A bomb went off at our house!

Ok...well, truth be told, I never actually found the bomb...but there was certainly an explosion!

During the last week:

Ayden has decided that walking is his preferred method of transportation! He is toddleing everywhere!

Ayden picked up several new words including "uh-oh", "Dayda" (for our dog, Jada), "Dada" for daddy. Maybe a few others that we are still not certain of.

Ayden learned to climb on the couch and now loves to sit on the couch and look through his books.

Ayden began shaking his head yes. He had been doing only no. He doesn't always use the one he means, but he does answer with one if you ask him a question.

Ayden finds shoes or socks and attempts to put them on his feet.

Ayden has seen Ashton using his spoon and decided he should try it, now he is loving feeding himself with a spoon too!

Ashton added the word "ba" for bath and is working on a few others it sounds like.

Ashton can find your nose when asked.

Ashton began shaking yes and no, and seems to understand the difference most of the time.

Ashton could climb on the couch awhile back but just didn't do it often. Now that he sees Ayden doing it he is also up there all the time. The difference is that Ashton is a monkey and doesn't just sit on the couch, he crawls around, stands up and even climbs up and stands on the back looking out the window! Needless to say, we have had a few falls already!

Ashton is also attempting to put on his shoes.

Ashton, my monkey, went head first into the toy box!

Ashton, again, can't keep his feet on the ground...

and, Ayden is loving having his feet on the ground!

Mama's monkey's on the couch

The boys were also much more interested in coloring this time!

Sensory activity or snack time?!

I should have guessed it with my big eaters...we couldn't do a sensory activity with food without it turning into snack time! My preK students use to LOVE to play in shaving cream and so I wanted to duplicate that activity for the boys in a safe way. I decided on cool whip! After putting a big dollop of cool whip in the middle of Ayden's high chair tray he, of course, put his fingers right from the mound to his mouth. After tasting it for half a second he literally lunged for the pile with both hands this time! Oh boy! This was not what I was hoping for! I don't give them sweets so I really hoped that they would play with more than they would eat. I then took his hands and showed him how to "play" with it. As you can imagine, that did not go over well, and he went right back to licking the sweet cream from his fingers! Ashton, on the other hand, did play in his dollop for a whole 5-7 seconds before deciding to use his sense of taste for this "hands-on sensory activity". I also tried to show him that it was not just good for eating but he was less than convinced. They were really mad when they saw me return the container to the kitchen! When there was just some melted sugary cream left on their trays they did play in it for a bit and seemed to enjoy it. Overall this was a good activity, but I still would like to avoid giving them sugar so I will have to return to sugar free pudding or find another alternative for now. Here are some pictures from our activity!

Ashton going in slowly...

mmmmmm....

"mom, you're the best"

Ayden going straight for the mouth...now he's double fisting it!

"mmmm...I agree, mom, you're the best!"

Late vacation update and some exciting news!

We have been home a week, but I am just now getting caught up enough to have time to write about it! We made a (very) last minute decision to leave Thursday night instead of Friday mid morning. We thought the trip would go faster and be easier on the boys this way. It worked out pretty well in the end, and we arrived about 2:00am to Grandma and Grandpa Kitsmillers' house in St. Louis. The boys were slightly confused when we got them out of the car, they thought it was time to play! That first day was a little rough on all of us! Saturday we went to Grant's Farm with Aunt Amy and the grandparents. We got to see a lot of animals and ride a train. Saturday evening it was time for mommy and daddy to have some fun! We met up with a bunch of Jeff's friends from his STL days and has some great adult time! Sunday grandma and I went crafts shopping while daddy and grandpa put some meat on the grill. When we got back we had a great bbq and saw some family friends. After dinner daddy had to leave for the camp that he volunteers for every summer. Tuesday the boys and I had a playdate with a cute little girl just a couple months younger than the boys and her mom who is currently expecting twins! She had tons of questions, so while we chatted the babies had a great time playing with Little People and the new boat ball pit that the grandparents bought. Wednesday the boys and I headed to Warrenton to the outlet mall with grandma and Aunt Amy. We got a lot of great deals! I think the boys fall wardrobe is nearly complete and we got a good start on next summer as well! To top of this great shopping trip we got two big bags of books and two new pairs of walking shoes from the Nike outlet! We were excited when Thursday rolled around because daddy finally got home in the afternoon. Ashton must have been really excited because he took his first steps a couple hours later! This was very exciting for us since our "little explorer" had been resisting walking before today. We relaxed Friday before heading home on Saturday during the morning naptime. The trip went well and we made our traditional half way stop in Lebanon where we ate lunch and went to our second outlet mall of the week! We were happy to finally be home at 6pm. We was so nice to get away from all the responsibilities of home and see good family, good friends and eat some good food!

Waiting in line at Grant's Farm and gettin' some lovin' with Grandma and Grandpa!
Aunt Amy is feeding the camel!
Daddy and Ashton checking out the baby goats at Grants Farm.

The boys were getting caught up on their reading while at grandma's!

Showing off their new kicks - and enjoying the boxes way more! Daddy reading to his boys!

Daddy's shoes make great toys!

Wrestling in their new ball pit!
The box for the ball pit had kept them entertained for a couple days!

Exciting news!

While we were away Ayden cut 4 new teeth, giving him a total of 12!

Ashton has become very interested in feeding himself with a spoon, and he is pretty good at it!

Monday, August 3rd I was in the nursery with the boys putting away clothes and Ashton walked about 5 feet - his furthest distance! He had been taking 4-6 good steps before this. Not to be out done...that evening after dinner Ayden walked about 6 feet! Ayden has been taking what I call "mini baby steps" for a couple weeks now. He usually side stepped and didn't really cover much ground since the steps were so small. But, today he was doing the real deal! This newly acquired skill by both boys has made for lots of laughs, as well as new worries around our house. We are very excited about our boys' new freedom since we have been anxiously awaiting this day for quite awhile!

Saturday, August 8th I took the boys to our first hot air balloon festival! We met Lindsey, Michael and Bailey there and had a great time. We didn't get to see a balloon actually take off because it was too windy, but we did get to see one inflated!

Michael and Ayden
Me and my boys!

The Mayflower balloon was inflating and the others were "glowing"!

"Aunt" Lindsey and Ashton

Lindsey's daughter, "cousin" Bailey, with the boys!

Ashton learned to climb into the toy box this week - he was so proud of himself!

I am exciting to announce that I am in the process of starting a new business venture! I have been trying to work this into my already busy days and hope to have it up and running in a couple weeks! I am not yet prepared to disclose a name or any specifics...but stay tuned because details will be coming shortly! I am very exciting about it and I hope you all will be just as excited and will support me in my new adventure!