Just some photos of the boys from January and February

The boys got a pretty cool car from Grandma & Grandpa. Just after Christmas while we were debating what to get with the Christmas money I found a very good deal for this car, which is something I wanted to get them anyway. It worked out so well. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa, its the most played and fought over toy in our house!

They love this table, but Calvin had decided it was okay to stand on top of it. It is currently residing in the garage.

Someone needed a quick rinse after a messy dinner. He can't get enough time in the water. Or give enough cheesy smiles!

We used every one of Niran's legos to build a tower. That is Baby Godzilla ready to climb!

Cookies baking, they do this for pretty much anything I put in the oven.

We celebrated Daddy's birthday early!!

Where's Bubby? He ended up just crawling and sitting on top of Bubby. They loved it.

Shakin' his booty!!

His favorite face when you take a picture of him.

Niran's cars! And a rare photo of him looking at the camera too!!

Corps Run - Feb 1, 2012

To welcome home the XVIII Airborne Corps from Iraq, there were over 14,000 soldiers from the XVIII Corps, 82nd Airborne, and runners from Ft Drum, NY and Ft Knox, KY. We got up nice and early to walk down to Longstreet to watch all the runners. We stayed for a good hour. They ran up the street turned around and came back down. I don't know exactly how much they ran, but the part of Longstreet they did run is 2 miles, plus the turn around they ran at least 4 miles. It didn't start on this road, so it could have been closer to 5 miles. The number of soldiers for this run is actually less than what they had from the 82nd Airborne's division run, but still pretty amazing.

This is only about a mile into their run maybe a bit more (probably not even 1/4 mile from the house). The light at the top of the street is actually where the barracks are for Dusty's Bridage. He's that close to his company. He works somewhere else though.

Here is the start. I believe these runners are from 82nd Division Headquarters. From what I understand the XVIII Airborne didn't run with us, but ran in their territory. I could be very wrong though.

Here are some runners, these guys were at the start so they seemed a little more pumped up than the later runners. It was pretty funny to watch them yell at say hi to us and then smack into the people in front of them because they weren't paying attention.

The following photos are from the Paraglide newspaper (that's also why they look better than my camera!)

Oh the cannon! This thing was going off pretty regularly. Possibly for each new Brigade that past, I'm not sure. It also went off when they started running too.

This is looking from one end of Longstreet down to the other. If you look very carefully, the second street light you see (you can only see one green light) is where the boys and I watched from. The far end is closed every morning for PT, the whole thing is closed for events like this.

I am pretty sure Dusty is not in any of these pictures. With it being so dark it was really hard to read the flags if they were even open. If they wore Brigade shirts (not the gray Army shirts), which Dusty did, they looked all the same as well. We had one friend that stopped in front of us & she yelled and waved before the started running again. Dusty apparently was calling cadence on the first pass. So I am sure I at least heard him, but possibly did not see him. On his second pass I had given up hope of spotting him when I here Kim and turned to see Dusty waving at us. That made it 120% worth it!! We'll go to the next run like this as well. Niran really enjoyed watching. Calvin just hung out in the stroller eating and drinking his milk.

Here is some medics calling cadence. This was towards the front of the pack.

Update

I thought I'd do a mini update on the boys.


This is what they do every morning when we get dressed. While I'm helping one get dressed the other is reading. We also find Niran reading at this table when he wakes up before us. Calvin is usually looking over his shoulder from his crib as well.


Niran - 3 1/2 years


He still weighs 30lb. Still, for the last year to year and a half. But he's growing taller and is thinning out. He still has his fat cheeks though, which are still just as delicious as the day he was born. He's talking more and more every day. He will be starting speech therapy the end of February. We don't think he NEEDS it, but his doctor has been really pushing since July to put him in. It won't hurt him doing it earlier and if the speech therapist says no, then no harm done. He's working on his ABCs & counting so he can start preschool next Fall. I put him on the waiting list, but they can't say what the actual wait will be. Keep your fingers crossed it's short. He's really excited to start school, even if it's only 2 days a week. I'm making arrangements for a baby sitter for the boys so they can start swimming lessons in the next couple of months. We would like to put Niran in some sports classes, but again I will need a sitter for Calvin because I have to attend the classes with him. It will be nice to get some of his excess energy out. Maybe he'll start going to sleep before us then. He got Lego Duplo blocks for Christmas. He said those were his favorite present and I believe it. He plays with them all the time. The also got a Cozy Coupe car & Niran drives through the house in it with Calvin holding on to the back. He still loves reading books. We are looking into buying him a TAG reading system. I think he'll enjoy playing with that while I make dinner or when he wakes up before us on the weekend. He loves drawing and coloring every day. He even did a little maze by himself, I was very impressed. He has flashcards that he likes to play with, which is another item that comes out most days. He's a very sweet boy who loves to play with others. I think preschool will be the perfect place for him.

Calvin - 1 year


He is walking. Well as long as he is on the carpet. He still won't stand on the tile unless he's holding a hand or using his walker. When he does push his walker around it's usually him running through the house yelling and chasing his brother. He can say Mama, Dada (most common), Bubba, nigh nigh. He can nod yes and no, he can say shush with his finger, Bubby taught him peek-a-boo the other day. He knows eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, belly button and feet, although he usually likes to show them to you using your body rather than his. He loves putting shoes on and if he goes missing he's usually putting shoes on by the door. He can climb up and down the stairs, very, very quickly, so forgetting the baby gate means there is a baby upstairs. He's still trying to figure out the spoon and fork eating, but loves doing it. He is the best eater as well, eating his brother's food as well some nights. He likes to drink out of a regular cup, but with help of course. He babbles like crazy now and knows what we are asking him to do when we talk to him. He loves playing with Bubby's Legos and their cars end up all over the house regularly. He loves reading and can often be heard screaming at Bubby when he takes his TAG Jr books from him (which is why we want to get Bubby TAG). He started sleeping through the night after he was weaned, which was glorious! He isn't into watching TV & movies like Niran is. If Niran is watching a movie he'll be playing. Very different from when Niran was his age. He got is 7th tooth in on Friday and his 8th tooth Sunday. All his teeth have come in as sets within a couple days of each other. He is a goofball who just does his own thing and LOVES to dance. You turn on music he's going to be shaking his little booty, even if he's tired.


Dusty & I are doing well. Not much has changed for us, still doing the usual things. We did get to go on a marriage retreat a couple of weekends ago. It was very enjoyable. I'll have to pull the photos off my phone and do a post about it. We hope you are all doing well!!

Potty Training

I'm going to make this fairly sweet & short. I tried potty training Niran at 18 months & due to various issues it wasn't accomplished the many times I tried. When we got to North Carolina I was going to try again & never give up. I really wanted something to motivate him, a reward or bribe, whichever you call it. I call it a reward for his accomplishment, but I had no idea what we were going to use. A couple days before we were to start again we were driving home, telling Niran how he was going to start potty training like a big boy. About a block before the house he said he had to go potty. We ran him inside and he went, just like that. Daddy & I were cheering him on and without talking to Daddy I told Niran "If you can keep going potty like a big boy, Mommy & Daddy will buy you a bike!" Why I didn't think of it sooner I don't know, maybe because we had bought the bike for his birthday the weekend before. Yes, it was 1.5 months until his birthday, but it was a great sale! He was very excited for this. Every time we were at Walmart and he saw the bikes he wanted to ride them (he did some times as well). Now it was time to figure out how to track his progress. That night it hit me. CandyLand! I would make a board game on poster board, much like CandyLand with the final prize being his bike! I ran it by Dusty the next day & he liked the idea as well. I got the poster board & the prizes then started working on the game board itself. We weren't able to start on a Monday because the idea came so late and the board wasn't easy to make it. We did start Tuesday morning, after a very late night for me, and here is our progress!

Aug 9, 2010 - It has begun! Niran's Potty Game! He was very excited about his game!

Each space represented a success in going potty. Every 15th success he won a small prize. When he made to the end he would get his new bike. If we waren't quite ready to say he's potty trained & should get his bike I was prepared to extend the board to allow more time.

His 1st Prize! The first week started out slow of course, but by the end of it I knew he had it. It was just a matter of continuing to reinforce going potty every time before having an accident.

Bubbles, this landed as his first trip to the potty one morning. Daddy came home from PT to him going crazy chasing bubbles done. We ran out of bubbles that morning.

His Woody & Buzz Lightyear cars. He won these at two different times, but he was very excited to get both. Probably b/c he loves car that much. The Woody car marked the halfway point. After that it went pretty quickly.

His dry erase books, one of his favorite prizes! He actually did very well his first time tracing the letters!

Last prize before the big one! Another prize he loves, it's a bath toy. The last few days of his game went VERY fast. He was getting a prize a day. I was hoping that he would do well enough so Daddy could be there to see him get his bike. The day Daddy left for training (he left at midnight) Niran had a few accidents because he wanted to play instead of going potty.

The morning after Daddy left for training he did it! It was the second trip to the bathroom for the day. It seemed like ages before he went. I was so excited I had the bike setup outside for him, but he just did not need to go this morning. I was even loading him up on fluids.

Yay! He did it! I told him that we needed to go get his bike. He was so excited talking in Niranese. Put his shoes on and tried opening the door before I was ready.

Sitting outside was his bike & helmet. He was so excited and got on & rode for a little while, but it was a bit warm so I brought him and his bike inside so he could ride around for awhile.

All the hard work paid off. We had one set back when he broke his leg. It was really hard getting his chonies off over his cast as well has trying to get him in the bathroom quickly. The accidents became too frequent and I did not want issues with his cast so back into a diaper he went. Once he was out of his cast he knew exactly what to do. We still have night time training to do, but we're waiting a few more months to start that.

Myrtle Beach

I never did do the post for Myrtle Beach. Well, it was Springmaid Beach, which was also the name of our hotel. It was so nice to be able to walk out of our hotel room & right down to the beach without having to drive anywhere & find parking. Plus it wasn't very crowded. There was a nice couple of vacation from their kids. Well, actually Grandma & Grandpa had offered to take them so the made a last second trip down. They were very nice. They rented beach chairs & an umbrella and allowed us to use them even when they weren't around. They even offered to watch the boys so we could go swim without them. I didn't take them up on the second offer, I didn't feel comfortable enough allowing strangers to watch them, but hey it's the thought that counts right? Well, we spent as much time as we could at the beach and here are some photos from those visits. I think Niran loved it & I know Calvin will as he gets older.

The view from our hotel room. We were on the top floor over looking the pools for our building as well.

As soon as we checked in we walked down to the beach. It was pretty empty due to overcast weather, but as you can see the boys still had fun.

We walked the hotel pier as well. People fished off it and we were able to get a good shot of the many Myrtle Beach resorts.

Probably the only proof that I was there too. Well that and someon had to take pictures!

It was very difficult to get Niran away from the beach. We had to force him to rest & drink water in the shade or even leave. We had to take turns taking him to the water.

Calvin wasn't a huge fan of the waves so he hung out in our little beach tent most of the time. He really loves water now so next time I'm sure he'll have fun splashing and running from waves.

One morning we got up very really & went down to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was a bit odd to look up the coast to watch it since you usually picture yourself looking across the ocean, but the little piece of land we were on sticks out changing the angle.

This Niran while we waiting for the sun to come up. He wasn't supposed to go into the water, but eventually did make it. I love this photo of him from our trip.

Pirate Adventures

Dusty heard about Pirate Adventures from a friend. I had seen it in a search of activities to do at Myrtle Beach, but didn't think Niran would be "old enough" for it. Dusty said to do it anyway. I decided to have this start out for our trip. On our way there it rained and rained and rained. We wondered if they would cancel it with the weather. They did delay the start hoping the weather would clear up a bit. It didn't, but that didn't stop us. We went out to "sea" in a misting rain!

We started off by getting Niran dressed up as a pirate. He didn't really want to participate at first, no vest, no hat, no tattoos, no socializing. The only thing he wanted to do was get on the boat and set sail. He's never been on a boat and he was very excited to get on one since that was one of the first objects he was able to identify.

Daddy was smart and bought him a Jolly Roger flag. Actually just buying Niran a flag is smart. He loves flags! That helped encourage him to get dressed up. This is him as a pirate, a very proud pirate. I love how he says pirate too.

Listening to instructions before getting on the boat. He was a tad nervous or maybe annoyed that we just weren't getting on the boat yet.

Mommy and Calvin ready to set sail. Calvin had gotten a mild cold so I opted for the yellow trash bag to help keep us dry. Dusty said that he looked like a sailor with his yellow trench coat and blue hat. I love my sailor! He did great on this trip. No fussing at all, just hung out, watched the excitement and dozed a little. Oh and if you plan on putting a child in a carrier and walking around a boat remember your balance is waaaaay off!

Our ship! The Sea Gypsy III

Quietly listening to instruction. When Niran first got on the boat he sat in the back with Daddy & me. He was taking in the moment of being on a real boat. He kept saying he was on a boat and just looked around wide-eyed. He finally decided to join the other kids when the fun really got going.

They were told to put the ear on the map and listen. What they were listening for I don't know, but I think it's cute that he listened to her!

Shooting the bad pirate!

This was a fun little activity for younger children. They have a story the kids get to participate in. It is 100% for the kiddies too! Mom & Dad just get to watch and take photos. I would let Niran do this again the next time we go down. He is loving pirates even more because of the trip! His hat and flag are a couple of his favorite toys now!

Medieval Times

Our a very long drive to North Carolina Dusty was telling me about this place that had jousting tournaments (at the time he couldn't think of the word jousting and it drove him crazy trying to remember). He said he was going to take Niran to see it and he did offer to let me come if I wanted to. He added that on at the end and it made me laugh. Top priority, Niran and him go! When he discovered this place was in Myrtle Beach he told me to book our tickets. Calvin and I tagged along. A evening with exciting entertainment and good food, who could pass that up?

Dad and Niran in front of the castle.

And the show begins. Niran couldn't take his eyes off of the events.

Yes, we were front and center for the show! That's our knight there, the black & white knight. He didn't win, but he had more guts than most of the others!!

Daddy taught him how to boo for the bad guy!! It was too funny!

Calvin didn't make it very long. The show started about 30 minutes after he was due for another nap. He did great though. No fussing!

I wish I had more pictures of the show, but our camera doesn't do very well with action shots. We do have three dvds if anyone really, really wants to watch the show! But this is a must if you have the chance! I'll have to pull the photos out from the table and with the King and scan them so everyone can see how important we are. Well, at least see a good family shot.