Choo! Choo! Now we're TWO!

"Choo-Choo is coming!  WHAAAAHHH!  WHAAAAAH!"
That was how Hubs and I woke up at 5:30 this morning.  Think the boys were excited for their Thomas the Train themed birthday party?  The "WHAAAHHH!" sound is my sons imitating the noise the REAL trains make as they blast the horn going through our new town.  They already know trains don't say "chugga-chugga" or "choo-choo" - they know they are LOUD and startling!

Our two families gathered at a nearby park and shared a picnic together this afternoon.  Despite threatening weather, the rain held off until the chicken, salads, baked beans, and three delicious cakes were eaten and all the presents were opened.

What cracks me up about toddlers is that really, they just need ONE toy for a holiday or birthday.  They simply aren't interested in the clothes (that I'm THRILLED they're receiving)!  Or they just need some dirt and sticks, like they found at the park! 

Thank you to our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who braved the storm clouds to celebrate our sons' lives.  We love you and are grateful that you can be a part of their special day!  Enjoy a few of the lovely photos taken by our amateur photographer auntie:

M is all smiles, welcoming our guests.

3 fantastic cakes!

"I'll help you, brother."

Thanks for the presents!

Make a wish!

Best Friends Forever

Yummy!

Up, up and away!

For You!

Our son, Goldilocks

Happy Birthday, boys!  You are the answer to our prayers.  We love you and are proud to be your parents.  So please sleep in tomorrow.

Happy Second Birthday!

We celebrated two years in style tonight with the best deal in town: Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America!  You can register your kids' birthdays on their website and receive a FREE unlimited ride wristband valid on the birthday!  Thank you to the MVMOMs who told me about this deal - it was a stellar idea!

The boys love being BIG and they tell us every day now that they are, but if you ask me, they're still convincing themselves - I know they're still missing the pacifiers a bit.  Today, though, they showed us they really ARE big by riding lots of rides at the amusement park.  Can you tell they enjoyed it?

M LOVED the "Big Rig" ride - he's not smiling here because it's NOT MOVING!

My favorite shot of the night; N and Daddy on the last ride, Blue's Clues.

They were a little nervous on the first ride, though - the carousel.

Choo-choo!  Our little conductors on the train ride.

It's SO HARD to wait for our favorite, the Big Rig ride.

We broke for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, where the boys gifted US with a peaceful meal and very good behavior (for two freshly minted two-year-olds, they were great!) and were rewarded with their OWN birthday sundaes afterward, a real treat!

"Ice cream is cold!" M says.

N and his big birthday ice cream.

What a fantastic family night to treasure forever!  The boys are getting to be so much fun and (knock on wood) a bit easier to go out with.  (I know, I know, don't burst my bubble, okay?  They were so good tonight!)  We have more celebrations planned in the coming days and will keep you posted on the smiles.  In the meantime, enjoy being two with our little guys.

Let's roll!

Keep on truckin', baby!

No More Keebie-Eebies!

They threw away their keebie/eebies (pacifiers) last night!  In exchange, the boys got "big boy" bedding - star sheets and pillows and a spaceship comforter.  They were very excited about climbing in bed and playing with their new stuff...for awhile.

The complaining went on for about an hour and a half - an hour of chattering is not unusual if we put them to bed close to seven o'clock - with M complaining the loudest and longest.  About 8:45, we noticed it was quiet upstairs - Hallelujah!  Hubs and I were able to enjoy the rest of the evening in peace, reveling in our parenting awesomeness.

Then it was 1:00 am and M, the keebie lover, was out of his mind with frustration and loneliness, crying and reaching toward the bathroom where the keebie was resting in peace.  I made a mental note to be sure to empty the trash before they got out of bed in the morning.  Although he refused to be comforted by mommy, lovie, teddy or his new spaceship bedding, he did wind up falling asleep before two am.  So much for the awesomeness. 

We heard him again around 3:30, but let him be since we weren't any help the first time.  He must have gotten the hint. 

This morning, we were all exhausted and let the boys sleep in until 9:00.  Here they are waking up for the first time with their big boy bedding:

I will always love you, Keebie!  But I love my pillow, too.

Eebie?  He's missing?  Oh. Look at my spaceships!

N took it in stride and slept through his brother's hollering.  He didn't seem to care at all that his eebie was gone, although he DID run straight to the bathroom looking for it!  All he found was a clean can liner.  "Eat?  Eat?" were his next words. 

I was worried a bit about naptime but M fell asleep in minutes!  Guess he was up too late last night to worry about keebie for naps.  We'll see how it goes tonight.

Uncle A Week

We have had SUCH a busy week!  I'm sorry to have left you hanging, faithful readers!  I won't bore you with the details because we have so many fantastic highlights!  Uncle A is in town with us for a whole week and they boys are in love with him.  "Uncle A sleeping?" is the first think M says every morning!  And yes, Uncle A is always up last - I think he's enjoying his "vacation." 

We spent Wednesday morning at the MN Zoo with Uncle A and Grandpa A, where we snapped some cute photos in the chicken coop and the play area:

Daddy had Thursday off, so we explored River Bend Nature Center nearby. We told the boys we were going on a hike, and M was so excited he said, "Hike! Hike! Hike!" all the way there!  What's even funnier is that we were trying to buy sandwiches to take on our picnic and we had to stop a few times to finally find a place that was open (thank heaven's for Jimmy John's!) and each time we stopped the van, M would ask, "Eat-eat?  Eat-eat-time? Hike! Hike?"  Poor kid was so confused!  But we made it and it was worth the effort! 

Uncle, Daddy and two little indians

Rollin' on the River...

Here are some more MN Zoo pics...not sure why Blogger won't let me move them around today, but I'd rather you see them out of order than not at all!  Today Daddy had to go to work again, so Uncle A went with us to ECFE.  We promised him a good time at the end-of-the year school picnic and vehicle fair after class - we know he only went to see the fire engines - but it got rained out!  So we punted and had an impromptu party at McDonald's playplace with our two-year-old twin friends from school!  Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of the dozen two year olds and parents, but I promise you it was quite a sight!  And uncle A was quite a sport, climbing up into the two-story play structure with the fellas.  He said it was fun, but then someone (not my kid) was really stinky, which just may be what ended the playtime.

We have just one more day with Uncle A, but it's supposed to rain again tomorrow - boo!  We'll still hope that it will be nice enough to go out for a little bit because we think the farmer's market starts tomorrow! 

Peep! Peep!  I'm about to hatch!

Floater or Sinker?

I had just finished with N's pj's, Hubs was finishing M's bath, and I was about to run out the door, late to a meeting before even leaving.  I kissed N and stopped in the bathroom to kiss my handsome Hubs and wet little fishy, M. 

"OH!  Gross!  OH!  OH! OH!" I heard Handsome Hubs cry out as he lifted said little fishy out of the water.

Huh? Before I even opened my mouth to ask, he said, "I can do this!  I'm a parent!  I can't believe what you just did!  M said poo-poo in the tub, but I didn't know he meant he was doing it! How long has it been in there?  I can't believe I just bathed my kids in this!"  He set a sopping wet boy on the floor, reached into the bathwater, and picked out a tootsie-roll turd.

  I laughed all the way to my meeting.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

My boys are turning into chatterboxes!  Even N, who has let his brother do most of the talking until this week is getting in on the action!

N all dressed up for Mother's Day

N started talking this week!  Here are a few of the things he's saying:

• "Silly Daddy," when Hubs told him he was a silly boy in the bathtub last night.  I'm so glad I got to hear it!
• He counts the stairs as we go down together (there are 17 from the deck to the backyard) and it's so funny to hear which numbers come out!  "One, two, five, nine," One of these days, he'll call, "Hike!"
• "Baseball shirt," he said when I was dressing him one day after I said, "Let's put on your baseball shirt,"  
• "Jesus and Bibo" N LOVES his children's Bible and is often found reading it quietly in his bedroom.  All of the illustrated  characters look the same(with different hair colors!), so every page has a picture of Jesus on it.  There's no convincing him that that's Noah or Daniel or anyone else - they are ALL Jesus!
• "Door open!" it's the magic word to get the garage door to open when we return from our walks and key in the code. But today, he decided to open the interior garage door while I was putting on his brother's shoes.  "Door open!" and he turned the handle!

M is a REAL chatterbox!  He's been speaking in complete sentences for weeks now and he talks NONSTOP.  I actually told him to be quiet last night so I could hear what Hubs was trying to tell me when he came home!

• "Bee is coming," because one of our neighbors has a plastic bee in her flower garden.  It's so small we didn't even notice it the first time, but now when we turn that direction on our walks, we hear "Bee is coming, bee is coming, bee is coming, bee is coming...." until we get there. 
• "Big semi-truck!" every time we see one.
• "Two busses!" We often see busses when we drive to church on Tuesday mornings, so we count them together.
• "Silly Daddy...Mommy...Brudder..." or whomever!  I didn't notice that I said this often, but apparently, I do!
• "Mommy (or Daddy) drive the car." "Get the keys!" I buckle them into their seats and then run inside to collect our gear (can't do it all at once) and tell them I'm going to get the keys.
• "Moomie?" when he wants a DVD movie played in the van. N calls it a "mee-moo!"
• "Yes, Jesus loves me," he sings when we sing "Jesus loves me" at bedtime.  Amazingly, he's right on key - something he learned from his father, not me!  Then, "Again?" We wind up singing it several times.

There's one born every minute

I crossed a 6 month old item off of my to-do list today: upload and order photos.  I've been procrastinating for 6 months on this!  And Shutterfly knows it.

So they sent me a coupon code.  And heaven knows I love a good coupon!  For 50 free prints!  Maybe they "knew" I was a mom and would fall for the tag line, "You can never have enough pictures of your kids," maybe they "knew" I hadn't placed an order or updated my Shutterfly site in 6 months, or maybe everyone got the code...or maybe they knew my computer would cooperate today (it's been known not to).  It was the straw that broke this camel's back - because it expires today. 

Instead of tackling the long, long to-do list I actually DID write for myself to accomplish this week, I spent the last hour clicking, sorting, and uploading pictures of the boys from....oh, about Halloween to yesterday.  While I feel a tiny bit guilty for spending most of naptime messing around on the computer instead of getting actual "work" done, I do feel a sense of accomplishment for finally doing something I've been procrastinating on for so long!

Here's the link to our updated Shutterfly site, if you're interested...it's A LOT of pics, so be forewarned. 

http://auldstwins.shutterfly.com/

Now,  back to the laundry list of....laundry.

Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my number 1 blog reader!  I love you, and I'm glad you're having fun spending today with YOUR mom, daughter, granddaughters, sister, and nieces.
And Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, MVMOM friends, River Valley Moms friends, and all of my mommy friends - you ladies are the bee's knees!  Hope you're enjoying your special weekend!

We chose to keep our celebration low-key this year, with....wait for it.........

a visit to the local high school's "Healthy Kid's Day" fair yesterday because - you guessed it - there were weeeooo-weeeooo's there!  As you can see, M only liked the IDEA of the weeooweeoo's - when we got up close he wanted nothing to do with them.  N, on the other hand, climbed up into the firetruck, police car, and sheriff's boat, collecting his sticker badges with pride.

The guys also got a chance to plant a flower for me.  They are the first flowers to grace our deck this spring!

Today was spent just how I wanted it: we dressed up, went to church and lunch together as a family.  Fortunately, it rained only during naptime, so we were able to spend the evening playing, playing, playing and walking the paths in our neighborhood.  What a perfect mother's day! 

The Great Outdoors

It finally feels like spring out there!  We've been spending our afternoons outdoors this week and it's been GLORIOUS!  I've even been giving them their snack on the deck on a cute little picnic table:

 We've been going for walks in our new neighborhood and discovering the many playgrounds hidden within.  When we stroll by, M asks, "play? Play? Play?"  then N pipes up, "Play?"  A bit later on our stroll, when we roll by another one, he asks, "play 'gain? play 'gain?"  They just can't get enough!

 There's just enough slope in this area for the guys to push their cozy coupes up the grass, then ride them down the sidewalk on the other side of the little pine tree.  They love this game and will play it for hours! okay, minutes - but it seems like hours!

Maybe someday he'll try out for the Twins!  And what's cuter than 2 little boys at a picnic table?  4 little boys, of course!  Our best buds came over for fun in the great outdoors yesterday - until it downpoured! 

We are all so happy for sunshine and warmer weather!  It couldn't come soon enough - welcome, spring!

Uncle?

Last summer, I made a Shutterfly book with pictures of all of our extended family members so that the boys could see all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins whenever they wanted.  I thought this was such a stroke of genius! 

While I sometimes believe that my boys are also geniuses, yesterday I determined that they are not.  Because we picked up this "Trucks" book at a garage sale over the weekend and for some reason they think "construction worker," the guy who drives the bulldozer, is named "Uncle." 

Neither my brother nor any of my brothers-in-law work construction!  By they're pretty sure this guy is their uncle.  Go figure.

Good News! Bath Night!

I found my phone!  It wasn't lost long, but I have a terrible habit of misplacing it when it's on vibrate, I'm alone, and it's nighttime. 

I received my new bedding!  I've never had a problem ordering anything from Amazon, but I didn't realize I was buying this item from a vendor selling through Amazon, so (dun-dun-dun) it took a MONTH for the right item to arrive, complicated of course by the fact that I MOVED during that period!  

AND, I found my camera's charger!  You, poor readers, have been paying the price all month because I've taken no new pictures.  Once it was charged, I took pics of our first activity - bath night.  My boys get a bath every other night whether they need it or not (they always do).  Just eating they get dirty!  If you look closely I think you can see guacamole under M's nose - or it could be a booger.  Either way, they were really funny tonight in the tub.  Here are my little hams:

N's curls rinsed out - look how long his hair is!

N's curls, before the wash

Cutie Patootie Peeking N

Smiley M - I think he looks so big here!

Blue, green, red, blue...choo! Choo!

No, red, then, green, then blue

Okay, N, but I'll make it two blues.

Whatever.