So cute - these things both just happened today and so I will just post both videos tonight.
This happened spontaneously this morning although I had to do a little prompting for them to repeat it for the camera. As a little background - it is the ritual when saying goodnight (to Daddy) to give bonks (bonk foreheads together and say bonk), and bams (pound fists together and say bam). Reese and Clayton totaly did that to each other this morning before breakfast - so so sweet! Then Reese decided to be his super cute self and play a little peek-a-boo!
Then this evening Clayton decided to do a somersault all by himself for the first time. We have been trying to teach him how, but I'm really surprised he can do it already! Daddy said he did it once downstairs (Mommy missed it!) but that it wasn't very good. But then after they came upstairs, I grabbed the video camera to see if I could get him to do it again and he did it perfectly! I love his stance when he is getting ready! This mamma is impressed!
The boys stayed for their first overnight away from Mom and Dad so that Darrel and I could have a real date for our Anniversary on Friday night. We stayed overnight at The Embassy Suites in Lincoln, ate a nice dinner at the Green Gateau, and then went for drinks at the Starlight Lounge. The boys sure had a blast!
Sometimes the boys do a little role reversal and Clayton will copy anything Reese is doing, ha ha. Video taken by daddy (so it's his fault he was laughing so hard the camera is shaking) during snack 6/13/2013.
Sorry for the delay in posting again! We have some good material, I just need to go through it! This mamma really needs a new video camera, too. The Flip Video I have been using is getting more and more temperamental all the time!
I got the boys some cute matching PJs the other day when they were on sale!
Yesterday was Father's Day and we all went to Lincoln for lunch with Grandpa Mark, Grandma Dianne and Aunt Amy. In the afternoon we went to the Air and Space Museum (SAC Museum as I know it). Clayton and Reese sure loved to see all the air planes!
Here are Clayton & Reese . . . In SPACE!
Reese stuck his head under the windshield, what a goof!
So Serious!
We explained to Clayton how the planes could carry the bombs and then drop the bombs on the "bad guy."
Clayton is checking out a Bomb!
Family Photo Opp - Overlooking the main hangar
This was probably one of the best moments of the whole day. Right before we left we noticed this picture of Clayton Anderson (the astronaut from Nebraska) so we told Clayton that his name was Clayton, too. He really gave the "other Clayton" a good hard look!
Clayton, meet Clayton!
Reese, chillin' in the back of the car re-hydrating after our SAC Museum Adventure
Afterwards we went for supper at Village Inn. Clayton did a good job waiting for his chicken strips, although we may have taught him a few new tricks about how to make silly faces to pass the time.
I took this video on June 4th but sort of forgot about it. Oops!
Honestly, Clayton usually does a better job of actually trying to put the silverware away in the correct spot, but that day he was more interested in playing with it! Oh well. . .
Tuesday morning I walked into the boys' room to find that Reese had striped off his PJs! Good thing he hadn't figured out the diaper. He was a little upset since he had thrown his binky and blankey out of the crib (it's a morning ritual to throw it out and then cry "uh oh")
Then last night Daddy snapped some pictures of Lacey and Clayton having a stare down. . . Clayton wanted the blanket the cat was laying on and has been bitten (well deserved, let me assure you) by him enough to try to get it from him cautiously. Mommy wasn't home at the time (went to my AquaZumba class for a workout) and Daddy said he was sad he couldn't get the camera out fast enough for when their faces were even closer to start with!!
After pouting and complaining about not having hundreds of dollars to spend on a swing-set for the boys in an online chat group for mothers that I frequent, someone suggested to me to check on Craig's List to see if I could find a good deal on a used one. So I did and I found a wooden one on sale for $100 that a family in Lincoln was trying to get rid of. So my parents went to check it out for us to make sure it was worth it, and it was, so on Sunday we went to Lincoln to get it! It's much much nicer than anything we could afford brand new and I am so grateful that the boys now have a nice big slide to climb on and place to swing. What a fun summer this is going to be!!!
I couldn't believe that Mommy and Daddy were able to set it up together with out any help. The boys were really good and mostly played in the sandbox while we worked.
Reese was a little confused about what was going one with the slide. . .
And Clayton tried to sit on the un-attached swing a few times. . .
Playing Peek under the Slide's ladder
Kitty had to come check it out (Lacey)
He had lost his shoe and was mid "uh oh" when I took the picture - you can just see the word on his face! So cute!!
Uh-oh!
Finally Time to go down the slide!
Reese would go down so fast that he would end up face planting (luckily he thought it was funny, see above picture!) but he did decide that he prefers to go down on his tummy rather than his butt. So Daddy is going to have to add some extra wood on the sides of the platform that go to the slide to help make it more safe. Reese gets so excited while turning around to go down the slide backwards that he doesn't always get a full 180 degree turn in and almost backed off the edge of the platform Sunday night. I had been worried about that so I was standing right there and was able to catch him before he slid all the way off and straight onto the ground.
We are also able to have two "baby" swings attached since that is how both boys prefer to swing right now. Clayton can sit on a "big boy" swing but it's probably not as fun since we don't push him as hard or as high. Safely restrained in the baby swing we go crazy, pushing him as high as it goes - weeeee!
Reese eats everything! Last week on Wednesday for supper I tried my hand at homemade pizza (dough mix from a packet though) and it turned out pretty good. I know what adjustments I need to make to the toppings to make it to our liking, so I will for sure try again. One thing that makes an amazing pizza topping is corn - kind of surprising that here in the Midwest where there is an abundance of corn, that is not something people do! So I also served some extra corn with the pizza. Seems like a strange meal combo, huh? It sure made Reese happy though. . .
This is terrible, I know, I know, these should have been put up long ago. Great Grandpa and Grandma Branz got the boys each a chocolate bunny for Easter and we let them dig in later (On April 1st, we should have made an April Fool's joke out of it - ha ha). I did edit Clayton's down quite a bit plus the memory card on the camera was full, so his is shorter, but the video of Reese eating his was a solid 13 minutes long (we used our actual video camera on him) and it has been a lot of time and effort to edit it, but I did trim it down to just over 9 minutes.... I will not be offended at all if you don't want to sit and watch the whole thing!
Nothing too profound today, just two pictures I took with my phone this morning while the boys were playing outside.
Sharing the Buzz Light Year Truck:
They were kind of fighting over it until I suggested to Clayton that he would fit on the back of it with Reese and to get on too. It didn't last long, but they backed it up together like that about a quarter of the length of the driveway!
Later, poor Reese got stuck in the wheel barrel. I wish I would have been paying closer attention to see Reese climb in it to begin with, but I just noticed him in it when he started fussing. (He was fairly upset about being stuck in it actually, especially since it had tipped backwards. I kind of felt bad snapping a picture instead of helping him out right away - Sorry Reese!)
So as you may have noticed that the month of May was not a good blogging month for me. I don't know why, but so now I have to play catch up. Here is a video that was taken at the end of April that I should have posted during the first few days of May but then forgot about it. Enjoy!
You'll have to ask Grandpa Mark about this one. Seems like he taught Clayton a new song! This was taken the Monday night after we got back from camping over Memorial Day weekend.
We actually made it to church yesterday (sort of monumental for summer time)! So I was sure to take some pictures of the boys in the afternoon in their coordinating outfits. They were watching Daddy mow the lawn of course. I actually played around with some of the settings on my camera and was able to get a a good shot even though there was too much light coming in through the window. I don't know why I never thought to play with that before!
See the difference? This one is on my "normal" setting
See the difference? This on is on a setting called "Macro" (and no, I have no clue what that means)
Here is me trying to get them to sit on their steps, face forward and smile. I think it's funny to watch it progress through each picture as they move around and only one boy will do as told at a time, ha ha.
Click on the picture to see it bigger
Here is Clayton's reaction when I told him to "say cheese!"
And here is Reese's reaction. . . just closed his eyes! Oh dear!
And here is the video. Reese was hauling his "blankey" (one of three of my shirts that he has attached to as a security blanket). I thought it was so cute!
If you didn't catch what happened there at the end, I did figure out that was crying because he was looking for his binky (pacifier). I guess at night his binky must get caught up in the shirt, so then he can shake it out and the binky will come out. I guess he was hoping that the same thing would happen here and so when the binky didn't fall out of the shirt after repeatedly shaking it he was kind of sad.
On another note, last night was the 3rd night in a row that Reese has not nursed before bed, so I guess he is officially weaned and I am done breastfeeding. The night before I started he only nursed for about a minute and wanted to be done, so I figured it was time to just take the plunge. It had already been a few nights in a row where he was able to make it all night with out nursing so he was down to just that one time per day (he still wakes up 1-3 times per night but we can just lay him right back down). He has been kind of upset about not nursing at night but doesn't cry when I put him down, just when he tries to get into my shirt and I have to tell him that mommy's milk is all gone. It's kind of bittersweet, but he will be 16 months old in 2 days and I have been ready to be done for a while. So the official total if you were wondering, is that I have been pregnant and/or nursing for 3 years and 5 months (give or take a few days) straight - no breaks!
Oh, and Reesee also has a new tooth popping up - the bottom left! :)
We went on Saturday morning since it was kind of chilly outside. They had a young person (high school, maybe middle school aged girl) as the volunteer running it (as opposed to a mother who usually does it) and it was really fun! I have never seen the toys so picked up and organized! Of course a mother volunteer would spend her time supervising her own children and not have time to do too much (at least I wouldn't be able to). But this girl was great! At one point I realized that Reese had wandered off out of the main playroom and when I went to look for him, he was in the little grocery store and the volunteer was playing with him, helping him go shopping! It was so cute and nice to know that she wanted to get involved. Usually the store/diner/kitchen area is a total disaster so it's not too fun to play with, but it was all put away and sorted so the boys played in that area for a long time "eating" hamburgers and ice cream sundaes.
Here are the boys "cooking" in the chef's hats there.
It was hard to get Clayton to leave the big poofy hat on AND hold still, ha ha
Daddy and Grandpa worked together to build this awesome sand box in our back yard for the boys this week. They LOVE it!
Here are some pictures I took (with my phone) the first evening they played in it.
Sand, buckets, scoops and trucks. What more could a little boy need?
Clayton liked to practice jumping in and out
Reese was like patting handfuls of sand onto Clayton's back
I guess he got tired!
Yum, sand and dirt taste good! (yuck!)
Afterwards, we stripped them down to their diapers to shake the sand out of their clothes and let them run around the backyard like that. I wish I had a video of it, they were so cute and happy to just run free. I love watching them play together. Then it was straight to the bath tub!
