More Flowers

Like last year, I once again found cute little pots with flower seeds in them at the dollar spot at Target. The boys have been asking me to paint and plant them for a while now and we finally got to it today. Tyler loaded up his pot with paint covering every piece of it with at least two different colors. Carter painted some on the pot, but ended up more in his hair and on the newspaper. At least they had fun doing it. I am going to try a little experiment with them and only water them when they ask me to. Lets see if these will grow into something or not.

On another note I must saw that Tyler had a great morning. We have had some issues with him - not listening, getting angry again easily and not dealing with that anger properly, talking back, just over all disobedience. Today however when we went up upstairs to get dressed he did it right away om his own with no complaints, He then cleaned up his room the first time I mentioned it. He has had a couple time outs, but they were pretty minor infractions. Carter is having a tougher day today (still won't nap without that pacifier) so its very nice to see Tyler behaving so well. I hope this continues and Carter takes his lead and follows suit.

In Remembrance

We had a busy Memorial Weekend planned with a LOT of yard work to do. Unfortunately because of the rain, we could only work for a few hours every morning. We still managed to get a lot done and the boys loved helping us plant the flowers and getting all muddy. We did get done what we most wanted to do, which was plant some flowers in remembrance of our baby that we lost. We planted some yellow day lily's in memory. We also redid our other flower garden and planted some annuals in a big pot that has been sitting by our front door since we moved in. This is the first time we have ever tried planting flowers, so we are hoping that it works out ok. The boys are already asking to go and water the flowers again, so maybe with their help the flowers have a chance.

A Couple More

A couple more funny sayings that I forgot about.

When Carter burps he announces that his "mouth farted". We are working in excuse me instead.

The other night Carter wasn't going to bed like he should. Tyler comes out of his room and tells us "You need to deal with him".

The Fairy Came to Town

The pacifier fairy that is. The boys have been having their pacifiers at nights only for almost 2 years now. However with Tyler's dentist mentioning it and Carter increasing tantrums over them we had decided that it was time for them to go permanently. The beys did a great job placing all their plugs into the bag. The pacifier fairy would pick them up and bring them to babies who needed them. They then went to bed with no tears. However it took them two hours to fall asleep. When they woke up they were excited to find the pacifier fairy brought them motorcycles to thank them. Yesterday we were out and about so they fell asleep in the car. Tyler continued to nap at home for another 30 minutes or so. Carter (who had just fallen asleep before we got to the driveway) woke up and refused to go back to sleep. Last night Carter fell right to sleep with no problems. Tyler was a little tougher, but he was also complaining that his legs hurt so we don't know the real culprit. Today, once again the naps happened in the car. Hopefully tonight will be easy again and we can have real naps tomorrow. There really haven't been any tears over it, so the transition is going better than expected.

Bus Driver

Tyler has always loved to make up stories about what he is or where he is going. Now those stories involve everyone. The newest story that we play out quite frequently is bus driver. First Tyler has to get his bus all lined up. He drags every single one of our patio chairs into rows. Then he sits in the front car or "the captains chair". From then he calls each of us one by one onto the bus. He even makes a door out of his baseball bat and a piece of chalk that he opens and closes for each of us. We each have assigned seating as well. We then go to different places - school, the mall, etc. Occasionally Tyler will let Carter be co-captain with him - usually without any prompting from me. That even makes the story better.

Funny Sayings

The boys are always cracking us up with the things they say and do - here is a recent sampling....

• Carter still loves to sing - his new favorite is blues. He loves to go around singing B.B. King's Everyday I Got the Blues. His version "ebry day ebry day I got da blues". I need to put the video of him doing it up - its quite cute.
  
• Like any other kid, both boys can do anything they want - if they want to do it. If they don't want to do it, all of a sudden they can't. Carter will go from pulling stuff all over the yard to telling me can't carry his plate to the sink because "its to heavy for me because I am little."
• Tyler is the same. He will go from bucking himself into his car seat, brushing his own teeth, etc, to not being able to put his shoes on himself because "its to hard for me."
• Tyler knows his animals very well. Being that we go to the zoo so often he hardly ever mixes animals up. Except for the porcupine - he still calls its a pine cone. He came in from outside today announcing that the pine cone had to go potty.
  

Favorite Things

Carter says things that I can't believe comes out of his mouth. On the way to the zoo the other day the boys had their new summer hats on. Carter asked me if the animals were going to eat his hats and I told him no they wouldn't unless they threw them into the animal cages. Carter responds "I won't throw my hat into the animals because that would be dangerous." You're right Carter that would be and when did you start getting that vocabulary? I have to remind myself many times throughout a given week that he is only two and a half - which would explain all the tantrums.

Recap

On Thursday Nana came up to visit. She made us a wonderful dinner Thursday night and the boys had fun showing off their baseball skills. On Friday we went to the mall and Nana watched the boys in the play area while I did some shopping on my own - so nice. Then during naps (and after) I was able to get my nails done and do a couple other errands. On Friday night she also watched the boys while Justin covered state track and I got to go to Leah's shower. I had a great time spending time with the girls, and it was very nice knowing the boys were home playing games as happy as can be with Nana. She then helped me out at soccer and then headed home during naps. It was a great time and I enjoyed all the help. The boys had a great time as well.

Today we headed to the park, which was quite crowded as a nearby preschool was having their field day there as well. The boys behaved mostly. Carter had one time out incident for not staying near me and then running away when I called him back. But overall the boys had a great time. Tyler wanted to do everything on his own and impressed me with his pumping skills on the big swings. Carter is still my daredevil and wants to try to climb on everything. After some time at the playground we played some football in the grass. Tyler was into this more that Carter, but we all had fun none the less. The weather has been gorgeous and I think that is putting all of us in good moods. Life is good.

Zoo Fun

Yesterday the weather was once again beautiful so we headed to the zoo. Since its the last week of school here, there were filed trips galore at the zoo. We hurried through it somewhat just because it was so crowded. Of course we did all the favorites. Some highlights - the boys no longer like to feed the giraffes. Well Tyler still likes to but gets afraid so I have to help him. After one cracker Carter is over it and wants to move on....do we go there to much or something? The grizzly bears were wrestling in the water together - always a fun experience. We got to see a couple peacocks with all their feathers fanned out. One just kept walking in circles showing them off to everyone. The boys thought it was quite pretty. We saw another one with its feathers out in the gorilla enclosures. The gorillas didn't seem to care that a peacock invaded their territory. Also in the Ape house we got to see the new baby orangutan - very cute. I gave a kissy face to another orangutan only for it to give it kissy faces back to me. The boys had a blast "kissing" the orangutan - this went one for a good couple minutes. After lunch, a ride on a carousel and seeing the hippos sleeping once again (its so much more fun when they are in the water) we were off for home. Even though we hurried through the boys and I had a great time as always. And the best part - the boys behaved great holding my hands and taking turns getting to see the animals (with all the school kids, sometimes they had to wait to get and up close view).

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day thanks to my very sweet boys. Justin let me sleep in some in the morning. When I got up I was greeted with cards from all three boys and lots of hugs. We played some in the morning and then headed off to the Rockies game. The boys took their naps on the car ride up there and did very well at the game. After 3 and a half innings Carter was ready to go home, but once we got some snacks he was good again. Carter learned that its a lot of fun to throw peanut shells on the ground and Tyler really liked looking for Dinger, the mascot. The Rockies won and we had a great time. The boys did fall asleep on the way home making bedtime a little difficult, but nothing to bad. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Sunshine is here again...

for now at least. We have been enjoying the past week of beautiful days. We even pulled out the shorts! The boys love getting to play outside all day long and get back t digging in the dirt, playing baseball, finding bugs, and climbing trees. The play separate plenty of times, but at least once every few minutes they come together and see what treasure the other one has found outside. Priceless.

All Clean

Tyler had a dentist appointment yesterday and I am very proud of how well he did. Unlike last time I let him go back by himself. When the hygienist came out to get him, he asked me to help him. I just reminded him he could do it and he was brave and strong and away he went. They came back shortly telling me Tyler did great. They were able to get x-rays and do a fluoride treatment. Best part no cavities. The dentist asked Tyler if he uses a pacifier and he said no. When she asked him about bedtime he said "umm yeah". Guess its about time to give that thing up for good.

Hard Head

I really think Carter must have a hard head. Tyler always had a high pain tolerance, but Carter has always seemed to have a pretty normal one...except when it comes to his head. As documented many times on here before Carter gets his share of scrapes, bruises, and cuts. The past few weeks have been no exception.

At the Children's Museum in St Louis they had this giant wheel that you would spin and as it would spin different music notes would play. On the outside of the wheel were bolts that attached to the pipes that played the music. We were walking away from it when a man stopped me and said "you son was just hit by the wheel." I look over to see Carter doing the silent scream - you know the one right before the really loud one comes. I pick him up and he lets it out, however then he immediately wants down so he can explore some more. He was left with a black eye and a scrape. All of this happened within 5 minutes of us getting there.

On Sunday Oma had arrived and we were hanging out in the living room. Carter was just walking around and tripped on Hana's bed and fell into our wood pile for the fire place. He cried for maybe 2 minutes. He immediately has a goose egg and a week later the bruise is starting to go away. On the way upstairs to bed (15 minutes later) Carter tripped and fell on the stairs. It was hardly anything. If you asked him how he got his owie on his head he would tell you from the stairs however. I guess the saying "he will only do it once" doesn't apply to this kid.

St Louis Day Four

Monday morning the Gunisson Pedersons, Nana, and us went to the St Louis Science Center. The boys once again had a blast building structures up, watching construction vehicles drive past from the windows in the hallways, and seeing dinosaur bones. From there we headed to a quick lunch and said good bye and went back to the hotel where Carter and I napped. Then it was onto the airport. Once again the boys did great on the place, although no one slept. Once off the plane we did everything to keep the boys awake until we had some dinner and then it was off to dream world for them as soon as we hit the car. All in all it was a great trip and we had a great time seeing everyone!

St Louis Day Three

The boys were awake by 6 am this morning so we let them watch t.v. and had a lazy morning in the hotel room. Around noon everyone met up again and we decided to go to The Magi House, otherwise known as the Children's Museum. Because of a marathon that was running right in front of the hotel it took us an hour just to get onto the highway. However this was perfect as it allowed the boys to nap.

The Children's Museum is awesome. They have things for kids of all ages. The boys had an absolute blast. Carter loved to play in the water works, where they have a bunch of water tables set up. Tyler loved the car that he was allowed to "fix" They had wheels you could put on, you checked under the hood, checked all the filters, etc. Both of the boys also liked getting to "fish". They have magnetic fish that you catch and then release in another part of the building, You get to watch your fish swim back down stream to the pond. Their favorite part however had to be the construction site. They had a site where a house was being built. The boys got to lay tile, put pipes together for a bathroom, sit in a loader, wear hard hats, and move around rock gravel in wheel barrows. Can't get better than that for our boys! At the museum we said good bye to the Minnesota gang and also The Chicago Pedersons.

For dinner that night the rest of us walked to a pizza joint. This was the one time in the whole trip we had issues with Tyler. However after a time out he shaped up pretty quick. Nana and the Gunison Pedersons were going up to Chicago the next day so we made plans for the morning and made it to bed at bedtime for once.

St Louis Day Two

The boys slept in til 8, which Justin and I were very happy about. We woke up to see that Uncle Lee, Aunt Dana, Alex, Andy, and Zac made it to the hotel late the night before. We had breakfast together and then went outside the front of the hotel to see a parade passing by. The kids all loved the candy and necklaces that were given out. Once the Minnesota crew (Aunt Dawnie, Uncle Duane, Kim, Theron, and now Kayley) arrived we headed out to the St Louis Zoo.

The zoo there is huge and there is so much to see. Of course the boys loved seeing the hippos, but there were also seals, elephants, a huge penguin exhibit, a children's zoo (which we didn't go to), monkeys galore, and a train that went around the whole zoo. I would say we were there for a good four hours and only saw a third of the zoo.

After the zoo everyone went back to the hotel to take naps. However our boys fell asleep before we even left the parking lot so we just drove around for an hour or so while they napped. Once they woke up we went to Dawnie's room and the boys got to eat a bunch of sweets and play with Theron. For dinner that night the hotel found a place for our gang of 21. We ate dinner where all 9 kids acted very well and then it was onto bed. Once again no problems with the boys falling asleep.

St Louis Day One

For a mini family reunion on the Pederson side we took a long weekend trip to St Louis. Because of a snow storm we had to leave around 5am to make sure we would make it to the airport on time Friday morning. Tyler was so excited to ride on the plane again that he woke up at 4. The boys once again did great on the plane. We checked their carseats this time so I was somewhat concerned about them in their seats, but Carter only tried to take off his seat belt once and then it wasn't a problem. Tyler slept for maybe 20 minutes of the ride while Carter slept none.

When we got off the plane Nana and Bapa were waiting. They took the boys to the hotel on the light rail while Justin and I got the rental car. After some lunch at the hotel we tried to get the boys to have some naps, but they would have nothing to do with that. We met up with Uncle Boyd, Aunt Sharalee, Griffin, Noah, and Faith. We grabbed some dinner when Aunt Dawnie, Uncle Duane, Kim, and Theron met up with us. By the time we were done it was close to 10 o'clock and needless to say the boys were ready for bed (with no naps at all that day we were very pleased at their great behavior). We weren't sure how they would sleep sharing the same bed, but once again we were pleasantly surprised.

Back At It....

Ok I am going to try to finally play catch up on this blog. Before we went to St Louis we took the boys to a Sky Sox game. Carter had earned it on his potty chart* and Tyler has all of a sudden become obsessed with baseball once again so we thought it was a great time. Not sure if it was the cold weather or what but after one inning Carter was ready to go home. Tyler loved watching Sox the Fox once again and remembered all his antics from last year. And also like last year he was terrified with the fox came close to him. We let the boys jump on the bounce house in the kids zone and walked around the park for a bit before we headed home at the 6th inning. We are hoping they start enjoying the games more as we are going to a Rockies game for Mothers day, and would like to stay more than the first inning.

*On a potty training note, Carter was doing a great job. However then his two year molars came in which meant some tummy problems so he went back to pull-ups for the St Louis trip and since then I haven't had the energy to start up again. However yesterday morning he woke up and went straight to the potty all by himself so he is ready. I just need to be.