About the boys

Lincoln has made good friends with the "time out" chair. He is actually in "time out" in this picture, but he doesn't seem to mind. I think we're both getting better at it, using it as an actual break from an incident so that we can move on and forget about whatever was going on before. I learned a lot from this book my mother-in-law gave me (1-2-3 Magic) about not even discussing what happened. You just let them learn, they already know what they did wrong and we don't need to talk about it to death. Lincoln continues to surpise us with the things that he says and understands. One morning he woke up to rain and said, "Dad! Come look, the weather is changing!" Not just, "it's raining." He has also been grateful for snow in just about every prayer that he has given for months. Not sure where that comes from.

Jackson just had his 15 month appointment last week. The doctor asked me what words he can say and she was imprtessed with th list I gave. She said that 3-6 words was normakl, but his list is pretty long. I wanted to record them somewhere, so I'll do it here... mama, dada, papa, bobo, snack, juice, hop hop (frog), mmmmmm (moo), quack quack, pop pop (means popcorn or anything in the microwave!), shoes, hot, hi, bye bye, hot, na na (nurse), night night, bug, ball.

I'm probably forgetting some, but that's a pretty good list. His latest tricks are folding his arms and touching his nose and hair on command. He will throw his diaper in the trash after a change sometimes, but it's not as fun as it used to be, so he has to want to. He is getting more demanding of getting his way and will fight with Lincoln for a toy or something now instead of just giving up. He loves to wrestle and is very active. He's got the sweetest smile that just makes you melt.

Frog Hunt

It has been so rainy for so long that there were lots of puddles by our driveway. I just think of them as mud to TRY to have the boys avoid, as to avoid several family showers a day. Well, one day I was doing just that, pulling one of them away from the area when I noticed that the water was very bouncy. Lots of little frogs had grown up in those puddles and I decided to let the boys dive in and try to find some. I could see about 4 or 5 at any given time, so I thought they would enjoy taking a peek too. I tried to get them to hop by clapping and singing or saying "hop frogs!" Soon Jackson was with me saying "ho hop" and blowing them kisses. I caught a couple and put them on the driveway so that the kids could get a closer look. The picture of Jackson on the driveway has one of the frogs in it. It looks like a little glob of dirt next to his foot. They were pretty small frogs! The boys were knee deep in the mud and it was a nice warm day, so we followed the frog hunt with a dip in the pool. It was much easier than the family shower. It was one of those fun afternoons when I wasojust happy to be a part of little boys learning about the world.