Dinner Conversations

Tonight at dinner Justin and I were getting fed up with the amount of potty talk going on. (Our kids are 3 and 5...I had no idea it started so early...and it is CONSTANT! They're big fans of using "poo poo" in various sentences and attaching it to people's names. It gets old fast.)

I told the boys that if they said one more potty word they would get into trouble.

Caleb then made a noise that Justin also included in the "no potty talk at the table" rule. Levi told me that Pierce makes that noise all the time.

I said, "I don't care what other kids do. These are the rules for our family."

Levi then, rather indignantly in a stern voice and a frown on his face, said, "We're going to Pierce's family."

I think that's the toddler version of, "I'm running away." Look out, Camille! If you see two little boys walking down Farrer Road with their little suitcases in tow, please give them shelter.

Never a dull moment around here.

Justin and Mini-Justin

Caleb looks more and more like his Daddy all the time. Here they're sporting their Valles Caldera shirts we got on our last trip to New Mexico.

Phuket, Thailand

Click on the picture to enlarge.

TOP ROW: resort where we stayed, beach play, Levi and Daddy standing in front of the WINDOW from the bedroom to the shower (weird), Caleb, Levi

MIDDLE ROW: silly Caleb, beachside restaurant menu (yum!), sunset, lunch, Levi

BOTTOM ROW: lunch beachside, dog under my beach chair, beach, trying to get a good pic of the boys in their matching shirts, not happening. :-)

Check-ups and Santa and all that stuff

I've been slacking on posting lately, mostly because I don't have a lot of time and when I do, I sit down to write and my brain gets so foggy I can't form complete thoughts. ;-)

Levi is HUGE. At his two-month check-up, he weighed 14 lbs. 4 oz. That's almost 2 pounds more than Caleb weighed at the same age. He's in the 95th percentile. He's also 23 3/4" long. He's outgrown pretty much every 0-3 month outfit and wears 3-6 month clothes comfortably. If he keeps this up, Caleb's clothes aren't going to fit at the right seasons! I like to call him my "chunky monkey." :-)

Levi is such a good baby and he's sweet as can be. He's starting to giggle now, which is precious. And, big news...he's finally sleeping longer at night and going longer in between feeds. Thank goodness! He'll now go 4 hours once or twice a night and usually 3 hours during the day between feedings. It's helped my sanity a lot!

Caleb is doing great. I'm amazed at how smart he is. Last night he actually carried on a conversation with his Daddy on the phone. He used to just tell you about everything he was looking at, but now he actually answers questions. He loves his little brother so much. He'll lay down beside Levi and say, "Hi baby brother" and give him kisses.

Last week Kimberly and I took the kids to have their pictures made with Santa. You can see that Ava wasn't having anything to do with Santa, but my boys' picture actually turned out well. It's the best you could expect from a two-year-old and a two-month-old:


And this picture I think is priceless. :-)


Ava is completely upset. Caleb's doing his own thing. And Levi looks freaked out. :-) Ahhh...memories.

By the way, I love, love, love having my sister live close. It's so fun to have someone to hang out with during the day and do things like this. Ava and Caleb love playing together, too.

We are gearing up for the drive to New Mexico for Christmas. We are really excited to be there and spend time with Justin's family. The drive we're not so excited about. If you have any great ways to keep a two-year-old occupied on a 16-hour car trip, please tell me about them in the comments!

Thoughts

I can't count the number of times I've said over the last 8 weeks, "I CAN'T do this." Usually it's when, simultaneously, Caleb is in full two-year-old mode and Levi won't sleep. (Don't be surprised if you come to our house and Caleb says, "I sittin' in the naughty chair." He's been there A LOT lately!)

But things are getting better day by day. I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this "parent of two children" business. It's hard. And it's much more than double the amount of work! But it's good, and I'm loving being the mom of two boys. "My two sweet boys" I call them all the time.


Levi is finally feeling up and breathing much better. Thank you all for your prayers for us over the last four weeks. It's been a long month of sickness, but I think we've finally turned the corner!