Busy boys

The boys had a busy weekend. Fun with Granny & Eva, Cousin Jude's birthday party at Dart Bowl, and tons of playing around! These pictures are all out of order, but they are all from the weekend. Here's what they've been up to...

A little game of peel-a-boo, tent style

Peek-a-boo, Jake!

Miles playing with blocks before bedtime

Jake, giving 'Go-Go' (Grover) a kiss.

Miles, giving 'Melmo' (Elmo) a kiss.

Playtime!

Nothing is more fun than building towers and then knocking the down!

Playing with blocks.

Jake playing with his awesome new shape sorter.

Happy birthday, Jude!

Jake & Granny.

Jake, admiring the bowling balls. "Oooooooo."

Miles, hanging at the alley with Dada.

Lunchtime at the  bowling alley.

Miles, trying to find the best fit.

Miles

Jake with his Aunt Philly.

Mama & Miles. Snacking on some booty. (Which is now called 'boo-boo')

Jake making eyes at Granny.

Reading to my boys.

Eva playing with Miles.

Miles & Jake.

TRACTORS!!

Thursday was a really big day around here. We got home just as the lawn service guys were arriving to mow our grass. Jake and Miles were thrilled. They got to stand in the driveway and watch the tractor (ride on mower) roll off of the truck. Then we moved inside and they stood at the window the whole time and just shouted "TRACTOR!!!" When it would disappear from our view they would turn to me with their hands out. As if to say, "where did it go?" Then it would come back by and the excitement would start all over. Shortly after all of the fun we had to go take a nap. Both boys were falling asleep during story time, but continued to murmur..."tractor."

Next time I'll try to get some better pictures, but I thought I'd share these. I don't know how they became so fixated on tractors, but they sure are a hit around here these days. These little city boys love them some tractor.

Jake and Miles watching the tractor.

Where did it go?

Spoons...are they really necessary?

We thought the boys might be ready to try spoon feeding themselves. Lately they are reluctant to eat anything that they can't get themselves. So we put a bowl of sweet potatoes and a spoon in front of them. I don't think they're ready anymore. Here is Jake working through the process...

It's pretty easy if I just pick the food off of the spoon and then move it into my foodhole.

That works. This spoon thing is easy.

You know what...? This spoon is just slowing me down.

Much easier.

Now I'm really rolling.

Empty. Totally didn't even need the spoon.

And they're off...

Both Jake and Miles are walking! They don't always choose walking over crawling, but they are almost there. This video is from tonight, and while it's not the best display of their walking skills it's still pretty cute. It seems like they got a little slap-happy and just could not stop laughing. So here it is...

Over the weekend

Miles and Jake had a fun weekend! Peter is still in super-dad mode, taking charge of just about everything these days. He is so wonderful that I can't believe it. But back to our weekend. We went for a little visit to Aunt Phili's house and got this awesome hand-me-down kitchen that Eva and Jude are finished playing with. Oh my gosh. The boys LOVE it.They love opening all of the little compartments, they love the pretend food, they love the iron and phone that came with it. They pretty much love everything about it and have played with nothing but that since we brought it home. We also had our friends Arty & Nicole come over for a visit with their six-month-old twin boys and then we all went to dinner at Maudie's. Jake was obsessed with the the babies and just kept saying "baby" as he tried to climb into the car seat with Nikolas. We also took a trip to Costco because a weekend is just not complete without going to Costco. Here are some pictures...

Miles and Jake playing with their new kitchen set

Miles and Jake having some of their new juice and milk

Jake examining Nikolas

Miles and Jake in the cart at Costco

Miles chowing down on some of the humongous raspberries we bought this weekend

MyGym...Waddlers!

Even though Jake and Miles are not officially waddling everywhere yet, we agreed that it is time to move them up to the waddlers class. We went this morning to our first one and it was awesome! They really seemed to enjoy it more. The kiddos in there are all right around their age and even though all are 'waddling' Jake and Miles managed to keep up wonderfully. Jake did a bunch of walking there and I could just tell that Miles was thinking a lot about it ;). Since I still can't pick them up I was the photographer at class today.

Miles and Jake shooting hoops

Jake playing during 'independent play time'

Miles was supposed to try walking on these things but he was too busy trying to figure them out

Jake looking serious on the roller coaster. He actually loved it.

Jake walking

Jake playing in the ball pit

Miles on the trapeze & loving it

Both boys horsing around on the balance beam

Miles bouncing on the trampoline

Miles walking up the ramp. again. and again. and again.

15 month well check

Jake & Miles just had their 15 month well check this morning and they are doing great. Dr. Norton said that they are awesome (which we already knew)! Their fine motor skills are right on track as well as their speech. She was impressed with everything that they are saying (mama, dada, papa, duck, ball, baby, tractor...) and impressed with the questions they can answer (they can tell you what a snake, duck, cow and lion say...sssssss, quack, mmmmmm, and their version of a roar). She was also impressed with their eating and gave us the go ahead to try peanut butter (for some reason I thought I was supposed to wait until they were older), so that's what they'll be having for lunch. She checked their ears (Miles always seems to have fluid in one ear but it's still not infected), throat, mouths (nice looking teeth - both have ten), eyes, tummies and listened to their strong hearts. The big surprise is that my super big boys are not so super big for their age anymore. They have kind of leveled out a bit. Jake is 25 lbs (50-75%), 32 inches (75%) and Miles is 24.9 lbs (50%), 32 inches (75%). Jake still has a large noggin but she's still not worried about it because the rate of growth is totally normal. In other words, he has always had a large noggin. They each had two shots and that was definitely no fun. We are still on a modified vaccine schedule and that makes for fewer shots at a time but more frequent shots. I have to make a decision about the MMR vaccine and welcome any input that anyone has. I'm leaning towards splitting that into multiple shots...did anyone else do that?

To sum up their appointment, they are rock stars!

One Year Portraits

We had the boys' one year portraits taken a while ago. Most of you have seen these pictures by now, but I couldn't leave them off of the blog. I am putting a few of my favorites up here. I think she did a wonderful job and am already looking forward to their two year pictures!!

First haircut

I have been dreading our first haircut because I like their shaggy messy hair. But Miles could barely see through his and Jake was rocking a serious baby-mullet, so we went for their first cut today. We went to Bird's Barbershop and they did really well. I think they look like big boys now...

Miles post-cut

Jake post-cut

Miles getting a little blow-dry action

Miles...not thrilled with the haircut...thank goodness for snack traps & booty!

Jake snacking and getting a trim

Jake sitting on mama's lap getting his hair cut

Jake was not having the cape. Not even for a second.

Playing foosball and waiting for their haircuts

Playroom

I've finally started to decorate the playroom...so in another 6 months I should be done! It takes me a while to decide what I want to do and then a while to make it happen. I think I finally finished the nursery when Jake and Miles were about 7 months old. I'll post a picture of the finished playroom when it's ready, but I wanted to show this part because they were so excited. I got some of the removable wall decals and put them up while they were napping. When they woke up and saw them they were thrilled. Here is a picture of them admiring my work...

While I was sleeping...

I finally insisted that the camera go along for the ride if I could not be there. Between my mom, Peter and Mirinda we got some cute pictures of what the boys have been up to. I haven't actually been sleeping a ton, but I have not been very mobile yet either. Each day is getting a bit better and I can't wait to be back to my old self. They are both still working on the walking. So far I think our record is 5 steps. Stay tuned....

Miles & Jake driving the shopping cart at HEB (thank goodness they finally got some double carts!)

We made the big move and switched their seats to face forward

The word of the day is...tractor. Over & over again!

What else can you do when it's 106 degrees outside!

Playing with puzzles

Still into answering the phone. Now Jake says "hello" & "ring ring"

Jake on the awesome new toy that Peter's friend passed down to us

Miles is sooo into building this tower over & over (with a little help) and never knocks it down. He just points to all of the different pictures on the nesting blocks. Until Jake notices it and quickly knocks it over...

Miles is all about pushing anything on wheels around

Playing "ba-ball"

It takes a village...

So, remember how I said we were just waiting for Jake to take some steps? Well, he did. He sure did. He waiting until I checked into the hospital on Friday and then he took his first steps. I'm with him 24/7 and he waits until I'm gone. All kidding aside I'm so thrilled. They are both still very tentative with it and realize that they can get places much more quickly by crawling, so I can see that it will still be a while before they take off running. 

The last few days have been a little nuts. With quite a bit of extra help things have been going well. I am beginning to heal and really look forward to being able to pick the boys up and love on them. My mom is still here, my dad left this evening and today was our first day with Nubia. She's watching the boys this week and she is wonderful - they already love her. It's been really hard to be right here and not be taking care of the boys, but they are in the wonderful hands of Peter, my mom, my dad and Nubia. Next week Mirinda will be here to be with them. 

They seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. Walking, talking and getting cuter by the minute. They are obsessed with stars...we have some starlights in their room and the second they wake up they must have them turned on (I'll put up a picture of that later). Now they are identifying stars all over. Jake said 'peas' and 'fish' today to Nubia and my mom. Miles is big on 'dog' still. They are both sooooooo into 'Papa' and 'Dada.' They love their stacking blocks and stacking rings, any car or truck, playing peek-a-boo with each other, balls, and any and all books. Oh my goodness are they obsessed with books & being read to. Right now their favorites are the word/picture books. They will sit in their Elmo seats and look at books forever. I'll get pictures of that soon also.

So...I'm on the mend. It literally takes a village and we are lucky to have one! Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon.