Ghostie

The other day I put the boys down for a nap (just the youngest ones) and went back downstairs. After a little while the normal crying got worse and I could tell it was Tyler. His cry is a little higher pitched than Brody's. Since it was increasingly alarming I went upstairs to check on him. He was sitting up in his crib with his blanket over his head crying his little lungs out. He looked like a little ghostie. It was so sad and cute all at the same time. Somehow he got his blanket over his head and he wasn't able to pull it off. Luckily these are very thin muslin blankets that we use in the summertime so he was able to breathe just fine. It just scared him.

Speaking of scary things...Brody has developed a fear of any toy that moves on its own and looks like an animal or person. We have a bath toy that's a seal and his flippers move if you wind him up. He's TERRIFIED of this toy so we have to remember to remove it completely from the tub at bathtime or else it's a recipe for a complete and utter meltdown. Hunter likes it when he bathes so we still have it around for him. We also have a few other wind-up toys that do jumps and flips and the like and even if they aren't wound up and moving he will look at those toys wide-eyed and then crawl far far away whenever he stumbles upon them. He's our little sensitive guy.

Poison control

Tyler and Brody got into Hunter's Flintstone vitamins yesterday. They were covered from head to toe in red dye. They had half-eaten at least 12 of them. I didn't completely panic until I read the bottle. It said, "Keep out of reach of children. Overdose of iron is the leading cause of infant death. Contact poison control immediately." So I did. They turned out to be just fine but I am sooo embarrassed to say that this is the second time in a week that I've had to contact poison control. The other time was about a week ago when Tyler got a hold of the sunscreen spray bottle and was sucking on the nozzle. Once again, I wasn't too concerned until I read the label with many warnings against this sort of behavior. For the record, I never had to contact poison control when I had only one baby (Hunter). These guys get into EVERYTHING!!

Today at the grocery store Hunter made me laugh out loud and almost pee my pants. We usually give Tyler and Brody some kind of a toy to hold onto while we are shopping to keep them busy. This time Tyler had what we call "goo." It's this gel-like gooey stuff that's safely encased in plastic (that you can open to get to the goo but they're too little to do so at this point). Anyway, we were walking through the aisles when I noticed that Tyler didn't have his toy anymore. I relayed this information to Hunter and he suddenly got frantic that his toy was missing. We started re-tracing our steps and on the way he turned to a random lady and franticly wide-eyed said, "Have you seen any goo in the store?!" I think I may be one of few people who think that this is HYSTERICAL because when I've re-told this story only one or two people reacted the way that I did. I think it was just HOW he said it that was so funny. He was so serious and matter-of-fact about it. I'll never forget it! We never did find the goo.

Both "babies" have two bottom center teeth now and are sleeping through the night again (THANK THE LORD!). They currently both have a summer cold. Such a bummer.

Hunter's vocabulary astonishes me sometimes. The other day he was downstairs with Uncle Mark playing a game and he knew that we had somewhere to go soon. He heard me coming down the stairs and said, "I presume you are going to say that we have to go now." What? Presume?! Does he know that he's five? Then tonight we were coming home from a fun but exhausting day at a water park and I said to him, "I don't know about you but I'm bushed!" He replied, "I'm bushed and my dogs are barkin'!" My final story for the night...Tonight I had to clip his nails (his most hated thing EVER) and afterward I told him, "The good news is that now they're short and we don't have to clip them for a while." His response: "I'm dubious about that!"

Brody's first tooth

Last night Brody finally cut his first tooth and he wanted to make sure the whole house knew about this momentous occasion. In other words, he was up crying ALL NIGHT. Sleepless nights are the hardest part of parenting for me. I am WAY too crabby when I don't get my sleep. I feel bad for the poor little guy though. He is in some serious pain. Hopefully the first is the worst and the rest won't be so bad. One can dream, right?

Brody has been playing peek-a-boo lately by covering his eyes with his hands anytime he hears the phrase "peek-a-boo!" He has a toy that says it and he even does it then. It's adorable!

Hunter filled his "pom-pon jar" (reward jar) so he was able to pick a fun place to go. He chose "Altius Gymnastics." We attended his best preschool friend's birthday party there in May (Hailey) and he LOVED it. He has been asking to go there ever since. Since they do not have open gym we couldn't just go whenever we wanted to. They host a "parent's night out" though where you drop off your kids from 6-10 p.m. and they organize all kinds of fun things for the kids (bucket rides, trampoline time, obstacle courses, etc.). It was our first time leaving Hunter somewhere for that long unsupervised by us. We were a little concerned that he would feel lonely because he didn't know anyone else there but he had a blast! He was talking about all these games he played with the other kids called "octopus tag, hospital tag, and mountain tag." Evidently it was a hit. He stayed the entire time too. I thought for sure we would be getting a phone call to come and get him early since 10 p.m. is several hours past his bedtime. His eyes were all red when we picked him up and he yawned the whole way home. Our "parent night out" was a parent night in but that's okay. We had a nice time together regardless.

Tyler walking!

Tyler is officially walking! Two days ago (August 9th) he took seven or eight steps in a row toward John, who was standing a few feet away holding his hands out and coaxing him toward him while moving slowly backward. It was an awesome moment and one that we will all cherish. Hunter was there too and both were calling to me from the living room (I was in the kitchen cooking dinner) to come and see, "He's walking! He's walking!" It was such a BIG moment for our little guy. He looked really proud of himself. Both boys will walk around if you hold onto their hands but this was hands-free! He was soooooo slow and deliberate about it (of course!) which made it all the more cuter!!

He's getting his second tooth now too. Brody still has none.

I mentioned in my post last time that Tyler turns everything into a phone but I should mention that Brody does now as well. All you have to say is, "Hello? Is anyone there?" and both boys will put whatever they are holding up to their ear. Brody has taken this even further lately by "dialing" the item and babbling what sounds like a question. So cute!

Both boys like to blow raspberries on my shoulder while I'm holding them if I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt. It's sooooo funny! We got Tyler doing it on video yesterday. If I can get both of them doing it at once maybe I'll send it into America's Funniest Home Videos. You never know!!

On a different topic, the other day we were driving around and I looked in our rear-view mirror to see Brody with his foot up near his ear. I laughed and Hunter turned around to see him also. He mused, "Hmmm...Brody's doin' yoga!" This was way too funny to have it not documented. I want to remember that one for a long time.

Bleach

I've been wanting to post this story for at least a week now and I'm finally getting around to it now. One night (about a week ago) John started to brush Hunter's teeth before tucking him in and Hunter immediately protested saying, "YUCK! Dad, that tastes TERRIBLE!" John inspected the toothbrush and thought maybe some soap from the dispenser in the bathroom dropped onto it so he went and rinsed it off really well and tried again. Their conversation went something like this:
John: "Is that better?"
Hunter: "Yeah! I think it was the bleach."
John: "Bleach? What bleach?"
Hunter: "This morning I used the bleach pen on the bathroom floor. I read the instructions and it said to use a brush. I didn't have a brush. So I used my toothbrush!"
Ewwwww!!!
Needless to say we got him a new toothbrush. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with organic this and natural that. I do have boys afterall!! John had to relay this story to me by starting with, "He is SO your son! What five-year-old decides out of nowhere that he needs to scrub the bathroom floor UNASKED and doesn't tell a soul about it?" Okay, I'll admit that a little of me is rubbing off on him.