Outside!!

Since the last post, the weather has been fantastic! The boys been doing tons of playing outside and at the park. Joy has been taking the boys out on her own. Then we have been taking themto the park at night when I get home.

The boys love the park and love playing with the other kids. At one point two elementary school aged girls held their hands and helped them down the slide.

At first one of them grabbed Jasper's hand. Jacob saw and really wanted to hold her hand. Then when Jasper was at the top of the slide and the girl at the bottom, Jacob jumped in front of Jasper and went down to the girl. Then the girl's friend held Jasper's hand. They played for awhile.

Near the end of the week, Jacob got a fever. It's Sunday now and the fever broke, but I can tell her still doesn't feel good.

Yesterday, we went to my parents' house. The boys got to play outside on their jungle gym; swinging and going down the slide. Later in the night, we went to their basement and watched Rio off their projector. My dad held Jacob and I almost fell asleep with Jasper and Joy on the couch.






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Cleveland Zoo

Joy got us a family pass for the Cleveland Zoo. Sunday, we met my parents there. The boys got walk with holding hands. They walked really good with them, holding hands. Maybe because they weren't us.

The zoo was a lot of fun. I really think the boys are going to enjoy it more and more as the summer goes on. They really liked the bears and the giraffe from a distance.

I think they mostly like walking around. They picked grass along the path. We had a picnic at some benches. They got more freedom to walk around.

There weren't a lot of people at zoo, so it wasn't crowded at all. The weather was perfect!!

We ended up walking about four miles! They napped as soon as we got back in the car. We drove through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on the way home to give them more time to nap in the car.

--photo by my dad


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St Patrick's Day Parade

Last Saturday, we hit up the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Akron. I'm not sure why they have it a week earlier than the actual holiday. Maybe they don't want to have the parade with drunk people stumbling about.

We let the boys walk this time holding hands to the parade. They really love their freedom and they do hold hands for the most part. They liked looking at the shops along the way. However, we still picked them up when we crossed the street.

Jacob was not too happy being picked up to cross the street. Joy had his hand in the beginning and picked him up across the first street. I had Jasper, who didn't mind.

The second street we had to cross, I had to pick up Jacob. He was really not happy about it. After we crossed, I put him down but he wanted to go back to cross the street again. I had to pick him up again and he freaked out. I tried several more attempts to put him down but I ended up just picking him up.

He freaked till the police cars and fire engines past in the parade. He had a blast waving back at the police officers and firemen. He also loved the matching bands.

I was able to put Jacob down at that point. He and Jasper both got to grab candy that was being thrown from the parade. Jacob grabbed the candy for me to put in my pocket and Jasper threw the candy back! So funny!!

We ended up leaving the parade early though. It was really cold! Jacob was fine for a little bit of the walk but I had I pick him up again which caused him to freak. A little boy walked up to us and said "maybe this will make him feel better" and tried to give him an American Flag. Jacob wasn't interested but Jasper was. He walked back with Joy's hand and the flag in the other.

We brought a camera and a video camera but we did get any pictures.

While this was a more difficult event, I'm glad we all did it. The boys really enjoyed the parade, waving, the candy, matching bands, and police cars. When we got home, we all had a tootsie roll.



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Reading and words!

We are trying to read to the boys again. It's so hard to read them stories without them running away or taking the book. I read to them sometimes at night if I'm trying to get them to go to sleep but it's usually something I'm reading at the time. Poe used to knock them out!

We were worried that their language skills aren't up to where they're supposed to be. Every other milestone they are way ahead of where they are supposed to me.

Sunday, Joy and I made a list of all the words they know and to our surprise they are right where they are supposed to be . I looked on various websites to find exercises or things we could do with them.

That night, without much trying they started exploding with words. They are making a good attempt at trying to repeat us.

One of the exercises is to read to them. So this week, we both started reading to them kids books at night. It had been mostly ineffective. It is hard to keep them still for a story. They do like grabbing the book and "reading" aloud themselves. Which is really cute and awesome!!! But not so much for learning new words.

Last night, Joy suggested we do it at the dinner time with them strapped in. That was much more successful! They ate and watched us read and show them the pictures in the book. Joy and I both read them a different book.

We are also repeating words a lot as we are doing things. "Jacob is sitting on the chair! Chair! Jasper is sitting in the chair too! The chair!" etc.

We have a play outdoor grill and oven in their playroom that they have been playing with a lot lately. Last night, Jasper was playing with the oven and after he put stuff in the oven, I pressed the sticker buttons on it and said "beep beep beep". He repeated instantly! I then made a "shhhhh" sound when I pretended to put water in the pan. Jasper and Jacob both mimicked. Really cute!



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Crummy week plus first haircut!

Last week was a bit crazy! Pretty crummy week all around. On the Monday, after Joy and the boys dropped grandma off at home, a semi-truck merged into the lane Joy and the boys were and rear ended them! Joy beeped and tried to get the semi to stop but instead the semi-truck hid in a pack of other semi-trucks and never stopped. Luckily though, no one was hurt and car doesn't have any visible damage. I'm so grateful they are ok!

The rest of the week, everyone was sick!! Joy and Jasper had been battling it for awhile and now Jacob and I got sick. The boys were having a hard time sleeping. Joy and I were up a lot with them I ended up staying home one day.

On a better note, the boys got their first haircut!! Joy did a really good job at cutting their hair. I'll miss the surfer dude hair they had but their new haircuts are really cute!!

It's Monday now and the boys seem to be doing a lot better. Joy seems to be battling a cold still and I got one too.

The weather has been crazy here. One day it will be snowing, the next rain, followed by 60 degree weather, then snow storm. It's no wonder we are all sick!

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5 day weekend!! With the Science Center!!

I took a couple days off last week and with President's Day, I got a five day weekend! Unfortunately Jasper ran a fever the first two days. Aside from looking run down and burning up, he tried to get out and play as much as he could. I tired to sit with him and watch movies but that didn't last too long. I was really expecting Jacob to get sick as well but he did not.

Saturday, grandma (Joy's mom) came over and watched the boys. Joy and I went out to return some things and get our car a new muffler. We then worked in the basement on our garden. This summer with the boys being older, it should be a lot easier to take care of our garden. We're going to get things so they can help water etc.




Sunday, we went to the Great Lakes Science Center with my parents. Jasper was feeling better! A little tired but no fever! I didn't realize the place was so kid-friendly. We free ranged the boys. They had a blast pushing buttons and playing with all the displays.

The highlight was the Fun With Polymer section that was completely geared towards kids. There was a ball pit, which the boys played in. They had a thing where you put a ball into this tube and he shoots the ball up in the air to either land back in the pit or a basket-thing that once filled up with balls would drop back in the pit.




I should the boys how it worked and Jacob took off for it. He picked up on it right away. He would put the ball in and once it would shoot up, he would start clapping. It was so cute! He did this for awhile!

Jasper played with it too but he was really into crawling and laying down in the pit. It was almost like he was trying to swim in it. At one point, he tried to play with a little girl but she was too young to understand (possibly 9 months).

The whole experience was a lot of fun!! The boys napped right away on the ride home.

Yesterday was a catch up day. We did a lot of laundry. I cleaned their room, mopped and vacuumed. Joy and I worked on getting their bed stuff completely washed. The boys had fun helping and jumping on their bed. Later that night, we took them upstairs to play.


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Dudes' Day!!

Saturday we had a dudes day. Joy went out with her mom to celebrate her mom's birthday. They went out for donuts, the movies to see One For The Money, and shopping.

The boys had a rough night before. We were up a lot. They were both up from about 4:30 to 6 (Jacob) and 7 (Jasper). They both got up around 10:30.

We started the morning with Crisp Rice and a little bit of Kung Fu Panda II. We then tried to do some Zumba with some DVDs my mom got us. The boys were more interested in watching the girls exercise than exercise.

We then went upstairs to their playroom at their request. They tell us they want to go upstairs by knocking on the door. We played upstairs for awhile . I brought up Joy's iPod and we listened to music. I hung the speakers from the light switch. When "I love to laugh" came on from Mary Poppins they stopped what they were doing went looking for the TV.

After that, we went downstairs to do laundry and play in the studio. I'm really liking taking them down there. They love to play and it also gives me a chance to play too. We played the drums, guitar, and organ.

They had leftover pizza, hotdog, and Mac n Cheese for lunch. They ate really good.

I thought about skipping their nap since they slept in so late but after lunch, they both looked beat. Jacob went out right away and Jasper an hour later.

Joy's mom got the boys tennis balls to play with. Ace, our dog loves tennis balls. So we taught the boys to throw the ball for Ace. Ace seems like a new dog now. He seems happy and peppy. The boys, especially Jacob loves throwing the ball for him.

That night, I took the boys to the grocery store to get milk. I found one of those kids carts that looks like car. When I pulled the cart up to Jasper's door he got all giddy and started jumping in his car seat. His giddiness continued throughout the store. The boys got lots of compliments.

Sunday, Joy's mom came over and watched the boys. Joy and I went out for a bike ride. It was fun and cold. We then went to Wal Mart and Lowes to buy gardening supplies. We're getting ready for a massive garden this summer.




Last night, we watched the Super Bowl. We ordered Pizza. The boys took a late nap and didn't get until 6:30-7. They were pleasantly surprised when they were handed a slice of pizza right after waking up.