The great thing about Louisville weather is that you still get some really nice warm days randomly. On sunny days, we try to take advantage of it and get out... even if its just a short amount of time. The kids LOVE the zoo. And most of the time, we can't wait till dad gets home, so I take all the kids to the zoo for about 2 hours (not long), to see parts of it and run around. The boys are getting better at understanding me and obeying me (sorta), so its fun actually letting them run around and giving them some freedom. It gives me a chance to teach them obedience and consequences as well.
This is probably the boys' favorite thing at the zoo. They love to pretend drive this junk car. Its kind of a catch-22. Its great that they love it, but when its FINALLY time to go, its not such a pretty sight :) We spend a lot of the time at the play ground at the zoo, and once in a while we'll buy tickets to ride the merry go around (Taylor's favorite).
Taylor and Triston in the driver seat
Trevor as the passenger, hanging out the window
Taylor goes to 3 yr old preschool 3 days a week (T, Th & F)
Its hard to get involved, but I make it a point to help with the holiday parties and be there for her. I'm really lucky that I'm able to do so, cause some of the kids get really emotional when their mom or dad isn't there at the class parties. The kids are just too young to understand why not.
Here they are doing the fun craft one of the mom's planned. They painted picture frames and even had their picture taken to have put in it.
I was in charge of the snack time for the Valentines Party. As usual, I went overboard, but its hard to know what the kids will eat, so I had quite a variety.
Sitting next to Taylor is one of her best friends in her class, Reagan. She also talks about Lily, Sidney, and Caroline a lot.
Triston and Trevor have bumps, scratches, bruises and bite marks all over their bodies every day. There's always a new bruise. Here are some of them:
Triston hit his head on the corner of something pretty hard. It had a tiny cut in the center, so I knew it was sharp. I still have no idea how he did this.
A few days later... here he is with the black and blue forehead
Not only did he have a big bonk on his forhead, but he had a bruise on the right cheek...
And a bite mark on the left cheek. (Its hard to see, but stinkin Trevor sure does like to bite his poor brother)
And you can obviously see here is another bad bite mark on Triston's thigh. Of course, this was Trevor's doing. These pictures were taken a few days apart.
Trevor is usually the one beating up on Triston, but I think Triston is coming around. He's tired of it and pretty much attacked Trevor's face one day. I feel like I am CONSTANTLY referring these boys, but there are still times that I'm not around when things go down. :-)
Poor Trevor got scratched up pretty good.
Even when I'm holding both of them, they can't keep their hands off each other.
This picture shows Trevor putting his hands in Triston's face. Sometimes they go along with it and play fight, but other times they cry at the slightest touch.
Its wierd cause they can be tackling and smacking each others face, but are laughing histerically. Those are my favorite moments, although 99% of the time someone always ends up hurt. :-(
Here are some funny positions I've randomly found the boys in during their naps. Triston (above) is always trying to get out of his bed, and it looks like he fell asleep that way :)
Trevor (below) is always falling asleep at the door during naps because he cries when I won't sit in their room till they fall asleep. I think they look under the door to see me walking around too. Sometimes its so much easier to just sit in their room for 15 minutes until they fall asleep so they don't hysterically cry
One morning, Triston woke up, but Trevor (above) didn't for a long time, so when I went in to check on him, he was totally under his bed (above).
Triston (below) was found under his bed waking up from a nap. Stinkin silly boys :)
One of the cutest daily traditions we have is that the boys run to the window to wave 'Bye Bye' to Daddy on his way to work. Daddy usually honks the horn, waves and gives the "I Love You" sign with his hand. The boys would cry so much when he would leave, so we have found this really helpful, and their catching on that Daddy DOES come back.
Here is Taylor making a silly face. I had to take a picture 'outside looking in' to show you what 'daddy' see's. I love my kids. Their cute and sure do love their dad.
My boys are FINALLY starting to sit in a chair for about 30 seconds and are interested FINALLY in books. Triston has a harder time focusing, but its hopeful seeing them actually interested in learning. I suddenly feel motivated to try and teach them things. I never felt that way before because I felt like it was pointless. I would try to read them a short little book and they would sit for 2 cardboard pages and then hop down. It was very frustrating. Now, I'm starting to show them colors and they will point to objects in a book that I describe (Yes, its about time ha ha).
So, the second week of February, Taylor gets sick with a really really bad cold. Her nose constantly runs and is so sore from all the tissues rubbing it :) It happened about 4 days after she played with a friend who seemed to come down with a cough/cold as well. I didn't think much of it until that friends Mom told me her daughter was tested positive for RSV. Well, Taylor eventually got over it by running its course, but then the BOYS got it, of course. They ended up getting fevers and were progressively getting worse. I finally decided to take them into the doctor to check their ears and just test them for RSV, just in case. In fact that is where the above picture was taken... in the waiting room of the doctors office. Anyways, our doctor thought they wouldn't have RSV and said they have only found 4 or 5 cases of it this winter. She did see an ear infection in Trevor, but not Triston. It was odd cause Triston wasn't eating even as much as Trevor. They wouldn't eat, or drink much, they had runny noses, extremely irritable, fevers, waking up at night... etc... Well, the next day, the Doctor's nurse called me back to confirm that both Trevor and Triston tested positive for RSV. Because its a virus, there wasn't much you could do. We had amoxicillin for Trevor for his ear infection and at nights we would give them breathing treatments to help break up the congestion for a few nights. Here is a picture of Trevor with that breathing mask on. He was better at keeping it on for a minute, but Triston couldn't stand it. It was a difficult 2 weeks cause we had to keep the home. It was so contagious that they couldn't go anywhere.
Was wondering why the boys were being so good and quiet in their room, so I decided to check on them since it was so ODD.... Yip, shoulda known they were in trouble! Got the Eucerin cream container open and decided to play in it. Trevor (left) has it all over his face and Triston (right) doesn't look guilty at all :) ha ha
So, I made them "clean it up" :)
In fact, the boys are at a fun age where they like to imitate mom and think its actually FUN to clean, so I let them go to town :)
Trevor and Triston have always been climbers, but they are really putting their heads together and figuring out ways to climb up and reach ANYTHING and EVERYTHING
It drives me crazy that they will scoot over a chair or just open the oven door to use as a step/stool to climb onto the counter. Everything in this photo (below) is bad news! The oven could have been hot, baking dinner in it; the stove top could have been hot from me making Mac N Cheese just minutes ago; the boys are standing so close to the edge, they could fall so easily; They have found the cabinet to my spices; and Trevor is just about to open one of my seasonings and make a HUGE mess. All of which could happen if I wasn't always watching them.
Its kinda sad because if there's something I HAVE to do, that will require my attention, I have to lock the boys in their room to play because I won't be able to monitor what they are doing. They are constantly in the kitchen getting into things, even though most things have cabinet locks on them. They also climb up on my desk and walk around the computer and keyboard and push buttons on my printer all the time which drives me up the wall.
Although its been winter time, we try to get out a lot(when their not sick). One of our favorite places we go to is Jessica and Mark Mortenson's house. Taylor and the boys are in HEAVEN at their house. It is my favorite place cause the boys are happy and Tyson & I can actually conversate with Mark and Jessica without having to be overly stressed out that the boys are going to tear up their house. They have tons of toys and cars, which they love. And they play with Cohen too.
One thing Taylor and Cohen have in common is that they LOVE T.V. Here they are just watching Bambi on the computer while Trevor and Triston run around like mad chaos :)
Another favorite place is Creekside Park (which is about 10 minutes from our house). Its the best park we've ever been to, especially since its not too far at all. It is really awesome in the summer when the water is turned on and the kids can run through the splash pad. They absolutely LOVE that.
Trevor really surprises me how much he loves to climb and wants to do everything he see's his sister doing. He has some determination in him. That's for sure.
Taylor takes gymnastics at a place called "All About Kids" once a week. They have a play area where I take the boys during her class. Here is Taylor in that play area, with her leotard on.
Many times when the boys are really cranky, but not going to go to bed (like around 10:30am or 4:00pm), we will go on a drive to calm them down. Rarely will they fall asleep, but here's a cute picture of them asleep in their carseat. They certainly LOVE the car! Now that they are watching movies in the car and are interested in them, they don't usually fall asleep even if its close to nap or nigh-night time.
A beautiful sunset in Louisville one evening on a drive...
Triston (above) and (below)
These are pictures taken from 'Taylor's camera'. She loves to take random pictures and its fun seeing some of the cute pictures she takes.
Trevor (below)
Taylor and the boys were playing outside on our porch when she slid down the slide she accidentally got a HUGE sliver up under her toenail and it hurt so badly. I could not get it out and she was hysterical, so I gave her some ibuprofen and put topical numbing gel on it and drove her to 'Daddy's Office'. I knew he would have the "tools" to help her. Well, Tyson just put her on some Nitrous, and the girl didn't even flinch when he dug that thing out. He said he had to really pick at it to cause it wasn't coming out in one chunk.
And here is one of my facebook profile pictures. Facebook is my new "out". I love reading people's posts and I love posting stuff about my kids and getting other motherly advice on raising kids from facebook. It helps me stay connected to people a lot easier.
