Nice Weekend

Ian and I had a great weekend! We LOVE Texas' spring! The weather just makes you want to get outside and play! We have been hitting our neighborhood park regularly and have made some new buddies on the playground. Elijah is quite the daredevil when it comes to the playground but he absolutely abhors the swings. I have no idea why on that one. Bubba, on the other hand, loves the swings. It always brings out a little giggle and a big smile!

So this past weekend, Ian suggested we take the boys out to The Domain. It is a little shopping/living area in Austin that has a lot of outdoor play areas for the kids and pretty fountains and such. It sounded great to get out of the house since we had been laz-0-ing around the house all morning and so we decided to get dressed.

Now, the boys are all about Daddy when it comes to the weekends. Well to be totally honest, pretty much any time Daddy is around they are all about Daddy, but especially on the weekends! So when Ian was in the bathroom getting dressed, the boys were close at hand watching his every move and just wanting to be around him. Since Daddy was putting product in his hair, Elijah wanted some too; and since Elijah wanted some product, Joaquin wanted some too! So, the boys all got their hair done to go out to the Domain. It was precious, so I took a picture of Elijah's "bed-head look", as Daddy said he was going for, and Joaquin's little fohawk of baby fuzz. :)

Aren't my little men adorable?

By the time we got to the Domain with the kids, stroller gear, and such (you guys with kids know what I am talking about when it comes to actually getting somewhere at any given time), we were all hungry. We saw that there was a new sushi place at the end of the shopping area, so we decided to give Elijah and Joaquin their first meal of sushi. :) They both actually loved it, but that was probably because Daddy and Mommy picked some rolls that were pretty light on the fishy flavor. But, Elijah did love the eel and Joaquin hung right in there with whatever he could gum down (poor little guy still doesn't have any chomping teeth). I wish I would have taken some pictures of the two of them with their chopsticks and sushi rolls, but I didn't think of it when we were eating. *A little side note, though, about the chopsticks...they were sooooooooo much easier to feed Joaquin with than a spoon or fork! I couldn't believe I hadn't used them sooner, but I will from now on. When kids get to that in between eating stage, where they want to do it themselves but aren't that great yet and when they try to pick it up in their hands, it just gets squished to smithereens or lost in the move, chopsticks are a great option.

Anyway, after our meal, we got some frozen yogurt and headed over to all the fun fountain areas. Elijah couldn't wait to get out there and run around in the pop-up water fountain. We had to promise Elijah he could go in it after we ate because he spotted it on our way over to the sushi restaurant and it took A LOT of disciplined patience for him to let it go and walk on to the restaurant. So, afterwards, we headed directly there. He and Daddy chased around each sprout and of course Elijah got drenched from a few surprises. By the time we headed home, he was only wearing a diaper!

Here are Ian and Elijah going after the sprouts of water. Daddy was dodging them, while Elijah was trying to catch up to them...

All, in all, it was a great little family weekend!

Differences between Kid A and Kid B

It is funny how different two kids with your same DNA can turn out to be. They really do come into this world with their own agenda and personality to go with it!

Elijah was such an easy baby...too easy many people said. We got plenty of warnings that our second child was going to be a "little devil" since our first one was such a "little angel". But, we thought those people were kinda off kilter and that they didn't know our kids, or what they would be like so it wasn't fair to doom our second kiddo that way!

And, as if just to prove those people wrong, our second little baby boy was just as precious. He latched on even faster than Elijah did and was a great eater, slept through the night at 3 weeks old, only cried when he was hungry, tired, or poopy, and was the happiest baby you'd ever seen. He ALWAYS had a smile on his face! The only thing that Joaquin didn't quite live up to on my baby perfection list was his occasional spit up (which Elijah NEVER did.)

Now, Elijah's birthday is April, 26th--so he is a Taurus like his mommy...The Bull! Stories of my hard-headedness have been circling around in our family for years and so I kinda expected the same type of stubbornness from Elijah, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well he listened and followed directions. Ian and I were given the discipline book, How to Train Up a Child written by the Pearls, and we have been sticklers about it! Elijah took to it like a duck in water! After a training session on not pulling off daddy's glasses, he wouldn't do it again. It was the same way with the fireplace and the display cabinet and so on. Really, the system seemed to be working exactly like they described it in the book! Of course as a parent, you are so proud when you hear from strangers that "your kid is so behaved on an airplane!" or "I've never seen a kid at a restaurant act so well! i didn't even know there was a kid in the booth next to us!" We glowed and chalked it all up to the Pearl's book of wisdom and our consistency with his discipline.

However, after having kiddo numero dos, I will admit I think it had much more to do with Elijah's temperament than it did our discipline structure because I do the same exact thing with Joaquin and the results are NOT the same!

That little stinker should have been born under the Taurean stars, because he is more bull-headed than Elijah and I combined! When he wants to do something, NOTHING, I mean NOTHING, will deter him! It doesn't matter how many times he gets switched and told no, distracted with cool toys, taken away from that environment, or even given food instead...as soon as the tactic is done, he is crawling right back over to that "no no" area and into trouble again! Now, he isn't the kind that will scream and throw tantrums and bite other kids in the near vicinity, he is just stubborn! Incredibly stubborn!

Funny thing is, he still has that bright little sunshine of a personality even when he is going through some discipline training. It is like the switch (and yes, Ian and I switch our kids as a form of discipline...sorry it that offends anyone else--to each his own) doesn't even phase him. So maybe he is more Gemini then I am giving him credit for...2 sides to his character---the little stinker and the little sunshine combined!

Ok, enough of me talking about them. All this to say, Ian and I are having fun seeing our boys grow up and display different parts of their personalities. Elijah and Joaquin each have their own little interests and are already forming their own little beliefs! (like whether or not they believe the interest is worth the cost of the discipline they know is coming) Elijah usually considers the choice and picks the pacifist way, but Joaquin looks at the same choice and jumps in head first and smiles when the switch comes down to swat him! Makes me wonder how this pattern will look when they are teenagers! :)

Here are a few pics of Kid A and Kid B doing their thing:

So, suddenly it was 30 degrees again, when we were swimming in the baby pool the day before. Elijah has the cutest little pea-coat and riding cap that Gamma gave him last Christmas. This was the first time he got to wear it to school. Everyone thought he was the cutest little chap' around! :)

Elijah has also started joining me for my yoga stretches when Joaquin is napping. He uses daddy's mat (one we bought on one of those 2 days when Ian was going to Bikrim yoga with me and hasn't been used since). Here he is trying to fold his legs over like mommy. He LOVES it and it is soooo freaking hard for me to focus on my stretches because of how adorable he is when he does these poses! (He has also learned what it means to say "cheese" when I get the camera out, so now we get smiles in all the pictures! YEAH!)

And, here is Kid B. What did I tell you! :)

Elijah hasn't touched the fireplace in over a year (ever since we did the fireplace training session with him when he was about Joaquin's age). Well, the fireplace training only piqued Joaquin's interest in things! I walked into the living room the other day after going to the bathroom and this is what I found! Little stinker was covered in soot literally from head to toe!
(He was disciplined, I'll assure you, but I couldn't help but snap a picture of my little chimney sweep afterward.)

I tried to brush off the soot, but in the end I had to throw him in the tub! You can tell he looks really upset from getting in all that trouble, huh? Nope! Just as happy as a clam that he got to dig around in all that dirty stuff and the switch seemed like a good compromise for his 2 min. of fun, I guess!




Ohhh, but through it all, my heart still melts for my little boys!

Elijah= 1 Joaquin= 0

It has been so wonderful having the boys play together! The first thing Elijah says when I go in his room when he wakes up in the morning is, "Bubba?" And Joaquin is the same way. The only two words he speaks at this point are, Da Da and Bubba. (I didn't even make the top 2!)

The past week I have been giving them play time in Elijah's room after they both wake up. I've been slowly trying to make the time longer and longer so mommy can sit in the room across the hall and check email, or like right now, write on the blog. It really has been going wonderfully. The first day they hung in there for about 20 min. before they started to try to get out. Now we are up to almost an hour of uninterrupted play time, with 10 min. of clean up time in the disaster area of a room afterwards.

However, after 3 good days of play time in the morning together, the fourth day surprised me. I don't know what happened, but when I went in the room after about 30 min. Bubba had a black eye!

Of course, this could have been self-inflicted, but the way Elijah looked when I said, "oh, no! What happened to Joaquin's eye?" told me that Elijah had something to do with it. Elijah quickly went and hid behind his reading chair in his room and stayed there till I came to get him.

I remember growing up with 2 boys and there were a lot of bumps, stitches, a few broken bones, scrapes and bruises. In fact, I'm sure there were some black eyes in that list too. However, I just wasn't quite ready for that to happen between the two of them at 1 and 2 years old! They do have their squabbles over toys and blankets and food (or whatever they both seem to want at the same time), but mommy and daddy are usually there to break up the fight and bring up the topic of sharing. But, since I wasn't there in the room during their morning play time a black eye resulted.

Well, at least we know who won the fight. Elijah = 1 Joaquin = 0

I will have to keep up with this tally. With two boys 13 months apart I am sure that that number will be changing quite a bit throughout the years!

Here are a few pics of Joaquin's eye. We had just gotten out of the bathtub and dressed for bed. Poor little guy! Although, I have to admit, I think it bothered mommy more than anyone else around the house. Ian laughed it off and said Elijah got in a "good one", and Joaquin never even cried! (If he had I'm sure I would have run into the room to see what the fuss was about!) Actually, Joaquin was nothing but black-eyed smiles about it all week!

Burp

So, no picture or video to go with this story, but I have to tell it nonetheless just because it was so cute.

Yesterday when I was nursing Joaquin he kicked over a cup of tea I had on my nightstand. I should have known better than to put it there, but I had forgotten how big Joaquin is. Pretty much his entire bottom half falls off the nursing pillow now. So, he swung his legs around and caught my green tea just enough to pour it all over the books on my nightstand. Then I realized it was trickling down the back onto my phone recharger cord, lamp cord, and the monitor cord...yikes! So, I freaked out and stopped in mid feed and had to put Joaquin and Elijah in the pack and play for a minute while I ran around trying to clean up the mess.

As I was rushing to put them into the play pin I said, "Sorry Joaquin, Mommy will burp you after I clean all this up." A few moments later Joaquin was standing up against the edge of the play pin and Elijah started pounding on his back. I didn't know what was going on when I heard that sound, so I turned around to see Elijah burping Joaquin! It was so hilarious! I said, "Wow, Elijah, I didn't know you knew how to burp your bubba." Just then, Joaquin let out a huge burp and I died laughing! It was the funniest thing ever and Elijah was elated to get a burp out of Joaquin from all his back pounding efforts.

Of course after I had completely cleaned up all the spilt tea and moved the boys into the living room to play, Elijah was still chasing Joaquin around trying to smack him on the back to get another burp. It got a bit out of hand and I had to eventually put a stop to it, but that one incident of Elijah burping Joaquin will be etched in my memory forever!

Children's Museum

Since the kids and I have been dog sick for the past decade, Mom decided it was time we got out of the house and started at least acting healthy. So, we recently gathered the kiddos together and headed out for a day at the Waco Children's Museum. Noah, Adam and Chandra's little boy that is only a month younger than Elijah, decided to join us for the day and we had a blast.

It took us forever to get the car all packed up, the car seats switched into one car, all the diaper bags prepared, and make sure we had every one's blankie and favorite toy handy. Here is a picture of all three of the boys in mom's backseat. (Although, poor Joaquin still has to face backwards.)

The children's museum is amazing. This area was an entire little miniature city. Here was the little house where Noah, MiMi and Elijah were pretending to make dinner. Joaquin was trying to sneak in the window. :)

Here is Noah and Elijah in the little city. Noah was playing the police officer while Elijah was going shopping at the mini grocery store.

This room had all the vehicles in it. Elijah loved playing fireman!

MiMi and Joaquin jumped on the school bus.

Joaquin was having a blast!

Elijah took Noah on a ride in his fancy, convertible race car.

For lunch, mom had packed a wonderful picnic for us all. We went out on the lawn, spread out our blanket, and had a great lunch. It was a beautiful day outside so that helped too!

Elijah and Noah loved playing on the old-town village fence that was next to our picnic area.

After lunch it was on to the second story of the museum. Elijah loved the Native American drums and tepee. (They even had an entire section that talked about the Cherokee Indians, which is the tribe that our decedents were in!)

The last room (the kids were seriously needing nap time by this point) was the music room. Elijah was right at home in this sound booth. He and Noah made up their own musical masterpieces for a long time.

When we arrived home at MiMi and Papaw's house, Joaquin was still on cloud nine! He needed sleep the most, but was of course the most hyper of the bunch. He loved spending some extra time with Uncle Bubba!

It was a wonderful day, overall, although I think everyone was pretty exhausted and spent when it ended. Thanks MiMi for such a fun treat!

The Whistler

To our surprise, Joaquin has learned to whistle! One morning Ian and I awoke to Joaquin's babble on the monitor, when suddenly he started whistling. We both looked at each other and said, "Is he whistling?"

You know, at this stage in a 9 month old's life just getting him to do something simple, like wave or clap, is quite a task. So, it came as quite a shock when without any training or modeling Joaquin took to whistling. (It's not like this house resembles the 7 dwarfs, "whistle while we work" atmosphere.) To be totally honest, I can't even whistle at the age of 30! I do believe this is an early sign Joaquin must obviously be a musical genius! :)

Ever since then we have been trying to catch him whistling on tape. He seems to do it at the strangest times--when he is eating, when he is concentrating, when he is playing in his crib--it just sorta slips out, and suddenly he is in the midst of a tune! It is the cutest thing!

So, one morning we tried to coax the whistle out of him and here is a short video of Ian and Joaquin whistling. :)