(Note: Computer got fixed Saturday, but then Internet went down on me. It's up now, though! yippee! Camera is working! yippee! But video's do not seem to be downloading properly. All said, in a few more weeks, when Gary's schedule (hopefully) returns to normal, I'll be a real live blogger again!!)
Austin and Logan are writing their first book. Well, at least most days with the amount of communication going on - that's what I feel like is happening.
Their language skills seem to be quadrupling each day. As they tackle harder words and sentences, I am sometimes left baffled and am quickly becoming a tri-linguist: English, (some) Spanish, and now adding "Toddlerish" to my repertoire.
For those of you on the cusp of this - it can be drooling trying to determine what great big thoughts are lurking inside these little Einsteins' heads! For those of you who have gone ahead of us - where's the Toddler-English dictionary!?!
Words we say in Spanish: It amazes me, things I ask them to repeat in Spanish, their "diction" or "natural ear" is wonderful. They can roll their "r's" with the best of them!
patos (zapatos for shoes)/hola/adiosh/bah-zitos (besitos for kisses)/Guan-te-mahn'e-ala (Guatemala)
In Enlgish:
dawnwanna (don't want to)
my do (I do) (Austin says this much to my Mom's delight cuz that's what I did!)
Momma-k'mon, k'mon (Momma, come on, come on)
up on momma/ up on daddy (when they want to be picked up)
cher (share)
ma'turn (my turn)
tank you (thank you)
chur wel-kun (your welcome)
chwem'ming (swimming)
Watchdababies? (when they want to watch their baby videotapes)
Watch me!! Watch me! (what they shout before endangering their lives)
rockdababies or rockaminute (they want to be rocked before naps/bedtime)
keepitindamoufnotinebehwii (You have to guess this one!)
unceuponathyme (They're favorite Barney video "Once Upon a Time." They ACT out all of the scenes - not kidding! I'll try and get a video of it, it's hilarious!)
umbrellika (umbrella - a prop I had to buy for two of the scenes in above said favorite movie)
They have great color recognition (thanks to their favorite bag of candy: Skittles and also the colored bathtime alphabet/number set: wed, bwoo, geen, are'ange, yeh-wo, pur-pul, bowyn, back, pink, g'ey)
They can count to ten in English and in Spanish. They'll count to ten (in English) with minimal help. But if I'm handing them chips or cards or whatever, they can physically count the items to about 4 before they just start yelling out random numbers. Spanish, they only count "with" me. (uno...uno, dos...dosh, tres....tresh)
They sing their ABC's and recognize maybe 6 or so letters, ( T E A M and maybe L, R) lol!
They recognize some shapes: chr-eye-gle (triangle), chir-cle (circle), s'tar, k'aire (square), hurt (heart)
They know/love all their ahn-ni-mals and their corresponding sounds! Tiger/ella-pant/al-wi-ga-ters/kamel/zee-brah/horsh/pehn-quin and many more!
All this knowledge sure keeps a momma on her toes!!
Here's an example of a recent interaction between Logan and Mommy:
The other day at the pool, Logan says "Fishy, Momma, Fishy!"
"Yes, baby, yes. Fishy. I know." Much in the way you pat a dog on the head not really paying attention.
L: "MOMma! FISHY"
M: "Yes, baby lots of fishy in the water, right?"
L: FISHY!
M: "Oh" (now I start paying attention) "Are you being a fishy, Logan?"
L: "FISH-EE, peez! Momma! Peez!
And before I know it, I am catapulted into a (get ready for this) a conversation with my baby!!
L: (clearly frustrated with me), "I cho you."
WHAT!?! " I show you??" This he has gotten from my "show me" when I don't understand what they want. This is the first time it has been said uncoaxed back to me.
M: You'll show me?
L: "k'mom, Momma" (as he takes me by the hand and pulls me)
M: (Stunned) "Okay baby - show me."
L: "Fishy, Momma"
M: "Fishy where, Logan?"
L: "Momma's bag." (At this point I realized that we have actually been conversing. I'm asking. He's answering. It's not the normal "repeating." And yes, I did indeed bring some plastic fishy in a ziploc bag to the pool.)
M: (befuddled, we head towards our table. I pick up the plastic bag from the ground and say:) "Hereyago, these fishies, baby?"
L: (He ignores me, lets go of my hand and keeps walking and points up on the table:) "Momma's bag."
M: (Thinking, 'Oh right, you did mention that.') "No baby, here are the fishies." I show him the plastic bag again.
L: MOMMA'S bag!
And then it dawns on me (idiot!). "Oh right, baby. Momma's so sorry, honey, you had to work hard for that didn't you? Here are your fishies, baby. Your Goldfish."
L: "Tank you, Mommy." And then looking at me expectantly, "Austin chum (some)?"
M: "Yes, baby you can take Austin his bag, too, sweetie. Thank you."
He walks off, and I mourn the loss of my baby. ;-(
Gary keeps saying I need to write all this down and this is the only baby book my boys are getting. I know it was yet another long post, so for those of you who made it this far. Here are some pictures!
Future GQ models
Hey! How about that chwem'ming!?! Or am I gonna hafta hold thee diapers ALL day?
Dining alfresco y al-natural!
Dad: "Sit together, boys."
A and L: "Okay"
Dad: "Look-up"
A and L: "What's up, dude?"
"CHEEZ!"
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Things we do at 2!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
My apologies.....
Wow! This single mom stuff is for the birds!! Poor Gary is gone from 6am until 10pm every day. 7 days a week. We miss him. ;-( Things should be changing soon though. The new store opening is going great. And since it's a restaurant, we do go visit him for some meals together.
So, with the little tornadoes being two and active and the house getting trashed constantly, we've been on the go a lot. And I've had to take the little tikes with me on a lot of errands.
Therefore, I would like to take a moment and extend a few apologies:
1) To my fellow shoppers at Wally World (Walmart). My apologies for Austin's meltdown last week. I thought I had it under control. I thought he'd rally any second. It wasn't until the nice, polite Walmart employee came over and gently tapped me on the shoulder that I realized we were disturbing the peace. With a soft smile he said, "Mam, we're going to open up Lane 16 for you." Oh? It's that bad? Really? Then, out of nowhere, nice Mom #1 showed up with an encouraging smile saying "Oh, I've been there, here let me help you unload your groceries." And nice Mom #2 told the cashier, "She's gonna need some help getting to the car. Will you call someone?"
Once finished with our purchases, we were making our way out, when Austin mustered the loudest, "All DONE shopping, Mommy!!" I have ever heard. I didn't make eye contact with anyone, just whispered, "Yes, baby, All Done shopping. Everybody in here knows that YOU are all done shopping. All done, baby." LOL
In hindsight, Austin wailed (yelled, screamed, cried) for apprx 20 minutes!?! Isn't that horrible? I always thought I would "abort mission" mid-shopping trip during a meltdown if it ever happened. But in the midst of it, I just kept thinking, "He'll pull it together. This can't last." Oh, mommy education in the real world!
2) To my fellow movie-goers last Thursday: My apologies for both Austin and Logan screaming at the top of their lungs when the lights went down. It was their first movie theatre experience ever and those loud previews just scared the dickens out of them! Thank goodness I had my little 7 old year Momma's helper with me. I've never seen a truer description of "All Hell Breaking Loose" then at that moment. Austin and Logan turned half-wild toddler half wild animal on us in zero seconds flat. Bless her heart, Aracelli managed to actually carry one twin out while he was somewhere between "up in her hair" and "all four limbs wrapped around her neck." I grabbed knapsacks, coats, one child (If I remember correctly he was basically ripping my shirt off trying to find a way to get in it) and led the group out in the complete and total blackness only a movie theatre can achieve. Once outside the movie (but not the complex), we took a full ten minutes to comfort the twins and assure them we were not going back in. We then walked the length of the complex to their extremely loud in unison, "Bye-bye Movie! Bye-Bye Movie! BYE- BYE."
Okay, got it - Not ready for movies yet.
3) To the Target shoppers two nights ago: My apologies if you thought I was a crazy Mom endangering my children. I won't say I had the situation "under control." But I will say that carrying my child by his foot was "necessary at the moment" and I had a game plan of making it to the nearest shopping cart to deposit both he and his brother. I know....why didn't I already have a shopping cart!?! Ugh, it's just so tiring getting two out of the car, two into a cart, two into the store...blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to run in and score another $0.50 July 4th shirt for next year like the one I had just scored at another Target 10 minutes before. All we had to do, was run in, grab the shirt, check out and run back to the car. There was no shirt (in fact, there doesn't seem to be another one anywhere in Richmond or on Target.com or Ebay, etc. boo hoo!), so we were on our way out (They had behaved REALLY well up until this part!!), when the jewelry-earring-holder-spinny thing caught their attention. One would twirl it while the other batted whatever jewelry he could off of it. I managed to "Clean up, clean up everybody, everywhere!" and then established eye contact with my two co-flingers, "Do you want to walk out of here or have Mommy carry you?" Walk! "Okay, hold my hand and lets go." Austin on my left. Logan on the right. And we almost made it. Austin broke bad first (trying to make a quick get away) and I quickly picked him up. Then, Logan dropped all of his weight on me. I'm an experienced two-armed child picker-upper/carrier - so although picking up a child one-handed and slinging him onto my hip may have offended some of my co-shoppers, it's a move we're well used to. The problem happened when Logan continued to wriggle and writhe his way out of my arms using all four hands and feet to push himself away from me. We were approaching the door. Lots of red carts ahead. That's why when I was down to just hanging on to him by his foot, I knew we were going to make it. I had it under control. I know it may have appeared chaotic and dangerous to some of you. That's why I'm apologizing. But 'round heyer, we raise 'em wild!
(Are you getting tired yet?)
4) Okay, to Evan - those new bedsheets were not just because "You're a good kid and I found them on sale." In truth, I owe you my apologies because during an upstairs streakfest, the boys
made it into your room, had a little too much fun jumping on your bed sans clothes and well, leakage ensued. So, "yay" new sheets (and a new waterproof mattress protector) for you!
5) And lastly, to Austin. Mommy did not mean to shoot you in the face with the water bottle this morning. I was trying to wrestle the bottle away from Logan because he was shooting the TV, the couch, the dog, etc. And when I grabbed it, it happened to be pointed directly at you. You were SO happy saying, "Momma, watch me, watch me" as you were getting ready to take off for flight in your imagination airplane and then the water hit you right across your nose and into your eyes. You were so stunned, the look on your face just broke my heart. I admit, when I came to hug you, I was a little shocked at your response, "No, bad Momma. Zit in Tom Oat, MOM-MA. Zit the stairs." But overall, I agree with your method. Even though it was an accident, you did get hurt, Momma was being rough and not very careful. And I deserved to go "Sit in time-out on the stairs." So, "Sar-wee, Austin. Sar-wee for hitting you with water. Momma loves you."
Okay, one more apology to make, to my fellow bloggers. I am officially a...
Bogger on the run - I'm loggin on to any public computer I can find. I'm a blogger who's means to blog have been taken way!
I swear - I'm getting around to the blogs in my roll call, I just can't comment. My apologies! I miss you all like crazy!
-Happy Anniversary, Bobbi! Love the wedding pics! And I'm upset, too at how grown up Reese is getting. Stop HIM!
-Steph - Eli is adorable. It looks like he's thrilling all who meet him. Happy re-adoption Day!
- Heidi - I'm still stalkin' your site for news and progress! It's TIME!
Gwen - I'm especially mourning this next week since you were supposed to be here! ;-( I truly, truly hope we can get something scheduled! And hope you're feelin better soon!
Lisa - Love the new blog look! Did Sophia win the photo contest? She, too is changing and growing!
All - we are planning to attend Guatoberfest! Anyone else?
Latest on my computer: They're ordering parts and it should be another week or two. Argh!
No pictures, but I hope I at least entertained you!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Risking my life...to blog.
It's dark in here. It's scary. It smells....bad. It's sticky. There's mess and mayhem every square inch. I'm afraid and yet, I've gone where no woman, no civilized woman, should ever go. I see things...well, things my eyes should not see.
I am in......
I am in my son's bedroom. On his computer.
Because mine is sick and won't be back for another week yet.
And I can't stand it. I must blog. (Although oddly enough during this blogging hiatus I discovered I can actually keep a clean house? Who knew!?!)
So here I sit, risking nausea, infectious disease, and who knows what else to bring you the below pictures. Enjoy!
Getting ready to get squirted with the hose by Evan.
At the water park with Nonnie.
These were my camp helpers from church. Wonder if I could get them to move in with me!
Our "triplet" Van joined us one day at camp. Yay! 
My aunt and cousins live in Anaheim, CA and sent us this Disney care package: shirt, ears and Micky Mouse himself! (Evan again with the great photography skills!)
At the Lake for some July 4th festivities.
Austin and Logan both went jet skiing for the first time.
Pictures for their 1 year anniversary home!
My brother Brian playing with Austin. Check out the cute Monkey Nonnie made for the boys. Logan is really attached to his!Thursday, July 3, 2008
Homecoming-A-Versary!!
July 3rd, 2007
Austin 19.5 lbs and Logan 17.8 lbs (at 14 months old! so tiny, but other than being sick, very healthy!)
While Logan slept:
July 4th - Our Homecoming-A-Versary!
