Monster Boogie

This picture is from June and has been sitting in a blog dump folder - tho I haven't gotten around to posting it, it just always makes me laugh...maybe it's not as fun if you weren't there for the motions but he's been doing this sort of silly dance since he was a teeny. Somewhere I have a shot where he looks all gangsta with one arm and like he's Rocky with the other - I think he was about 5 months old.

This funny LB song was a favorite, especially once they heard the word 'hairy' and said, hey that's not right - Harry's not a monster!

He's been playing with words and spelling more and more recently and his recent trick of puposely switching words is driving me nuts (and has me hoping Miss Lisa has a great sense of humor and a lotta patience). For example, he loves to say J-A-C-K Harry H-A-R-R-Y Jack and watch to see what I'll say. The same with on/off and all sorts of words I can't think of at the moment. I think I'm purposely blocking it ;-)

This is his early morning conversation(did I mention that he almost never stops talking lately??) Hey, Mommy, Jake and Joke rhyme! No, they both start with the letter J and end with the letter k but they DON'T rhyme. At this point Jack jumps into the fray and we start talking about silent e's ..... maybe I need to start drinking coffee.

I think this is the first purposeful mnemonic: LAMR was on a sticker he found and he wanted to remember it, so he says "it's like left, radio, right" (radio means AM/FM to him) He's been talking a lot about abbreviations recently.

And they have this blowup microphone they received as a birthday favor several years ago(thanx, Patrick!) It has an 'on' and 'off' label, so he enjoyed turning it over and over spelling 'on' and 'no' with a big ole AHA smile. Sweet, silly boy

Cootchie, Cootchie, Coo, I Love You

The boys love these toys that Aunt Jackie gave them, and this is one of their favorite 'patterns' :wubwub:

I think Jack's may officially be backward, but it still means I Love You

Happy Week!

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

It's funny to think of much at this stage as 'old,' but the boys have known their friend Sam for more than half their lives! They play on different teams, but the schedules finally worked that they were on neighboring fields the other nite and got to play around a bit.

Sam and Jack goofing aroundSam, Jack and Harry posing

Sam and Jack goofing around (sense a theme?)

It really is a small world, I was pulling into the grocery parking lot and thought 'hey, that guy looks familiar but I can't remember where' and Sam's dad was thinking the same thing. We'd both worked for the same school system a few hours away many years before. We noticed the boys were similar ages, so I recommended the play group ... his wife brought Sam and the rest is history. Lucky timing for us all!

Wait a minute! We're fish!

They love this silly Laurie Berkner song, The Goldfish, and they insisted on putting on every item that came with their new goggles - I persuaded them it would NOT look cool at the pool ;-)

Frere Jack

So, here's the deal....the boys love to sleep. They still sleep about 13 hours a day/nap between their naps and nite. A friend recommended a good sleep book when they were still baking, and I read it and tried my best to follow the "sleep nazi's" prescription. Somehow, they have come to value sleep and will even tell me or Dean that we need to go to sleep so we won't be tired the next morning ;-)

For a few years now, they have slept through the night from a late nap (say 4pm to 6am the next morning - I think 15 1/2 hours is the record!) if they missed sleep or didn't nap for some reason. A few times a month, we get a 'sleepover'


They sort of got away from that right about the time they ditched the diapers but the last few months, it's happened again. Last week, I took them a little snack around 9pm, and we picnicked in the middle of their floor, they talked about their dreams then went right back to sleep. They decided that's what they want to do tonite - Daddy Picnic and Long Sleep


Here they are at the park earlier, practicing ;-)

Happy snoozes to you and yours!

The Animal Fair

The games they play amaze me these days - one of their favorites at the moment is to make an animal sound and say where it might live. Like, this I heard the other morning:

J: Harry, where does a MOOO live?
H: A mooo lives in the barn, Jack. A meow lives in the house.
J: A (bark) lives in the house, too, but a (neigh) lives in the grass or barn.

(It went on and on, as most things do these days)

It is really fun around here these days!

They played animal guessing games with Uncle Les this weekend when we visited for a delicious lunch and tree cutting. Jack realized it's hard to make whale sounds and motions ;-) Thanx for the fun and the great eats, Les!

The Story of My Feelings

It's probably some version of an occupational-hazard-by-proxy for kids of psychologists, but they are all about the feelings lately. Jack's decided to spruce up his adjectives, practicing comparatives and superlatives all the live-long day!

Harry: I love the park. It makes me SO happy!

Jack (talking to himself in the car the other day while making matching faces):

Happy, happier, happiest. Sad, sadder, saddest. Mad, madder, maddest. Glad, gladder, gladdest. Hey, wait, those rhyme!

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

They have been so into meeting and greeting these last few weeks - and today they added a bunch of goodbye stuff that was adorable. They met a nice boy who was 5, and after playing Hide-n-Go-Seek for a while it was time to leave. Jack says "It was nice to meet you, Owen. We had fun playing with you. Next time you see me, just say 'Hi, Jack, wanna play?'" then Harry says "You're a good friend and I want to play with you again next time." It was really sweet, and I was pretty proud of the way they played and their manners :wub:

We also had a great time at their good friend Darius' 4th birthday party last week. Everyone got to play at a great new Inflatable Playplace in our area....

Jack and Harry SlipSlidin'Away

(yikes, how OLD am I to remember that song?!)

Sam, Ryan and Darius playing

Harry climbing one of the 'walls'

Jack making friends with an inflatable giraffe

Our good friends visiting from NC - Evan, Ryan and Miss Heidi, we miss you!

Jack will hate this, but I thought Miss Keisha would like to know how much of a hit the goody bags were at our house ;-) Thank you!


And the boys got a chance to give their buddy Ryan a grand goodbye hug!

And though Tom Petty may disagree, Hopper O'Hare knew that "having friends was even better than being King!" :-) Thanx, friends!

We Are The Dinosaurs

Although it's been raining for what seems like forever, we have found some times for adventures....hope you're enjoying Spring!


They love to pretend that the floor is an ocean and their chair or bed or whatever is the 'ship'. Who knows how it started, but it worked wonders in keeping them seated for meals or in bed ;-) Anyway, this was them swimming around in the 'ocean' in our hotel lobby last week - silly boys! I seriously doubt it will start a dance craze, but you never know....

bridge over troubled waters?

They are big into creating obstacle courses, like this one at our parks and rec open gym time

I think I have this same shot from every season since we found this awesome park when they were about 18 months old....they seemed so BIG today (sniffsniff)

Two Little Monkeys, swinging on a bar

And this is their We Are The Dinosaurs pose - one of their favorite Laurie Berkner tunes

Happy Week!

Bring Your Clothes

I really thought we were packing less, and we probably are, but YIKES! This is for four days and the only 'extras' this trip were the swimming gear for the pool party and all the loot from their friends J&S.

Happy trails!