Christmas 2007 in Rochester at the Riders

Pictures at Thomas and Nathan's grandparent's house. The third little boy is their cousin Noah who you can tell they are very impressed with.

A couple of cute tidbits on Nathan:
Several weeks ago now, he started to cover his ears if anyone did anything really loud exclaiming all the while "my ears! my ears!" At first I was a little concerned as I thought it really was bothering his ears then I realized it was his little joke because he has no problem being the loudest of all. Of course, we all do it when he is being noisy. From there it went to other aspects like my eyes! my eyes! The boys senses of humor are starting to bloom.

Nathan is incredibly helpful. When I'm sewing, he gets down under the machine and stands on the pedal to get it moving. He gets right off when I tell him enough. So it really is helpful. The other day we emptied the basket of winter gear to find some mittens. I came back into the room to find Nathan busily putting everything back into the basket without being told. Actually as I type this I can hear him emptying the dishwasher. He has everything almost out with all the like things stacked together. I love it! The help around here, though short, is incredibly cute!

A quick video of Thomas helping John launch his rocket.

A few cute sayings:

I usually ask the boys if they slept well when they get up in the morning and now Thomas is beating me to it by announcing "I slept well". He does this pretty near every morning now.

I also tell the boys when they get hurt, you're okay! In other words stop crying, you are going to live. Last week, Thomas was taking me to show me something and he tripped. He came up crying and looked at me. He said before I could "I'm okay!" then he got up blinking away his tears. Generally speaking, they are pretty sturdy little boys.

Thomas' new expression is "sure!". Instead of yup or yes, he agrees to things with a cute little "sure". Little copy cats. I know I say sure. I also say "nice!" when they get something to work which I just noticed Thomas saying last night when he was helping me with dinner.

Nathan is not as far along in his speech or maybe his speech is a little slurred so I have problems understanding him. He repeats what has been said like I'll say the dog is outside and he'll look at me and say the dog is outside, right mommy?

Another new thing this fall and winter is that with colds I get Mommy, my nose is running! I'm trying to at least get them to get a tissue but so far all I get is a runny little nose under my elbow! It definitely annoys them to have runny noses.

We've started another session of ice skating now through March. They definitely seem to enjoy it although the coach they've had from the start is moving on to nursing school so we hope the new coach will be as good.

Today's fun!

Nathan-on-the-trumpet - Get Video Code

Jenny-sledding - Get Video Code

Though I try to only post interesting details about my sons, I couldn't resist uploading the sledding video. No, I don't usually sled in a skirt....I was ready to go shopping with the girls.

New-Bunk-Beds -

The boys received a wooden train each from their great Grandma in Colorado--here is Nathan playing with his. The next picture is Thomas with his grandpa sledding in a new tube today. The next three pictures are Thomas drawing. This creation was all his own. He first drew a house-like structure with a pointy roof and told us it was Mommy's house. Then he added a front door, chimney and a tree in the yard---all in the right spots. I was very impressed that a child so young could make a drawing that actually resembled what he was telling us. I wish you could see better the drawing. The last picture shows the boys on the top of their new bunkbeds. The same day that it was assembled, they figured out how to climb up at least two other ways beside the ladder to the top bunk. I'm not sure if I have monkeys or kids! The shirt up was their idea.

A cute story from a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to post...
the boys were on the counter playing with a couple of little curious George stamps. Nathan dropped the smallest of the stamps and I couldn't find it on the floor. He asked to get down and immediately got a flashlight, laid down on his belly on the kitchen floor and peered around the edge of the floor with his flashlight. He did find it, it had bounced into a little crevice between two of the base cabinets. I was so impressed he thought to get a light and then found it.

Thomas is helping fill up the wood bag. Second picture is Thomas next to the tower his Dad built.

Thomas has decided that his Dad is the best. This has been going on for a few weeks now. I think it started on Saturdays working on the 4-wheeler. He spent the day following his Dad around and helping wherever he could. Since then, it's been very difficult in the mornings for Matt to break away to get to work. As soon as Thomas wakes up, he makes a bee-line downstairs to snuggle (one of Thomas' favorite words). When I come down, I get a smile, but he won't get down to give me a hug. Which I am totally fine with for 2 reasons.....he has me all day long and I remember feeling the same with my Dad. At night, he keeps his Dad engaged, whether it's reading or playing with the train. Nathan still sticks by my side, helping in the kitchen or just snuggling with me. It's great that we have 2 adorable boys,nobody is lonely!

Nathan is starting to say Thomas and Dabus is going by the wayside. So sad!

Pictures from the train museum in Medina, NY at Thanksgiving time. That's little Nathan, the conductor.

A few tidbits on the boys.

They are getting their colors now. They are right more times than they are wrong. Nathan is a little quicker to call out the right color. They find it easier to hand me the red bucket then to tell me that this bucket is red. One thing that may have helped is that we bought a huge pack of markers that they often use.

We were driving out of the driveway and I didn't put on my seatbelt because I was going to get out at the mailbox. Nathan started to holler from the back "seat belt, seat belt". Cool that he noticed and funny that he spoke up to remind me.

When they come in with their boots on, I remind them (sometimes repeatedly) to stand on the mat to take them off. So, I was hauling wood in and walked over to the fireplace with my boots on and I heard "mat, mat!!" They are watching!

Thomas was eating toast the other morning and he told me it was "hard as a rock".

Thomas watches where we drive. He correctly pointed out to me Derby's where we get our apples and cider. He pointed out our post office where I had mentioned earlier that we needed to stop at. He's 2 and a half and he knows Berlin better than I think I knew Albany at 10! He is on the ball.