Jan 2015: Update on the Boys

I've been feeling compelled lately to write down some thoughts about the boys as they are right now. I'm not sure how regular it's going to be or how much sense it's going to make but this is what our boys are up to right now.

Steven at 3 years 8 months

Steven is always our crazy man. He is curious, energetic, unpredictable and FUN. It always amazes me the depths of Steven's personality. He can be extremely outgoing. We went to the zoo this weekend and there was a worker there checking up on one of the animals and Steven walked right up to her and asked what she was doing, does she work here, etc. etc. I say all the time that he doesn't know a stranger, everyone is a potential friend. Also, he is a performer! He loves to sing and dance and be the center of attention. We were having dinner recently at Steve's parents with about 10 people sitting around the table and having several conversations. Out of nowhere Steven jumps up on his chair and starts singing and preforming. But there are also times where Steven can be really shy. When we get into a new situation where there's a lot of people or its an unfamiliar place he will cling to me, not want to talk to anyone, etc. It's so funny!

My little ham!

He has a lot of dichotomy to his personality these days. Another example is that he is equal parts independent and dependent, usually depending on his mood that day. We will hear all the time "I can do it on my own." There are times when he will go into his room and come out fully dressed with shirt, pants, socks, shoes, etc. often without us even prompting him. But sometimes, he will demand we dress him. Which is really frustrating because we know he can do it on his own and aren't really sure why he wants us to do it.

Another split is in his interests. Steven just loves everything! He loves to try new things, check things out, etc. He's always been rough and tumble liking to wrestle, run around, play guns/pirates/bad guys, etc. But he also really loves to pick out his outfits, have his toenails painted, talk about my outfits and try on my jewelry, etc. He likes to watch super hero shoes and barbie shows. He just loves it all!

Steven's temperament is also definitely variable depending on his mood. He can be the most cuddly, loving boy. He will randomly give kisses and hugs, say "I love you mommy" "You're my sweetie.", etc. He gets upset if I start to leave the house without a hug and kiss. Those things just melt my heart when he does them. But then also he can be stubborn, inconsiderate, opinionated and just mean when he wants to be. He will definitely tell you if you've broken a rule. He's taken to yelling at us when he doesn't get his way, which I'm really trying to work hard on extinguishing. Sometimes he digs his heals in on the strangest things, (I think to try to assert some kind of control). When we don't give in or bend to his will or whatever request he has at that moment he can get really upset.

I will say that it seems that we have turned a corner in regards to Steven's behavior. We are able to talk to him a lot more about good choices to make and better ways to behave. Timeouts and epic meltdowns have greatly decreased at our house, which is a big step in the right direction. I don't know if its just a product of his age and gaining more knowledge about controlling his emotions or if we are actually doing pretty well at parenting right now (maybe its both :).

My biggest joy lately has been seeing Steven and Logan developing a relationship. Steven has been turning into a protective big brother and I LOVE it. If anyone poses a threat to his brother, Steven is right there on the scene to tell them to back off. But at the same time, Steven will enforce his own brand of justice on Logan if he breaks a rule. Sort of a "nobody can hurt my brother but me" relationship. Steven is a great helper, though. He will go get a binky, pick up Logan's cup, put crackers on the table for him, etc. I really love it.

Logan at 1 year 4 months

In great contrast to his brother, Logan has always been a cool customer. He is a really chill personality, mostly playing it cool, going with the flow. He spends a lot of time observing his crazy brother's behavior (I like to say he watches the Steven show). Even when he falls down, Logan rarely cries unless it's a really bad injury. He usually just gets up and keeps on going (probably trying to keep up with his big brother). Even when kids take toys from him he usually just stares at them and walks away to play with something else. It's crazy! At that age, Steven would absolutely freak out if someone took a toy of his.

Speaking of falling down though, Logan has been our accident-prone boy. He has been to the ER 3 times in his short life. Recently he was playing and just feel down and hit his face just the right way on the corner of a toy and got a bad cut. Luckily he didn't require stitches but geez man! That's a lot of ER trips for 1 year old boy! Especially one who is so low maintenance usually.

There are 3 things that get Logan going though and they are wanting his binky, being hungry and being tired. If any of these occur, Logan can get really, really fussy and whiny. We usually know its gotta be one of those 3 things otherwise he wouldn't be crying! Speaking of his binky, man he is really attached to it! That is so weird for us because Steven couldn't care less about his binky by this age. But Logan would have it 100% of the time if we let him. We have cut it down to nighttime and in the car but I am dreading cutting it out completely. It's gonna be tough.

Overall Logan is a really awesome kid. He is pretty good at putting himself to sleep at night and for naps. He is mostly low maintenance, doesn't require a whole lot of rocking, can self-soothe, etc. He loves to be silly. He will try on hats when we play and give this little grin and its just the cutest. He loves to play peek-a-boo. He loves to dance. Anytime there's any  music on a toy, radio, etc Logan is dancing. I love it! He has been climbing on everything and its nerve wracking, omg! But I think that's really normal for his age. He has the best belly laugh when you tickle him. It's the sweetest. I love to hear him laugh! He loves to get out alllll the cups in our cabinet and scatter them about. He loves to pick bottles and boxes out of the recycle bin and play with them. Silly boy!

I really am enjoying seeing Logan grow into his own personality. I am also loving watching him learn about his environment and master new skills. He's at a really fun age right now!

So those are my boys at this age! Like I said not sure how frequent these posts will be but I wanted to make sure to capture how fun life is right now with those two loons.

3 Loons if you count daddy ;)

Quotable Kiddos - Steven at 3 Years

Daddy Steve, "Steven, don't climb on that!"
Steven, "But I'm Captain Hook!"

Daddy Steven,  "Steven don't drink the bathwater!"
Steven, "But I'm a cow!"

When I asked him who his favorite super hero is he said, "Super Mario!"
(Definitely his father's son).

When trying to wear his spider man costume to school,
Daddy "No, you can't wear that to school."
Steven "But my friends will be happy."

Every night before bed we talk about what we will dream about and I always say him.
In the morning he says, "Mommy, did you dream about me?" (Melt my heart).

Whenever he's mad:
"You are NOT my best friend!"

Driving by any body of water lately:
"Daddy, There's sharks in the water!"

When we are saying goodnight:
"Don't let the bugs bed to bite."

April Tidbits

April was a busy and super fun month for us. A lot of good things happened in our life too! 

Steve took Steven to ComicCon in the beginning of the month. They had a great time! Steve was super excited to show off all his nerdy-ness to Steven, who has really been into super heroes lately. It was perfect timing as SpiderMan has become one of Steven's favorite shows to watch. Dan and Meghan sent Willow's old costume to us for Steven to wear. It comes complete with fake muscles! Steven LOVED it and he still wears it all the time. Here they are getting ready to go.

Trying to do the spiderman web thing. Almost got it!

Who's more excited?

I didn't go with them because of the ticket price but Steve said they had a great time. He said Steven was sort of stunned by all the characters and a little shy. But they found someone his own size and Steven loved that.

We've been having some spring weather FINALLY! So we've been trying to take advantage of that. Like I said in March's post, we have sort of a weird backyard. We live up on a hill which is great but the backyard is on a pretty steep incline. Plus the back of our house goes all the way down to a pretty busy street so we were really worried Steven would take off. Also, the dogs got loose like 1000000 times since we've moved in. So all of this to say, we needed a fence. We ordered one from Home Depot and they put it in this month.

Fence Yay!

We sort of got screwed on the property line too because we have a pie shaped yard where two straight lots meet. Oh well, we didn't know that when we bought the house but it definitely wouldn't have stopped us from buying it.

The guy who came to put in our fence was amazing. We thought it would be an entire crew and stuff, nope, one dude. His name was Clarence and he was extremely nice. He talked to Steven and put up with Steven in his face asking about his tools and stuff. He was also an extremely hard worker. OMG He put up our entire fence on this stupid incline by himself in 2 days. I can't imagine how many times he went up and down that hill. We were so grateful.

Since we had some nice weather, Steve took advantage of it and the big hill we live right next to by teaching Steven to fly a kite over there. We had some pretty windy days. Here are actions shots of them flying kites. Steve got it up super high.

Can't see the kite bc its practically up towards the  moon!

Here's Steven running home because he's mad that he can't touch the kite in the air...lol

So obviously that was a huge success lol

Steve and I had a big date night in April. I was SO excited. We went to see Billy Joel in concert. I have loved his music ever since I was little and have always wanted to see him in concert. He has come quite a few times over the years but I've never gone. This year, I said we should go before he stops touring. So we went! It was great! The tickets were so expensive so we had nose bleed seats. These pictures are horrible but we had a great time.

Spotlight on him playing the piano

Light show

Horrible selfie. 

We've had so much fun this month just hanging around the house with our two goofballs. I put them in matching jammies one night and it was a big hit! They loved it. Steven keeps asking if they can match some more.

How cute are they?

Brotherly love

Here are some other random shots from just hanging out with our kiddos this month:

Me and my big boy

<3 td="">

Two goofballs suuuper early in the morning

Love these goofballs though!

December Happenings

Happy December! I'm usually a big fan of decorating for Christmas but with planning to move and trying to keep the house clean I wasn't sure if I would even get out decorations this year. But when we drove around and started seeing Christmas lights and decorations and Steven was SUPER into it I had to get ours out! Steven was so cute this year ohhing and ahhing at the lights and decorations we would see places. One night we pulled up to our house in the dark and he said, "Why my house has no lights?" ha! Busted! So momma had to decorate.

He actually wanted to help me decorate the tree this year and he was helpful for a few minutes. Then he got bored with it and we played mommy puts on the ornaments while Steven takes them off for a while. So that was fun! ha ha! But really he was very interested in the ornaments this year. He asked about a few of them and wanted to examine them while the tree was up.

The end result. Not too shabby.

The morning after we put the tree up something cute happened. On the weekends, usually Steve wakes up early with Steven and Logan and I get to snooze a bit more. Steve usually takes Steven downstairs so they can make noise and not wake us up. Well Steve said Steven wanted to be by "his Christmas tree" and wouldn't go downstairs. Isn't that cute?

We've actually had a really mild winter so far. We had some warmish days (50s, 60s) too, which is so weird for St. Louis winter. We finally did get our first snow of the year in December though and it was chilly that day!

My boys snuggling on a chilly day

Steven and I really enjoyed playing in the snow together. It is not daddy's thing to play in the snow so he stayed inside with Logan. It was great snow man making snow but all Steven wanted to do was knock down any snow man attempts I made. Oh well, we still had fun.

I guess play houses are fun to climb in the snow?

Another thing we did in December was go to Breakfast with Santa in Manchester with my parents. That was really fun. Steven started to notice Santa a lot more this year and was really excited to see him. That was a big improvement over last year when Steven was interested but terrified of Santa. He didn't even cry when he was on Santa's lap! I could tell he was a bit freaked out but he held it together. I was proud of my brave boy.


Kind of a goofy Santa but oh well.

Logan, of course, had a blast.





Halfway decent family shot while waiting in line for Santa.

Thank you grandma!



Steven and Grandma

My boys with Santa! Their first Santa picture together. So sweet. Although Santa looks like he might be napping but I'll take it.

 

We meant to do other Christmasy stuff this month but it got chilly during the weekends and time just got away from us! We wanted to hit up the Wild Lights at the Zoo but it wasn't open on the warmer days. We did take a ride down to South City to see the lights at Candy Cane Lane and got Ted Drewes after. That was fun!

 

Hope everyone had a good Christmas season!

Christmas 2013

Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone! This year's Christmas was a strange one. We had planned several family get-togethers and lots of fun things but almost all of them had to be either canceled or postponed due to being in the hospital with Logan's RSV. We were admitted the day after Christmas (Thursday) and didn't get out till the next Monday! So sadly we missed a lot of family time this year. It was a bummer but what can you do? Hopefully next year will be more normal (and healthy).

New tree this year!

We did get to celebrate on Christmas day at home and later with my parents. So at least we had that. Logan was pretty out of it all day though and slept on and off the entire time. Steven was much better this year though. The last 2 years he has hated Christmas with a passion! He hated opening presents and the schedule being thrown off and he just cried the entire time. This year he really started to understand the concept of Christmas and definitely enjoys getting presents now!

 

My mom made Logan his own stocking this year. That must have taken FOREVER. But isn't it gorgeous!? I love that she made mine when I was little and continues to make them for my boys now. So sweet!

 

Steve surprised me this year with something homemade! I was super impressed! He made this stepping stone and had each boy's footprint in it. Can you believe my husband did a craft for me?! I love it of course!

I got this gift Christmas eve because a certain 2 year old was
super excited to give it to me!

 

Here are the boys on Christmas morning. You can tell Logan is less than thrilled. LOL Steven about lost it when he woke up and saw all the presents! He was like OMGGGGG! ha ha! Super cute side story, Steven woke up the morning after Christmas and asked if we could open presents again. ha ha!

My boys <3 td="">

Steven did a really great job opening presents this year. He actually unwrapped them and noticed what they were and said "Thank you" for the most part. I was very impressed with him. This construction play-dough set has been a big hit so far.

Logan and I on Christmas morning. I'm pretty sure he's distracted by big brother's antics. It's so cute to watch Logan follow Steven around the room with his eyes.

 

Steven was really excited about this truck. He asked Daddy to open it right away! He played with it for a bit after too and took a break from opening presents. Yay!

Helping daddy free the truck. It was screwed into
 the packaging! Geez!

More present opening.

This silly little thing from Steven's stocking was one of his favorites. He loves the giant board like this at the Magic House so when we saw this little version (at Target of course) we thought he might like it. Boy does he ever! Sometimes its the stupid little things they like the best, of course, right?!

Silly

Me and my boys! Hard to get a decent picture of these crazy kids!

We got Logan a few "baby" toys which he can't use right now but he will be able to within the next year. So of course Steven claims them for himself and plays with them all the time. They are for like age 6-12 months. Crazy kid.

Daddy and Logan

We got Steven a tool set that came with a hard hat. It was a big hit!

Here he is hoarding all his "stuff". "I need my stuff mommy." ha!

Later that day my parents came over for presents and Christmas lunch/dinner. It was really fun to have them over. Steven loves them so much and they spoiled our boys of course. Probably Steven's favorite present overall was this pop gun my parents got him. The cork it shoots out is attached so its cool with me. No mess = great present!

bang bang!

My parents also got him this cool Mickey Mouse book that changes the story based on your voice and what you pick. Pretty neat.

He's helping Grandpa open his gifts. And stealing Grandpa's tie...

Grandma and Logan. Poor Logan was not feeling well and slept or cried most of the day. :(

Grandma and both boys! Yay a decent picture!

Family picture, but no Steven. At this point he was so excited about the gifts he was way too hyped up to pose for pictures. Oh well!

 

This year we had a great Christmas day. It's too bad we had to miss out on the rest of the celebrations being in the hospital but what can you do? We hope everyone else had a great (and healthy!)Christmas this year.