Sleep Bouncing

In order to keep himself out of trouble, Nick spent some time in the jumpy the other night. Well, apparently he was fussy and getting into trouble because he was tired! He fell asleep on the jumpy (again). But I got a video of him sleep bouncing! Totally cracks me up.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Tight Squeeze!

Well, long story short, I thought I was going to have to take Nick either outside or in the garage this afternoon while I installed his carseat, so I needed to get him bundled up. I thought I'd break out the ol' Gap coat that was Ben's. It just barely fit. Sitting was a bit challenging. Well, I ended up not taking him outside after all the work of getting him into the darn thing, but I thought I'd at least get some pictures of it. He was hamming it up a bit, silly little boy.

9 Months and the Victim of SCPS

Nick is half way through his ninth month now. And it took me that long to take these pictures. And that is why Nick is a victim of SCPS - Second Child Picture Syndrome. Poor Nick. He doesn't have nearly as many pictures of his first 9 months as Ben did, nor has he had as many devoted photo ops, nor do I take as many pictures at each month as I did with Ben (though, 240 pictures in 20 minutes might have been a bit of overkill with Ben).

But, Nick is still a'grow'n. He had is 9 month check up last week and is almost 18lbs and I forgot how long he is, but he's still in the 25th percentile. Even though he seems way bigger than Ben was at this age, he's still kind of on the peanut side of things. He is definitely cruising around the furniture now, and speed crawls and has a total obsession with food. He pretty much has just gone to eating whatever we are and is not eating much baby food anymore. He has gianormous teeth, so he might as well as put them to use.

Elephant the Elf

I discovered Elf on the Shelf this year. And as we were in the deep throws of the Wolny Potty Training Mind Games, I was willing to try anything to win the potty training war. And it's kind of fun. So I went ahead and picked up an Elf. He came with a book to explain his story which is basically he is an elf that watches over your house for Santa. The elf hangs out around the house all day and keeps track if you are good or bad and make good decisions or bad decisions. He is magical, so he also knows if you are behaving at daycare, in the car, at church, at the library and at the store. He's one awesome elf. And then at night, while you are sleeping, he magically flies back to the North Pole to report back to Santa your behavior for the day. He then returns before you wake up and sits/hides in a different place each day. But you can't touch the elf or he will lose is magically powers and then how will Santa know if you have been bad or good?!

Once the elf appears at your house, you must name him. So I asked Ben what we should name him and he said Elephant (we had just gone to the zoo that day...). Sometimes I think he calls him Batman or something else. But Ben gets very excited when he finds Elephant in the morning or sometimes he forgets and doesn't find him until the evening. And when Ben pooped on the potty, he, all on his own, went straight over to Elephant and told him what he did so he could tell Santa (because Santa does not visit boys who don't poop on the potty). Ben sometimes has to be reminded to use his listening ears because he doesn't want Elephant to take a bad report back to Santa. Ben might be terrified of Santa in person, but he is all about Elephant the Elf! I have been gathering some intel on other elves out there and their crazy shenanigans, so maybe our elf will be a bit more fun and creative next year when Ben will probably be a bit more into it, along with Nick.

St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas came to our house two nights ago. He filled the boys' shoes with dinosaurs and books. Ben got a coloring book and Nick got a bath book. He also left Ben some candy. I had kind of forgotten about it and so I hadn't said anything to Ben the night before, so he wasn't quite sure what was going on when he woke up. St. Nicholas was smart enough to leave the shoes at the bottom of the steps so it was the first thing Ben saw when he came downstairs in the morning. They were both pretty excited about St. Nicholas putting presents in their shoes!

The Thoughts of an Almost Three Year Old

Ben has now gotten to the point in life where you just have no clue what's going to come out of his mouth next. I am totally fascinated by how his mind must work. I didn't get a video of this conversation because I was driving, but I do remember it verbatim, so I will share:

The scene: Driving to Nick's 9 month check up
Ben: 'Mommy, I don't need to go to the doctor.'
Me: 'Well you're not going to the doctor. Nick is.'
Ben: 'No mommy. I don't need to go to the doctor. I don't need to be fixed. I poop in the potty now. I don't need fixing.'
Me: 'You don't need fixing?'
Ben: 'No, I poop in the potty like a big boy'

Note: As part of the Wolny Potty Training Mind Games that have recently gone down, I had told Ben he would have to go to the doctor and get yucky medicine if he didn't start pooping. And boy was he scared to go into that doctor's office! He has never been so quiet before. And he has pooped in the potty probably 8 times since Nick's check up. Score 1 for mommy in the Wolny Potty Training Mind Games!

Another Year, Another Fail

Another year, another Santa-fail for Ben. Third year in a row now. We took the boys over to Bass Pro Shop on Friday to see Santa. Ben was all excited about it and was saying that he was going to tell Santa that he poops in the potty now and we had high hopes that he actually would sit with Santa. But, alas, when we got to BPS, he tune quickly changed. By the time we got up to Santa's house, Ben was clinging to Adam for dear life. Adam could actually let go and Ben was still hanging onto his shoulders. But Nick was a trooper! He sat with Santa while his big brother wussed-out. I think Nick wants a rocking horse for Christmas :) Nick was also a great picture taker (while his brother wanted none of it). Well, maybe next year Ben will talk to Santa. For now, he talks to Elephant the Elf that is watching over our house for Santa (aka Elf on the Shelf - I'll post about that later this week).

Nick's Noises

The Lights Before Christmas at the Zoo

Saturday was a perfect night for seeing the Lights at the zoo. Ben seemed to really enjoy them and Nick seemed pretty interested. Ben was a little disappointed that most of the animals were sleeping, but he still got to see the alligators and some snakes and lizards.

Livin' on the Edge

Slightly precarious position.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a good Thanksgiving with the Wolny's this year. Ben discovered fun new ways to eat black olives, Nick had some turkey and peas, and everyone had a full tummy! Ben actually filled up on olives and appitizers before dinner, so he didn't sit at the table with us during dinner, but ate later, and Nick took a little nap during dinner, which was a-ok with me! I know understand why there is a kids table at Thanksgiving.

Now That's What I'm Talking About

Nick was pretty excited about this plate sized pancake! (Daddy ate it - Nick had already had his own regular sized pancake and a banana)

Look at that Pincher Grip!

Nick demonstrating his excellent self feeding techniques. He has been working on his pincher grip and hand/mouth coordination. I have to say, both have significantly improved recently.

A Walk at Sidecut

Sunday was a pretty warm day, so we took the boys and Monster to Sidecut park for a nice long walk. Like 4 miles, long walk. Ben rode on Daddy's back for about half of it and walked/ran/fell/picked up sticks/picked up rocks/lolly-gagged the other half. I got the half pint (literally half the weight of Ben). It was a good day for a walk, and the boys all took good naps while I went to see Breaking Dawn with my friend Shari :) Which is a good movie, by the way.

 

A little story from our walk: About half way into our walk - 2 miles or so - and in the middle of a huge field, Ben cries out, 'Mommy! I have to go potty!'. Ahh, what every mother wants to hear in the middle of a field/woods. So, using techniques that were apparently learned during their camping trip in October, Ben pulls off to the side of the path and drops trou to pee. Awesome. Well, at least I haven't caught him doing it in the back yard...yet.