Bath Runner

It never fails that as soon as we get ready to take a bath (get all our clothes off and are about to jump in the tub) Joaquin makes a run for it. He books it as fast as he can, and that little guy can run, and then hides from me. I'm left with my hands full trying to get Elijah in the tub then looking around for my buck-naked hiding kiddo. Here is evidence of his flight tonight.

New Traditions

We decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year! We bought a durable white tree skirt and put the boys hand prints on it and labeled it for this year. We are going to do this every year so they can see how they've grown! :) It is funny how Christmas becomes special in a new way when you have kids around. It quadruples the spirit of love and joy in the house!

Gingerbread House...or something like that

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Putting together the manger scene and the tree...

Potty

Elijah has been an on-again-off-again potty-er for the past year. He would be doing great and then suddenly decide he wasn't interested anymore. We tried all sorts of candy and huge praise treatments but in the end just decided he would potty when he wanted to, end of story. The other day I picked up this little frog potty and had it sitting in the bathroom next to our big potty. (Now, I need to mention that the past year of potty-training was done with a baby bjorn potty seat that fits on top of our big potty. So, this little sized potty was a new thing.) This morning he got the potty out and parked it in the middle of the living room. I was encouraging him to go "pretend potty" on it and made a big deal about it being his own little special froggy potty.

Suddenly, he started stripping down and plopped himself on the potty. When I asked him if he needed to go potty he said "yeah, pee pee poo poo on froggy potty." I walked over and sure enough with in 1 minute on that little potty he had fulfilled its' purpose! I was so proud and of course quickly got him a pee pee poo poo reward lollipop and snapped a few pictures. :)

He has now been stripping down every few minutes to go pee pee on the froggy potty! It's just like the froggy potty clicked with him or something! I don't know and I don't want to jinx it, so I will stop talking about it. Although, let me just say, if you are reading this and are not yet a parent it may seem weird to have an entire entry about the crapper. I know what you are thinking, because I used to think that way. However, it is a freaking HUGE deal when you FINALLY feel a break through in the potty-training department. OK, enough about that. :)

Happy Day. Happy Boy.

Reading

Yesterday while I was cooking dinner, I overheard Elijah talking to Joaquin. They were in the living room sitting on the couch and I couldn't see what they were up to from where I stood in the kitchen. The more I listened the more I wondered what they were doing. Joaquin was quiet as a mouse and Elijah was speaking with a sound of such confidence and persuasion that I had to walk over to see what they were doing. When I peaked over the top of the couch I saw Elijah and Joaquin with a book in their lap. Elijah proceeded to run his fingers along the words and "read" the book to Joaquin, who was intently listening and following the finger line along the words. It was so precious I quickly snapped a few shots with my phone. Ah, moments like these I will remember forever.

Saturday morning breakfast

Not unlike a lot of families, we have a tradition of a big Saturday morning breakfast together. This usually means Daddy plays around with the boys in "the big bed" (AKA mommy and daddy's bed) while mommy makes pancakes or waffles or eggs and toast or muffins or... you get the picture.

This morning, after having some blueberry muffins and Mexican eggs (the boys favorite) Ian offered to clean up. Suddenly, as I was putting some laundry in the dryer, I heard the boys squealing with laughter so I grabbed my camera and headed towards the high-pitched giggles. (I've heard that sound enough times to know that usually means it's a picture worthy opportunity).

Here is what I saw when I entered the kitchen:

Little boys with bubbles for hats and hair :)

Joaquin even had the little comb-over bubble due :)

I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of Joni, but that was what the boys thought was the funniest! Joni, our little pug dog, was running around with bubble hair and a bubble beard!

Ahhhhh, I love Saturday mornings with my family; it's never short of laughter!

Happy Halloween

This year Halloween was so much more fun! Now that both boys are semi-aware of what is going on the trick-or-treating was 100 times better. Mommy and Daddy decided to dress up at the last minute (although our dressing pretty much consisted of wearing wigs and sunglasses and random outfits from our closets). The boys thought it was so funny that Daddy and Mommy were wearing weird hair! Here are some shots and videos from the evening workin' the street. :) I uploaded them backwards, so the timeline reads from finish to start. :)

This is the end of the night when the boys were ready to head home and could no longer walk without tripping or dropping their candy bags. Daddy resorted to carrying them home. :)

Joaquin was fascinated with the neighbor's little pirate head skull lights around their front porch. It is so funny what kids decide to like. He could have cared less about the candy (until we got home, that is, and Elijah started opening the wrappers to his candy selection; THEN Joaquin jumped in on the candy action!)

This was our first house. Daddy, dressed as Dog the Bounty Hunter, taught the boys to say, "trick-or-treat" and "thank-you" of course at the end.

Mommy, dressed as Sandy from Grease, and her little elephant and lion before they headed out

The elephant, the dog, and the lion :)

The boys played around in their costumes all week. They switched them around and wanted to wear a different one each day!

Here is some video Ian took with the flip of our trick-or-treating. It is kinda dark and hard to see, but I thought I would post it for anyone who wanted to see.