Where has the time gone? Every time I think I'm catching up, life gets away from me again. But, we're happy and healthy, so I'm not complaining! And with that said, here is our life in February . . .
Parks
Mixed in with the rainy days, we've had some nice days too. And so, we take advantage when we can and head outdoors. We even brought the bikes along to the park one day to give them practice riding outside of the garage!
My boys helped me scout out some photoshoot locations and I try my best to snap pictures of them when they'll allow it . . .
Brothers
These boys are a little bit wild, a little bit trouble and a whole lot of fun. Here is a collection of random pictures of our lives around the house.
Owen decided yogurt was a good hair conditioner and ended up with this killer hairstyle when we tried to clean it up with a washcloth. He looks thrilled, no?
Somehow we went astray with Henry's nighttime routine. It went from him going to bed wonderfully on his own, to calling us up once at night. And than once turned to twice and twice turned to many more times than that. He's definitely a creature of habit, so if you give in to him once, prepare to give in to him every time after that!
Unfortunately, this new routine meant he wasn't getting enough sleep and we were not getting enough kid-free time in the evenings. Can I blame the blog being behind on that? And so, we set out to reset his patterns. And it was a rough rough evening! He screamed on and off for hours, woke Owen up a multiple times (from all the noise - he wasn't trying to wake his brother up), left his room half a dozen times and was not happy about the change. Many many times I wanted to run up there, give him what he wanted (a bandaid, a new book, snuggles, you name it) and end the evening, but I knew it wouldn't make tomorrow any easier.
We took turns walking him back to his room every time he left it (without saying a word - very hard when you're exhausted and frustrated), took away all his books and toys in his bed as a response to his fits and did our best to stay strong as a team. Just when I thought I couldn't handle it any longer, there was silence. When we went to bed, this is what we found:
Apparently he was as exhausted as we were and crashed on the floor in his doorway! And as hard as the process was, I am glad we stuck to it. That was over a month ago, and he has done an amazing job going to bed. Of course we have off nights, but it is nothing like what it was before this. We couldn't be prouder of his progress!
A zookeeper costume on clearance always makes for some entertainment!
Owen had been begging for a snack while we were making dinner. Not wanting to ruin his appetite, we didn't give him as much as he was wanting. Somehow he managed to get into the pantry and find his own snack. We just figured he was rearranging it like he usually does and were surprised when we turned around to see he had bit through the cookie packaging and helped himself to a snack. It's always a tossup, but getting the camera took priority over saving his appetite for dinner . . .
Henry likes to tell on Owen when he finds him doing things he's not supposed to. Most of the time, I actually think it's to help out, but sometimes it's just to get him into trouble (who can blame him, it was always the best when you got to see your sibling in trouble). You know, typical brother stuff. So, I was curious what he would do when he rounded the corner and saw Owen sneaking cookies from the pantry. Apparently he decided joining in on the trouble was a better result!
And, when they're really getting bored around the house, bringing out the ball pit balls is always a good option. They're still having a good time diving into the pack and play, so it was definitely a hit. I knew Henry knew how to get in the ball pit himself, but I was surprised to see Owen bring a step stool over, climb up and dive head first into the pack and play one day. That kid is definitely a daredevil and keeps us on our toes!
And some more happenings . . .
Henry & Owen's favorite activity lately is jumping off the couch. Every night after our picture time (more about that below), they take turns jumping off on to Tilly's bed. Henry is pretty cautious about the whole thing, but Owen is completely fearless. Not that it makes this mama nervous, or anything!
One of my favorite times of year - easter candy, Girl Scout cookies and Timber Joey milkshakes at Burgerville. Yum!
365 Outtakes
Another New Year's resolution I had was to take a picture of the boys everyday. Nothing special, but I wanted them to be in the same spot (or it's equivalent if we're away from home), so I could see how they change over the year. After my big fat fail on day 1 (I totally forgot!), I set some annoying alarms on both Nate's and my phones and between the 2 of us, we have taken that picture every day since then. Resolutions don't have to start on the 1st, right?
As you can imagine, this is not really their favorite thing to do all day, so it's usually a bit crazy. I try not to be too picky, but these were definitely some outtakes . . .
"I'm an X Mommy! Now I'm a Y!"
Owen brushing Tilly with his toothbrush - it was probably time for a fresh one anyway!
Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with all the daily pictures! Although I think I might actually like the outtakes more!
Children's Museum
Although it was a nice day and I tried to convince Henry we should go to the zoo, he insisted on the Children's Museum. He told me that maybe we could do the zoo next time. Such a sweet kid. Wonder where he's heard that reasoning before?
Honestly, though, I was pretty excited to go there too and check out the new Storyland exhibit. It had a ton of fun interactive exhibits, so it was definitely a hit.
Henry absolutely loved this part. He is so into his letters these days (another blog post is in the making about his letters, hopefully it will be posted sometime soon) and loved matching up the upper and lower case letters as they went by. And of course it was pretty fun to push the button to stop it or slow it down!
And of course we hit up as many of the regular exhibits as we could fit in!
And there you have it. A big dose of Reagan family fun!
