The boys

I am so thankful right now that there is a little age gap between the two. Amazing the difference. The last few days we have enjoyed playing games with B, he is starting to get it. We have moved beyond Candyland! Yesterday afternoon it was mid 40s. We did not get out when it was that warm, but we did take B sledding. There is a good size hill by the church. He got probably a 5-6 second ride. At the end there is a little bump to catch air. I think the 'air' scared him but once he figured out how to put his hands down to keep from toppling over, it was all good. He loved it and went down every time by himself. More importantly, he trudged up the hill dragging the sled all by himself too. So nice that he is getting older and more capable of doing things by himself.
J on the other hand! He loves to get himself dressed and if you try to help him, he will grab his clothes and run away from you. I have already taken the bar stools away and put their art table chairs up. The next thing to go is the dining room table chairs. Everything gets put in the garage cause I just can't trust him. He has figured out how to open the microwave and loves to put misc. stuff in there. If he ever hits the right combination of buttons, I am in trouble. Today he decided to get a coffee cup out of the cabinet. For reasons unknown to me, I decided to scoop out all the water in the toilet and dump it on the floor. I know he has never seen me do that. He is something else.
JR had to work today and works again tomorrow. I guess it breaks up his 10 days off, but it sure was nice and convenient having him around.

Christmas

Had a quiet uneventful Christmas. The boys are still young enough that they don't know you can wake up really early on Christmas. I have B trained not to wake me up until 7. We started with prayer thanking God for Jesus' birth and then we headed downstairs. The stockings awaited us. Everyone had candy in theirs and that was all J needed. He got a little bowl, poured himself some whoppers and sat on the floor eating them. He would not put the bowl down and open a present, otherwise Mom might take the candy and put it up. B had a lot of fun exploring/playing with everything he opened. From start to finish it took us over an hour. We made a birthday cake for Jesus and it sure was good.
We received 3-4 inches of snow Christmas night and it looks like we could hit the high 30s by late weekend. That will be shorts weather compared to 2 weeks ago!
Christmas Eve day JR took a sled out to the field behind our house. B got to ride along as JR wrapped the rope around his waist and got a workout pulling B.
J has not had any ill effects from the hand, foot and mouth, which is a huge praise. B has not shown any signs, so he appears to have fended them off. (J did get one little boy from church sick though).
Having problems posting pics, will try tomorrow!

Sick again

All indications are that J has hand, foot and mouth disease! Quarantined again. At least the weather is not conducive for playing outside. I sure hope B does not get it.

Instead of Na, now we are getting a full on No with J. He often will walk around the house saying No, No, No, No (emphasizing the O). He usually comes to find me as he is saying it. He takes my hand and proceeds to take me to the "No". Recently it was an empty bowl of chocolate. He had eaten every last bite and was telling himself "no". Or it was the red dry erase marker he used on the white fridge. Or the bottle of B's mouthwash that he took the lid off of again and spilled.
J's skin is doing much better now that we have taken him off of most dairy. I also bought some Aveeno Intense Relief Overnight Lotion. I noticed a huge difference after one use.
B, J and I are starting to get into a routine in the evenings. I have shown B how to put towels and pajamas in the dryer so they are warm when they get out of the bathroom. They think this is awesome and then they both crawl in my lap and we sing songs. I can only hope this will continue to last.
Another cold weekend, so around the house, doing odd projects, working puzzles, etc.

B's Christmas Program

B had his preschool Christmas program Monday night. It was short and sweet, 20 minutes. What did I expect with 70 preschoolers. I think he had a lot of fun.
Both boys went to the dentist the other day. B has 2 cavities (guess he has deep grooves on his molars). Both boys have orthodontics in their future! Guess we better start saving now.
The weather has warmed up. Surprising how warm 20 feels when you have been -20.
Speech therapist continues to hear more new sounds each week. We have added "p" and "v" and he is starting to vocalize more instead of signing.
Some more pictures. I keep thinking I will have time to explore more features on the camera, but not yet. Maybe when JR is off the week between Christmas and New Years. (His work is closing that week to try to minimize expenses so as to keep everyone on until work really gets going strong again.)

Not Warm Here

I had to laugh at my post 2 days ago. As I write, it is -2 degrees and the windchill is probably -40. This morning JR left to go hunting at 5:30. When he returned 2 hours later, there was a knee deep snow drift in front of the door, where there had been no snow previously. (The guys hunting turned around after they missed their interstate exit and drifted onto the shoulder of the interstate several times due to low visibility.) Not a good day for the ol' heater to quit working on the black car. Took it to a shop 'around the corner'. They said they would look at it and call me in about an hour. I said 'I think I will walk home, it is just 3 blocks'. Bad, bad decision. With a wind chill of probably -30 in my face, I considered several times knocking on a door to warm up. I should know better. Bitter, bitter cold and I did not have a hat. I had my really warm coat and gloves on. I ended up wrapping my scarf around my head and that minimized things a bit. They called to say the problem was more extensive and they could not fix it. JR warmed up the red car to take me back (I was not walking back). It sat in the driveway warming up for 20 minutes. We got in it, backed into the street and the car died. After about 15 minutes we got it pushed back through the snow into the driveway (we were able to laugh through this) and my neighbor took me to get the car. I bought some antifreeze for the red one and after it was added, it started right up. Let's just hope that was the reason for it dying. The black one either has a blown fuse somewhere that I can't locate or the fan/compressor is out. Not a good thing, but what does one do?
Saw Santa yesterday, it was an uneventful visit. At first J was hesitant, but warmed right up. Our gingerbread house had a tragic end. The icing did not hold and coffee got spilled on it. Managed to salvage a few pieces so they will just have to lean against the wall until they can be eaten.
Here are pics from the last few days. If you move your mouse over the picture, the caption will show up. I added a little music. (Bit by bit I am figuring this out)

Warm here

Today we were close to 60 and it snowed in part of Texas. Crazy weather these days. However, we are suppose to be in the negatives this weekend.
A friend from North Dakota is due in any time, so not sure if we will get any snowshoeing in. We are also suppose to go Christmas Caroling this weekend with the church. Will be interesting to see the turnout if it is -10. I did promise the kids a trip to see Santa, since the line was too long last weekend. As B said "it was all my fault they did not get to see Santa". We did see some reindeer (aka Caribou) though.

Camera

J has gotten pretty sneaky these days. On more than one occasion, we have found him fully dressed without a diaper on. He is somehow undoing the 'tabs' and then the diaper falls down around his feet without us knowing this. Once he had on overalls and we could not figure out why we found a misc diaper on the floor, until his overalls turned up all wet. The second time he was in bed with footed pajamas on. Fortunately I checked him before he went to sleep.
The other day B woke up with a barking cough (it has since gone away). It was obviously the first time he had had that cough cause his reaction was, 'Mom, you need to call the doctor, I am making a really weird noise'. Every time after he coughed he would say, 'mom, did you hear that'.
We have been playing around with the new camera and here are some pictures.

Christmas cards!

I mailed the Christmas cards today!! Yeah, it is always nice when I get that done. (I have merged two lists so if for some reason you don't get a card, let me know).
Today we were at Costco and the boys love sampling the foods. We tried Godiva chocolate. I was very excited that J ate his entire bite without any 'chocolate saliva' running down his chin. It appears he is beginning to understand what his lips are for. It is getting to where I cannot let him out of my sight. B and I will be playing and then one of us is like "where is J...it sure is quiet." We have found him on top of the 4 1/2 foot dresser. I have found him barricaded in the bathroom standing on a chair eating a candy cane. JR found him the other day sitting on the computer desk eating a lollipop. Whenever I ask him to do something, he looks at me and gets this 'are you talking to me look'. He stands there and does not obey. As soon as I stand up, his expression is priceless. He makes a 'uh gasping' sound and does a big 'o' with his lips, then immediately acts. I really need to get this on video. Such a ham he is. He is certainly getting his share of discipline though.
The new camera arrived yesterday and hopefully I can start trying it out tomorrow. We are going to a birthday party so will try taking pictures there.
Here is a pic from when he got on the desk, notice the two lollipops in his hand that he was trying to eat before he got busted.

Allergies!

At least J's allergies are mostly contained to one family. Milk and Cheese. A moderate allergy to eggs. So, that makes it easy since B is allergic to the same things. Although J's allergies seem to be much worse.
Another gal involved with J's speech therapy stopped by today and was very impressed with what she saw. He is making a lot more sounds and will even mimic you when asked to do so. He knows all of his body parts and can point them out.
Today I felt really bad. We have put a different lock on their door that locks from the outside, to cut down on getting up at bedtime. J was not happy when he saw me lock the door and shut it at nap time. He cried, banged on the door and carried on for 10 minutes or so. I finally went up there and he was laying on the other side of the door. He had pooped in his diaper and had started to take it off and then realized the potential mess. He was desparately trying to hold his diaper on and get my attention to come help him. Oh I can't wait until he learns 'help'.
It is snowing here. It was 60 yesterday and we already have about an inch on the ground. It is December....

Christmas Movies

B never likes it when I pack the Christmas movies away every year, but he sure enjoys them when I pull them out. We have watched more than one every day. I really enjoy the short days and the Christmas tree lights glowing! Although today we were close to 60 degrees!
J had speech therapy today and the therapist said he did good. She is starting to hear a lot more sounds and not just growls and grunts. We are working on him using appropriate communication for most things even if it is sign language. He is getting the word 'mine' down a little better. Instead of a form of 'ma', we are hearing more of a 'mi'. I am convinced that it will all come together for him in the next couple of months. He has a lot more inflection in his voice too. Tomorrow we have an appt with the doc to go over his allergy testing results.
B loves watching, as he says it, Rudolph the Reindeer Red-nosed. Today his teacher told me that she finally separated him to another table during their '20 minute' work time. She said he is just so social and loves to talk. She has a hard time getting him to focus. As she is telling me this, I am laughing cause I can see it all unfolding. He was not in trouble, so to speak but she figured he was far enough into the 'school year' that he should be able to start adapting and focusing more when needed. I told her not to give him an inch but to correct things after asking the first time and not waiting 3-4 times before separating him. He does much better when the lines are very clear.
Off to finish a few more projects before bed. Will try to post tomorrow about the allergy results.