Blast from the past

I just came across this little gem and couldn't pass up the chance to share it. This is J&D on 10/22/04 - they were 13 1/2 months old. Our boys is all grown up!

Tomato Plant updates - 6/28 and 6/24

I've been a bit remiss in my postings for the past 10 days or so -- you'll see that I added a couple pictures and backdated them as appropriate, since 6/17. Here are two recent shots of the T.P.s - as you can see from the top one (6/24) we're starting to experience some wilting issues. Our most recent advice from our neighbor (who has some fine looking TPs in her front yard) is to water ours more frequently b/c they are in a planter vs. in the ground (so they lose moisture more quickly). We've gone from 2x/week to every 2-3 days, especially since its been regularly getting into the high 80s now. We'll see what happens - fingers crossed. Early girl has a second round of tomatoes, and the first batch are filling in - probably about golf-ball sized at this point.

Note Jackson's very appropriate shirt in the second picture, taken this morning.

Brotherly Love

Big Brother Jackson having some quality time with Baby Tyler...

Tyler in action

no other comments necessary... (6/17)

Daddy and his boys - Fathers Day '07

Not a very good picture of yours truly, but a good one of the other men of the house. This was from the morning of "Happy Fathers Day". We had a good day - the boys got me a bunch of stuff for washing the car, plus some very nice drawings from school. I got plenty of time for doing my own thing during the day (what a rarity!) and we ate some good meals. Thanks for organizing Mommy!

Tyler in the Exersaucer - round 2

Here are some recent shots of the little Ty-man in his exersaucer. He's becoming much more interactive when he's awake, which is a lot of fun. He's also been eating more recently - in the past few days he's had several days of 31 oz., just shy of the 32 goal!

Tonight and last night were particularly fun for me to feed him - after a couple rounds of eating, he got very vocal, and kept trying to eat various things - my arm, my watch, his bib, etc. He also is smiling a lot more, and I've even heard a couple of giggling sessions :)

Tea Party!

Anna (aka Grandma Luke) gave the boys a very cool tea set (Curious George!) during her visit this past week. The boys have had a great time having some tea parties - she also helped them make some little "fairy cakes" that they've enjoyed along with their tea. The best parties are when they invite Colin and Blue Bear (not pictured below).

Tomato Plants 6/13 - A big development!

A big development on the tomato front -- as you can see from the first picture below. Our first tomatoes appeared!

The plants have grown so much since we planted the seedlings just a few short weeks ago. This week was our first hot spell since we planted them, so it was in the 90s for 3-4 days. Some of Early Girl's leaves are turning brown, so we're a little worried things might be turning south again like they did last year ... hopefully not.

Random Musings

1) J&D spend a lot of time bickering these days - they really know how to push one another's buttons (esp. J to D). Simple example - Jackson loves to ask Dillon "Which Mommy is doing X" which causes Dillon to scream "Don't say that!" (as in, there's only one Mommy, so don't ask me "which"). Of course, J will just say it over and over again while D gets more agitated. It's particularly fun in the car.

2) While we'd love to have them spend more time apart, it's hard to do that... whenever we try, they both typically want to do the same thing. It's also harder with Ty, given that someone always needs to be at home.

3) They are both obsessed with the Wolf underwear - it has always been Dillon's favorite, but now Jackson wants to wear it too. This also produces some great fights, since Dillon rarely is willing to let Jackson use "his" things (same issue with the Doggy towel - 98% of the time D wears it and the 2% of the time J gets it usually results in some tears).

4) Jackson has been getting up earlier and earlier - still not bad relative to some friends, but its been tough losing some of our limited kid-free time. He's often up at 7 or 7:15, and this morning it was 6:45 (particularly rough after our first night out since Tyler - a fun group dinner at Erin and Pat's house). He comes out to the upstairs landing, and makes enough noise for us to wake up and come deal with him. Some days he can be handled by giving him some books to read in his room, but other times he just wants to get the day started...

5) At this point Dillon is very comfortable pedaling both their tricycles. Jackson can pedal some on his bike (the plastic one, which is easier) but still isn't that comfortable with it. I'm considering getting them their first little regular bikes (with training wheels) in hopes that they would like them and get more comfortable pedaling them. Maybe we do this before BBR?

Swim Class

The boys wrapped up their first swim class yesterday - it was only 4 sessions, but it was a great experience and they made a lot of progress. When they started, both were still afraid of putting their faces in the water -- in the final class, Jackson was just hanging out on the edge of the pool dunking himself repeatedly! There is still a long way to go but its great to see them having so much fun in the water. Hopefully we can spend a lot of time in pools this summer so that they can continue to learn -- certainly at Black Butte and at Michael's house. It is harder to get to the pool with Tyler's nap schedule, but later in the summer when its really hot we'll have to spend some weekend days at Ladera or even trying out the Menlo Park pool.

New Haircuts

Shhh - don't tell Louie! The boys found a new hairstylist this week...
Both boys actually look quite nice in their new, shorter 'dos, and they had a lot of fun getting them.
Thanks Jade!

Tomato Plants - 6/6

Boy, these plants are getting pretty big! The boys are doing a great job of watering and providing TLC.

Jackson takes after his daddy...

Tyler watches his brothers playing

Here's a shot of Tyler all dressed up in a spring outfit. He just finished having his breakfast (7.5 oz - well done) and he's watching J&D beat up on each other on their mini-trampoline ... good times! In a few minutes he'll be heading upstairs for his morning nap. Maybe J&D will maul him a bit first...