Squash

Squash was the kind-of-new food I started giving Emren on Sunday. He's had it twice before but just little tastes. He's ready for more food now so I took some out of the freezer that I had pureed back in February and gave him a good portion of it. He loved it. I'm sure he's glad to start tasting something other than his super delicious Alimentum milk. Yay Emren!

Ethan thought he should be a big boy and eat his since Emren was eating it. He used to love it but will now only eat it every so often. It's not exactly cheap either...I hate to waste it when he decides he doesn't like it. Silly guy!

Elijah really wasn't too excited about it but he's not too excited about any food at all lately. This morning though I did get him to eat a good amount of squash mixed into rice cereal. Good job 'Lijah!

Our Spring Vacation

We took a trip to Spokane to visit Grandpa and Granny and Aunties. Ethan had just gotten over a little tummy bug and Emren had a slight fever, not much of an appetite and yucky nose. He hadn't been sleeping very well either. We decided to go anyway and figured it would pass. We were looking forward to the little vacation and the chance to visit since we hadn't been over in a year or so.

Ethan was really good and had fun playing with "Bumpa and Ginty", Aunties and CJ (at a distance or through the back patio door window). The babies were troopers and loved the attention but really did not feel well. Elijah ended up getting sick too and had a REALLY hard time sleeping at nights. They started out all in one room the first night but after a few awakenings by all the children because of Elijah's screaming, we changed it up a little. We moved the babies out to the camper with us the next night. Ethan and Emren slept well but Elijah, Mommy and Daddy did not. Finally, because Daddy started to not feel so good either, we tried Mommy and Elijah sleeping (kind of) in the living room the final night. Elijah slept best propped up and by this time I was really wondering if he had an ear thing going on. Poor guy!

We felt bad that we all weren't in the best of spirits but there were lots of fun times despite the craziness. Our favorite outing and the highlight of the trip was our day at the indoor waterpark called Triple Play in Cour de Lane, ID.

This was the first time the babies had gone swimming. Even though Elijah was feeling really crummy, I thought the warm, humid air would help the congestion. I really didn't want him to miss out either. Here they are getting ready for their first swim excursion.
Daddy and Ethan ready to jump in.

Emren, Mommy and Elijah looking forward to the warm water.

Well, sadly Elijah didn't want anything to do with the water. Emren loved it though. He splashed and hung out with Grandpa and Aunties a while while we watched Daddy and Ethan play with the water spouts.

Time to EAT and rest! So much playing works up an appetite.

Auntie Kristin and 'Lijah Bear - an inseparable pair.





Granny and Emren at lunchtime.

Oh, so sleepy! All tuckered out. Grandpa and Emren taking an afternoon snooze.

Ethan's favorite part was where warm water came up out of pipes from the ground. I didn't get a pic of that though. This was his second favorite part. He and Daddy were buds for pretty much all of the day at the park. I guess what's new...

Here they go up to the slides, trying to dodge the sporadic waterfalls.

And down they go...

I love both Ethan's and Daddy's expressions. They have so much fun together!

Baby Chicks

Last week before we left for our trip to Spokane, I had to make sure to bring the boys over to Nana's house to see the baby chicks. They got them just a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to see them while they were still cute and fuzzy.

Ethan didn't really want to hold them, just touch them for half a second. He did tried to squeeze the life out of one of them though...hope there's no permanent damage there.

Even the babies wanted to check them out. This was a super crummy pic though because I had Elijah in the front pack and Emren on my hip while holding the camera out to try to get a shot. Sorry boys!

First Fingerpainting Attempt

I've been doing the same old things with Ethan during our one on one time and thought we would be adventurous and bust out the fingerpaints. I taped some butcher paper on the table, stripped him down to an undershirt and poured the paints on a couple of paper plates.

I tried to show him how to dip his finger in it and draw lines and shapes but all he wanted to do was grab handfulls of paint and smear it in one general location. He enjoyed it (he looks REALLY enthused in these pics, I know) but I think it will take a couple of times to get the concept down.

Emren's BooBoo

After dinner (as I've mentioned before) is a crazy time of the day for our household. Ethan gets this last supercharged burst of energy and just goes crazy. The babies are tired and aren't ready to go to sleep but not happy just playing by themselves. Everyone needs attention but no one wants the "let's get pj's on and read stories" kind of attention.

It was past pj time and I had the babies on the couch lined up ready for changing. I ran upstairs to grab everything when I heard both of them start crying. Usually one of them pops the other in the nose or bites the other one's finger so I wasn't too worried. Then I heard them both start screaming followed by an Ethan scream. I knew something had happened so raced downstairs just as Ethan was launching himself from the movie box over the top of the babies landing on the couch, legs over the top of them kicking like crazy.

Well, I'll skip ahead to after Ethan's timeout was over (I was pretty mad). I asked Ethan to go over and give brothers kisses and say sorry but when Emren saw him, he just started wailing. They both were scared of him. How sad!

I'm sure this is the first of many times they beat up on each other...yuck! And it's really a very minor booboo but I don't think I like this part of having boys. They are so rough!

Bathtime

I do baths in the morning because usually one of them has peed through their diaper from going all night without a change. It gets crazy sometimes but they are usually in good spirits in the A.M. and I think it would be even more challenging if I tried before bed. They are so cranky then.

This pic was just so cute I had to post it. Their Grandma got them these towels and I've been meaning to snap a shot of them for some time now. Emren is the duck and Elijah is the elephant.

Cereal

Elijah, even though he's my chubbiest, just doesn't like baby cereal. The doctors wanted me to try to give it to them to help keep their milk down (their reflux problems). I've tried for the last few weeks on and off and steadily this last week. He just gags and spits it out. Soon enough I'm sure he'll be interested though. I'm not going to force it, poor guy. That stuff just smells yucky...I'm sure it doesn't taste good.

Emren is a totally different story. When he sees the food he gets into panic mode, worried I won't get it to him fast enough. And then when it's gone, he starts crying, thinking that will produce more or something. He's definitely my champion eater. Maybe soon he'll pass up Elijah on the scales.

Potty Time!

A couple of days ago after I got done changing a poopie diaper, I asked Ethan if he wanted to go on the potty. To my surprise he said yes. Well, I did say that if he went poops on the potty that he could have a candy, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. We went in there and after just a minute or so, he went! I couldn't believe it! He went 2 more times that day(well, pee but I'm definitely still counting that), 2 times the next and 3 today.

It's funny but I am so proud of him. It's such a silly thing but I am just so excited he can do it. I'm sure we have a long road ahead of us (with lots of pee on the floor) but I'll enjoy these moments of first discovery.

Yay Ethan!