom kept up with the speedies so I didn't have to worry about Thomas getting to far ahead. Just another picture of their differences. About biking......Nathan is now down to one training wheel!!

Finally, pictures of Halloween. The storyhour closest to Halloween, the children dress up and go over to the Hudson town hall for trick or treat walk. The last picture is of the boys with their librarians. I left the decision up to the boys as to what they would wear. For the longest time they wanted to be "twin" dinosaurs. Someone gave us two green T-rex costumes earlier this year that come out on a regular basis. But when it came right down to it, Nathan chose the police and Thomas chose to be the sheriff. Nathan carried a whistle around his neck that he blew for the traffic as we crossed the streets to get to the Town hall--very police like.

Thomas says "who matters". This is his version of who cares and doesn't matter.

Thomas loves to dress up in his Sunday clothes. Last week when the workers left on Wednesday to go to a gospel meeting in Boston, they were all dressed up. We on the other hand were not having meeting that night. Thomas went upstairs and quietly got his meeting clothes on. He was disappointed to hear we weren't going out! Then, the next day, our oldest hen died (not sure why as she was only 2.5 years) so Thomas immediately declared he was going to go get dressed up so that he could have a funeral for her. I persuaded him to put the funeral off until Sunday when we were already dressed up. So, yes, we had a funeral yesterday for red hen led by two sweet little boys.

Cutisms

Nathan was just slicing bar cheese (for his own enjoyment) and I heard him say "I'm just going to get this done and over with".

At story hour this morning, I peaked my head around the corner to watch them. They were all chanting the five little monkeys rhyme. They just finished with 5 and Debbie the librarian asked what comes next. It was only Nathan out of a whole roomful of 3 and 4 year olds who piped up with both the hand sign and the word four!

A couple of days ago, we were reading a counting book. At the end of the book, the open pages had 1 through 10 printed across them. So I had the boys count from 1 to 10 and point to the numbers. Then I had them count from 10 to 1. Thomas went first and repeatedly couldn't tell which number came next even though the printed digit was before his eyes. I didn't realize this would be so challenging as I thought they were recognizing the digits...only to find out it was more of a memory chant. Interestingly, it was Nathan who kept piping up with the right digit for Thomas. When Nathan did the counting down himself, he got all the digits except number 7 (I think it was).

Little Cousin

Thomas and Nathan's little cousin came for a few days earlier in October. Very interesting to see their reactions to this little body who played with their toys and interfered with their mother. Nathan was quite patient and interested in Benjamin. Nathan did his part to make Benjamin smile, like tickling his tummy or making silly noises. Thomas on the other hand was rather inpatient and not to friendly at times! He definitely saw Benjamin as a threat. I thought it was a good for them! We had several conversations about who was older and who was bigger. I don't mean I instigated these discussions but the boys did...they are very into (especially Nathan) who is bigger than who.

See Thomas Go!

Bike Riding

We have news! Nathan is riding his bike with one training wheel and Thomas had me take his training wheels off (one off on Wed. and the other off Thurs) this week! Thomas is now tall enough to touch his feet to the ground when he loses his balance. Nathan is still about 2 inches too short so that when he goes to put his foot down, the entire bike tips and then gravity takes over. Pretty exciting to see Thomas biking! This is no easy feat on our driveway....gravel and slopes make the going tough.

Playing with Joey

The first picture is of the V8 dudes! The boys are becoming nice friends with Joey who is one year older. They see Joey every Sunday morning.

I asked the boys what they were going to get for my birthday. Nathan told me he is getting me flowers. I asked where he was going to get them....he told me the neighbors.

Thomas has taken a real interest in the chickens the last few days. He calls himself Farmer Tom. He feeds them, checks their water, looks for eggs but he lets me do the cleaning.

We were just fooling around and Nathan asked me if I wanted a sandwich-knuckle.

Apple Picking in September

We found a beautiful day in September to pick apples!

The other day, we were playing hide and seek in the house. Thomas was the hider and Nathan and I were the seekers. We found Thomas, quiet as a mouse, sitting on the step stool in the kitchen with a hand towel wrapped around his head. Was he hiding? He thought so!

We had squash last night and Thomas informed me that he didn't like it. When I asked him what he didn't like about it, he told me he didn't like the flavor. I did not supply that word for him! All on his own.

We had some company around our table the other day. We were getting Nathan to name everybody. He was sitting on our minister's lap. His name is Dan. Dan, leaned forward and asked who he was....Nathan said "plain ole Dan". We all laughed and Nathan looked like he didn't know whether to be embarrassed or to laugh along with us.

Just a cool picture

It sort of looks like the boys are climbing the walls!

Guess who turned up?

Thomas' teddy has been missing since spring. We looked high and low but never thought to check the pitches on the lazy-susan in our kitchen! What's worse, the pitcher had its' cover on. Anyways, it was a very happy reunion. Nathan wanted his picture taken with his teddy also, though yellow teddy was not missing.

Thomas' Trip to Rochester

Love these pictures! Given to us by Thomas' grandpa--thank you! Glad to see some of his doings. He went to the zoo in Rochester with his grandparents the day before coming home...I believe most of these are from Thursday. Seeing these pictures is making Nathan want to go visit!