Summer 2017

I guess I need to get off my butt and write a few more blog posts. I'm sure a lot has happened. I'm sure I have forgotten so much already. It was a tough spring/beginning of summer. We had a month of the chicken pox. The isolation is enough to bring the weary drearies, but otherwise we faired well. We weren't completely isolated. We did take quite a few walks around the neighborhood to get some fresh air, and played outside in the yard. There just wasn't a lot of interaction with other people. All has healed since then, and the boys have gained a lifetime of immunity. A small inconvenience really.

Lucian missed the opportunity to do an outdoor summer camp due to being contagious, but I managed to get him into a soccer camp. It was a few hours during the day for 3 days. He seemed to really like it. He is looking forward to his next soccer experience. I think he does better with intense programs where coaches push you more rather than in laid back programs. I might have to find a more intense program for fall soccer.

We've been trying to get out and do things. We have been trying to go to the Children's museum and Zoo; at least one of them weekly. We started a garden plot this year, but the boys don't seem to enjoy that experience very much. It's a big plot, buggy, and directly in the sun. At least they get to play with the hoses, right? We have hit some local playgrounds and splash pads. There are a lot of parks around the city, it's nice to try different ones. Summer is going way too fast.

Lucian starts first grade next week. He seems to be dreading it, but we will see how it goes. I'm excited to get him back into speech therapy. I'm also excited for him to have the opportunity to make new friends. It's not the easiest thing for him to do, but he does try.

Yesterday, we went to Daddy's kickball game. There were a few other kids there, and he played with them a little bit. He was on the younger side, so the older kids weren't all that nice to him. Apollo didn't seem to care though. He had a grand old time running around the basketball court disrupting their playing. He also was throwing Kirby around like a ball. He loves Kirby, and refused to leave him in the car. Naturally, Kirby was dragged around the field and along the tiny play area.

I gave Lucian a workbook to do for the summer. It was a fairly easy one. It was meant to be between kindergarten and first grade. We told him he could get a prize if he finished it. He did it. I wasn't sure if he would want to do it. He surprised me though. He wasn't always motivated, but if he didn't work on it for awhile I would have him do a page or two. Five pages later he would decide he was done. He made it through the book and picked out a prize. We are now proud owners of two plasma cars (ride on cars). They are pretty fun. When you move the steering wheel back and forth it moves forward. If the steering wheel is flipped and then moved back and forth it moves backward. It can also be moved by foot power. Naturally, we couldn't get one. They both HAD to have one. So, we bought two cars and some rainbow cones. Looks like we will be racing in the near future.

Apollo has been into books and drawing. It's a nice break from eating cat food with Burnie. Everyday, we read a couple books. He mostly points at things and says "what's that?" I'm ecstatic. Since Lucian didn't talk at this age he would point to find objects we'd mention, or point to things he wanted me to say. I don't think most parents understand how nice it is to just have simple things said to you. Truly taken for granted. It's such a different pace. Lucian wasn't usually interested in books. Apollo seems to enjoy it. We also draw together a lot. No piece of paper is safe in this house. We have to move important documents to high places. We utilize all types of material. We use dry erase markers on our mini white boards, we use legal pads with pens, we use coloring books, and rolls of easel paper. He likes markers, crayons, pencils, and pens. He has no problem hiding and stealing them from you too.

As I mentioned earlier, Apollo has been attached to Kirby. We have a lot of mario themed stuffed plushies. Apollo personally loves Kirby and Yoshi. We play plushies almost daily. It used to be a Lucian game, now it seems everyone enjoys it. It's not my favorite, but I love my babies. It's been really great for my imagination. Plus, it's a nice break from playdough (I'm pretty sure it's all dried up) and marble run. I really enjoy marble run. It's fun building him little marble masterpieces. Not fun when he immediately destroys it out of anger. Glad he gained our stubbornness. Insert giant eyeroll here.

Summer is coming to a close and I am sad. We didn't really have one with all the illness and travels. Now my big guy will be going into first grade. My little guy might need to participate in a Mommy and me class. It will make him feel better. Ok, it will make me feel better. I have to snuggle on someone.

Things to look forward to:
October, Visit grandpa, Joe not travelling for work

I know this was long but it's been awhile. Lots of Love.

Hoppy Easter

We had a very busy week. We went out of town earlier in the week and stayed at a hotel. The hotel had a pool and a hot tub. Though we were only there for two days, we took advantage of the pool and hot tub each time. Apollo loved going back and forth from the pool to the heat of the hot tub. Lucian had fun too. He even found two other kids playing in the pool on the last night. They all played together. Lucian was amazed that they didn't need a float in the pool. The girl was even doing flips into the pool. It was fun to watch. While we were down there we also checked out some local food places, played in the kids area of the mall, and checked out a local mini golf. All of those things made a fun trip. It was really for Joe's work, but we were able to use the time for fun. The most exciting thing about the whole trip was Lucian losing his first baby tooth! It has been loose for a little while now and his big tooth was starting to pop through. So we knew it would be falling out any day now. We figured he would be eating something and off it would go. That's not what happened, of course. He went to drink a cup of apple juice and his tooth popped right out. He took a sip, turned to me and said "look!" It's official. He's no longer a little baby. (Okay, maybe to me he is.)

After the trip we came home just in time for speech and soccer. He has really been enjoying soccer and even asked me to teach him some more skills. I'm excited to start doing that with him. He had his first game Saturday (yesterday) and pictures for the team. I will hear more about pictures in the next few weeks. I wasn't sure how the games were going to go because they haven't gone over too many things. Luckily, they teach during the games to help the kids understand the positions and stuff. Lucian was awesome. He didn't score any goals, but he definitely killed it. He is a very persistent player and has a lot of spunk. The assistant coach even talked to me after the game about how different he was in the game than practice. I giggled to myself. He apparently has the competitive gene. The team won. I think the score was 7-0. He had fun and was very excited that his team won.

Then we followed that up with an Easter egg hunt with his friends. He had an entire basket full of eggs. Usually we go to hunts and he only gets a few eggs (like the weekend beforehand). He usually gets sad about it because nobody follows the rules and they all push in front of him before the hunt starts. This time he was ecstatic. He had a huge smile. Even his grumpy little brother had fun. The other egg hunt we went to that day was a little crazy. There were tons of people. The boys got a decent amount of eggs. Enough to make them happy at least. We left right away because it was so busy and hot out.

Today we went to the zoo. This was the first time we were able to go to the dolphin show. I'm glad we did. The boys enjoyed it and so did we. Plus it was slightly rainy and the show was inside. Apollo had a hard time sitting through the whole thing. I think he wanted to go swim with the dolphins. He is such a water baby. Next, we ate and played at the zoo playground. Then, I convinced the boys to search for the egg pictures scattered around the zoo. If you find ten of the locations you get a prize. We found a few, played some more, and Joe took Apollo into the aviary. Apollo loved being in with the birds and having birds land on them. Lucian rode his first roller coaster with Daddy while we were there. It was a small one that did two laps. There was one other first timer on as well. Lucian thought it was great and wanted to ride again. The other kid wasn't into it. We collected the last few egg locations from the gardens and turned it in for a prize. Lucian picked out a blue zebra printed egg that had a small cheetah figure in it. We all drove home with smiles. Well, Apollo was sleeping.

After nap time, the boys dyed some eggs. Then I spread out some eggs in the field for them to collect. They got all the eggs and looked through their goodies. This year they had: fruit snacks, some smarties, little stampers, quarters, a pass for 30 minutes on the game pad, bunny crackers, and one fruit pouch. Apollo enjoyed getting stamps all over himself. Lucian was excited to have a 30 minute game pad pass.

We had dinner at a Pho restaurant. It went over pretty well. They were out of broth for udon though, boo. Lucian tried his first sushi tonight: eel cucumber roll. He ate half the roll, minus the cucumber. After that we went to a playground per Lucian's request. We decided to go to a new one we saw the day before. It was a cool older playground. It had metal slides, a merry-go-round, and even see-saws. We tried everything out. The boys favored the merry-go-round. Then we finished the evening with a friendly kickball game with another family that was there. They invited us to play, which was really nice. All the kids were really nice and were impressed by Lucian's ability to chase someone down to get them out. It was mostly the kids playing with Joe and I assisting here and there. Then we finished it off with their dad joining in. It was me and their dad vs the kids. We gave them a run for their money, but they were tough. All in all, it was a good day. We kept pretty busy but did fairly relaxing, enjoyable activities. I was very impressed with Lucian this weekend. He surprised me by trying new things and discovering the he actually enjoyed those things.

Now it's almost time for gardening season! We rented a garden plot this year. Our seeds are ready to be sowed. We pulled out the sidewalk chalk, water table and sprinkler. Lets do this Summer!

Slacking 2017

Apparently, I have been slacking already in 2017. My posting has really dragged and I'm sorry! It's often hard to get on the computer to update. Nobody likes when I'm on here. Or I start and someone commandeers the computer. Either way, I'm on here now. At least for a little bit.

So, the weather has been pretty crazy around here. One day it will be 60 degrees out and the next it will be snowing. I love snow, but I admit, I have spring fever. I'm looking forward to warmer weather, gardening, and rain. Rain gets a bad rap, but I rather enjoy it. Plus, hoodie weather may be one of my favorite times.

Things to look forward to come spring:
Lucian playing soccer again.
Sewing hoodies and short sleeve shirts for the boys.
Starting our garden for the year.
Flying kites.
Traveling to the World Massage Festival in NC.
Opening the windows.
Playgrounds.

The nice thing is, we've been spending the last few days outside enjoying the weather. It's been really nice. Riding bikes, scooters, and kicking balls around. It's a nice break from pushing cars around and playing wii. We even went to a new playground the other day. There are lots of places I've been wanting to check out.

Yesterday, we went to the Indy zoo. It was super busy. The sun was shining. It was a lovely day. We even enjoyed some dippin' dots, which we never get. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. It was too busy for me to lug around my nice camera and my phone memory is full (I should deal with that next). To be honest, we spent most of the time in the playground areas. The boys didn't seem to keen on viewing animals that day. Apollo was enamored by the flamingos nearby. Otherwise, nada. It was fun though. We were outside, enjoying the sun, and around other people. Busy zoo = lots of kids to play with. Even Apollo had a little friend. Luckily, we have a membership, so there will be more visits in the future.

2 More Weeks of 2016

This year flew by. I don't think I wrote about nearly enough memories this year. Nor did I take nearly enough photographs. I will try to make up for it in 2017. It will have to become a goal. My boys have grown so much. I'm trying not to miss a beat, but I feel like I always am.

Apollo is running, per usual, and developing his toddler body (and personality). We are officially in the lay on the floor upset stage. This is where life truly gets interesting and the personality of toddlers really start to shine. Though it isn't the most pleasant as a parent (insert dirty looks here), I kind of enjoy this stage when not in the moment. I know he is just learning and doesn't know how to handle all the stimulation around him and the emotions he is feeling. It is going to be a learning experience for everyone.

On a happier side, he goes up and down the slide on his own. Yes, he was doing that before. Now he isn't scared to go down on his bum. Before, he would turn himself around so he could slide down on his tummy. He was too afraid of going down on his bum due to the lack of self balance. Now, he is perfectly fine going down on his bum without the fear of falling back and hitting his head. He is also into climbing the dining room chairs. He can climb right onto the seat. He likes to climb up and play with anything on the table or desk. I've caught him on the table a few times too. We try to discourage that.

Lucian has been pretty amazing. He has been reading signs here and there, drawing pictures, and making sound connections. I have changed up his learning a bit to get there. Before, we were always talking about letters and sounds of those letters. Now, I pick a few letters that sound similar or that is difficult for him and put them next to a vowel. We ignore any two letter words that sound differently and concentrate solely on the sounds they make. It has made an amazing difference. He figured out that he could make new words by adding letters to the end. He also used the idea of "sounding out" to figure out small words. We do this constantly and it has been great. Yesterday, we were in one of our old favorite stores (it's closing) and we were looking at a few things. He read two signs while we were in there. One said apple and had a picture of an apple on it. The other said go and was just green. He was carrying around a legal pad and pen that we were making notes on. The next thing we knew he was showing us a picture he drew of an apple and wrote apple next to. I was very impressed. And almost in tears. We have worked so hard, and it's showing. Then he looked at the sign that said go. He kind of spelled it out and looked at me. "Go?" he asked. I assured him he was correct, and gave him a big hug. Those are the moments I cherish. An hour or so of chaos with this one beautiful moment squeezed in between. He is learning, he is growing, and I am helping him achieve that.

I have some amazing kids. Even when they are angry, ungrateful, or annoying. They are truly amazing, and can achieve amazing things.

Birthday Boys and Halloween

This year has flown by! I cannot believe Apollo is officially a one year old and Lucian is six years old. They have grown so much this last year. One is turning into a toddler and the other has turned into a small child. I'm afraid to blink at this point. I might miss them turning into adults.

Lucian is six, wow, six. He started school this year. He is learning to read, write, and speak. His language skills have improved. I've been working with him on making difficult sounds, writing letters, and increasing his vocabulary. He isn't enthusiastic about reading, but he will listen to a book if I make him. He likes to have fun and play games. I have been trying to make educational games for him to work on different concepts. He recently learned the game "horse". Now that we have a little basketball net inside (thanks Grammy), we've been getting creative. Lucian likes video games. He is a gamer to the heart. He likes to play minecraft, online computer games, kirby, mario bros games, plants vs zombies, and, most recently, smash brothers. I think he is more technological than I am. That's ok with me. I've accepted my fate! At least I will have someone to teach me gaming lingo.

Current favorites:
Food: Tacos
Drink: Apple Juice
Game:  Video: Minecraft  Board: Candyland
Color: All the colors of the rainbow except green, yellow, and black
Book: Five little pumpkins, Speedy little Racecars, Where's Waldo
Thing to do: Play video games


Apollo is quite the spunky one year old. He likes to crawl, climb, and is almost walking. He has done at least 10 consecutive steps by himself. He is very independent. Apollo loves to be outdoors. Now that he can communicate a little bit (he points, grunts and shakes his head), he often points to the door. He also crawls to the door whenever it is opened. The toddler ATV we've had since Lucian was little is one of his favorite things to do. Now he also enjoys playing in the ball pit (a nice step up from my makeshift cardboard one), climb up the slide and go backwards down on his belly, and push cars around. It is nice to have something to do other than going up and down the stairs all day.  Plus, Lucian likes to play in the ball pit with him, and he likes playing with his big brother.  He is also a huge foodie. If you have it he wants it. He likes to try things that aren't considered food as well. He was devouring his cupcake on their birthday before we were done singing "Happy Birthday". That's pretty good, though, because he was waiting to eat it all day. He ate the entire thing too. He may have even asked for a second.

Current Favorites:
Food: bread and noodles
Drink: coconut water
Game: Peek a boo
Color: seems to be green
Book: Anything with pages
Thing to do: Throw things down the stairs, climb things

The boys had a great birthday. We celebrated at home on their actual birth date. We had cupcakes, chocolate coins, balloons with toys in them (requested yearly by Lucian), and all our mario brother plushies. I took a few videos but the pictures weren't coming out with the lighting and fast movements. They loved their cards and gifts and having Grammy visit. The day after, we had a little trampoline jumping party with some of Lucian's friends. Their Nana and Papa came to visit too! It was certainly a busy weekend. We attempted to trunk or treat but it didn't work out (wrong times). But we were able to go out on Halloween and get a decent pile of candy.

This year the boys dressed up as Mario (Lucian) and Luigi (Apollo). I made their outfits as per tradition. We were going to dress up too, but I didn't get to our costumes. Oh well! Next year hopefully. I'm already conjuring ideas.

Thanks for stopping by for an update.  And a big thank you to everyone that called, sent a card or gift, or wished the boys a happy birthday. It's unusual for siblings to share a birthday, and we are trying to figure the whole thing out. So far so good. Now to update the pictures and events!

Summer is Ending

This has been an unusual summer for us. Usually our summers are filled with daily activities. Whether we make trips to the pool, play in the park, pick fruit, or go to a festival, we always seem to have something going on. This summer has been laid back. We haven't been to any pools or splash pads. We only went to one or two festivals. We barely went to the farmer's market. We went to the park a few times and we picked some strawberries. Not our usual summer for sure. Luckily fall is coming upon us and opening up our yearly harvesting fun. There will definitely be plenty of pumpkins outside our door and apple juice in our freezer. Looking forward to some fun in fall.

We did visit one apple orchard this past weekend. After we arrived, we decided not to pick apples. The trees were heavily picked already and it was very muddy from rain. Even though we were all sporting our gum boots (minus Apollo), we thought it best to let the kids play in the play area instead. Even that was difficult with all the mud, but they seemed to have a good time. It made me excited to check out other orchards and, hopefully, pick some delicious apples. I see apple juice, dumplings, and applesauce in our future. It's a good adventure for the whole family. Lucian already enjoys those trips, we hope Apollo will too.

Lucian has been doing well in school. He still gets frustrated when people can't understand him, but he has come a long way. He will soon be starting small speech therapy sessions during school. He has his own accent (kind of british-like, really), but I hope being around all the other kids' accents of his diverse school isn't too much for him. We plan to switch his school for the upcoming year anyway. I just know how hard it is for people not to understand you and to not be patient on either side. It's difficult for him, but I know he's strong and willing. He surprises me every single day. He will be having a field trip coming up next week. They are going to an apple orchard. Joseph is going to chaperone. This will be his first field trip experience with a class. Today is also his first picture day at school. I can't wait to see how he hams it up. Considering how much I photograph him, he is probably a pro. He is getting so big. I can't believe he will be 6 next month. He still enjoys video games, board games, reading books, and watching How it's Made. His favorite color is dark blue. His favorite board game is candyland. He loves to explore and learn. And is still very sociable. He makes lots of "best friends", including Apollo.

Apollo is quite the explorer. He isn't walking by himself yet, but he stands up randomly on his own and crawls very fast. He is very independent. He likes to do things himself and isn't much of a cuddler. Therefore, I must take full advantage when he crawls into my lap to play. He still loves all food. He especially gets upset when you don't share food with him. There isn't too many things that he doesn't like, but he definitely prefers a mix of things and lots of flavor. Apollo is a water baby. He loves anything to do with water. Water tables, pools, fountains, hoses, sinks, baths, and random cups of water. If it has water in it, it isn't sacred or off limits to this kiddo. At least we don't have to convince or force him to take a bath. He is usually willing to jump in. He is at the stage of pushing things around on the floor. His favorite thing to push around is an empty food container. He also likes to push around cars or anything that slides easily. He has also gotten good at stacking things. We were playing in the bathroom sink one day and he grabbed a stack of paper cups that were on the counter. I wasn't surprised to see him pull them off the stack one by one, but was utterly taken aback when I watched him carefully stacked several of them back together with such precision. Seriously, it was impressing. This little guy is going to be one next month. I'm excited for the next phase. but kind of sad to see my baby gone. He's practically a toddler already. We better pick lots of pumpkins to make up for it.

Though summer is coming to an end, great things will be upon us come fall.  I, for one, can't wait to live it up in the beauty of fall. Surround myself with harvested goodies and feast on the bounty!

9 Months Strong For Apollo

It's official. Apollo has reached nine months alive and kicking. He is an eager little dude. Always getting into things, climbing, and trying to eat cat food. I think I will name him Mr. Independent.

So what does the little dude like? Anything he can get into his mouth. He loves food. It would be easier to list things he doesn't like because it's so much shorter. It's hard to say what is favorite foods are so far. If I had to guess I would go with buttered toast, mint, and grapes. He is all about flavor!

He has a developed pincer grip, which he finds very handy when terrorizing the cat food dish. I have removed quite a bit of cat food from his mouth (boy loves flavor). He also uses his new handy skills to try to open things like plastic baggies, boxes, and fruit pouches. Though unsuccessful, I find it quite impressive. 

We are at the stage of dumping and filling. The center of our living space has a bucket full of golf balls. Every day Apollo will make his way to the bucket and empty some of the contents onto the floor. Sometimes he will turn it into a game - roll the ball and chase after it. He is also trying to learn how to put things back into containers. He finds this a little bit more frustrating. I try to show him the they won't stay in while the container is upside down, but he hasn't quite caught on yet. Though he is doing quite a fine job picking up all the dried fruit snacks he dumped all over the floor. Some to eat and some for the bag.

My goodness those teeth! I haven't decided whether this is a good thing or a bad thing yet. But the power of nature that be decided Apollo will have his entire upper jaw protruding teeth at the same time. Poor guy has been teething like crazy. I would say there are at least six working their way through. In a few days time he has gone from two teeth to almost 8ish teeth. I sure will miss that gummy smile!

He isn't walking on his own yet, but is getting braver. He has been crawling for a while now, pulls himself up on anything he can, climbs the stairs like a pro, and has been pushing around the little jeep. Who needs a walker when you have an electric car you can push around? He has let go a few times when standing and has been walking one handed a little bit more frequently than usual. Walking (running) should be coming soon. Maybe not as quick as Lucian did because that boy skipped crawling altogether and only insisted on walking. Oh the joys of spirited and determined children!

Other things he enjoys: playing with the robot remote control (he can do it himself), being outside, playing with water in the sink, climbing on/riding/pushing the little atv jeep, paging through books and getting into his brother's stuff.

Nine months has been fun and way too fast. I can't believe how big he has gotten. as one adventure ends, another arises.