Hair cuts

Aunt Kiki came to visit us yesterday. It was great to see her since it had been so long. The boys love having her around. Thankfully Aunt Kiki gave the boys a much needed hair cut. Here are some pictures of my little boys looking so cute and so much older with their new dos.

Zachary:

Nicolas and his silly smile:

A good side view:

Perspective...

I try not to complain too much about what's going on around here. I know that the issues we have are extremely minor in the grand scheme of things. And yesterday I was given a little more perspective (not that I really needed it, mind you).

I will not go into a lot of details but my cousin (who is also a great friend of mine) has a sick daughter that might need surgery next week.  She is the sweetest and most wonderful 10 year old and I hate what this is doing to her.  She is so brave and strong.  I wish I could do something to help.  Anything.  But sadly, there is little anyone can do but hope and pray.  The only thing I can do that will hopefully help someday is to continue donating to the Montreal Children's Hospital  where she is getting such wonderful care.

I guess situations like this makes a lot of other things seem so trivial and just plain idiotic.  I keep reading or hearing people complain about things that simply don't matter.  But I guess these people can sometimes be too involved in what's going on around them to even notice that other people are having a hard time.  I can hopefully catch myself before complaining about the boys having a cold or the fact that they are not sleeping as well as usual these days.  In the grand scheme of things, I would take that over what a lot of other people are facing right now.

My heart goes out to everyone that is struggling.  I am well aware that there are different levels of struggle... so for whomever needs my thoughts and prayers, I am sending them along.  And if there is ever anything I can do to help out, I will...

Why is that so funny??

Last night while Steve and I were getting the boys ready for bed, Nicolas' pacifier accidentally fell off the shelf and landed on him. This apparently was the funniest thing he had seen all day because he broke out into hysterical laughter. I caught some of it on video because it was just too funny not to. He kept asking Daddy to put it back on the shelf and make it fall on him. Of course, Zachary had to join in on the fun and get me to do the same to him. How can you listen to this and not laugh??

The new bath time game...

For some reason the boys have taken to playing with their facecloths in the bath.  The latest game is throwing them at one another and trying to get them to "stick" to each other's heads.  This obviously results in lots of giggles and boys that are drenched by the time they get out of the tub.

Tonight, in the middle of this new game they decided to try something else.  The laughter is just so intoxicating, I had to share...

Loving the bath...

The boys have always loved their bath but it seems that lately they've been having a lot mroe fun in the bath.  They are constantly splashing one another and using their toys to spray each other.  It is so adorable and the giggles come very easily when they are in the bath.  Here are a few pictures taken last night while they were playing in the tub.

Zachary:

Nicolas:

After nap giggles...

The boys rarely wake up crying after their nap.  But some days they are happier than others.  I was lucky to get to listen to them giggle for almost 20 minutes today.  I stood outside their door and took a video of them giggling.  I have no idea what was so funny... but obviously it was hilarious!  Take a listen...





Please excuse the video since it is of the closed door to their bedroom.

Update...

All is well here.  Not much to report.  Nicolas is stil obsessed with all letters and is now starting to show some interest in numbers.  Zachary has also found a new fascination with letters.  It is so cute to watch them since they can obviously find letters everywhere we go.

They are talking more and more.  Zachary's vocabulary is becoming better by the day.  Nicolas is a little slower at using all the words that they know, but he can still manage to get his message across regardless.  He is now calling Zachary "Za-Za" which is adorable!

We are definitely approaching the terrible twos.  Tantrums are more frequent and are getting harder and harder to ignore.  But, ignoring them has been a successful tool so far.  The other thing that has worked well is taking away something of great value to them and putting it in "time-out".  This has been helpful in getting the message across that I am not messing around.

The biggest issue so far has been lunch time.  They are deciding that they do not want to eat what I made for them.  But, meal times will not be a negotiation around here and I am not a restaurant!  I will not be making more than one meal.  Since I am well aware that they will not starve, both of them at some point have gone down for their nap with very little lunch.  They have also woken up to find that part of their snack was the leftover lunch they didn't eat.  This tactic seems to be working and hopefully they will realize that Mommy means business... so far so good.

I leave you with a few cute pictures...

Zachary and Nicolas sitting on Clifford:

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Single Parents

Steve was out of town from Monday morning until late Wednesday night (actually very early Thursday morning), so I was on my own with the boys for three full days.  It went very well but I cannot imagine doing this on my own full time.  Steve is a very hands on father.  I am so happy and thankful that he is.  It just makes it fairly difficult when he is not here for longer periods of time.    Not only on me but on the boys as well.  They are so used to having him be an integral part fo their daily routine that it makes it so obvious for them when he is not here.  They miss him and ask for him constantly.  But how do you explain the concept of a business trip and time line as to when Daddy will be home to 21 month olds?

I honestly do not know how a single parent does it.  I have always respected single parents and I knew that it must be a tough job, but I now have a new appreciation for them.  I understand that they work out of the home and are not with the kids 100% of the time, but it is still a difficult situation.  There is no real down time.  They are on 100% duty, 100% of the time.  When Steve is home, it's not like I am off duty, but I do not need to be 100% responsible.  I was able to do a 30 minute workout with my mp3 player on and not have to check to make sure the boys were not crying (it would not have been likely since they had been asleep for a good 30 minutes).  But, I didn't even need to think about it.  I knew Steve would hear them if they needed us.  As a single parent you would not get that break of having even a little down time.  My hats off to all of the single parents out there that are working hard to provide a great life for their kids....

Hugs...

Here are just some adorable shots I was able to get of the boys hugging.  It was unprompted.  They were playing together and they just decided it would be fun to hug.

This hug got a little out of hand and they ended up on the floor:

Nicolas:

Zachary: