Family Fuller

Moving In Together 

Last week we made the move – we put Colin and Holden in the same bedroom.  It just kind of happened.  We only have two fans and it was really hot so I suggested Colin go sleep in Holden’s room.  He did, and did so again the next night.  Then we went camping over the weekend and of course they were together in the tent (not sleeping .  When we got home we really moved his bed in there and this week I finished up moving all of his things in to Holden’s room and all the baby stuff out of Holdens room (which is kind of sad for me.)

It has been going pretty well all said.  I do feel kind of bad for Colin because he can easily be asleep by 7:30 or 8 most nights, but Holden is all over him trying to get him to play.  Holden still takes a nap, but now he is up really late because of it, therefore so is Colin.  Holden is close to dropping his nap all together but he is just a wreck by 4 if he doesn’t take one.

I do like how there room is setup and it is nice to have them both in there together because they really like each other.  It is also great because now we have a whole other room.  We are going to move the computer upstairs and now we have an actual room for our guests to sleep in!  It is great.

Swimming Lessons 

In other news, the boys have started swimming lessons this week.  They go every day for a 1/2 hour at an outdoor pool up the road.  They are both in the same class, very beginner, because Colin won’t stick his head in the water and Holden is only 2, although he is crazy in the water. 

Well the very first day, and everyday until today Holden refused to get in the pool.  I would sit by the side with him and he would cry and not want to get in.  Colin on the other hand, was great.  Jumping in, talking to the teachers, hanging on the side, kicking and today he stuck his whole head in the water.  He was really proud of himself and even said “I wish my cousin Jacqueline could see me, she would be so proud of me.  I wish Grandpa (John Deere) was here so he could see me put my head under and I can’t wait to tell dad.”

Today, the whole class went to a different part of the pool instead of the steps and right after they left Holden jumped in and started swimming all over the place.  Hanging on the side, putting his head under…so hopefully he will be more into it next week.

The funny thing is that Colin is in a class with all 2 year olds and they pretty much don’t speak.  Colin more than makes up for it and just never stops talking…sometimes I wonder if the teachers like it or want him to settle down a bit

Reading

Colin has really been impressing me with his reading.  Now each day I have him read one book to me.  So far he has fully read “Coral Reef” and “Rivers” all by himself.  Here is a passage from Coral Reefs that he read:

A coral is a group of animals.  The animals are called polyps.  Some corals look like plants.  Some look like fingers or brains.

It is great to hear him read.  Plus his drawing has all of a sudden just taken off, much more realistic.  He sets up these very elaborate train tracks which are huge and all connected. 

The one bad thing is that he doesn’t listen and has started to realize he can lie.  I have tried to emphasize that if he lies I can’t trust him and I can’t let him do things by himself.  Hopefully that will work. 

After driving back down to Chelsea, my Dad went to pick Chuck up at the airport the next morning at 5 AM.  He had taken the red eye and didn’t get much sleep.  Once he woke up later we all hung out at the pool all afternoon, ordered a few pizzas for dinner and had a sleepover with the cousins (plus a movie and popcorn).

On Friday we went to Ann Arbor and had breakfast at Zingermanns with our friend Kristin, who we found out is pregnant with twin girls – congratulations to her. Afterwards we took a little drive around Ann Arbor and stopped off at the new Ross School of Business which is huge and very nice. Chuck just wishes he had gone there a few years later

Friday night we went over to my stepsister Christine’s house. The boys had a good time playing in the basement and we ordered thai food and got to hang out with Christine, Tim and my dad which was nice. By the time we went home there was a major thunderstorm starting and it absolutely poured the whole way home. We got to my dads, both boys were asleep and it was just pouring. We waited a few minutes to see if it would let up but it didn’t so we made a break for it. We really only had to run about 20-30 feet but got totally soaked on our way into the house. It was crazy.

Saturday morning we took my dad and Sheila out for a father’s day breakfast and then it was off to the airport to fly to New York for the last leg of our trip. There were a lot of thunderstorms and our first flight was cancelled. We got a different one to LGA instead of Newark and the flight was pretty rough I have to say. Our stuff never made it to the airport so we were without luggage or car seats. Chuck’s parents sent a driver to get us and it ended up being a limo which was fun (with the borrowed carseats):

Chuck’s parents were in the process of moving to the DC area so most of their stuff was packed up but we all managed to make due and got to order a lot of NY pizza (for the last time ). We didn’t do much the next day, which was father’s day. Sorry to Chuck I didn’t have much planned, but he did get to sit and watch a movie with the boys for awhile:

The next day it was off to Block Island. We drove up and took the ferry across and right after we got there Colin started saying his throat hurt. Well that was the beginning of a week long fever/sore throat sickness and Colin was not very happy most of the time. He would be OK on the Motrin but as soon as it wore off he was a wreck. I have to say though he was a trouper and really tried hard to still go out and do things.

We did a puzzle and played lots of games, including about 10 games of Monopoly with Colin.  That is almost the only game he wanted to play.  We would play for about an hour and a half and right when things were being built he would want to quit.

We ate some meals in (more than normal because of the illness) but Chuck got his favorite fried chicken and gravy:

And even with a slight fever Colin begged to go to his favorite place, Sharky’s, where grandpa had to down two “Shark Attacks” to get them both sharks:

We went down and tried on some funny hats. Colin and Holden both liked the lobster hat:

One day we went to the coast guard beach and played for awhile. There were little kids there fishing and they caught a few flounder plus a skate. The boys thought it was very cool.

We got to celebrate Grandma’s birthday while we were there. The boys made her a cake and we decorated the dining room with balloons. They love any excuse to have a party.

And we took our traditional family photo on the front porch:

Plus an added bonus of all the guys:

Finally on the last night Dad got to go out and have his lobster. Holden was very interested:

And I think Colin even more so – Grandpa was teaching him how to crack the claw, but he wasn’t adventuresome enough to eat the lobster.

Of course after that we had to go out for one last ice cream and some fun around the ice cream store:

The next day we headed back to New York for the last time. Chuck’s parents were busy with house stuff so we spent the day around Tarrytown and then headed to the airport. We had a late flight, at 8 PM. It was delayed and didn’t leave until 10:30 PM, then it is a 6 hour flight and as we were landing the guy in front of us got seriously ill and unresponsive. We had to do a semi-emergency landing and then wait while the paramedics came on the plane and took care of him. By the time we got home it was 3 AM Seattle time so we were exhausted.

All in all it was a very fun trip, and great to see everyone but after over 3 weeks the boys were glad to be home – and so was I!

It has been awhile since we updated our blog, but we were on vacation for over 3 weeks and just got back a couple days ago. I took the boys by myself for the first two weeks and then Chuck joined us for the last week and a half.

We started on June 6th, flew to Detroit to see my dad and family in Chelsea. Here is half of my family on my dad’s side at my nephew Joe’s baseball game:

Here is my dad, “John Deere Grandpa” with Holden and then both boys on the tractor. They call him John Deere grandpa because he loves tractors and has toy John Deeres in his living room. Although he always says it would be better if he was called Farmall Grandpa since he doesn’t own any actual John Deere tractors.

We spent a few days with John Deere grandpa, including going swimming in the pool.  Holden was absolutely wild in the pool, jumping in, going under and practically swimming by himself.  He was so crazy during one 2 hour swim-a-thon he even threw up twice because of all the water he swallowed, but then he just jumped right back in.

Uncle Adam and Colin in a swimming race:

We also went out to lunch with my grandma who is 94.  She seems to be doing well and is still even driving, although I am not so sure that is a good idea anymore.  My mom came down and she, my dad, Aunt Penny and Aunt Joey, plus my cousin Taylor all went out to lunch.  It was a nice time.  Then right after we drove up to my mom’s house on Torch Lake.

We spent a week up at my Moms and the weather was nice, sunny and in the 70s. Unfortunately the water was only 60 degrees and I did manage to go swimming but only for about a minute. The boys played by the lake almost every day and also rode big wheels around the driveway.

We had a surprise visit from Uncle Ben which was great. He stayed for about 4 days and the boys loved playing with him:

Going Fishing:

Teaching Colin to play pool:

Of course Nana spoiled them with all kinds of treats and toys, and many, many games of Sorry.

Playing in the fountain on the porch:

Walking up to get ice cream:

After spending a week up north I rented a car and drove back down to my Dad’s where Chuck joined us the next day…but I will blog about that in Vacation – Part 2

For the past few weeks we have had Holden’s new bed in his room, but he still slept in his crib.  Then on a Wed a couple weeks ago, when his nanny watches him while I work at Colin’s school, she asked where he wanted to sleep and he said the bed.  Climbed in – slept – nothing to it.  When I asked him the next day he said his crib, it went on like this for a couple weeks.  All of a sudden one day he said he wanted to take his nap in his bed and he did – no problem.  Then last night he was in his crib but called me in there to tell me he wanted to get in his bed (he had already thrown his pillow and blanket out).  I put him in and he got up one time, but then he went to sleep and slept there the whole night!  Yeah!

This morning he got up around 6 and I stayed in bed to see what he would do.  I think he wandered around the living room for awhile and then he decided to come and get me.  He was super cute about it.  So we will see how it goes from now on.  I am not a fool enough to think it will be that easy, but I can hope

Yesterday Colin told me that snails like “Al Juice” = algae.  Pretty much every day he makes me laugh.   

It has been pretty nice around here recently and Colin requests that we eat outside every possible night.  He has finally figured out the ice cream truck song, however the ice cream trucks drive so fast around here that you basically have to throw yourself in the road to get them to stop.  Actually that is a good thing, we pretty much always have the excuse that we can’t catch it.

Colin only has 4 weeks left of preschool – I can’t believe it.  We have decided he is not going to kindergarten next year though.  It was just way to much of a hassle and in the end it most likely wouldn’t have worked out anyway.  He will start at Jumpstart in the fall and go to kindergarten next year.  I also don’t feel that bad about it because if he ends up going to our local elementary school, which we really like, they have multi-age classrooms so he could start right off in a K-1st class.

Holden is one cute little bugger.  He is definitely becoming more of a person now.  He makes little faces just to make us laugh and teases Colin.  He tries very hard to talk, and has lots of words but they are pretty hard to understand.  He adores Colin.  We went to the beach on Friday and Holden was Colin’s little shadow.  Colin would go get a scoop of sand to make a dam and Holden would go to the exact same spot, get a scoop and put it right where Colin put his.  It was very sweet.

Here are a couple funny things Colin said recently:

• We saw a FedEx truck a couple months ago and Colin said “Hey Mom there’s the Fuh-Dee-X truck”  As you can tell he can read but it doesn’t always come out quite right
• Last week Colin saw this plain white truck that looked like a small delivery truck but it had “Boeing” written on the side and Colin said “Hey that truck says Boeing on it, but I can’t imagine they should be able to fit an airplane in there.”
• At dinner a few days ago Colin started talking about our old house in Ann Arbor, in particular the mural I had painted on his wall and then he paused and said “Mom, that painting was really lovely.” – How sweet is that?  And where did he learn the word “lovely?”

I just have to blog briefly about Holden and his love of letters.  We were at the garden store yesterday and he said “Mama…..B!!”  then “S” then “U” then…”umm” then “two…B”.  The letter he didn’t know, or more likely didn’t know how to say was “L” – so what does that spell?  “BULBS.”  He was very excited.  His favorite letter is O, followed by B and then S I would say.  His pronunciation leaves much to be desired still but he knows his stuff.  He is trying very hard to say words, they just all tend to start with an “N” sound no matter what they are. 

On the health front one of his tubes in his ears fell out about 5 or 6 weeks ago and we have already had about 3 ear infections and almost constant fluid in there.  For the most part he seems pretty happy, aside from some rough nights, and the doctors want to wait it out since it is nearing the end of cold season.  Plus we don’t want to have to get another surgery.

I have taken to the Naturopath again and she did some cranial sacral therapy on him so we will see what that does.   It is basically a kind of head massage/energy work which helped me so I thought I would try it on him.  If you can believe it he laid down for about 15 or 20 minutes while she did it.  He was very calm and relaxed – it was cool.

I also just have to note how much I love these little guys right now, well always.  They are the coolest little people.  Driving around, talking, going to the store - they are my little buddies.  We went to Lowes to get some things today and they were just following me around, looking at stuff, behaving and happy – they are just to cute and I am so lucky I have them

I think I mentioned that Holden likes to draw little circles right?  Well here is a picture of his latest work:

It’s funny but even though they are totally random scribbles, I really like them. They are really appealing to me. Here is another one, a painting that he did, actually the first painting he ever did:

Pretty cool I think.

The boys have both been fighting colds lately. Holden is particularly snotty right now and I bet you anything he is going to get another ear infection. I may have mentioned already that his tubes were put in a year ago, one fell out a couple weeks ago and he immediately got an ear infection in that ear. Poor little guy – he is happy and playing but little things going wrong set him off.

Plus the weather has been awful, raining and snowing (yes, it snowed here yesterday) and it is spring break so no school for Colin. We have been trying to get out but it has been hard. At least Colin went over to some friend’s houses a few times. I hear it is supposed to be nice this weekend though – let’s hope.

We had a pretty good weekend.  We had planned on doing some spring cleaning but after working out, watching basketball, the sunny weather yesterday and Chuck’s baseball draft we didn’t get much done.  We only got our room cleaned up and then decided we deserved to go out to dinner (again).

We are really the worst about going out on the weekends.  We keep saying we are going to only go out once to save money and eat better but inevitably come Friday we are ready for a treat.  Then Saturday just feels like a night you should go out, so we succumb and it is fun.  The boys are always so great when we go out to dinner it is hard not to want to go.

We have been good about working out though so hopefully that will offset it a bit.  I joined LA Fitness, yes I am a sell out to the big chain, because they have great childcare.  I can drop them off any time for one monthly fee.  Plus they love it.  I have been working out about 5 times a week, bring the boys about 3 times a week.  I feel much better since I started about a month ago.  Chuck has also been getting up early in the morning to go to the gym or go running.

Boys update:  Colin was really into playing baseball over the weekend.  He has a great swing.  We were in the backyard yesterday using 4 real softballs and a wiffle ball.  He would connect with the softballs but they wouldn’t go far, however when I pitched him a wiffle ball and he hit it, it would fly.  He almost knocked me over and did knock my glasses off one time.  Holden also has a great stance but has a little more trouble hitting the ball, but he sure is cute when he tries.

Holden has been trying to speak a lot more now and is getting better I think.  He uses tone and inflection all the time.  He is starting to get really mad at me when I don’t understand him.  He is so cute when you aren’t watching because he plays with his little animals and makes them talk to each other.  I found him in his room the other day with his puppy who was tucked in with a blanket and pillow and Holden was reading him a story.  Adorable.

Both Colin and Holden love to tell jokes at dinner.  Virtually all of them knock-knock jokes and none of them make any sense.  Especially Holdens – but he laughs so hard afterwords it his hilarious.  I took a video of it:

Telling Jokes

BTW..Holden tried to crawl out of his crib for the first time and also decided (for the first time) he wasn’t going to take a nap today.  It figures because just yesterday we said how easy he was to put down for his nap…always happens that way.

Facebook has ruined me a bit for blogging and I apologize.  I even missed Holden’s second birthday which was Feb 22.  We celebrated with the fam when we were in Arizona.  In fact, we couldn’t decided on the type of cake so we ended up making two:

;

Holden has been doing pretty well.  He loves to draw and write, and can spend a lot of time at the coffee table with pens and paper.  He can draw circles, he says they are “Os”.  He always makes the smallest shapes.  Leans over right by the pencil doing super fine work - it is funny.  The crayons are always out but lately he has gotten a little out of control.  I am constantly reminding him “crayons go on paper” – he has already written all over my built in cabinet, the train table, the pack and play, the chairs, etc…  Whenever I see him wandering with a crayon I get nervous.

He still isn’t speaking very well although he tries.  He thinks he is saying lots of things but he just doesn’t have the annunciation down.  I know it isn’t a mental or hearing issue because he clearly understands everything I say and he already knows lots of letters, games, etc.  It is really frustrating for him and for me.  I know he wants to tell me more than he can and I really want to understand what he is saying and thinking.  The doctor said to just be patient for now and to come back in 6 months if he doesn’t improve, so we will see.

He is definitely a two year old though because he is starting to act just like Colin did.  He has to do everything himself – which is usually a huge mess.  He gets so mad and throws tantrums for no reason (well that I can tell).  He pretty much has one every morning while trying to get his breakfast.  He stands there with the frig door open for like 5 minutes looking through everything.  I finally have to get him out of it and then it is like I have wronged him in some unforgivable way.  It escalates from there for about 20 minutes until he calms down and eats.

He is a little sweetie though too.  Just about a week ago he told me “luv ooh” – the first time he said he loved me unprompted.  Of course I gushed and hugged him so he just kept saying it, which is fine by me. 

He is still in his crib and hasn’t tried to climb out of it so we haven’t gotten him a bed yet.  We don’t want to change things if they are working.

Holden is much bigger than Colin was at this age so Holden is growing out of things that just got handed down to him by Colin 6 months ago.  He is a little bruiser – actually he is a the 50% for both height and weight, but I guess he just seems big compared to skinny Colin. 

He and Colin are becoming good friends and they really love to play together.  Although Colin has the bad habit of encouraging Holden to do things he knows he’s not supposed to do.  You really have to watch those two

We haven’t blogged in awhile and I promise to put up some Christmas pics but I have to give Holden his blog.

Holdie Boldie (as we like to call him) will be two at the end of Febuary and just recently he seems to be making big leaps with his vocab. Up until recently he didn’t have much interest in working on words. I would try to get him to say something and he would get mad and turn away. That has all changed and now he will attempt to repeat the words. They don’t always come out the right way but he is getting there. Some of his favorites are:

“Cu-Me” = Excuse me
“Mah” = Thank you – although now it is more like “Mah Ku”
“Ba-Ball” = football
“Nee” = cheese
“Ca” = Colin

and my personal favorite “Me” = Me. Whenever I say “Who….” anything, Holden raises his hand and says “Me, me, me, Me!” For example “Who wants to go out to breakfast?” or as they said on Reading Rainbow “Who would want to eat that spiky shell?” to which Holden raised his hand and said “Me, me, me!”

Here is a little video of him (this is already over a month old) but it’s cute.

He has really been into football and always wants to play, which mostly involves tackling. He is a crazy couch jumper to the point at which it is really freaking me out. He gets up on the arms of the couch and throws himself off doing a flip in the air and landing on his back on the cushions. I am trying hard to put a stop to that.

He has learned how to go up and downstairs with no hands but it still makes me nervous. On our front steps today, he went down all by himself but at every step he nearly lost it and almost fell forward. It took all my will not to just run over there and grab his hand – but he did it.

Of course he loves Colin and does everything Colin does, good and bad. He is starting to use the potty. Not on a regular basis but he is getting the idea. Both he and Colin started swimming lessons and will go every week. The first ones did not go well but I am sure it will improve. I also signed Holden up for preschool starting next year. Just two days a week but I am sure he is going to love it, he never wants to leave the school when we drop Colin off.

Anyway, he is a real cutie right now – I just don’t want him to grow up too fast