Too.... much.... chocolate...

We dressed up the boys and took them trick or treating this year.  They did amazing and had quite a lot of fun.  We were lucky to have Timmy, Uncle Paul, Aunt Jinny and Timmy's grandparents join us.  It is always so much fun to watch them all together.  Here are a few pictures of our evening...

Getting ready to go trick or treating:

Zachary my little Lion:

Nicolas my little Tiger:

Zachary and Timmy getting some candy:

A little ride in the wagon (they got tired of walking):

Our pumpkin... the Toronto Maple Leafs Suck and thankfully the Habs won!

New Gig

As of next Friday and for the next 9 weeks (minus a break at Christmas) I will be watching Natalia for the morning.  My best friend Brenda is starting up a company with her mother and they will be attending some sort of class for it.  So, she asked me if I was willing to watch Natalia for her.  I am more than happy to do so, especially for such a short period of predetermined time.  Besides she is such a cute and smiley little girl and the boys just love her.  Whenever she is around their first reaction is to kiss her.

I guess this will be a good trial to see how well I could handle an extra child... and maybe this will open up an opportunity for a little business of my own...???

My little men...

Here is just a few pictures of the two of them together that I just love.  Aren't they the cutest??

Animals....

We have recently been doing baby boot camp since Friday and it seems to have worked.  Both boys slept through the night last night!  Yay!!  I was finally able to get a good night's sleep.  They have been so good lately and have been in amazing moods.  They are at such a fun and cutue age!

As I type this the boys are "talking" to one another.  They just woke up from their naps and are probably telling each other all about the things they dreamt of.  For those of you that don't know (or haven't seen them), Steve and I built the boys two of a few animals that are hanging on the walls in their nursery.  The animals include: pigs, sheep, turtles, lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes.  The boys love pointing at them and having us tell them what they are.  We try to include the noises these animals make and they are now trying to imitate those noises.  My question is what noise does a giraffe make??  If anyone can give me a clue, please let me know...

Zachary and the zebras:

Nicolas and the Lions:

Hair cuts...

Thankfully the boys' Aunt Kiki (my sister) came for a visit so that we could all get some much needed hair cuts.  Zachary was a champ and sat still the entire time!  He loves having his head rubbed so he just loved all the attention.  Nicolas is the opposite.  He hates having someone play with his hair, so the hair cut did not go as smoothly.  But the outcome was still adorable... if I do say so myself.  I also got a trendy little hair cut and I am very happy.

Nicolas and Zachary pre hair cut:

Zachary post hair cut:

Nicolas post hair cut:

My Chipmunks

Just a post to show off my cute little chipmunks.  Here they are having a snack after their nap.  Notice how full their cheeks are... that's because they stuff as much in as they can so that the other can't have it...

Zachary:

Nicolas:

My two boys wrestling already!

A kiss from Shadow

I popped by Brenda's house this morning to drop off some stuff.  We went in for a quick visit since the boys were very excited to see their Auntie B.  Brenda has a gorgeous, very well behaved black Lab named Shadow that the boys just love.  However, if I wasn't sure before, I am now.  Zachary is allergic to dogs.  He was licked in the face by Shadow and when I got home, this is what he looked like...

It's kind of hard to see in the picture but his whole right eye is swollen.  It was worse right next to his nose under his eye (the spot that looks the most red in the picture).

I guess this is something to add to the list when talking to the allergist next month....

I guess it wasn't the full moon....

Steve and I were blaming the full moon on Monday night for the rough night we had with the boys.  Both Zachary and Nicolas were up for about 2 hours and very little was helping them get back to sleep.  Zachary has been doing something similar to this since he had his cold.  It doesn't take much for him to get out of the habit of sleeping through the night. 

And in most cases, there is absolutely nothing wrong with him.  He just needs to cry a while to soothe himself back to sleep.  The problem is that he is in the same room as Nicolas and if he cries too much and for too long, he will wake his brother.  So, I generally pick him up and place him in the pack-n-play in the basement.  Lately, that's all the intervention needed for him to go right back to sleep until morning.  The couple of days, I simply picked him up and brought him out to the living room to change his diaper.  Then I put him right back into his bed and off he went to sleep.  The issue I'm having is that I am trying to get out of having to pick him up at all.  Simply walking into the room and rubbing his back does not work!  It will actually cause him to get more upset.  So, it's better for me to not go in at all if I don't plan on picking him up.

Nicolas' waking is something completely new.  He is my amazing sleeper and rarely even stirs at night.  I am pretty sure the problem is that he is getting a mouth full of teeth.  His cries at night sound painful since he cries for about a minute, seems to drift off and then starts crying again.  So, I've been going in and giving him some Tempra.  It seems like once it kicks in, he goes right back to sleep.  He has 4 molars now that have shown up in a span of less than a week.  And if I run my fingers along his gums, it feels bumpy and not smooth.  So, I am assuming that there are a few more trying to make their way through...

I just want my two little monkeys to go back to sleeping through the night... is that too much to ask??

Relaxing and having a snack

This morning while the boys were having their snacks, they decided it would be a good idea to sit on the couch and relax while eating.  So, here they are...

They are just chillin', watching TV and having a snack.  Isn't that the life??  I love how they sit just like their Daddy with their feet crossed at the ankles!

Chip has been found!

Nicolas and Zachary (mostly Nicolas) are in love with this Disney book called, "Where's Chip".  The book has Chip (a character from Beauty and the Beast) hiding in different rooms of the house.  THe boys love to be able to point out Chip on every page.  The problem is that there isn't much to the book and they will sit happily and have you read it over and over.  In a 10 minute span after it had been found, I read the book 6 times!

King of the Hill

Zachary and Nicolas absolutely love dancing to the theme song to the show "King of the Hill".  And honestly it is so hilarious to watch that I had to film it.  So, here it is....



This is not the best dancing they have done to this song, but at least it gives you a little taste...

No intervention required...

The boys were obviously happy to be home and back to sleeping in their own beds.  They went to bed without a peep and they did not wake up until 7:30 this morning.  I was so tired and in need of a good night's sleep and they happily came to my rescue!  I did not even roll over until 6:00 this morning and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the clock.  Hopefully this means that there might not be a need for baby boot camp... but only time will tell...

There's truly no place like home...

We decided to make the trip to my in-laws yesterday since we were all feeling better.  The boys were in great spirits despite the colds and I knew my mother-in-law really wanted us there.  So, we packed up early Sunday morning and headed down.  The drive there wasn't fantastic since the boys just didn't want to be stuck in the car seats.  But we made it there with minimal tears.

We had a great meal with Steve's parents as well as his sister, her husband and three of our beautiful and wonderful nieces!  They were so great with the boys and entertained them so much that they went down for their nap almost an hour late and the boys did not want to sleep because they did not want to miss out.  I do not know how long they slept, but they almost made it to their normal bed time. Sadly, I was too busy enjoying watching them play that I forgot to snap some pictures of the boys with the girls...

Sadly, the boys do not sleep well when they are not in their own beds and at home.  It is our reality right now and I have to accept it.  However, it makes overnight visits really hard and both mine and Steve's parents are just a little too far for a one day visit.  So, for the time being, these trips will have to be limited... for my own sanity.  Zachary was awake for over two hours in the middle of the night and Nicolas was awake and ready to start the day at 5:30 this morning...

The only good thing is that they were so tired this morning on our way home that they both slept, just long enough that it allowed us to drive straight home without stopping.  And not too long that they didn't take a good nap this afternoon.  Steve and I both took a nap this afternoon too.

Here are some pictures taken from the front window at Grandma and Garndpa's:

Zachary and Nicolas (excuse Nicolas' runny nose!):

Having sick babies sucks!

Both of the boys (as well as myself) are now sick.  Nothing to major, just runny noses and low grade fevers from time to time.  I  feel so badly that they are sick and that there is little I can do to make them feel better.  Last night I got little to no sleep because Zachary was up almost every hour (starting about an hour after we put him to bed).  He is so congested and since my boys love their pacifiers, he has trouble breathing throughout the night. 

I am not opposed to picking him up and helping him regain his ability to breathe through his nose.  But the problem is that it takes him about an hour before he needs the same help.  Steve thinks we should just let him cry until he falls back to sleep on his own.  My biggest problem with that is it just makes his congestion worse and he is then awake again sooner.  I also know that they are too young to understand that they have a cold and that's why they are feeling so crappy.  I also want them to know that we are there to take care of them and make them feel better.

I know that we will need to have another session of baby boot camp after the colds are over.  But that only lasts a few days (usually by the third night they are back to sleeping through).  I am just torn as to what to do...

Also, these colds probably means that we will have to miss Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's.  I don't want to be spreading this cold around.  Since Grandma and Grandpa are in the midst of getting over a cold they got from my nephew last weekend, I think the decent thing to do is stay away.  We were only planning on heading down for the day on Sunday, so it will be a last minute decision.

Caught in the rain

As we were about to leave the grocery store today, I glanced out the windows and noticed that it was raining - HARD!  There was even some hail coming down.  So we waited for a few minutes, long enough for me to realize that we would stay there for a very long time waiting for it to stop.  So, when it died down a little, we made a run for it.

As I was running towards the car, the look on the boys' faces was priceless.  They were having a blast!  They were getting soaking wet and loving every second of it.  They were laughing so much that other people, who wrtr also trying to get to their cars, were stopping to look at us.  By the time I got them in the car, we were all soaked.

When we got home, I let them out of the car to walk into the house on their own.  They were splashing around in all the puddles in the driveway.  Not like it mattered since they couldn't get much more wet than they already were.

Here are some pics of them I snapped when we finally got into the dry house:

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Viva La Vida

A few afternoons ago the song "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay came on the radio and the boys just both started to dance. It was so cute and funny. Luckily, I was already filming them so I was able to catch it without them altering their behavior. Here it is... check out Zachary in the background at the beginning of the video. It just cracks me up how he dances...

Working from home

Steve worked from home while the boys were napping this weekend. But as soon as they were up, the work had to stop. Here is the reason why...





I don't know how anyone would be able to be productive and get work done with two little guys running around...

Me and my boys...

I don't post many pictures of myself since I am generally the one taking all the pictures. But Steve took this one the other night while I was reading to the boys and I thought it was cute...