Turtleman

Ethan has a new pet. We found him yesterday in the parking lot at the playground by our house. He is so cute!! First he wanted to name him turtle, not very unique. I told him to pick something else so he chose Spiderman...there's a suprise! I said he couldn't name him Spiderman because he was a turtle. So he named him Turtleman. Whatever. I created a little habitat for him. I hope he doesn't die because Ethan already loves this little guy! He wanted to know where his mommy was. I told him that he got lost so he had to be his big brother and take care of him. He said, "Ok, I will take care of him!" He didn't want to leave him alone in the dark this morning when he went to school so I had to leave a light on for him.

He just sat there and posed for the camera!

He's not much bigger than a nickel!

Checking out his new habitat.

I'll have to get him something bigger if he lives long enough to grow big. I hope he does because I don't want to have to explain turtle heaven to a 4 year old!

Caleb is 16 months old!

Oh, where to begin with my little Caleb? He is such a busy little guy. He's my rowdy snuggle-bug. He LOVES to cuddle with his mommy! Really, I can hardly put him down...ever. I'm trying to enjoy it because I know it won't last forever but it's really difficult to get anything done around the house! Sometimes I find myself carrying him around the house and then stop and wonder how long I've been holding him and why I didn't put him down earlier. I think I'm getting scoliosis from constantly tilting my hip to the right when he's sitting on it!

He is still into everything. If a cabinet or drawer is not locked, he's emptying it. He loves to throw the pots and pans on the floor in the kitchen and listen to the LOUD noise it makes. He's only allowed to do that when I'm tring to cook dinner.

Here's an action shot of him chowing down a popsicle at Nana and Papa's. He will still eat pretty much anything I put in front of him. He is easy to take to restaurants now because he will eat whatever. I'm dreading the day when he becomes picky like his brother...and his mother. :-)

Here he is eating at Nana and Papa's. He always gets an assortment of whatever he wants there. Notice he has three different sippy cups with three different drinks in them...he's not spoiled or anything.

He had his check up last week. He weighed 23 pounds and was 31 inches long. He's 25th% for weight (I was suprised because he's not skinny!) and 50th% for height. He checked out good for everything. He got three shots. It was so sad. It definitely gets harder the older they get. I remember crying when Ethan got his very first shots but boy was it worse when he was 4! He is finally starting to talk a little. He can say momma, dada, daddy, yes, shoes, outside, that, slide, dog, juice. I think that's it. We didn't know he could say "yes" until a few weeks ago. Mondo asked him if he wanted to go outside and he took his paci out of his mouth and said "yes". We were stunned! Most of the time if you ask him if he wants to do something he smiles and shakes his head "no". He loves to dance and is starting to sing. He'll try to sing along to the Wiggles and I swear he knows the tunes. He should since that's the only thing he'll watch!

We're still working on the sleeping situation...or lack of. He honestly has only slept through the night 5 or 6 times...in his 16 months of life!!! Needless to say, we're a little tired. Lately he's been waking up once then I bring him to my bed and he sleeps until morning. But he is a wild sleeper. He flips and flops, bangs his head into the headboard, and constantly needs to hold my hand or touch me. So I'm not really sleeping well when he's with me. We decided it was time to kick him out of the nest. This week we've been keeping him in his own bed all night. He goes to sleep just fine in his own bed. For those of you who are wondering, he is awake 90% of the time when we put him to bed and he goes to sleep on his own...so that's not the problem. I think the problem is that he wakes up and wants me. So, here's what I tried. He wakes up crying, I go in, give him the paci that he lost, pick him up for about 20 seconds, put him back down, walk out. Then he cries for a while and goes back to sleep. He still wakes up around 3-5 times. I thought maybe the picking him up was making him sad because he thought I was going to take him to the bed but then put him down. So the last two nights I didn't pick him up. I gave him his paci and laid him back down and left and he didn't cry. By the way, he is actually standing up in the bed screaming EVERY time I go in. It's not like he's crying in his sleep. So...any thoughts on what I should do different???

Who doesn't love bubbles?

This boy would live outside if I would let him. He loves to explore...and eat dirt...and rocks. I usually keep his paci in his mouth when he's outside so he doesn't put things in it!

Sleepy Baby

Caleb fell asleep in his high chair today at lunch. I grabbed my camera while Ethan played with him. The video got funnier each time I watched it. These kids crack me up!

Mondo's Birthday...(part 2)

On Mondo's actual birthday we had some family time. We had a cake waiting for him and some pictures the kids painted. Then we went to eat at Rainforest (I don't know who picked that place). :-) After eating we had to go to Gameworks for some video games...again, I don't know who's decision that was.

This was the best red velvet cake ever!!! I will now only buy them from the Red Oven in Arlington.

Ethan picked out the Cars balloon and the yellow tulips. He said, "Daddy needs tulips...you know...like Toot and Puddle." That's a TV show he watches on Noggin.

I bought a coffee cup that the kids could draw on to give to Mondo since he has become a coffee drinker after having children! There's no suprise what Ethan drew: superheros. Aren't they cute? He wanted me to label all of them so Daddy would know who they were.

Caleb's was a little more abstract...I love it!

Those are finger paintings. The kids used the color wonder fingerpaints and they loved them...so did I...no mess!

Daddy and Ethan at Rainforest.

Daddy and Caleb...I know, I know. They boy always has a pacifier! I couldn't get it out of his kung fu grip for the picture.

Caleb loves to drink out of straws now which is great because I don't always have to have a sippy cup. But I have to watch him because sometimes he like to pull the straw out with his teeth.

I took this picture for Aunt Lou. This giant butterfly was right above our table flapping it's wings open and shut.

Ethan LOVES Rainforest but he always covers his ears when the gorillas start getting loud and the lights start flashing. It's so cute how he folds his ears over!

Caleb, on the other hand, loves all of the commotion!

Caleb tore into Ethan's pizza! He grabbed the whole slice and chowed down.

This isn't the greatest picture since it's fuzzy, Ethan's eyes are closed, and Caleb isn't looking. But, it was Mondo's birthday volcano! The picture doesn't do it justice. It probably feeds about 5 people!

Ethan and Daddy at Gameworks.

Ethan and Daddy playing a shooting game where you shoot at giant bugs...gross.

He even rode in this simulator thing. Not really sure what it did...I was too busy chasing Caleb and pulling him off of the video games!

Happy Birthday Mondo...(part 1)

We celebrated Mondo's 30th birthday last Saturday night at his favorite place, Joe T. Garcia's. It was a beautiful day to sit outside and enjoy good food and good friends. We had to wait for 1.5 hours which wasn't so bad since we had a party of 18! Thanks to all of you who came out to help us celebrate!

We found Mondo's long lost twin! Ok, so maybe it was his boss but they look crazy alike! Aren't they cute with their coordinating outfits.

Happy birthday Mondie!

Mondo LOVES these mariachies! They sang him happy birthday in spanish. (There's a video at the bottom.)

Our buddies Mike and Traci.

Two of Mondo's siblings: Abel and Tina

My cousin Hilari came out to celebrate!

Our pals and neighbors Jeffrey and Kristy.

Thanks for coming stag Eric!

Mondo and Hilari hanging out at the afterparty.

Sorry Mondo, you're no longer married to an older woman...at least for the next 6 months. :-)

Another Trip to Southlake...

This is actually from a couple of months ago. We went to Bucca di Peppo, a fun italian place in Southlake. The boys love pasta!! Then Ethan wanted to go to "the fountain". We go to Southlake Towncenter a lot and there is a fountain there that he loves to run around. Then we tried out a new ice cream place...not so great...and it was a little cold outside. On to the pics!

We had to wait a while for our food and I was running out of options for Caleb so I handed him a piece of bread...he devoured it! He chomped on it until he was down to the crust.

Ethan was running around being Batman...there's a suprise.

Cute photo of the boys. Mondo was standing by in case Caleb decided to jump in.

They loved looking at the water. Caleb looks so tiny in this picture!

Ski Trip!

We took our first big road trip this past week. We went to Monarch, Colorado for a ski trip with our young adult class at church. I was thinking we were pretty crazy to take two small kids on such a long journey, but they pleasantly suprised us with how great they did. We left on Saturday morning at 0400 and arrived in Trinidad, Colorado at around 2pm. We only made a few stops and the kids did awesome! Thank goodness for DVD players! We stayed overnight there then left the next morning around 10am for a 4 hour trip to Monarch. There wasn't as much snow as I thought there would be during the drive. We finally encountered some snow when we got up into the mountains. We stayed at the Monarch Mountain Lodge...not the newest place in the world, but it was functional. We won't discuss the food. We skiied, sledded, and played in the snow until Wednesday night. We left for home at 0330 on Thursday morning. I think it was 28 degrees outside at that time. About 15 minutes into the drive we almost took out a whole family of deer. Mondo and I were quietly chatting while the kids slept and then out of nowhere 3 or 4 deer start crossing the road. Mondo swerved and missed them by an inch or two. We were awake then! After that we drove about 10 miles under the speed limit while we were on deer watch. Over the next hour or two we saw several more deer families grazing on the side of the road. Stupid animals! We made it home in about 14 hours with only 3 stops. Pretty amazing when travelling with two small children! Anyway, enough talk, lets get to the pictures!

This picture is pretty funny. I was trying to get the mountain of stuff in the back of the minivan but there is a big glare. Caleb is almost asleep and Ethan is looking at him like he's scared. I don't know what was going on there.

Caleb, my little dare-devil. He's always climbing on top of things. This was at our first hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Very nice and new. He climbed on the cooler to get to the mirror then proceeded to try and rip the mirror off of the wall...and he almost did.

Here's a view from the back of our hotel.

We decided to take the kids for a hike behind our hotel to pass the time. We were hiking almost straight up. Ethan loved it! We had to stop when we got too high and the ground was literally slipping out from under us.

Here's a view from one of our hiking points behind the hotel. It doesn't look as high as we actually were.

Ethan being silly.

Ethan and Will, hiking buddies. Don't let Will fool you, it wasn't that cold.

Caleb attending the hiking session too. He probably would've walked if we let him but it was too dangerous.

We really enjoyed the Holiday Inn restaurant. They treated the kids great. They got popsicles for free after dinner. Caleb needed two since Ethan didn't eat his. See his face covered with spaghetti?

Now here's some scenery. This was when we were getting closer to Monarch. Ethan was excited to see some snow.

Beautiful.

This is at the Monarch Mountain Lodge. We stayed in the "owner's suite". This kitchen reminded me of our apartment...not much room to manuever!

We went to Walmart (about 20 minutes into town) and stocked up to have all the comforts of home.

Here's our living/dining room.

Two king size beds. Mondo and Ethan got one and Caleb and I got the other one. That arrangement had to change a little after the first night of sleeping with Caleb. I nicknamed him Flipper because he flips around so much during the night. He's like a fish out of water! Sleeping with him is not very peaceful. Mondo got to enjoy sleeping with him the next night.

Family photo...turned out pretty good. This is behind our lodge.

Ethan and Will sledding.

The mommas and the boys. Caleb was aleep in the car with Mondo during this pic.

Caleb cracked me up when I was trying to get him in the carseat. That jacket was so thick I could barely buckle him in. He looked so stuffed!

So adorable!!! But he hated being in that jacket. And he could hardly walk in the boots. He played about 10 minutes in the snow then he was done for the day.

The next day we went to plan B...this outfit worked much better.

Nothing too exciting here. Just a video of him walking in the snow but I thought it was cute.

Mommy and Caleb.

Ethan in his snow ensamble.

Here's a panoramic view of where were took Ethan to ski. It's not the main area with all the other skiiers. It's acutally a good place for sledding.

The first attempt to teach Ethan how to ski...he wasn't thrilled.

Eric showed us that it was better for Mondo ski with Ethan...Ethan was even less thrilled about this idea. Look at his sad face, he was begging not to do it. But, we didn't drive 14 hours for him not to ski!

There they go!

After they skiied down this hill he decided it was actually fun. No more tears!

Enjoying some snow.

I thought his hair was so cute after he took off his hat from skiing. It was everywhere...and he did not want his picture taken!

About 4 hours from home, the kiddos needed out of the car. We found a great rest stop. It was new and had a playground. Ethan loved playing Spiderman and Caleb walked non-stop.

He loved hopping on these things.

Brothers sliding side by side.

And then the vacation ends. No more snow covered mountains...just mountains of laundry!!! Mondo decided that we needed to wash everything we took whether we wore it or not. It doesn't even look like a lot in this pic. There were two loads already running. We probably ran about 10 loads. And yes ladies, he did help. He actually did most of it!