Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Happy Boys and Swim Lessons

Wow, as I hang out with my boys today I cannot believe that one week from today will be my little baby boy's 1st Birthday.  AJ stop growing up!!!  But I really don't think he is listening.  :)  He is having such a great time with his new independence.  Crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on things and then you see his happy little face with this huge smile and you can see how proud he is.  He really is becoming his own little person now and I love it.  Even starting to say a few words...as you know...car, ma, da and today he is working on block.  :)  So cute.  And he is also my little eater.  He is loving solid food that we dice up.  He loves strawberries, blueberries, steamed carrots, pasta, rice, pancakes and yogurt.  I think he is getting ready to not like baby food as much as sometimes he fights us on it.  Maybe he will outgrow it fast just like he did with his bottle when he started preferring a sippy cup at 9 months old.  He loves playing and is often taking things out of containers and then putting them all back in...as he is doing as I sit here.  :)  He is pulling cars in and out of a bucket.  At least he cleans up after himself.  :D  But I love my little AJ and am having so much fun watching him grow up.

As for Jake, he is doing great.  His verbal is coming along and so now we hear him say his brother's name instead of just "Brader" and he will ask me things like "mommy where did AJ's pacifier go"  (yeah we don't even say pacifier and he says it perfectly lol), and we got him to say "apple" this week instead of leaving the "p"s out like he did before.  So we are very very proud of our little man.  :)  He is also still loving his swim lessons and has two more left.  He does pretty well and while he is at the younger end of the class (3-5 year olds) he is doing most of the things he is asked.  He still has no fear though and so we will probably be keeping him in for a while till he can at least float.  :)  But he LOVES jumping in and splashing around with his new swim friends.

Well enough catching up...onto the pictures....which are also catching up...I promise to get some newer ones on soon.  :)

This is from when we were still in SLO...Jake with his Aunt Bethany.  He really enjoyed getting to know her this trip and she became one of his favorite people.  :)
I had to put this one in as it is one of the last pictures I got of that adorable gumby smile, he got his first tooth on his 11 month birthday
And I have shared about Jake's love of helping with laundry, but I wanted to share some of his skills.
He is quite good at bringing them upstairs for me...
...and will even hang them up...although I did not have the heart to tell him that we do not need to hang up the dry laundry.  :)  So proud of himself!!!
And no this is not a baby picture of Jake....little AJ now loves to sleep on his stomach and sometimes sticks his little rear in the air as his brother often did.
Jake teaching AJ the joys of his farmhouse in our new playroom.  We always seemed to play in here anyway and so we moved some furniture and brought all the toys in...they both LOVE it.  First thing that Jake asks for in the morning is "playroom."
I love how these two adore each other
And Jake's 1st Swim Lesson without one of us being in there with him.  He did really great and did not seem to miss us at all.  He was having a great time kicking and splashing until...
...he decided to just jump in, and his teacher had to fish him out.  That's my boy!!!  :)
Jake can now use the ladder to get in and out...such a big boy
Working with the kick board with his teacher
His swim friends
And his favorite part of the class is the end when he gets to jump in...surprise surprise  :D

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Our Trip to the Zoo

Sorry for the delay everyone, we have been having some seriously slow internet issues and I cannot get the pictures to upload.  But I finally was able to get some up...slowly  :)

A lot has changed since I last blogged.  For one, AJ is crawling!!!  :D  Its not a traditional crawl.  He crawls normally when he puts his right knee out, but then he uses a straight left leg and his foot to move forward.  But it works and he is really getting around the house pretty quickly now.  He LOVES his new independence and will go and explore all the toys and parts of the house that are new to him...much to Jake's dismay.  We are having major toy sharing issues over here.  AJ is also pulling himself up on things and just so excited that he giggles, laughs and waves his hands in the air.  :)  Jake is also loving the Olympics that have been on the last couple of weeks.  We hear things like "guys in pool" (swimming), "run fast guys" (track), "ready, jump, ready, jump, ready, jump" (hurdles) and "woooooo" (gymnastics).  Hehehe, it really is very funny...I think the poor guys is really going to miss them when they end today.  His verbal is also continuing to improve greatly.  Earlier this week he was at Linda's and in the middle of playing he pointed to his hair and demanded, "cut my hair."  He was a bit disappointed when he was told that they needed to get mommy and daddy's permission first.  hehe (and yes he did get his hair cut)  The other day I came downstairs with AJ after he woke up and as he was happy I had put his pacy in my pocket.  AJ and I came down the stairs and Jake asked "Mommy where did AJ's pacifier go"  :)  And best of all when I was putting Jake down for a nap a couple of days ago I left telling him that I love him and he looked at me and said "I luv you mommy."  :D  My heart just melted.  :)  So proud of my big boy and I just love both of these little guys so much.  :)  OK enough of the mushy stuff...onto the zoo :)
While this may look scary...It was just a really cool kids drinking fountain.  :)
Jake going to check out some birds with his Pa
Jake really seemed to like the animals that looked like a cat...but sometimes he needed a lift
"Cool!"
Daddy and AJ having some fun together
So glad that I finally got a picture of this.  AJ loves to tuck his toes into things, his high chair tray, the stroller, the swing.  I really think its quite cute.
So much fun that AJ is old enough now to enjoy the little adventures that we take the kids on.
Now this may look like a picture with Jake and a total stranger, but no...in typical Jake fashion he made a friend that he hung out with during about half of our time at the zoo.  :)  My little social butterfly.
AJ checking out a couple of the animals.
We had a really great time here and while the zoo in Atascadero is quite small The boys had a really great time.  When we got in the car Jake asked for "more zoo" and he has been ever since.  Guess we will be taking them to a different zoo in our area sometime in the future.  :)