We went to New Hampshire this past weekend to visit my cousin and her family
I drove the boys myself while Alex stayed home to do some school work. It was the easiest road trip I've ever taken and the kids were fantastic!

Her kids Michael and Elizabeth were great with the kids. They were happy to play with the kids and so patient with them!

Tammy and Glen have 4 dogs (Tommy is the beautiful guy above), two turtles, fish and bunnies! The kids had a total blast!

We weren"t 100% prepared for the cold weather up there so when we went to watch Michael play football, we had to borrow some blankets and gloved to snuggle up in!

Aaron showing off his pink borrowed gloves!

One day we went to Protsmouth, NH and Strawberry Banke. It was so pretty and peaceful!

Aaron was trying to have a meltdown in the above picture. He was so good despite little napping and a new environment.

The town was decorated for Halloween...

And the leaves were beautiful!

I love New England!

Above is Tommy and Katie

Thanks for everything Tammy and Glen! We had a fantastic time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The things my kids say:

The words Aaron now says on a regular basis:

"Chaweee"- Charlie

"Nack"- Snack

"Mo Mo"- More milk

"Ni Ni"- Good night

"doddy"- Doggy

"Hi dare"- Hi there

"Key"- Key

"Cookee"- Cookie

I had a conversation with Charlie the other day, and I apologized to him for being angry with him and explained to him that sometimes he frustrates me when he doesn't listen to me. This was his response:
"Mommy, you should stop getting so frustrated with me, you are using up too much steam and coal and I will have to send you to the smelter's yard for scrapping"

Charlie's Science Project

Charlie asked me the other day about leaving water out, why it gets warm when it used to be cold, etc. I asked him what he thought would happen if we left a glass of only ice out...then we got an idea to do a science experiment!
We left the above glass of ice out on the counter for the night. I asked him before he went to bed what he thought would happen to the ice. He said that it would all melt into water. I explained to him that he just formed a hypothesis. He got excited and said, "I've never had a hypoptesis before, this is my first one!" So the next morning, we found the above picture...the ice had all melted. He was pretty excited to see the change!

Then we had an idea to put a glass of ice in the refrigerator. I asked him what he thought would happen and he said that it would melt a little. So, we left the glass in the fridge overnight and here's what we found...a little but of ice melted.

I was pretty excited that he was thinking to this level and was interested in seeing what would happen!

Park fun with the kids

We've had some fun park adventures lately...Aaron particularly loves it because he has relative free reign to run around and be his crazy self!
He's mastering going up and down stairs (one step usually) without holding onto anything. Scares the hell out of me, but he has fun exploring and trying new things!

My boys!

We had a lunchtime picnic the other day and they both had so much fun! Aaron actually sat still and ate his whole lunch without being confined to a highchair!

Visionwalk 2010

Team Blind Melon was out in full force with 30+ walkers. We had beautiful weather with not a cloud in the sky!
We raised almost $9000 towards retinal disease research with the goal of this years' walk to raise $185,000. They are still tallying money so it's looking good!

We had a new site for the walk this year with more room, more parking, and an absolutely beautiful walk route.

We really appreciate all the support, the monetary contributions, and the people who came out to walk with us.

Singin in the rain

We got a huge rain storm last week and we were stuck inside all day so I decided to take Charlie out to get messy. We walked in the rain, and jumped in puddles. At first he kept asking me if I was sure he could get messy. I told him to jump away and make whatever mess he wanted...and he did! It was a total blast!

Pajama Fun

Evening is always a tricky time in our house. I am usually frantically getting everyone ready for night-time while I am getting ready for work. If I am not going to work, I am still cooking, cleaning up, getting the kiddos ready for bed, etc. Also, Aaron is usually melting down at this point. He's tired, and doesn't know what he wants or how to express himself, so he just cries.
One night last week, my boys were actually both happy in the evening and I was able to snap some cute pajama pictures of my boys.

The above picture is what Aaron did when he saw me take out the camera...he said "cheese"...it was so adorable!

Charlie got some new jammies that have "spider webs" under the arms. He loves them and literally wants to wear them EVERY day!

It's great when it's THIS easy to make your kid happy!

His smile says it all!

Going buggy

So, we are members at the Philadelphia zoo and they offer these workshops for kids and their parents, aimed at teaching kids a thing or two, and involving kids with different animals. I tried to get to some last year, and just couldn't make it happen. So this year, I grabbed ones that fit dates that I was free, and didn't pay much attention to the names of the workshops. The first one I signed up for, a friend of ours took him (it was the saturday after Aaron's scare in the hospital, he was still on the mend and I didn't want to bring him out to the zoo) and Charlie learned about migration and birds and saw a few pretty great birds and made a bird house. This last time, I took him and turns out, the name of the workshop was "going buggy". Awesome! I HATE HATE HATE bugs! HATE them! HATE them! We (the parents) were asked to please refrain from making faces, saying nasty things, or generally freaking out over the bugs. I actually didn't think I could promise any of that! Well, let me tell you how great I did! The scorpion and turantula were kept in their crates...too old and dangerous to touch. Darn! then I held a large and long mealworm...creepy gross, but then we watched a striped possum (cute but smelly) eat the mealworms! Bonus! Then the grand finale...I had to know this was coming...a GIANT madagascar hissing cockroach. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
If you know me at all, you will know that I love sea turtles and hate clowns and cockroaches...really bugs of all kinds, but really cockroaches the most. They are disgusting prehistoric nasty things that have no predators and have no purpose! Well, the ones from Madagascar apparently feed the rainforest, but whatever, totally skeevy!

I was certain I wouldn't hold it, not would I let Charlie hold it, but by the time it got around to us, she talked about it so much and all these little kids were handling it, so why couldn't I?! Then Charlie started begging me to hold the damn thing. I did, the pictures above prove it. I asked the random dad sitting next to me to take the pics because no one would believe me without pics. Several moms told me I was bad ass. The teacher offered me a sticker. I can't freakin' believe I held such a big giamt gross bug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My boys

Aaron's lastest tricks!

Aaron is a total trip lately. He is still a handful, alot to handle all day every day, and very hard to please at times...but boy is he funny. He runs everywhere and loves to climb. He tries so hard to keep up with Charlie, and whenever Charlie and Alex are "wrestling" Aaron jumps right in and wrestles too. He tried very hard to jump and he's almost got it down. Charlie was 3 before he even tried to jump, Aaron is millimeters away from leaving the ground with both feet! My nephew Bode was a year old when he learned to jump...my kids are not as physical obviously!
Aaron tested out of physical therapy! We were sad to see Dianne go, she came to our house once a week and got Aaron to do things that it seemed like he'd never do. We really liked her but were thrilled that he didn't need the services anymore. He really has come a long way. He started with her in his 6th month and he was a little blob that couldn't do anything at that point!

He's still in speech therapy and finally making real progress! He says momma and dadda. He used to say something that meant Charlie but hasn't been saying that recently. He says "nack" for snack and tonight, he said "cookee" when playing with a cookie monster toy. He not only said it, but got excited when we repeated the word. He also repeated the word when we asked him to. He understands alot more now. When we say brush teeth, he runs to the bathroom. When we say bath, he goes towards the stairs. When we say milk or snack, he goes to either the refrigerator or the pantry. It's very satisfying to actually "communicate" with the little guy!