Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving

We made the long trip to DC for Thanksgiving this year. In typical Ish fashion, he fell asleep in the last half hour of our 5 hour trip.
Traveling makes Ish tired. He slept quite soundly at night on his Ning Ning couch bed.
Mornings were lazy. Reading Phineas & Ferb magazines.
Watching Chicken Little.
When Ish got restless (lack of toys will do that to a 3 year old), we went for a walk in search of open spaces.
The weather was cooperating for a leisurely stroll.
We stopped at a school field down the street from the house and let Ish run free for a bit.
Then we enlisted the help of Siri to find a REAL park (you know, swings and monkey bars and things like that). I know Matt's face looks all wonky in this pic, but I love the look on Noah's face as he's watching his brother run like a maniac.
Siri did her job. We found an awesome playground just a short car ride away.
Matthew spent most of his time in this spinning seat. That boy loves being dizzy. He mastered the weird little contraptions that only a 3-year-old could.
Meanwhile, Noah and I tried to master the reverse camera angle on my phone.
Then we ended the day with some rock climbing.
Noah's a pro.
And now, we return to regularly scheduled programming.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Role Reversal

Ok Noah Bear, listen carefully and I'll show you how to play with your baby toys.
This is the toy. It comes with lots of balls.
Mom, please make him give me ALL the balls please.
Ok, great. Now we can continue the lesson.
Watch closely as I put the balls on the slide.
Hey, this is kinda fun. I forgot how much I like this toy.
Hey mom - can you tell Matthew I want to play too.
Hey Matthew - mom said let me play too.
Nope, asking nicely didn't work.
Okay, I'll settle for being picked up and maybe a snack.
♫♫Lalalalalalalalala, I love playing with baby toys.♫♫

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday Phone Pic Download

My friend Joanne and I hosted a Shutterfly Holiday House Party last Saturday afternoon - I made cupcakes.
Matthew was pretty darn excited at the idea of cupcakes.
Matt sent me this on Saturday night. I was out to dinner with a friend and he put the boys to bed for the night.
I used my Huggies Rewards points to get Matthew this neat Spiderman Thermos sippy cup. It came yesterday - it's a nice size to put in Matthew's stocking.
Noah is sitting up on his own (no more falling over!), he's able to get himself propped up in about .2 seconds from when I plop him on the floor.
Happy Weekend!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Christmas Shopping

I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping for the boys (Matthew has so much already, and Noah is inheriting A LOT of toys we have stored away from Matthew's baby days). A few things I picked up this weekend:

The Toy Story Tri-County Landfill playset. Matthew is great at imaginative play, and he loves playsets like this one.
Matthew asked Santa for Hungry Hungry Hippos (he sees the commercial on TV all the time). I wasn't going to buy it because all I could see were those little balls all over the house (and in Noah's mouth!). I said to Matt, if I could find a self-contained HHH, I would buy it. And I did - the travel version. So I bought it! LinkMatthew is master of the iPad and is getting very good at a lot of the toddler games I've downloaded for him. One of the apps incorporates these AppMATes, which I think he'll get a kick out of.
I also got him this Crayola pen for the coloring/painting apps. As for Noah, like I said, he'll inherit a lot of Matthew's toys. Of course I'll get him a few things of his own to even things out a bit. One toy I picked up at Target was this little phone. Lots of buttons to press and lots of noises - perfect for his age.
I also picked up a little set of "wobbly" toys that I think he'll get a kick out of chasing around (I can't find the stinkin' picture on Target's website). So far that's it for poor Noah-Bear, although I'm sure I'll find more things for him between now and December 25th!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Friday Phone Pic Download

Starbucks is using their holiday cups. That makes me happy.
Matthew is a bed hog.
A few transformers blew up outside of my office and started a small fire (very small, put out very quickly).
Matthew is getting this for Christmas. He asked Santa for "Batman toys"
Could my children look any more bored with their life? It's tough being pushed around the mall. Matt, my dad and Matthew went to Applebee's today for the free Veteran's Day lunch.
And with that - we start the weekend! Happy Friday!!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Digging Out

Last Saturday started out innocent enough. The forecast called for a snowstorm to hit us, so we battened down the hatches and planned for a lazy day inside.

Matthew - the master of multi-tasking that he is - enjoyed an early morning snack, while perusing the latest toy circulars and watching Phineas & Ferb on the iPad.
Noah played innocently on the floor. And by innocently, I mean crawling as fast as he could away from his toys into the piles of the forbidden heaven that are Matthew's toys.
It started to snow pretty early.
And it kept getting heavier and steadier.
Matthew decided to relax with a movie.
Lunch was a snow-day staple - nice warm pizza bagels.
We decided to make some cookies. Matthew does not understand the whole "watched pot" thing.
As the day went on, the snow kept falling. Everyone seemed fascinated.
Noah decided to try out his new ninja toy-stealing moves.
But his ninja-like moves are no match for Matthew's ability to snatch away a toy at lightening speed.
While we we having fun - trees started to come down. This one took out our electricity and cable.
So, with no power at our house, we made the trek to grandma's house for warmth. Noah tried his Ninja skills on Sasha. Sasha was not impressed.
My brother's family lost power too. Which made Matthew so happy - he could not contain his excitement for seeing his best friend.
So for 5 days we camped out. Noah played on the floor.
The kids kept busy with various projects.
And we watched a lot of movies.
We finally got power back on Wednesday night (no thanks to ConEd - we paid a private electrician to connect us). And since then, we have been playing catch-up. We lost a weekend of our To Do list, so everything has doubled.

But, we did manage to squeeze in a bit of fun this past weekend. In between our chores, we went to see Santa. More on that later. :-)