The Proper Placement of Stickers

 In case you didn't know, the proper use of stickers is to place as many as you can on your forehead...

...or on your eyes.  Putting them on paper is way too tame for these boys.  

¡Fútbol!

The boys played in a local Pre-Pee-Wee soccer league this summer. There were no practices, no keeping of the score, but lots of fun.  The only rules were: 1) Use Your Feet! 2) No Hands! and 3) No Pushing!

At first we only signed Zach up, but during the first game Caleb wanted to be out there so bad we signed him up too.

Parents were allowed on the field, which meant that both boys had to have me out there with them the whole time.

The last session ended with an awards ceremony.  Both boys got Gold Medals!

Trip to the Zoo

We bought a family pass to the zoo awhile ago and we have really enjoyed the purchase. With the animal obsession within our house is it any surprise that the zoo is a big hit? 

Caleb and me, checking out the red panda pelt. Gotta love that Caleb's head is already too big for that hat. Big heads run in the family.

The boys love this tube through part of the aquarium.

 

 Posing in front of the elephants but pretty much blocking them completely...

In the monkey area. Caleb's face here is classic. Zach loved sticking his head in the hole but we never managed to get him to look at the camera.

At the chimpanzee viewing area. I don't think my kids were capable regular smiles for the camera this zoo trip.

Lovely shot of one of a chimpanzee, courtesy of Derrick.

In front of the giraffes. Don't let his expression fool you, Caleb had a great time.

As a special treat we took the boys on the carousel ride. Both boys (Zach in particular) beg to ride every time and both get terrified when it comes down to actually riding it. Caleb looked so scared the ride attendant made Derrick get off his seal to stand next to Caleb.

Here's evidence of the head lock Zach had me in before the ride started. He calmed down after it got going.

Random story - Zachary has a backpack with a pull up handle. Lately he's been filling it up with animals and dragging it around the house. At first he called it his suitcase but then changed it to his "zoo" case. Pretty clever. I was impressed.

2 Years Old

Since my blogging enthusiasm has died somewhat, Caleb misses out on having his babyhood being as well-documented as Zach's. Here's to good intentions for blogging more in the future. Now back to business...

Caleb turned 2! That's really crazy to me. He just seems like he's grown up so much lately. We just had a family party of opening presents and eating cake and ice cream so this post will mostly be a brag about Caleb kind of one.

Caleb is a character. He's very enthusiastic/dramatic and tends to be extremely happy and energetic until he thinks the world is about to end.  One of his great hard earned accomplishments of the last few months is that it is now possible to see that he has hair. Proof is below. Our little blonde 2 year old is yet to have a haircut.

 

Caleb has followed in Zach's footsteps and has carried on the animal obsession. While riding in the car both boys like to try to hold as many big hard animals on their laps as they can. Too bad willingly sharing animals is a yet to be acquired skill. Zach is always telling me that Caleb likes people (referring to people figurines), not animals. Below is a picture of Caleb being a moose.

It is not uncommon to see animals covering every surface.

Caleb's birthday also added to our animal collection.

Some more of the present unwrapping fun

Around Zach's birthday I asked Caleb what kind of cake he wanted and asked for an elephant cake. I was surprised that for the next 2 weeks he kept talking about the elephant cake he wanted. I made his cake the night before his birthday. When I picked him up on birthday to show him the finished product sitting in the refrigerator he got SO excited and got so upset when I wouldn't stand there holding him all day with the fridge open. I showed him a picture we took on my phone and he wanted to carry the phone around with him so he could keep looking on it. His reaction definitely made my heart happy.

More evidence that Caleb loves elephants...

- Caleb loves to narrate what is going on. He'll tell me what Zachary's doing, what's happening in a movie, that Daddy went to work whenever Derrick leaves the house, etc.
- He started talking really early and has really surprised me with how much he understands. He'll tell me when he needs a diaper change. He'll say hi to random strangers and has started asking me "what's that?" all the time. Another of his most used questions is "Where's Zach?" Caleb sure loves his brother.
- Caleb is still very attached to his "blankie" and "paci". When I take them away after he wakes up in the morning or from a nap he usually demands a sippie of chocolate strawberry milk to ease the separation. On Sunday Caleb saw me with a towel wrapped on my head after my shower. He wanted a "hat" like me. Ever since then he requests blankie hats whether we're in public or not.

 Caleb figured out that he can cross all his fingers at once and was pretty proud.

- Caleb loves to dress up, copy whatever Zach is doing, and is a very social kid. He is loving nursery.
- This boy has a great sense of humor. He is quick to laugh and loves to tease and joke. He'll do pretty much anything to get a laugh.

 

- Caleb is a very picky eater. Strangely some of the foods we can count on him to eat are grilled tilapia, split pea soup, and fresh broccoli. Go figure. He has been known on several occasions to demand ice cream at all hours of the day.
- He's getting pretty good at using a fork.

- Caleb is an extremely loving little guy. He loves cuddling and gets very concerned when he sees other kids upset.
- He loves Skypeing with Grandma and Grandpa and is pretty good at carrying on a phone conversation. Random story: the other day when Caleb found out I was talking to my mom on the phone he hurried over to the phone and roared as loudly as he could into the phone. He then spent the next while changing his mind and telling Grandma he was being a baby lion, no a puma, no a tiger!

Caleb is such a joy to have in our family. Love you Caleb!

Zachary's 4!

At the beginning of July Zachary had his 4th birthday. We celebrated in true Zach style which means involving lots of animals. The day before his birthday we had a bunch of his friends over for his first official birthday party. We went with a safari theme and planned to have most of the party take place outside. We had to get creative once the rain started coming down in a torrential down pour. We didn't get any pictures of the games but did snap this one of some of the decorations.

The first game we did was an safari hunt. My friend Gretchen (who came over to kindly helped manage the party chaos) and I hid little plastic animals around the family room since it was too wet outside. We gave the kids little toy binoculars and set them loose on the room with bags to collect the animals they could find.

Next we did an improvised lion hunt through the house where we tip toed through the tall grass (family room rug), crawled under the hanging snakes (streamer decorations), crawled through the bat cave (under the dining room table), and climbed up the rocky mountain (stairs). The kids then went into the toy room and found Derrick hiding and wearing a lion hat. He started roaring and chasing and got some pretty impressive screams. No injuries or tears and it turned out to be a hit.

The weather cleared up a little bit so we were able to also do our obstacle course outside. After games we ordered pizza and were joined by parents.

 I love the facial expressions in the next picture.

Zach requested a gorilla cake for his birthday. Derrick drew a gorilla and a monkey on paper for me and I used his drawings to make buttercream frosting transfers and decorate the cake.

 Present opening came next and just about turned into a dog pile. Between the birthday party and grandparents, Zach's animal collection grew impressively.

Random details about Zachary.

- Zach has gotten really good at expressing himself and it's so fun to hear what he thinks about.
- Z has an incredible memory for details. He was telling me the other day about everything Grandma Bowen brought for him when she came to visit last October. He even made sure I knew which things were in her suitcase and what was in her pocket.
- Z's been in swimming lessons for most of the summer and has gotten a lot more comfortable in the water. He really enjoys it now.
- Zach requests pancakes for breakfast almost every morning. When he has cereal the milk has to be in a cup and the cereal dry.
- Most requested bedtime song is "Silly Spider Song" which is the "Eensy Wensy Spider" with random animals replacing most of the nouns. (i.e. The eensy weensy elephant, went up the water lion...)
- Dora, Diego, Winnie the Pooh, The Jungle Book, Wonder Pets, and Dinosaur Train and his favorite shows.
- Z got a bike with training wheels on it for his birthday and loves to practice riding on it.
- As stated above, Zachary still has a passion for animals. His current favorites are Toob animals (the little ones lined up in the picture below) and Disney animal figurines.

- In May we found out that Zach FINALLY outgrew his wheat allergy! I still feel so excited when I can give him normal foods and treats I couldn't give him for the past 3 years. We broke out some Oreos as celebration of the exciting news. His current food allergies are peanuts (have an epipen for this one), several other nuts, eggs, soy, and corn. Thankfully we don't need to be too careful about the soy or corn.

Caleb knows how to work an Oreo party. Apparently he needs a few more Oreos in order to keep his pants up.

- Z recently learned how to pump on the swing which has been wonderful for me. He does still love to get pushed sometimes so he can really fly.

- Zach loves ordering and organizing things. He really likes taking these little decorative marbles and using them to make the letters of the alphabet.

Zach is so much fun to have in our family. We love you Zach!

Ninja Cockroach Assassin

I swore my whole life that I'd never end up anywhere down south where there are big bugs and hello, we end up in Texas. At least Derrick finally found a use for the ninja sword he found by some furniture abandoned by a dumpster at our last apartment.