Caleb the Two-Year-Old

Caleb is still two, I don't know how else to describe him. He's very stubborn and has an iron will. Of course, being two, he gets upset about everything. Every ten minutes I hear him crying out somewhere in the house. It gets frustrating because it sure makes it hard to get Travis down for naps and to stay asleep, with Caleb always screaming. He's still not talking very well, although I can understand him better every day. Words like, help, sandwich, juice, milk, are all words I can understand, but he really doesn't say them very well.

His favorite thing to do? Get on Westley's nerves. Push Westley's buttons. As much as possible. And he's very good at it. Yet at the same time, they are best friends. On Westley's birthday, Westley didn't come home until late, so I had to put Caleb to bed by himself. He kept pointing at Westley's bed and saying, "Westley" over and over. I had to try and explain to a two-year-old why his brother wasn't there but that he would be back later, after Caleb was asleep. He was sad that Westley wasn't there.

Travis the Crawler

Travis is sure getting around now. He crawls everywhere on his hands and knees and follows me around the house, as well as his brothers. Since he's only 7 months old, he's doing this way earlier than the other boys did it. He already pulls himself up on just about anything to a stand and walks along the edge, although he's not really sturdy at that yet. I think he really wants to be walking and be able to keep up with his older brothers. When they play outside in the backyard, he stands by the back door (sliding glass) and watches them.

Big Brother Westley

Westley turned 4 on Tuesday! We didn't really do much for his birthday, as far as presents or cake. Corey made pancakes for breakfast, at Westley's request. He opened one present--a set of kid card games, like Old Maid, Fish, and War. Then he went to gymnastics with Daddy. After gymnastics, he went with Daddy to get the oil changed in his car and then I drove in to Mesa with the other boys and met them as well as my mom for lunch. We had lunch and went home for naps. After naps, Corey took Westley to an In-N-Out store party at Gamestoppers, this game place by the Arizona Mills Mall. They were there until 9:30 and came home wiped out.

Westley has been so cute lately with Travis. He really is a great big brother. He's very helpful, and he includes Travis in their play. And he's very good at making sure Travis doesn't put anything in his mouth that's too small. He's always saying to me, "Travis sure is a cute baby, Mom." And everywhere we go, he tells people that Travis is "his" baby. It's very cute.

Marching Band

The boys decided to have a marching band of their own. After I used a belt of mine to strap on Westley's drum, I tied Caleb's keyboard on with two bathrobe ties. They marched around the house for half an hour, "playing" their music. I got it on video too, and it's so cute! The best was how they really were marching. I'm not even sure where they came up with the idea for a marching band, though!

Valentine's Day Fun

On Valentine's Day, we hosted a Valentine's Day party for some of Westley's friends, mostly from church. We had a lot of fun making valentines, counting conversation hearts (and eating them), decorating sugar cookies and playing Giant Candyland.This is the Giant Candyland game that we had put together for the party. I just used construction paper and made the squares for them to stand on. I used the original Candyland game and copied the pictures for the "candy squares"--an ice cream cone, a gingerbread man, a lollipop, etc. They had fun playing the game.
Here we are eating the heart-shaped pizzas we made for lunch. The heart shape was a hit, it's what made lunch exciting.
Here we are decorating sugar cookies. Corey and I made a bunch of heart-shaped cookies and some pink and white frosting. I also had a jar of a variety of sprinkles that I bought last year and never used, so that came in handy. Most of the kids ate as they went, but a few saved their cookies for later.

We had a lot of fun, and I'm thinking of making it a tradition.

Children's Prayers

We've been working with our kids, Westley especially (since he is older and talking better), at prayers. You know, teaching them how to open, what to say and how to close and letting them practice. At first, Westley would only pray for the food at mealtimes and for good sleep at bedtime. Lately, though, he has been praying for some interesting things.

Somewhere along the way he has learned that we wear clothes so we won't be naked. One of the things he is thankful for is that he is not naked. Another cute one is from a video we watch often on Sunday mornings. If you are LDS, you will know what this is about...the Book of Mormon animated story of the Tree of Life. Westley now prays that Heavenly Father will bless him to stay away from the Great and Spacious Building.

Other various things have included that bathtime will be fun, that his ducky will sleep good, and that Travis will keep smiling. Isn't it cute what kids sometimes say in their prayers?

Bonding Brothers

One afternoon, the boys decided to play dress up with the box of dress up clothes I have, courtesy of their grandparents. Both costumes were former Halloween costumes of my brothers, and I think both were also costumes of one of my brothers for some plays he was in in elementary school. When they were all dressed up, Westley said, "I'm a cowboy and Caleb is my owl." I didn't know that cowboys had owls!

The boys and I had fun building a house for the lego dinosaurs (seen above) out of the big block legos. I showed them how to start by putting together the bases of the walls and then building up from that. They built the roof and just kept adding blocks. It was a lot of fun. The shot below is a close-up of the house we built. They were very proud, since they did most of it, I only started it for them.
Westley and Caleb were watching a video--probably the "Chipmunk Adventure" video they got for Christmas from Aunt Leslie and Uncle Zach. It is their favorite movie. Westley asked if he could hold Travis, so this is a picture of all three of them. Westley loves to cuddle with Travis, give him kisses and play with him. The other night, Travis was laying on the floor, and Westley was laying next to him and he started sort of wrestling with Travis, pulling at his hands (making him giggle) and rolling him from his stomach to his back. Travis was enjoying it immensely, laughing the whole time.