January 2014

1/14: We have been working on teeth brushing with Landon for the past two months, which has been a challenge to say the least, but last night he took the toothbrush and brushed by himself proudly, no water or toothpaste, for about 10 minutes!  Now, mid-February, he still wants to do it with no water and no toothpaste.  Kids have the funniest quirks sometimes!

Landon likes to say "Okey Dookie".

Random statement from Caleb:  One day Caleb said he wanted help putting his belt on because he needed it to keep his 'britches' up.

Somehow I forgot to include one big event in my December post.  Landon slipped in the bathtub and broke his front tooth, as you can see in the picture below.  It seems as though he actually pushed his other front tooth backwards a bit, too.  Thankful that they are just his baby teeth.

Below are the pictures after we got it fixed this month - it looks so much better!

(Sweaty hair and pink cheeks from all the screaming at dentist.  Boy can this kid put up a fight!  He was happy as a clam afterward though once he got to choose a race car from the toy basket.)

Two nice strong front teeth :)

Venturing into the world of paints other than watercolors...  Takes a lot more supervision from me, especially with Landon, but they love it!

In an attempt to keep the boys out of our neat and much larger leaf pile in the street we made them their own pile on the lawn.  Worked great - they could destroy it or lay in it and we didn't mind a bit!

I know, some will be reading this post thinking "Why is Jenny taking pictures of the boys at Tokay?? Shouldn't they be playing at Lodi High??" :)  Mommy had some paperwork to drop off, and its all just as fun for the boys!

A chilly early morning outing around the block, in pjs, robes and slippers, to watch the tree trimmers working.

The Calebs (Williams and Elson) hard at work

Giants dance party

This cracked me up.  Papa walked the boys to the nail salon next to the Shoppe to see Nonni, and he came back with just Landon.  When I went back to get Caleb he was sitting cozy in the little girl pedicure chair, fireboots and all, watching "Up".  Hilarious scene. 

Landon has been incredibly resistant to haircuts for the past four months and no movies, bribes, snacks, sitting in laps, or other form of bribery we could think of would work.  He would thrash and kick so much that there was no way someone could get near him with scissors or clippers.  In attempts to just trim it up a bit, we resorted to snipping at the back while he sits on our lap eating a snack (below, with black shirt full of hair), and even going as far as trimming what areas we can while he is sleeping.  You can imagine how even that comes out looking.  FINALLY he was willing to sit with Jimmy at a different hair place this time and we got it trimmed!

Jimmy's birthday was this month and the boys made some homemade cards for him, which they were very proud of.

Daddy's birthday cake request was a recipe from a friend and former co-worker, Michael, for Chocolate Bourbon Cake.  It is amazing and delicious and oh-so-rich, and though my attempt didn't match Michael's skill level, it still tasted really yummy!  Boys wanted to help blow out the candles, and Landon even blew one out before we sang on accident.  

One of Jimmy's stocking stuffers at Christmas this year was a subscription to Games magazine, his favorite from when he was young.  He had been waiting patiently for the first issue to arrive, and it so happened that it came on his birthday!  We wrapped it up and gifted it again, as a little mini surprise that Jimmy was SO excited about.  Happy Birthday Jimmy!!

Excited to get a new (extendable) kitchen table! 

At the end of the month I flew down to Orange County with my parents for my sister-in-law Lindsey's baby shower.  She and Joey are expecting a little boy whom should be arriving shortly!  (Update: he came early!  Born Feb.6 :) ).  It was a beautiful shower, and a fun weekend hanging out with family and playing with our nephew Deacon and niece, Delanie.

Sweet Lanie, at 6 months old

Deacon is obsessed with Handy Manny right now and he loves 'fixing' (or destroying) things with his play tools :)

The first sprinkles before last weekend's big storm hit.  The boys felt a couple of drops and ran to get their boots and rain hats, and stomp in the 'puddle' - also know as gutter water from our sprinklers running that morning, ha!  Needless to say they cleaned up in a nice warm bath afterward.

Caleb and I went on his second preschool field trip this month to see Greg and Steve in concert in Stockton.  They come every year around this time, and in fact I had taken Caleb when he was about 18 months old.  We have a DVD of them performing that the boys love dancing to, and Caleb was talking about the concert for several days leading up to it... "I'm going to see Greg and Steve.  Just big kids get to go with their mommies, not Landon," he would proudly say.  I had high hopes for this show since Caleb now knows their music and is at an age where he likes to sing along to music.  Turned out that the whole thing was maybe a bit overwhelming for him, as well as several of the other little boys in our group, who were mostly sitting still, quiet, and sometimes sleepy during the show, whereas most of the little girls Caleb's age were on their feet dancing and singing.  Its funny to see the difference between girls and boys.  However, after the show I asked Caleb what he thought of seeing Greg and Steve, and he told me and everyone else who asked him that he liked it and had fun.  Seems as though this will be an experience similar to having a real firetruck at his birthday last year - overwhelming and totally not into it at the moment, but still talking about it for months afterward once he has processed it all in his 3-year-old brain. :)

Cameron, Jake, and Caleb before the concert.
(Between the tall boots, camera angle, and the oversized t-shirt Caleb looks very short here!)

Both Greg and Steve hang around for autographs and pictures afterward.
 I think us moms were way more into getting a picture with Steve than our boys were!

Our little Piratas en Pijamas

Papa Jack's 84th Birthday with his favorite, German Chocolate Cake (seen in corner).  The boys were excited to help him celebrate and blow out the candles.  We love you Papa!!