2 Trips to the South FL Fair

Day 2 Treat: Ice cream cone
Yum!
Owen is really into the goat milking...

Cousin E is old hat with farm animals...

Pettin' baby goats

Nana gets to take O on an old fashioned buggy ride

Noah takes the high road...

Eden

The Corn Pit

Making Corn Angels

Owen & cow converse...later the goat from adjacent pen tries to eat cotton candy out of his hair

O's first cotton candy

Trip 2 with Auntie Ann, Daddy, & cousins Eden, Carson

Frugal Fair Trick: Bring your own lunch then buy 1 treat. Noah picked cotton candy...

Broken ride but he enjoyed pretending

The sign says it all...

Race Car Drivers

Big Wheel!

Misc Jan Photos

Owen's first fuzz-cut
The result

Boys playing with Noah's birthday gift from nana (trains & table)

Helping (?) Daddy do dishes

Owen, the food theif

Spin-A-holics: Noah and Owen both beg to be swung in circles by the arm. Owen says " 'Bin Peas" and Noah will go on about being dizzy afterwards. If we refuse (because we get sick from it) Owen will just run really fast in circles giggling until he gets this drunk look on his face. I almost feel like an enabler when I give them spins...

Owen is in his own bed now. Took him out of the crib a couple weeks ago and he's just been on the mattress. I've also, for the last 2 nights, put Noah's toddler bed in his room with him. Noah has trouble going to sleep alone and it worked well the first night but then he started to have molar pains that woke both boys up...last tooth...taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

Owen is JUMPING taking both feet off the ground in a hop as well as jumping off Noah's toddler bed, the sofa, the laundry basket etc. He's definitely a toddler though because he frequently falls and tumbles just walking sometimes. He got 2 busted lips just yesterday...one from the playground and the other from brother hitting him with a plastic storage bin. Aaah, brothers.

They still love up each other with kisses and hugs. If Noah gets in trouble, Owen goes to sit near him in time out or gives him a hug/kiss. Noah will kiss Owen when he's crying and sing "Don't Cry" by Etta James to him. Sooo sweet. Both boys are singing often. Owen is working on the Happy Birthday song...mainly just says "Happy BIRTdaaaay to yeeww" repeatedly...sometimes he says "to 'Oah" at the end.

For all that Noah is becoming more and more verbal he has recently taking to saying "yea" instead of "yes" and "huh?" when he doesn't know or doesn't want to answer. We're working on it. He was doing excellently with potty training but the last 2 days he's wet his pants and was completely indifferent about it. He's even said "I want to have an accident". Fun.

Noah is scheduled to start school at a West Boca montessori come Feb 2 (after his HUGE 3rd birthday celebration). The plan is for Daddy to drop off and for O and I to pick up midday. He's actually speaking positively about going...thanks, I'm sure, to CAILLOU--the boys new FAVORITE show.

Both still love trains and automobiles. Nanny got Noah a train set and table for his birthday. The boys delight in taking the pieces to all ends of the house and yard as well as in tearing up the track frequently. I tell myself they're learning and interacting on their own terms but it sure drives me nuts ;).

Sorry for no new pics and for waiting almost a month to update the blog. I'm sure I'm forgetting to update tons of other wonderful things the boys are doing which I regret greatly :( since I've forgotten them already I'm sure I'll have no recollection come 20 + years from now either. So sad to have our babies both so grown BUT I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to be over "baby" stuff. Yay!

2 other things I just remembered: Owen is winking now but says the word "wink" more than he does the action--which is a double eye blink of course. Owen also, this evening, said "tank oo mama" for the first time. Such manners!

One of these days we need to post a video of the boys doing their famous Shabbat dance. Both of them LOVE to celebrate the Challah Day with Nana...especially their sip of wine and chunk of bread.

Names

I wanted to note all the names I call the boys before I forget them: Sweet Precious, Pear, Pear Nut, Puddin' Pop, Big Boy, Tesoro (Italian for treasure), Piccolo Piccolo (small x2 in Italian), Littun' Littun' (little little), Lickle Mon (little man Jamaican), Bear, ...
How I forgot...I call Owen "short stack" non-stop! Ya know, like a sweet stack of pancakes... ;)

Happy 2009! May it be happy, healthy and involve all of us at some point getting together for some quality time ;). I am uploading December photos still from the video camera so I will just post some of the ones I already have on hand. December was filled with fun with friends (parks, birthday parties, playdates) and of course with a little winter cough for the whole family--lasting almost the entire month. Nana was off in the Middle East for 3 weeks and Daddy had a trip to NY for business. The boys are making strides on their verbal skills. Noah has taken to rhyming names and commonly used words "Daddy Waddy, Nana Bana, Owen Bowen...Hungry Bungry, Water Bater" you get the idea ;). He successfully uses difficult words throughout the day: intersection, direction, permission, etc. He also talks about his birthday and turning 3 EVERY DAY in some way. Owen is practicing, mimicking words and phrases with a little self-review at night before sleep. Owen is still a little slim in the hair category but it's coming in slowly as are the teeth. He is almost 17mo and is still waiting on the 15 mo molars...this, of course, does not stop him from eating just about anything. The guys have now an almost ritual of playing with the neighbor child, Kyle (2 y/o). They all unload everything resembling a toy from his garage and the 3 play in the deadend street area on the side of the house before bathtime/dinner almost every night. At one point this past month we had 7 toddlers running around in the side yard/street with every vehicle imaginable, balls, dogs barking...a zoo! We love it. The weather is GORGEOUS in Florida (not in the rest of the nation) and we've made the most of it by going to the beach multiple times and the local parks. We had a relaxing Xmas weekend with relatives and the boys were so happy to just get chocolate and cars. I hope that we never make it into being about tons of gifts...the lesson this year was that one special gift is sufficient. For now it's about Santa (Babbo) and time with family...perhaps when they're older we'll explain the more complex meaning of the holiday.

5th Anniversary trip to the Jupiter Lighthouse

Family photo after cajoling, bribing and threatening the wandering Noah.

Where Daddy & Mommy kissed 5 years ago as a married couple

Note: The palm frond (and any long item) became a fishing rod which Noah used to catch 'glad' fish. Fishing rods or the old standby...rocket ships. He's got quite the imagination!

Were you using this?

Still checks if everything is a hat first...
Noah devours cookies at a playgroup holiday cookie event

At Sugar Sand Science Museum
The boys working the train...making "energy"
Wow...trains way up high!

Dr Noah and Dr 'Seppe at the Children's Museum

Daddy the photographer
The boys give Bernie & Mac baths at Antonio's Build A Bear party

The Boys take their new friends home...after playing on escalators & elevators at the mall

The Boys have a no-sleep over while Daddy was out of town with Giu & Giu B.

In jammies, in the crib...no sleeping.