Future Violinist?

For those of you who don't know, I played the violin for 7 years when I was in school. Sadly, it has been collecting dust in the closet ever since. The other day Ethan saw it in the top of my closet and asked if he could play it. I got it out and was suprised that he knew how to do it! We had a little family band going that night. Mondo on the drums, Ethan on the violin, Mommy on the guitar, and Caleb singing.

I was impressed at how well he held it and knew how to "play". He had trouble holding on to it since it's a bit too big.

Tada! He has asked every day since then if he could play mommy's violin. He unpacks it and then packs it back up when he's done. So cute!

Sorry!

Caleb has been saying so many new words lately it's hard to keep up! I tried to get some on video but all he wanted to say was "sorry". He does say "shut it" once on the video (that's what I say to the dogs sometimes). :-) Here's the list of what he can say...which is mainly for myself to keep a record of it: hi, bye, nana, papa, momo, daddy, momma, bubba (Ethan), melmo (Elmo), night night, please, thank you, bee, shut it, sorry, no, yes, shush, dog, bear, chip, juice, blah, bite, one, two, three. That's all I think of at the moment. He can say some of his ABC's and loves to sing the song.

VBS 2009

Ethan had VBS a couple of weeks ago and he loved it! The first day he didn't want me to leave him. I think he was a little unsure of what was going to happen. But when I picked him up that day he said he had so much fun and couldn't wait to go back. The next morning when I dropped him off he said "I'm not gonna cry for you...you're gonna come pick me up right?" Each day it was so cool to see how excited he was to tell me all about what happened that day. One day he got to be Pharoah and all the kids put clothes pins and stickers on his as part of the plagues. He thought that was the coolest thing ever. He told me he loved VBS even more than Chuch E Cheese and Pump it Up. Now that's saying something! He came home with cute little crafts and snacks. I think I'll help out next year so I can see all the fun things he gets to do!

This was the first morning. All the different age groups wore different colored bandanas. He was a "minnow" and they wore orange.

I didn't get a close up and the picture is dark, but they had a cute set up at the front of the activity center. It had a little boat with a guy and an alligator. Ethan thought it was pretty cool.

This area was really cute. This is where they went to make their crafts.

Thanks to Ellen for sending me this picture! Ethan is making a fish craft.

Ellen also sent me this picture of his blue tongue.

I spent the last day of VBS with him while Mom watched Caleb. We spent 3 hours at Mike Lewis Park and it was freakin' hot!!

I led the small kids on a nature walk to find things that God made.

Here they are discovering a feather. They also discovered a spider...until Ethan stomped on it and proudly said, "Now he's dead!" Oh my...

Here's our little group. Not the best picture with the sun/shade. Ethan is leaning in in the right.

Ethan's buddy Liam.

Here they are playing Duck Duck Goose. Or as they called it Crock Crock Gator. We have since played that many times at our house. Caleb still doesn't get it. :-)

He borrowed Liam's Batman hat and wore it for about an hour!

So hot!

Ahh, he's covered in the sweet relief of a snow cone! And some left over ketchup from his hotdog. :-)

He Swims! Well, sort of...

Daddy gets the gold star for this one! As you know, Ethan has been a little reluctant about swimming...until he got a Spiderman life jacket! Mondo bought it a few weeks ago and now Ethan has no fear! Well, he still won't jump off the side without a little encouragement. But, he is amazed at how he can float and not go under. I got him some goggles the other day and now he swims with his face under the water. I'm so proud! He wants to go swimming all the time now. We're working on his skills a little each time. We'll look at doing swim lessons next summer. For now, we're just enjoying our little swimming Spiderman!

He barely kicks his legs and hardly uses his arms so he's a little slow. We're working on it and he's getting a little faster each day. This was at my parent's pool the first day he wore the life jacket.

Happy July 3rd!

This year my family helped me out by celebrating July 4th on the 3rd since I work weekends. It worked out better for me to have it on Friday. We went to my parent's house and had BBQ and all the trimmings. It was so good! I was sad to miss out on seeing fireworks with the kids but it turned out they went to bed early so I didn't miss anything.

Mondo wakes up early and goes to my parent's house to help fire up the wood burning grill. This year Ethan went with him and helped cook. He loved it! We will have to make that the new tradition that he gets to go help too.

Helping Papa with the home made sauce.

Gotta sample it to make sure it's just right! He called me to tell me that he ate BBQ and I was shocked. Turned out that he was just dipping bread in the sauce...but that was still an accomplishment for my super picky eater!

Ahh, such a good helper!

"Hmmm...I don't know about this hot dog." I love his face! And no, he didn't eat even half of that food.

Yum, how about a star shaped donut instead. Thanks Aunt Shawna! Actually, he just ate off the blue icing.

Ethan and his cousin Hailey. They are both saying "cheese".

This was my attempt to get a cute picture of them. I forgot to get one before we left the house. Once we got to my parent's house it was all over. Caleb was too busy to sit still and smile for the camera.

We Love Daddy! (A Belated Father's Day Post)

This post is dedicated to Mondo to tell everyone what a great daddy he is! I couldn't have asked for a better father for my kids. He calls from work to talk to them. He greets them with a hug everyday when he comes home from work. He has done an awesome job of taking care of them while I work weekend nights. He is even brave enough to take them out together while I sleep. He can now clean vomit and dirty diapers without gagging. He takes extra special care of them when they are sick. He lets Ethan sleep with him on the weekends when I'm at work. He takes off work on occassion to have family time since we don't get to have that on the weekends. He doesn't hesitate to do anything I ask for the kids. He sees the need to spend alone time with each of them. He participates in wrestle mania and lets the kids climb on him like a jungle gym. He went to every pediatrician visit for at least the first year with both kids. He attends all special functions at Ethan's school no matter how long they last. He sings silly songs and does silly impersonations to make them laugh hysterically. The list is endless with the things he does for the boys. Thank you Mondo for being an awesome dad to our boys!

Caleb the Climber is Almost 19 Months Old!

Where did my baby go? I suddenly find myself looking at this BIG boy! It still seems that he is changing more every day. He is still into everything as you will see in all the pictures below. He is finally trying to talk. He can probably say about 20 words but he doesn't say them often. His favorites are Mama, Dada, Bubba, shoe...and BLAH! Yes, he is totally obsessed with the dragon from Baby Einstein. Technically his name is Bard but Caleb calls him Blah. He says it all day long and points to the TV. Unfortunantly the video part on my digital camera is broken but when I get a new one I need to record him saying Blah. It's so cute! I even got him a stuffed Blah off of ebay. What a good mommy I am!

He still loves his pacifier and I've decided to stop stressing about when to take it away. My master plan is for it to be gone by the time he is two. He really doesn't use it that much anymore unless he is sleepy. Right this minute he is actually going cold turkey because Mondo couldn't find one to put in his bed. Most of them are lost. Could be a long night.....

He amazes me with what he will eat. He will try anything and like most of it. The other day he tried a salmon patty with onions and peppers at my mom's and he loved it! I'm enjoying it while it lasts. We all know how Ethan is with his picky eating!

He is such a Momma's boy!! He wants to be with me every second of the day and screams when he doesn't get to. If I go into the kitchen to get something he screams at the baby gate until I pick him up. One of my favorite funny things he does it when Mondo hugs me and Caleb sees us. He comes running up and tries to squeeze between us and screams for me and tries to push Mondo out of the way. He thinks I'm ALL HIS!

He pulled out the drawers to climb up on the countertop. They now have locks on so he can't do that! Please excuse the mess in this picture and all other bathroom pictures. It is in constant disarray because of this little guy! He pulls everything out of the drawers and cabinets and throws it on the floor and countertop.

Ta-da!

Here is something else he likes to do in my bathroom. He gets all my headbands and wraps them around his neck. It's so funny to watch him put them on one at a time. But then he gets frustrated when he tries to take them off and they scratch his neck!

This is at my parent's house. He scaled the chair to get on the horse. He can now get on the horse just by climbing up be he can't get down on his own.

I love this picture. He looks so mischievious. Check out his "neckbands".

Roar!

Does that face look like he's supposed to be up there? I think not. He scaled the side of the toy box to get up there. (Side note: Notice he's wearing the same onesie in almost every pic...that's because he did all of this in the same day! See why I'm tired all the time?!)

This is in Ethan's room. He climbs the Elmo tool bench and turns the light on and off. The box on the wall next to the light is the heater. He turns that on sometimes and I don't know it until I go in there later an it's a sauna!

Trying to escape out the back door of the playroom. He pushes this firetruck up to lots of stuff he's not supposed to get into!

He climbs on top of this table and then crawls into the hole in the middle. I'll so in there and just see his head sticking out!

Ethan's End of School Program

I almost forgot to blog about Ethan's end of school program! For their program they got to wear pajamas and bring their teddy bear to school. Ethan was pretty excited when Mommy bought him some new Wolverine pj's. It was either that or he would have demanded to wear his long sleeve Kung Fu Panda pj's that almost come up to his elbow because they are too small! He looked so grown up on stage. He did a great job and didn't sling one web! I'm excited to see what he will get to do the next year in the 4's class. Oh, and a special thank you to Nana and Papa for controlling Caleb during the show so Mondo and I could get good pictures and video! :-)

He was waiting to start the show, cheesing it up for Mommy and Daddy.

So handsome!

I think it's funny that they are all doing a different action when they are all singing the same song.

They performed a song with the bigger kids. That's his cousin Morgan standing behind him in the red shirt and red hat (brown hair).

That's most of the school, minus the oldest class. Ethan is kind of mid-left, 2nd row from the top.

They all look thrilled. Can you tell it was first thing in the morning and they aren't fully awake yet?

He was being silly and putting his teddy bear on his head. This was right outside his classroom.

This was also outside his classroom by his cubby.