The zoo & train

The first Saturday of the month, the zoo opens at 8 AM for members. Now that the weather is a bit more tolerable, we decided to take the kids. Paul and Caleb went to the Dinosaur exhibit and Paul said that Caleb was a little scared at first. Apparently the dinosaurs move and are life sized. They also make the sounds that scientists think they actually made. There is a small charge for the exhibit, so I let Zachary out of the stroller so he could run around.

This was the first dinosaur Paul & Caleb saw, Caleb was pretty scared at this point.

He was feeling a little braver here and was making a "scary dinosaur face"

In the cat area, we had a great time! We got to see the lion's come out and all 3 of the female lionesses were harrassing the male lion. He seemed a little grumpy and I think the lionesses were taking advantage. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was so fascinated with seeing them interact like this (they are usually sleeping when I go) that I forgot to take a picture. We also saw both the leopards and apparently we just missed them playing. Both were winded when we got there and laying out front, so at least we got to see them.

Caleb giving Zachary a hug in front of the leopards.

The Meerkats had just had babies! They were too cute!

Zachary thought about going in the tunnel after Caleb, but got scared and decided against it.

Caleb swimming with the fish! (or climbing in the tunnel. . .)

All 3 of my boys enjoying the fish. Caleb kept pointing out "Dory" and "Nemo"

We finished at the zoo about 30 minutes before the train opened, so we let the boys run around and play a little.

Both Caleb & Zachary really enjoyed the train ride.

My busy boys

I watched a video the other day of 2 British brothers, one was about 3 and the other a baby. The older brother put his finger inside his baby brother's mouth and was upset when his younger brother, Charlie, bit it. What amazed me the most about this video was how still the boys were. They were calmly sitting together in a chair. There was no wiggling, no fidgeting, no desperate need to get out of the chair. Neither of my boys are capable of sitting so still! What I think is kind of funny, is while they are both very busy, they are busy in different ways.

From birth, Caleb has always wanted my full attention all the time. As a baby, he liked to be held while I walked with him and talked to him. I remember spending most of the first few months of his life pacing the floor while holding him, with a slight bounce so he was getting additional movement and having to either talk to him or sing to him. He was quite content as long as I maintained this level of activity. He was not a baby I could put down in the swing or the portable crib so I could make dinner or fold laundry. I had to wear him all the time so he was getting the movement he needed and I had to talk to him or sing to him so his mind had something to do too. He was very interested in words and we remember him constantly watching our lips. His first word was "light" at around 9 months and he said it sort of like this "liiiyyyyyy". By the age of 16 months, Caleb had a vocabulary of close to 50 words. Talking has always fascinated him. As he has gotten older, his love of movement and words has not changed, just presented itself in different ways. As a toddler, he still liked to be held while I walked and talked to him, but he also loved to run. It cracks us up because we think the happiest day of Caleb's life was when he learned to crawl -- finally he could get somewhere on his own! Even now, he can't sit still to watch TV, he watches it while he is doing 10 other things. He still loves to talk and he demands an answer. If he doesn't get the answer he thinks he should, he just keeps asking. He has an amazing vocabulary and even makes jokes and uses sarcasm appropriately.

Zachary was a much more content baby, other than the colic. At around 2 - 3 weeks of age he started crying in the evenings for several hours. The rest of the day he was always pretty happy. The colic went away somewhere between 2 - 3 months. Unlike his brother, he was happy to sit in his swing at times while I made dinner. He didn't want to stay there for long, but he sometimes seemed to need a break from social interaction. Once he relaxed, he wanted to be held again. Zachary didn't have the drive to walk like Caleb did so that instead of beginning to walk right at 10 months (Caleb's first step was the day before he turned 10 months old), Zachary started walking about two weeks before his first birthday. He also took a bit longer to learn to run. On the other hand, he has always LOVED to climb. As soon as he started crawling, the stairs were something he could not leave alone. We finally gave up on the gate and just let him climb. As his coordination has improved, the stairs are no longer a challenge and he has moved on to chairs, cabinets and anything else he can get his feet onto. At our house, all the chairs are upside down to try and minimize his climbing. When he does get up on a surface, he loves to throw everything off! Just recently he has figured out that he can still use an upside down chair to climb on things, but sometimes he gets stuck in the legs of a chair. Zachary's other favorite activity is making a mess. Not that Caleb is a neat child, but Zachary seems driven to take things apart, he wants to see which object he can throw farther, what makes the best sound, what gets the biggest reaction out of mommy, etc. He always has to be into something. A tidy room is irresistible to him, he simply cannot wait to get in there and pull everything out!

I am interested to see where these traits will take them. While they can be a little distressing to me at times, I know there is a positive side to these activities as well. Caleb's love of words could lead to him becomea writer. Zachary's love of taking things apart could mean he is going to be an inventor. Both boys are very determined when they set their minds on something and I know that will be useful to them as they grow up!

Heather starts 8th Grade

Yesterday, Heather started 8th grade. It seems hard to believe she is already at the top of Middle School making fun of all the little 6th graders. Next year is going to be really weird -- she'll be in High School! For fun, I am putting pictures of every year of school below. In some of the earlier years, I don't have her first day, but I do have pictures of her taken those years that I'm using instead.

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Sixth Grade

Seventh Grade

Eighth Grade

Schlitterbahn

These pictures are from our June trip to Schlitterbahn. I'm not going to say too much about the trip, because there are only a few things to say. Caleb LOVED Schlitterbahn! When we got home, he didn't think Heaven could be better than Schlitterbahn. Zachary and Heather really enjoyed it too. It was my favorite thing we did this summer and it was even nicer that Paul's dad and sister got to come with us. It was a super fun day!

Caleb holding Zachary's shoe that fell off - later we lost it altogether.

Zachary loves Icee's and kept taking Heather's cup.

Farewell Ruckus Room

The Ruckus Room is a bouncy house place fairly close to my house that my boys love. We had Caleb's 2nd birthday and Zachary's 1st birthday there. It has been a great place to take the kids to play when it is too hot, too cold or rainy. Tuesday afternoon I took the kids there and saw a very sad note posted on the door, the Ruckus Room will be closing on August 29th. Not only am I sad because it is a great place to take the kids, but both my boys first real birthday parties were held here. It makes me sad :(

Pictures of the boys on Tuesday (8/17/10):

Pictures of Zachary's First Birthday Party (March 2010)

Pictures of Caleb's Second Birthday Party (October 2008)

Corpus Christi

We decided to have one last summer fling and we debated about whether to take the kids back to Schlitterbahn (the boys, especially Caleb, LOVED Schlitterbahn) or the beach. Heather really pushed the beach so we decided to go there. We had some reward points that covered our hotel stay and I packed us a lot of sandwich stuff , a really yummy pasta salad, various snacks and drinks. We left the house about 7 AM on Saturday morning, and after multiple potty breaks, we finally made it to our hotel. After we got settled and ate lunch, we went to the beach at the National Seashore. It was nice and I think we all had a nice time. Heather started digging a hole in the sand and Zachary kept trying to "help" her by filling the hole back in. Paul saw a fairly large crab in the water and we were all thankful that it did not decide to pinch any of us. After we had as much beach fun as we could take, we went back to the hotel. Zachary loved the hotel, it had many new things to destroy. He is going to be a demolition man when he grows up. He spent every waking second getting into something. His two favorite things were trying to break the A/C unit and dumping everything he could find in the toilet if someone happened to leave the door open.

Sunday morning we got up early and went to the beach again. We all dug huge holes in the sand, played with some shells, frolicked in the waves and got hungry and went back to the hotel for lunch. After eating, we all took naps. When we woke up, no one could decide what to do. Paul wanted Heather to go kayaking with him (you can rent kayaks at the National Seashore and kayak on the bay side) but Heather didn't want to do that. I suggested going to the mall so we could get out of the sun at least a little, but Paul and Heather weren't too excited about that. Heather only wanted to go to the beach or stay in the room. We thought about going to Port Aransas because it is a bit more touristy (the area we were in had 3 souvenir shops, a few very small restaraunts and a handful of gas stations -- it was not a touristy area. There was nothing around except the beach) but no one got really excited about that either. Paul and I did not want to go back to the beach until the late afternoon/early evening. All the while we were debating what to do, we were constantly pulling Zachary off and out of everything. Finally, we all got frustrated and decided to go home. We managed to pack up all our stuff in about 15 minutes and we headed home. Surprisingly, the kids were fine with leaving -- no one got upset.

In hindsight, Paul and I think Schlitterbahn would have been a better choice. Even though we like the beach, we are not capable of sitting there all day. Schlitterbahn offers many more choices of things to do. But, the beach was nice and we're glad we went.

A souvenir shop where you had to walk through the shark's mouth to get to the door.

My sweet boys hugging each other

Zachary entertaining us all by wearing a bucket as a hat

Heather laughing at her silly little brother while sitting in her hole that she dug

Boys and Girls

I am constantly amazed at how different boys are than girls. This afternoon, I got down on the floor to play with the boys and their sense of humor is so foreign to me. They had so much fun tackling me, jumping on me and jumping over me. They especially love to give me zerberts and toot on me. What is this fascination boys have with gas and gas sounds? From birth, both boys have always cracked a smile whenever they have gas. One of Caleb's favorite toys is a whoopie cushion. Even Zachary laughs at the whoopie cushion and tries to make it work.

When Heather was little, she liked to play with her toy kitchen, pretending to make us food and bring it to us. She enjoyed playing with stuffed animals and dress up. Caleb likes to play dress up too, but he wants to be a pirate, a monster, Buzz Lightyear or a zombie. Heather dressed up as princesses, a bride, or a very refined woman having afternoon tea. Heather was relatively quiet and calm. The boys are wild, wiggly and I often think they act like monkeys. I have honestly caught Zachary hanging from the chandelier over our dining room table.

Speaking of my little monkeys, the boys were chasing one another this afternoon and Zachary fell and his face smacked into a chair. Now his sweet little face has a bruise on it. My poor little guy is constantly hurting himself. If my boys would slow down just a bit, they wouldn't get hurt nearly so much.

We have finally taught Caleb not to hit, of course he occasionally slips ups, but for the most part, he understands that hitting is not acceptable. However, it took us a long time to get to this point. Now, we are starting this journey with Zachary. I hope it doesn't take close to a year and a half like it did with Caleb. Heather really was not much of a hitter. I don't remember her doing that at all. I find it odd that my boys are both such hitters. Neither Paul nor I have ever spanked the boys, so they have not learned to hit from us (for those who do spank, I'm not saying that spanking teaches kids to hit, I'm just saying that our kids have never been hit or seen the behavior in any shape or fashion) so I'm not sure why it is something they have such a hard time with. At least once we finish with Zachary, we won't have to teach this lesson again.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Heather as a little girl.

Playing dress up.

She lined up all her stuffed animals to watch a movie with her.