Tyler and Drew

Tyler and Drew are the teenage boys who live next door. One might think that two active teenage boys might be far to busy or disinterested to talk with Jonathan, let alone play with him. Not the case for these two guys. Jonathan will go over and ring their doorbell on occasion and press his face against the window of their door, waiting for "Tywer or Drew." They could not be better neighbors. Drew showing Jonathan the best ways to dribble
Two tough guys :+)

Mommy, I See You!

We have entered a phase with Caleb that provides some challenges. He screams when I am not in sight. Problem: preparing dinner. His play area in the living room is just around the corner, but he cannot see me. He doesn't just fuss. It is an entirely new sound for him: LOUD screeching and screaming. Not crying. Screaming.

Oh well. Such is life. I had just forgotten about some of these phases since Jonathan is two years removed from them. Jonathan has his own phases now. Most of them involve LOTS of opinions. His opinions are certain to differ from mine especially if I offer my idea first.

Revisit to the crib

After putting Caleb down for his nap, I opened Jonathan's door to check on him and be sure he was "resting" and not getting out all sorts of toys. He regularly falls asleep during "quiet time" and I'll let him sleep for about an hour (so as to prevent "night owl" syndrome). This is where I found him this afternoon. Do you think he misses his crib a little bit?

Water Lovers

As mentioned previously... my children love the water. Caleb has an especially cushy ride in this spiffy new float toy I purchased. He almost fell asleep as I pushed him around the big pool on Saturday.

This look is the "I want to move faster..." look

He even likes to put his whole face in and kick. He told me that he swims like the big kids.

This is classic. Jonathan loves to have Caleb's participation in all aspects of the play at the pool.

"This is the life."

Off to the Pool

The lazy days of summer. Lazy? I wish there was some laziness going on around here. Alas, there is only lots and lots of activity. And heat.

We have been:
Teaching a two and half year old to LISTEN
Swimming at the pool
Eating sno cones
Entertaining guests
Jamie's been working, working
Doing yardwork
Doing "spring cleaning" in the summer

And lots of other things. Caleb is "talking" all of the time, and it is delightful to hear him babbling as he plays with the barn or the loud, push-button toy. Jonathan loves to swim and has NO fear. None. He jumps in with or without us. We are working on the boundries for the pool.

Photos will come this week...

Big Boy Bed

What do potty training and a big boy bed have in common? These were the two things that I had great trepidation about as my oldest child turned two last October. Potty training? Check. Many people said that I cheated because Jonathan was so easy on me with this one. Remember two things: Jonathan is STUBBORN so he is only trained because it was his idea. Things that are not his idea are not so easy. The second thing to remember is that I still have Caleb to train.

On to the topic of the day: the big boy bed. I would have gladly left Jonathan in the crib indefinitely. He loved his crib. We would go in to get him when we heard him stirring in the morning and he would say, "I'm still sleeping. I'm not awake, yet."

We could not postpone the inevitable forever, so we got bunk beds (notice the ladder is intentionally not put on the bed) and put Jonathan in his "big bunk beds". He loves them! He has gone to sleep in his chair a couple of times and on Sunday night we found him playing in his chair with his light on at 10:15pm. New rule: no more turning on the light after bedtime.

Other than the light issue and occasionally sleeping in the chair, he has taken to sleeping in the bunk beds quite well.

Jonathan really wanted Caleb to sleep in the bunk beds with him so we put them together on his pillow for a minute.

Funnies

As my sister commented today: "Jonathan sure is a talker." Yes, he is. Here are some of his latest comments:

~ "Mommy, you can go on an airplane with Daddy, and I'll take care of Caleb." Where does he get this? We haven't even left him for longer than 2 days, and we didn't take an airplane to do that.

~ "Mommy, Daddy is your best friend." Well, yes son, he certainly is! I wouldn't have it any other way.

~ "First of all..." He has started using this phrase often. It is funny to hear him using phrases that I know I use.


Caleb is now rolling all of the time. I've already started preparing myself to be in high gear with him. Once he starts to move I have a feeling he will move very quickly.