A tribute to the awesomeness of Cody, Pumpkin Patch, and Driving Mama Crazy

My parents came up and we all took the boys up to the pumpkin patch that we went to last year.  We had a good time.  Ben left in light pants, Alex right in dark pants.  (They are being held from behind.  We didn't just stick them in the window and then run out to snap a pic.)

 

 

Just for fun, here is Ben last year

 

 

Alex playing on the bouncy castle

 

 

 

Alex digging in sand

 

 

Alex feeling the moment

 

 

Ben was a lot more calm

 

 

The boys have started climbing on to the back of the couch.  They usually just sit there or lay on their back watching tv.  Then they will slide off the top on to the couch seat.  Alex standing, Ben on top. 

 

They are wearing undies because they hit another patch of taking off their diaper, pooping on the floor, and then coming to tell me they pooped.  Side note, when they say boot and poop, it sounds nearly identical.  It is pretty stressful trying to decide if they are having a boot emergency or a poop emergency.

 

 

Ben eating.  Messy. 

 

 

2 bros sitting enjoying some applesauce together.  Alex red, Ben blue

 

 

Cody bought this blow up monster for the boys for Halloween.  They LOVED it.  They were scared at first.  They would sneak around behind it and then push it over really hard.  Eventually they decided it wouldn't hurt them, so they played with it with less fear.  Ben

 

 

This was when he was still scared.  He ran and jumped on me as I was taking the picture.

 

 

Alex joining the fight

 

 

Then they figured out an air pump was keeping it up.  They traced the air pump back to the plug in, so they unplugged the monster.  Finally defeating him for good.

 

 

Ben just wants to clean

 

 

The boys LOVE screw drivers.  They will find every screw in any object they get.  If you give them a screw driver, they will do this for hours.

 

 

I have 2 stick vacuums because they broke my first one.  Well, they broke the 2nd one.  Now, I have to use tape to connect the collection area to the handle part.  Unfortunately, the boys occasionally slam the vacuum down hard enough for the tape to give way.  They then gleefully play in the giant pile of dust/debris.  They will scoop up handfuls and bring it to me and ask for me to clean their hands... only to do it again and again.  When I stop that, they try to get the two parts back together.  Alex left, Ben right.

 

 

I'm not in love with this picture, but it is pretty rare for me to get a pic of them next to each other and facing the same general direction.  You can see how similar they look. 

 

 

Alex

 

 

Ben

 

 

Ben sitting, Alex on tummy.  Working the latches together.

 

 

Brother hugs

 

 

We found more proof they are my babies.  They can now get on to the counter by standing on a chair on its side!!!???!!! I found this out when I caught them hiding in a corner laughing maniacally, digging in a bag of buns.  Since they went to so much effort, I gave them each a plain hamburger bun.  They were in love.  They kept walking around telling me it was so nummy.  "MMMMMMMMMMM," they would say.  When I was little, I would tell my mom how much I loved plain bread because it is so "fresh and so good."

 

Unfortunately, since they can get on the counter from overturned chairs, I don't even get chairs on their sides anymore.  They are stacked against a wall.  I can tell them to get down, but it just happens so fast.  I can't trust their discipline.

 

Ben enjoying his bun

 

 

Ben again.  I thought this one was Alex when I uploaded it, but it isn't.  Oops.  I'm too lazy to go back and get one of him enjoying his bun. 

 

 

Cody took 3 vacation days last week to get some projects done around the house.  It was not even a little bit of a vacation, but he got A LOT done.  My job was to try to keep the babies out of his way.  Cody did a better job at his tasks than I did at mine.  It is a delicate balance, keeping them happy, safe, and out of the way.  The next series of pictures show the boys helping daddy work.

 

Things he finished: the transition pieces between the tile and laminate in the living room, kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms; the stairs; hung a door to the master bath; finished everything except paint in the master bath; finished putting flooring in the nursery closet; hung closet doors in the nursery;  switched out all the floor level outlets in the living room and hallway with new tamper resistant outlets;  and got his dresser glued back together. 

 

I'm sure there was more, but those were the big things.  So we no longer have exposed subfloor ANYWHERE in the house.  YAY.  What I am most excited about is the door to the master bathroom.  There was no door there before.  I'm sure people like that, but I don't.  We've had a stack of like 7 laminate floor boxes blocking the doorway from babies, so it was like an obstacle course to get to a toilet.  Sometimes you don't have time to hurdle flooring to make it to the restroom!  Every time I go in there, I'm super happy about the door.  THANKS monkey! I LOVE my door. 

 

I spent 5 days watching bribe Yo Gabba Gabba and cleaning bribe sucker stickiness off of everything.  Yo Gabba Gabba is quite possibly the best show ever, by the way.  I only had 5 episodes recorded though, so I have them mostly memorized by now.

 

Project 1:  Installing a new wall mounted infrared heater in to Alex and Ben's room.  Their room is always way cooler than the rest of the house.  I don't trust toddlers and space heaters, so I did a lot of looking around.  We ended up with a heater that mounts on the wall and is infrared heating not ceramic heating.  That means everything on the unit is always cool enough to touch.  It is not ideal, but it is the best solution I could come up with.  It only runs at night, so they don't really mess with it luckily.

 

Alex in orange, Ben in yellow

 

 

Ben.  He still has some learning to do before he can run the drill reliably. :)  They do actually enjoy pushing the button to run it.  Luckily, it requires both hands, so they have to lean it on the floor to run it.  And we don't let them do it when it has a drill bit of course.  He just grabbed it and walked away with it here.

 

 

Alex

 

 

Ben finding the stud

 

 

We think they might end up being lefties.  Here they are both eating with their left hand.  They use their left for a lot of things, but still throw with their right.  Alex yellow, Ben red.

 

 

Babies got a hold of my tortillas.  Can you tell?  :)  There are 5 sets of bite marks all around the perimeter.  They were really trying to eat those tortillas.

 

 

My boys like to clean!  They managed to get the door open and immediately started vacuuming it out.  Ben yellow, Alex white

 

 

Alex

 

 

Project 2:  finishing the stairs.  Another project that was VERY high up on my priority list.  Ben yellow, Alex in his sleeper

 

 

Cody.  Probably telling Alex to stop stealing his tools or grabbing the measuring tape.  The boys LOVE measuring tape.  When they get a hold of one of those, it is like Christmas morning.

 

 

Alex looking onery.

 

 

Project 3:  Bathroom transition.  Ben green.  Alex red.

 

 

 

Alex really studying the process

 

 

Ben found a storage bag to play in.  Alex eventually joined him.  2 babies don't fit in one bag very well.  It is a lot like if you put 2 cats in one bag.

 

 

This is what I fear most.  See that arm holding the measuring tape?  He is running at me at full speed and about to bash me in the head with it.  They do this to me ALL day.  I'm quite sure they are trying to kill me.  I would like to note that is in his left hand.  Apparently they are lefties when they are beating mama with tools.  I think it is a little extra creepy just how calm his face is while he is doing this.

 

Ben.

 

 

We got some snow.  Not a lot, but enough for some kids to get out their sleds.  This prompted Cody to buy a sled and suit the boys up. 

 

Getting them in the snow suits was way easier than expected, but everything else went about as well as expected. 

 

Ben in the driveway.

 

Yes, he is in a snow suit and cowboy boots.  I was too cheap to spring for the snow boots.  We might pick some up eventually, but these did work out okay considering how long they were out there. 

 

 

Cody's first mistake was loading them up on the sled before he hit snow.  The boys had never touched snow before, and they don't really like riding on anything that they don't control.  Alex in front, Ben behind.  Also, their heads are big enough to wear Cody's hat. They take after me: short legs, giant head.

 

 

They had to go over a big ramp of snow and ice on the edge of the driveway to get on the snow.  This scared them and threw things off kilter and they took their first spill.  This was how they were first introduced to physically touching snow.  They did not like it.  I'm saying that nicely.  If they knew curse words, they would have screamed a lot of them.  They basically paused for a second to process the new situation, then looked up at me with their hands out and fingers spread apart and started screaming, then crying. 

 

 

Ben looking sad.  Cody thought maybe he could cheer them up with more fun sliding on the sled and less touching the snow.

 

 

 

He loaded them back up and took off more quickly, hoping to distract them.

 

 

Things were going better.  They were still very unhappy, but not actively screaming.

 

 

Until they made a turn and this happened.  Oops. 

 

 

The screaming was much, much worse.

 

 

I scooped up Ben to try to calm him down, so this is where the pictures stop.  Cody again tried to distract Alex with more sled ride.  This time on his belly so he would feel more secure.  It worked for a while.  Cody got a few laughs out of him.  Cody did a small loop in the backyard.  By the time he was coming to the front, he was in full melt down mode.  It would have made a GREAT picture if I had the ability to use my camera. 

 

 

It took the boys probably 30 minutes to calm down.  It wasn't fussing, it was full on scream crying.  I won them over with a bath.  They stayed in the tub for over an hour.  They are fine now.  I'm not sure if we will ever be able to convince them to put on a snow suit again... maybe even to go outside again.

 

I think that is about it for updates.  Cody needs a vacation from his vacation, and I need a vacation from the babies.  It sure is nice to have all those projects done, though.  It would be nice to have someone around that we could pay to watch the boys occasionally so I could help Cody.  There were a few projects that really could've used a couple extra hands.  Luckily he is smart and capable.  (Unless you ask him to make his own sandwich or heat up his own meat in the microwave....  :)  Love you, Monkey)