My Big Boys!

It's getting harder to keep track of time these days.  Not hours and minutes, but days and months.  Alex turned 1 1/4 and Robbie is now on the downside of 2!  I'm pretty sure they get cuter, smarter, and more opinionated every day.  Robbie "just wants to be naked" all the time and would swear up and down that it's ok to be naked in public even though we tell him otherwise.  (We only let him be naked at home, I promise!)  I let Alex drink from my water bottle and now that seems to be all he wants to drink from.  Whenever he sees it he does his own sign for water.  He's gotten much better at drinking from it, too.  Before he would fill his mouth up and if he didn't want it all he would just let the extra water from his mouth spill down his shirt.  Now he stops drinking early enough to not spill on himself! :)

Robbie found his Halloween costume the other day and wanted to put it on.  He looked so cute, but he was hot and sweaty when we took it off!

The banana is part of the costume. :)

We've noticed how tall Robbie is getting lately.  It became even more evident when toes started poking through his footie pajamas (or pajammies, as Robbie says).  We bought some more non-footie ones yesterday.

I know I posted these pictures before, but they are too cute to not post again.  I'm planning on updating these pictures every year and keep the old pictures in the frame as well.

I also (finally!) put pictures in their first year frames.  I feel bad that I waited so long, especially for Robbie, but it's better late than never.  I love seeing how much they changed their first year.

Matthew took the boys to visit his mom last weekend and I got to spend the weekend by myself.  I don't get too nervous by myself, but when I saw both cats staring at the front door I did catch my breath.  Then I saw they were stalking a frog.  I'm glad it was on the outside of the door!

Do you see the frog shadow on the bottom square window?

Juliet left when I started taking pictures, but Simba stuck around to protect the house.

Barbara bought Robbie a hammerhead when they went to the aquarium and he wanted me to take a picture of it.  I was happy to do it, so here it is.

A weekend with Grandpa and GiGi

Jim and Jean have missed us so much that they wanted to come up and visit last weekend. :)  We always love having family come up!  Saturday was day 3 of rain, so we drove down to meet them in St. Augustine for lunch just to get out of the house for a while.  I think that Robbie likes "ordering" (telling us and we tell the waiter/ress) his own lunch and Alex pigged out on his food and extras from the salad bar.  We had originally planned to go to the science and history museum, but it had gotten too late after lunch to go.  It ended up being a good idea because everyone else went there to get out of the rain (including my friend who told me how crowded it was).  Jim and Jean bought Robbie and Alex a Noah's ark shape sorter and they have loved playing with it.  Robbie is getting better at putting the animals in the correct hole (they can almost go in any of them) and Alex likes walking around with the piece and sometimes putting them in the ark.  They also offered to watch the kids that night, so we got them brushed, bathed, put Alex in bed and let Robbie watch a "Bubble Guppies" while we headed out to see "Jurassic Park" in 3D.  It had been so long since I had seen it that I had forgotten most of the plot.  Since we weren't sure what time we were going to get out of the house or how long the ticket lines would be at the theater, we bought our tickets online to save some stress when we got there.  I was surprised at how many people were in the theater, but we still got good seats and enjoyed the movie (and popcorn!).

We went out to breakfast Sunday morning and then came back to let Alex nap before going to the museum.  We had a little time to kill before the museum opened (not until noon on Sundays), so we walked out on a short boardwalk by the river, checked out the fountain and saw the football stadium across the river.  Inside the museum, there was a man painting kids' faces and since there wasn't a line, we let Robbie get his face paint.  While the man was finishing up painting a dolphin on the kid in the chair, his older brother showed us the spider he had painted on his hand.  When Robbie sat down he said he wanted a dolphin on his face.  After just one stroke he decided he didn't want his face painted, but let him paint a spider on his hand.  After he got down, though, he changed his mind and asked for the dolphin.  That time he sat pretty well and, after a little touch up, it came out quite cute!  Luckily Robbie wasn't upset that it all washed off at bath time and didn't ask to go back to get painted again Monday.  :)  It also happened to be "Star Wars" weekend, so there were a lot of storm troopers and other characters walking around.  There were some "Star Trek" display tables and Spiderman was there. Robbie loved looking at Spiderman and even showed him the spider on his hand, but he would not stand next to him to get his picture taken.  We knew it was time to leave when Robbie started asking for lunch, though we thought he might sleep through it because it took him a while to wake up from his snooze in the car.  Jim and Jean left after lunch.  Weekend visits are always short ones, but we enjoy our time together!

The Noah's ark shape sorter

Attempt #1 of face painting

That's all that got done.

Sitting still to get his hand painted

My spider!

Robbie couldn't wait to go in the mouth.

Then he wanted the dolphin.

Sitting still!

Not a great picture of Robbie, bu you can see the dolphin

Checking out the snake

Of course Alex turns around before I can get a picture of the two of them looking at the snake!  Alex pretty much only walks now.  They are growing up!

What do these buttons do?

That's as close as he got to Spiderman.  Can you tell Robbie has a big smile on his face, though?

Walgreens was offering free 8x10 collage photos, so I finally updated the frames in the hallway by the boys' rooms.

Alex's first haircut

A while ago I wanted to get Alex's hair cut, but then his curls really started coming in and I changed my mind.  Then his hair just got too long and I knew we were going to have to get it taken care of even though I knew it might mean losing his curls.  The thought of Alex losing his curls made everyone sad, but he really needed a haircut!  The original plan was for me to take Alex and Matthew and Robbie were going to go to Costco.  At the last minute Robbie decided to come with me and Alex.  The kiddie salon is pretty far from us and both kids fell asleep on the way.

We had a little wait before Alex's turn and the kids amused themselves in the hair wash station.  I know that sounds messy, but their hair wash station is actually a big firetruck that has a bed for the kids to lie down on and get their hair washed.

They had different chair for the kids to get their hair cut: a plane, a firetruck, a sports car, a boat, another one that I don't remember, and a regular salon chair.  The firetruck and boat were open and I chose the firetruck.  Each station has a tv and the kids can pick a movie to watch when they get their hair cut.  Curious George was already on at the firetruck and both kids like that show.  As an added bonus, the boy next to us was watching "Cars", so they could watch either one.  The stylist put a cape on Alex and blew some bubbles to get him comfortable in the chair.

Alex checking out the firetruck (with the hair wash station in the background).

His hair had gotten pretty out of control.

What is she doing?  (Blowing bubbles)

Looking at the bubbles.

Alex in his firetruck and Robbie on "his".

Then it was time to wet Alex's hair and get it cut!

Combing it out.

Spraying him down.

The first cut!

Watching George with a cute mohawk.

What is she doing, Mommy?

I don't know if I like this.

Watching "Cars"

Are we done, yet??

Finished cut!  You can't tell, but he does still have curls in his hair. :)

Robbie watching "Cars"

When the kid in the airplane was done, Robbie got to sit in it, though at one point he did ask if he could trade places with Alex.

Alex playing with the plane's propeller after his haircut.

We all got lollipops for being good while Alex got his hair cut!  (I had the lollipops in my pocket.  While I was paying the stylist the boys decided they wanted to play with the toys they have in the waiting area.  When I got the keys out one of the lollipops fell out.  Robbie asked if it was his and I told him he could have it when he was buckled in his car seat.  He was suddenly ready to leave!)

New Sheets!

There is a page on Facebook for people to sell their stuff and I have been taking full advantage of it.  Over the weekend we saw a Lightning McQueen sheet set.  It was a steal at $10 and came with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, comforter and pillow case.  Matthew picked it up last night and I washed it today and put them on Robbie's bed while he was eating lunch.  I think he likes them. :)



Robbie is saying "cheese" at the beginning of this video because he just saw me take his picture and then he was so cute saying "cheese" that I switched to video.