Splish Splash

While the boys were playing out back on Friday, I had accidentally spilled water on our patio. Even though it was no more than half a cup of water, Lucas and Wyatt immediately were drawn to it. Wyatt was asking, "wa-der, wa-der?" and Luke would put his hand in it and rub the water on his face. Seeing Wyatt was about to copy Luke, I took off Wyatt's white shirt and then decided to take off Jaxon's and Lucas' shirts, too.

The water had evaporated in about 2 minutes. Since they had their shirts off and it was getting hot out, I took the sand and water table out of the garage and filled it up with water in the back yard. The boys couldn't get enough of it, Jaxon loved to just throw his hands down in it to splash and Wyatt would stick his face in the water to blow bubbles. Lucas thought it was fun to stick his mouth in just enough to drink it.

Eventually, even though it was about 85 degrees out, the boys started to get chilly and it was lunch time. Here is one of the videos of them playing out back.

The Gym

Yesterday we had our first gym day care experience. After parking the car and getting the boys shot records together, it was time to go in. Each child had their own water bottle tucked under one arm and with their free hand, they held our hand. The five of us walked up to the door while Don and I were telling the boys they were going to go play while Mommy and Daddy worked out. Once we were in, there was no initial panic from Luke like the day we first looked around. The woman behind the counter opened the half door at the entrance leading to the kids area and Wyatt walked in like he had done it 10 times before. Jaxon was a bit hesitant, but once we told him to go with Wyatt, off he went. Luke was a bit unsure -walking with Jaxon and then we could tell he was having second thoughts. The nice woman working there picked Luke up as his back arched to throw a bit of a fit and Don and I made a run for the door.

We were a bit anxious and wondered about only working out a half hour to ease the boys into daycare, but Don had an appointment with a trainer, so it would be about an hour before he was done. While working out, I would look up at the screen to check up on the kids and all seemed to be going well. After Don finished his appointment, he met up with me and together we walked over to the daycare area. All three boys were playing nicely. Wyatt was getting ready to pick up a little doll, but saw us out of the corner of his eye. His eyes got big and he gave us a smile and then got back to playing. Luke was climbing on a little foam step and Jaxon was just sitting, playing with a toy he had. No tears when they saw us or anything! They just walked right over to us and with their water bottles in tow, we all went back out to the car.

So we all survived! The woman at the counter said they did great, Luke cried only for a few minutes, no longer than five, and then he was content to play with his brothers. Walking back out to the car, I couldn't help but feel we had passed a huge milestone! No stroller or wagon was being used and all that alone time we just had! Don and I were just amazed at how fast they adjusted to not being around us and are so thankful they have each other everyday. Whew!

Line 'em UP!

Wyatt has a new little "thing". He loves to line up his cars. Whether it be side by side or front to back, he will take as many cars as he can get his little hands on and line them up one by one. If Lucas or Jaxon take a car out of his line up, he will either freak out or calmly place one in the now empty spot. We are not sure why he started this, but it makes me wonder what goes on in their little minds...

Lets get Physical

Now that the boys are almost two (in ONE month!) we feel they are old enough to leave them in a day care setting. So in that train of thought, we have signed up at a local gym and are going to start working out. They have a great child center and closed circuit televisions so we can look in on the kids while working out. We will let you know how their first day in the center works out.

Double Trouble

Poor Jax is not feeling well. Yesterday I had to wake the kids at 4:45 (!) from their nap (usually they are up by 4). When I got to Jaxon, he was hot and clinging to me. He had a bit of a temperature and after we ran some errands and he showed no signs of shaking it off, I brought him to the 24 hour Dr's office. After the Dr was with us for a minute and a half, he diagnosed Jaxon with a double ear infection and sent us on our way. Off to CVS to go get his prescriptions filled and then we put the poor baby to bed.

Since he has been awake this morning, he has just wanted to be held. Wyatt and Lucas are thankfully keeping themselves busy and playing nicely (!) with each other. Jaxon is mostly laying on the kids foam pull out couch and every once in a while, Wyatt or Luke will come lay next to him, or come over when I am holding Jaxon to pat his back. When Jaxon was snoring a bit, Wyatt laid down and quietly growled, trying to imitate Jaxon's little snores.

Jaxon is eating, having raisin toast this morning and a fish stick and green beans for lunch, so thankfully his throat doesn't seem to be bothered much by his ears. The nurse told us he should be back to himself a bit more in a few days.

No Manners

Last night at dinner Lucas did what he has been doing lately, but for the first time it was seen by Jaxon before we could stop it. The two of them were so funny, that we had to video tape them before we put a stop to it. Naughty boys, but they are so cute!

County Fair

This weekend was the Clark County Fair in Logandale. We try to go every year and since we have the kids now, it has become something to look forward to. The fair is in a small town called Logandale over an hour away. The boys don't seem to do well in long car rides. Anything headed towards 45 minutes just gets louder as the minutes tick by. Hair gets pulled, screams get screamed, and heaven forbid anyone touches any one else.

Las Vegas has about 2 million people in it, but they have the county fair in a 2 lane town with no traffic lights! Last year we went to the fair on a Saturday and we got caught in about an hour of traffic for the 2 mile drive from the freeway exit to the fair. This year after taking care of some things in the early morning, we went on Friday. Going on Friday was the best thing we could've done. We made it in a hour drive total with no problems coming from the back seat. The boys are really into the Old Mac Donald DVD on the Baby Einsteins, constantly asking for "E-I-E-I-O?" so they were content to watch their videos on the DVD player.

Once we were in the fairgrounds, we went straight to the little farm animals. The boys had their first close up looks at cows, horses, pigs, goats, rabbits and roosters. All three of the boys were Cock-a-doodling right along with the roosters. Wanting them to have a closer look and get to pet the animals, I took each of them out of the wagon while Don would walk the other two around. Lucas would squat down close to them, but he didn't want to pet them. Jaxon would point and watch, but kept his distance- even acting shy and looking the other direction sometimes. Wyatt on the other hand thought the animals were great. He would laugh when he saw them and put his face against the bars so he could try to reach in and touch the different animals.

After visiting with the animals, it was lunch time. Don went with Jaxon and Luke to get some lunch while Wyatt and I looked for a sippy that someone had thrown out the wagon. After lunch, we checked out the fair booths and bought the boys little cowboy hats. Soon it was time to head back and get the boys down for their naps.

Here is a 10 second video of Lucas and Jaxon on the way home. Jaxon had fallen asleep and Lucas was nicely touching Jaxon's head. Just a sweet moment.


Credits for picture are here

Easter

A nice Easter morning was planned. We were to meet up with my family (Mom, Dad, Gram Robinson and Leigha) at my moms church. After church, some family friends (Frank and Marsha)were going to meet us for brunch at Mimi's Cafe. It went as outlined, but not as planned.

Once we got to church and were seated in the back row, we had our little bag of goodies ready. Crackers, water, match box cars, books....you name it, we had it. Jaxon sat on his own seat and really listened, even swayed to the hymns. Wyatt sat on my lap for a few minutes and then decided he wanted his Nana. Lucas was just unsettled and wanted to wander, occasionally touching the people who were sitting in the chairs in front of us or climbing through chairs, scaring the bejeepers out of me. Finally Don and I decided it was not going to work. My Mom, Leigha, Don and I all took the boys out of church and let them wander in the church halls. After 10 minutes, they were still full of energy. It finally occurred to Don and I that since church started at 9:00, the boys hadn't gotten to walk around really at ALL and just needed to run off some energy.


With plans to meet with my family at Mimi's, we took the boys out to a nearby park. They couldn't run and climb fast enough. they were wizzing around, climbing up all the steps they could find. Jaxon even went down a HUGE slide three or four times. Don and I -dressed in our Easter gear- were climbing along with them, making sure no one would fall down the drop or trip down any stairs.

When they seemed a bit more settled, we tried to get a picture of them in their Easter outfits. Jaxon had other plans and wouldn't stay still, so we asked another parent there if they would mind taking a picture of all of us. 5 clicks later, we had a decent picture (turned out to be the only family picture we took all day, so good thing we did it!) of us all and were on our way to brunch.

Frank and Marsha live in my parents neighborhood. Just the same as my parents, they moved in when their house was built 13 years ago. Even though we rarely see each other, it is so nice to get the chance to talk to them and catch up when we do. They had accepted my Mom's offer of meeting us for brunch, so it was great to see them again. Our waiter was nice enough to take a picture of our table, -and surprisingly he did a pretty good job, too.

Easter was a really great family day. We are looking forward to next year when they kids get to color eggs, or at least put stickers on them. But this year was fun, and Sunday was a great ending to a wonderful weekend.

Happy Easter!

Credits here

Table for 10

Tonight Cathy and her crew came over for dinner. It was totally an impromptu thing. She had called asking if we wanted to come to her house and let the kids play, but I had already had made dinner and it was cooking in the oven. So after thinking about how much food we had just for the five of us, it seems obvious to have them come over here instead.

The kids all had so much fun playing together! They were all in running inside and out back, playing in the little cars and sliding down the slide. Dinner was great, you would've never thought there were 6 toddlers all at the same table. They all ate their food and behaved pretty well, until the Grubb boys brought out their naughty side in a show of throwing food and forks across the table. That rounded up dinner, so back to playing they all went.

At about 8ish, the boys were getting noticeably tired and Cathy started packing up her boys. Wyatt was so sad to see his friends go, he just stood and cried with big tears falling down his little cheeks. Don and I took our boys out to Cathy's van so they could say good bye. Lucas kept trying to say good bye to everyone. It was a jumble of "bye-bye Noah-Matthew" bye-bye Leigha", but we could tell he was trying to get it all said. Jaxon flirted with Cathy, waving to her through her open window and giving her his big grin.

It was fun for all 10 of us. So much in fact, that we are going to do it again tomorrow night!

Crib Jumper

We realized about a week ago that this was coming. Wyatt (who is shorter than the other two) has been leaning over his crib side by lifting himself with his arms like a little gymnast on bars. We counteracted that by putting all three cribs side by side in the room, with the wall on one end and their armour on the other. This way if he was to jump out, he'd be stopped by Luke's crib or the armour. As luck would have it, it wasn't Wyatt who first jumped ship, it was Jaxon!

This morning while I was checking my email, the kids were chattering in their cribs. All the sudden, there was a big THUMP. I ran in there to see Jaxon on the floor, (his crib was against the wall on one side, but on the other he had about 7 inches). Needless to say, crib tents have been ordered this morning. This makes my wallet hurt.