Los camiones de bomberos

(The fire trucks).
We had an unexpected little adventure Saturday morning... Caleb, Landon and I were at home and Caleb said 'go see choo choo, go see fire trucks'.  I told him we would see if we could find any, so we drove to the main fire station on Elm St. to see if the garage doors were open. They were, and after looking at the truck out our car window, one of the fire fighters came out to see if we needed help with anything.  I explained that we were just driving by to see the trucks, and he told us to drive around the back and he could show Caleb around.

Caleb got to see, sit in, and 'drive' two engines and the hook and ladder, check out the small and large water hoses, and see some of the special equipment on the trucks.  He even got to sit in the back driver's seat of the hook and ladder!

In the 'Captain's Seat'

Drivin' the fire engine... I think this is the closest he came to giving me a smile, even though he was loving it 

Showing Caleb the Thermal Imaging Camera

Firefighter Dave tried to take a picture of the three of us, but Caleb was more interested in exploring some more :)

Learning about the hoses... small one to take inside buildings, large one for spraying from outside.

"The best seat in the whole station"... The back driver's seat of the hook and ladder 

I was envious that Caleb got to sit up there... I wanted to climb up too!! :)

Turned out to be an exciting morning for us!  Later that day I asked Caleb what he was going to tell daddy about going to the fire station.  He replied "I met the fireman."  :)

(We were told that Saturday mornings they are always out cleaning and prepping their equipment, in case anyone is wanting to take their little ones to check it out! )

Father's Day

Jimmy got to enjoy a relaxing Father's Day... Playing with the boys, cycling, and even a bit of sun and pool time to work on that cyclist's tan ;)

Relaxing in the pool

The old school toys are the best... Remember these barns and farm animals?? 

Landon really liked the water...  He was kicking his feel and squealing with excitement as he bounced on my knee.

Landon at 7 months

Sittin' pretty... err... cute.  But he's sitting up now all on his own.  It was about 6 1/2 months actually when he did it for the first time (briefly) alone (see video below).  He is very much enjoying the world from an upright perspective.  If he's not sitting, he wants to be standing up, and he seems to be quite strong already at locking his whole body tightly in place.  Perhaps he will be an early walker...?

(Video of Landon sitting up for the first time alone... A few brief moments, then down he went):

...Two weeks later, and he is sitting with ease!

Caleb wants to 'drive' Landon around in his car (walker)

Landon has started to up the drool factor in the past couple of weeks... perhaps he will get his first tooth sooner than Caleb's at 11 months!  He likes gnawing on many things, including his rubber baby food spoons, spatulas, and of course, his fingers.

He LOVES eating solids, and also seems to be just as eager as Caleb was to get the next bite in his mouth.  If you're going too slow, he will let you know!  Ours seem to be the only kids I have seen that are so eager and impatient when it comes to eating their baby food.... Is it just my imagination, or is that the case??  Liking everything so far... squash, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, zucchini, pears, bananas, apples, mango, raspberries...

Landon has figured out how to shake rattles and maracas, and likes watching Caleb run from one end of the kitchen to the other when he is sitting in his swing chair.  He giggles hysterically, and looks around the corner waiting in anticipation for him to come running back again.  He likes gnawing on many things, including his rubber baby food spoons, spatulas, and of course, his fingers. 

He's getting bigger, and more and more fun as we continue to see his personality developing!!...

My Birthday

We celebrated my (32nd) birthday a little over a week ago, and I have to say, it was a very relaxed and pleasant day, despite having two kids under the age of two!  Dinner out on Saturday night in Sacramento yummy homemade breakfast from Jimmy, church, birthday shopping with my mom while the kids napped (very long naps, hooray!) at home with daddy, then pool and dinner at my mom and dad's house.  It was fantastic to get to the end of a day and not feel stressed out and exhausted...  That right there is a birthday present in itself :)

Dinner at 'Aioli', a yummy Spanish restaurant  

Loving on baby before breakfast...

<VIDEO: Nursery Rhyme Time >:

Caleb insisted on wearing this in to church on my birthday.  You can imagine the looks it got...!  :)

Viewing videos on the blog

For those of you who are subscribed to our blog and receive the email each time I post something new, I have been explaining bits and pieces here and there about how to view the videos because they don't appear in the emails - only the text and photos appear.  If you are a subscriber and want to view the videos, you can do one of two things:

1. From inside the email, click on the title of the blog post, and it will take you to the actual blog, where you can view all of the content, including videos.  Here is an example using the most recent email (note details in red):

The Williams Family

---

Caleb at 21 and 22 months  <--------- Click on the blue underlined title to go to the blog to view videos Posted: 24 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT Caleb - 21 months old (April '12): Caleb's happy dance.  I LOVE this.  I don't know how it started, but it cracks us up every time he does it.  He bounces up and down while swinging his left arm back and forth.... (Video):   <-----  I will include these when there is a video so that you know to go to blog to watch it (Video):

2. Type the blog address directly into a new internet window:  http://dubflower.blogspot.com


Hope this is helpful!  If you have any trouble, call or email me any time!

Caleb at 21 and 22 months

Caleb - 21 months old (April '12):

Caleb's happy dance.  I LOVE this.  I don't know how it started, but it cracks us up every time he does it.  He bounces up and down while swinging his left arm back and forth....

(Video):

(Video): 

Caleb's favorite nursery rhyme right now is 'Its raining, its pouring' - he asks for it calling it 'man' in the book of nursery rhymes.  We usually have to say it a half dozen times before he lets us move on.

Caleb loves, and has loved for quite some time, playing 'chase'... around the lap of our living room and kitchen, outside on the grass, or around the dining room table at Nonni's house.  He gets so excited he screams.

One of the things he likes playing with right now is a food truck that we refer to as the 'taco truck' - its funny, it is actually a matchbox car sized food truck that says Almond Joy on the outside, complete with the sunroofs/ventilation lift things and windows for ordering on one side of it.  When we drive around town Caleb loves to look for and point out every truck, tractor, motorhome, and tow truck that he sees, so when he first noticed the taco trucks, I just said 'yes, there is a truck, that is a taco truck,' and he has been pointing them out around town every since.  So when he happened to get this Almond Joy one in a package of vehicles it was perfect!  One day we even tried to recreate it out of blocks... Have to use your imagination a bit...

*Note the smile, finally captured on camera!  Haha...

4/19/12:  Caleb and mommy ate curried butternut squash and veggies for dinner.  Caleb looked at me after eating a few bites and said 'spicy'.  I told him we could add more yogurt on top to make it less spicy.  He kept eating and then when he would come across a bite that wasn't doused in yogurt he said 'too spicy', I would give him some water and redirect his fork, and he would continue until the next spicy bite. Too cute.  I didn't even think he knew what spicy was!

Favorite movie:  Ratatouille (he calls it 'tia').  We went through about a month of watching it once a day...


Caleb - 22 months old (May '12):

A handful of you have been the happy recipients of a "love beep".  This started when we were leaving Papa Jack and Nana Dee's house recently, and I beeped the horn three times to represent "I-love-you".  This is something I have done when leaving my grandparents' house probably since I was in high school, so I explained to Caleb what the three beeps meant, and he started calling it a "love beep".  He loves when we do it, and asks for it when we drive away from just about anyone now, friends or family.  You may be next!  :)

Current top activities:
"Throw bed!" (tossing him onto our bed over and over and over) and "Throw high!"  (Jimmy 'throws' Caleb up in the air above his head, lowers Caleb down to the ground, makes him run to the neighbors light post and back, and then they do it again.  Good thinking daddy!  Gotta get that extra energy out with a little running!)

"Color chalk", aka Sidewalk Chalk.  So far they are mostly single lines that Caleb draws with his chalk, though he has just started to do small groupings of lines, but mostly it ends up all over his face, clothes, and random places like the outside of the garage door, the tree trunk, and the brick on the front of the house.  He doesn't really understand that you can't touch it after drawing the color or it will come off onto you...

Daddy's helper

An early morning 'bath' in the sprinklers.  He was shivering so much, but like most kids, didn't want to dry off...

Caleb loves loving on Landon!

Mommy and Caleb on a bike ride to meet Daddy and Landon for a picnic at the park

New addition to the movie list this month: Mary Poppins

Caleb is starting to pay attention to numbers and letters, and wants to try and count things the way we point out and count to him.  When I ask him how many there are of something, or to count something, he says "one, two, one, two, one, two..." as he points to (more than just two) items. 

Caleb's is at the stage, with both languages, where his is like a little parrot repeating every sentence (well, simple versions of our sentences) out of our mouths.  I have really been trying to be better about speaking Spanish to him more often, and he is repeating almost all of the Spanish words back to me, too.  I love it that he doesn't have any hesitation at trying to pronounce big words.  I suppose part of that is that he doesn't understand yet that he is trying to say words in a second language.  This morning he randomly starting saying 'Jesus' (Spanish pronunciation), followed by 'a-choo!' and 'bless you', because this is one of the things I have told him that we say when someone sneezes.  I have also bought a few books for him in Spanish recently, and he started picking up on the vocabulary of it immediately  Ex: Diez en la Cama he calls 'diez cama' - a book about ten teddy bears in a bed, and Mis Primeras Mil Palabras,  My first thousand words, he calls 'Mil palatas'... sounds pretty similar when he says it).  

I'm a proud mama :)

Landon is 6 months old!

Really??  That's how we feel, too.  A busy 6 months that passed very quickly!

I had a hard time getting his "month" pictures this time...   First attempt, he just wasn't having it...

(This is the arching when you try and put him in sitting position that I comment on further down this post...)

Close, but not focused or cute by any means...

What are you doing to me mom???

Second attempt... Had a quick few minutes where he was in a good mood so I thought I would try again... Better and more focused pictures, but not a good outfit for the tie, and still not ideal.  Oh well, he's a baby.  What should I expect??  :)
Landon's eye seem to be a different color every day, depending on his outfit and surroundings... mostly a grayish blue, but sometimes they look very green...

We haven't yet been to the 6 month appointment to see how much he weighs, but I would guess he's somewhere in the range of 14-15 lbs.  Landon is sleeping all night, still half swaddled up to his chest, and greets me with a giant smile and kicking his feet excitedly each morning when I go in to get him from his crib.

We are starting to give him solids on a daily basis, thought I think he was probably ready for them much sooner..  So far he is equally as excited and eager about the foods as Caleb was, and I can't spoon it in quickly enough for him.  Hopefully he will be as good of an eater as Caleb!

Landon isn't so keen on the sitting position yet - he always straightens out when we put him in that position - but he really likes standing on laps.  Although he has been smiling for months and he flashes awesome smiles at everyone he looks at, he doesn't laugh as often, unless Caleb is around or we tickle his sides while changing his clothes.  The boys are starting to interact more and more with one another.  Caleb loves when Landon smiles back at the faces and smiles he gives him, and Landon loves watching Caleb spin around and be silly.  These are the moments that will usually get some giggles out of him.

(Video):

This picture deserves some sort of clever caption...  Suggestions?? :)

 In this past week or two he has really begun to babble, gurgle, and shriek as he is discovering his voice, and also his feet.

Still fine-tuning that coordination....  ouch.

(Video):