Friday's Fave Five: July 30

It's been a good week! It's flown by fast! The weather has cooled off a tiny bit so it is a little bit more bearable around here. And I just really enjoy my boys and my life!! Here are my favorite parts of the week, linked up over on Susanne's blog.

1. Food. I enjoy food, especially good food. Last night my husband made homemade guacamole and it was delicious. And we munched on this while the ribs he was making were doing their thing in the cooking process. So then we enjoyed some great ribs. And to finish off the night we had some amazing strawberry shortcake!! What a great night of food. Our only night without something planned and it was nice to eat good food and have some time to enjoy it!

2. Toddler Bed. It's official. Micah stayed in his toddler bed all night! We will have to try a few more nights, but once it seems like it is fully working out, I am excited to move Judah into the crib. My little men are growing up.

3. Independence. Micah slept all night in his toddler bed and I think this made him feel older or something because then when playing outside this morning he figured out how to get up onto his slide and slide down it all by himself. And he also figured out how to get out of the front gate of our yard! When I came Home from a meeting he opened the gate and said "walk" and started motoring down the sidewalk!

4. Family. My hubby was away for a few days last week and it was so nice to be able to take my boys just a short trip down the road to stay with my parents, giving me a bit of help with entertaining and watching them for those couple days. Nice to have some family close enough to do that!

 (The trip out was a little exhausting)

5. Brotherly Love. Micah loves to love on Judah and Judah is a champ about being squeezed and rolled around and slobbered on and such. The first thing Micah says when he seems him is "DORY!!" and the next is "HUG!" and it is so cute. Can't wait for them to start playing together.

Bonus: Micah found a new way to have fun with stickers this week.

Yeah, it's been a good week!

Friday's Fave Five: July 23

  Linked up here.

Seems like I'm only getting this done every other week right now...but when I do it is such a great reminder to me of all that I have to be thankful for and all that has been going on! This week seems to have a theme of trying new things.

1. Sleeping changes. We only have one crib. We decided early on we would just use a pack n play for Judah until Micah was ready to move out of his crib. And when he is ready we have a toddler bed. There is a much bigger and funnier story for another post, but basically we are still putting Micah is the crib at night, but starting to use the toddler bed for naps. My little boy is growing up! These were pics we took late at night after we realized Micah needs more practice in the toddler bed before he goes through the night.

2. Judah trying cereal.  I think it took Micah a couple of weeks to be okay with something foreign being in his mouth. Judah seems to take to the spoon a little better already, but I don't think much cereal has actually been swaddled. But, it's a fun new adventure!

3. Judah wrapped differently. Some friends of ours let us in a a slight variation they do of the swaddle wrap. It's worked great! Actually, as long as my husband does it. He was away last night and the little man fought his way out. He is SO strong! But it is helping to take sleeping to a new level. A through-the-night-sleeping-soundly level!

4. Self-entertainment. I do my best to enjoy my sons and play with them and entertain them. But I also do my best to make sure they know how to do this for themselves. While Micah was in the basement he found some old yard sale stickers and decided he knew the perfect thing to do with them. This occupied a good chunk of time...all by himself...ahhh..

5. Self-feeding. Micah just decided one day recently that it was time to start feeding himself. He gets pretty upset now if we don't let him. It's a little messier and takes a little longer, but it is also great fun to watch him learn and try and master the art of feeding himself!

The boys bring me great joy and delight. And they are growing up oh so very fast! It's new everyday, and that's one of the great things about being a mom!

Pet Names

I think it is kinda cute when little kids make up their own names for people. Maybe because they can't fully say the real name, maybe they just have some special affection for the person, or maybe they just don't understand...
I have some friends I lived with for a while and when their son was about the age of Micah now, he insisted on calling me Ya Ya. He could say my name, but to him, I was Ya Ya. It was cute, it was okay, I felt we had a special bond. He's 6 now and doesn't call me that anymore (he was a little upset with me when I moved out), but it was cute when he did...
Micah has never really said his own name, but we have tried pretty hard to get him to say Judah's name. About a week or so ago he finally started calling Judah by name, but it was his own name he made up. It was clear he was referring to Judah, but it sounded like "doy' or maybe "dory" at times. Either way, he said the same thing anytime referring to his brother. Most words he says at least sound similar to what he is trying to say, so this one stumped us a bit...
Until yesterday.
When I had a conversation with him about his stuffed dog, referring to him as doggie, and I thought Micah was confused for a bit because he was using his name for Judah as we were talking. And that's when I realized that he is calling Judah the same thing he calls his stuffed dog: doggie...or as he can say it "dory."
Kinda funny, kinda cute, kinda sad that he maybe thinks that Judah is another one of his stuffed animals...I'm sure in time, Judah will let him know that he is not a dog and he does not like being called a dog. Until then, he has created his own special name for Judah, so we will keep saying "Judah" but we will let them have their special bond...the special bond that is so clearly displayed in the picture above...

Free Dinner

I decided we should spend our Friday night together as a family eating dinner out. For Free! Yay! We got in on the "dress like a cow and get a free meal" at Chick-fil-a and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Judah didn't have a care in the world...

Micah, on the other hand, struggled a bit with our "cow faces"

Funny thing was, once we got to Chick-fil-a, Micah loved the cow and wanted to follow him around the store (unlike the other little kids I saw who were screaming in terror!).

Oh well, it was a fun outing and good food!

Home Alone

This is what happens when I leave Matt at home alone with the boys...

Friday's Fave Five: July 9

It's been a while for me. Again. But I love it, so I back. And linking up over here.
We were out of town last Friday. Went to visit a lot of my husband's family, and tried to make it seem more like our first vacation as a family of 4! Back for a while now though, so things should be (maybe) regular. These are my top moments over the last two weeks...the things that make my heart excited for life!

1. family vacation. We headed out of town last week for a retirement party and decided to try to make it into our first "family vacation" with the boys. We took our time getting there and getting home, as both boys pretty much hate the car, so we would stop for an hour or more at a time at places we could let Micah run around and play and just let Judah be free from the seat. The travel time wasn't as bad as I thought, and it was great to enjoy some extra time together as a family.

2. running.  My husband and I decided that this would be the week to really start getting back in shape. I could put some blame on having 2 kids under 2, but I really just haven't made it a priority. That is over. Judah is getting more consistent with sleeping through the night, but still usually wakes up sometime in the 6 am time-frame, so I figured hubs and I could take turns running in the morning/spending time with Judah before Micah wakes up. We decided on Mon/Wed/Fri since we don't have early meetings to get ready for. And I am 3 for 3! Feels good!

3. bible reading. I read about some people starting the "Bible in 90 Days" challenge and since that is the series we are about to go through with our Middle Schoolers at church (the goodness of reading the Bible) I got really excited and decided to take the challenge. It has been great! It is fast, but I think this helps me to enjoy the overall story throughout. I have a Bible app on my iTouch and this helps me a ton to be able to just read whenever and wherever I am (and with only one hand needed) and I don't have all the extra notes/commentary to work through and make my readings longer...it's been a good experience for me thus far!

4. 4th of july with micah. Last year Micah slept through any fireworks...as did Judah this year. But hubs walked Micah down the road (where a local church was handing out watermelon) and sat on the lawn so they could view the fireworks from our local baseball stadium. Micah seems to be a little more serious in situations like these, just taking it all in...observing everything he can, as quietly as he can. So young, yet already seeing that personality (seen in the video below)...

5. open house. We are not moving, or having an open house...but I am striving to make my house more open in general. I would love for someone to stop by during the day and me not be embarrassed by the clutter/dishes/mess around the house. I would love to have more people over for meals and not have to spend all day cleaning because I haven't worked on it all week...so these are things I am working on...making my house more inviting. Making it a place where we feel free to have people over more often, and just because...it's happened some recently and I have greatly enjoyed the extra time spent with people in our home, but I would love for it to be happening even more often...

Personality Differences

There are so many new things happening around here every single day! That's what happens with little people...but since I am so far behind, I don't even know where to start...

We recently went on a short family trip and as a part we went to a children's museum. Not much that Judah could do, and even hard for Micah to do a lot of things...but I think they each enjoyed it in their own way.

Judah is bubbly and loves to smile at people (especially at himself in the mirror!).
Micah is introspective and loves to just take it all in...