Photo Dump - February and March

I realized the other day that I hadn't downloaded pictures to my computer since the end of January. Wow! So here's our life via a photo dump :)

The boys are in their second session of swim lessons and it's going really well. X still has some fear of the water, but both of them have made some really good progress.  This session my friend's daughter (X's future wife) is in the class as well.

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At the beginning of February we got some snow. To say the boys liked playing it in would be an understatement. 

This set of snow gear is on it's third little boy. It's fun to look back HERE and HERE to see the other boys wearing it.  If you didn't know better, you'd think it was the same child every time :)

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On a semi-spur of the moment, I decided to take Wes and Elliott with me and drive to Wichita to see my friend Shana. She and her family had just moved there in December and didn't know ANYONE. Shana is also a fellow "3 boys" mom. My mom and Walter kept Xavier so he could still go to school (and just to lighten the load a little for me). The trip was great. I really enjoyed seeing Shana, and getting out of town for a few days. It was good to have a break in the dynamic (read: fighting) between Xavier and Wes too.  The boys did really well on the 6 hour drive, with only a few small hiccups. 

Not much to see once you get to Kansas. It sort of made for a peaceful drive though. And some people opted to sleep so it made things even more peaceful :)

The first night we arrived Elliott had to check his email to let his peeps know he'd be out of touch for a few days. 

Wesley was IN LOVE with Jared's big Buzz LightYear.  And then he turned into Buzz the next morning.

Elliott and his buddy Eric are only a month apart. 

Wes was also OBSESSED with riding in this "black monster truck" as he called it. An Elliott was content to be his passenger. 

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It snowed again towards the end of February so the boys were back in action outside. Elliott didn't care for the snow this go around!

Always remember to water your carrots when you plant them in the snow :)

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 March has continued to bring colder weather. So we snuggy inside on the couch and spend hours playing in the tub with paints or bubbles.

And someone may or may not have gone to Steak N Shake in a Frosty the Snowman zippersuit -  ha!!

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We are always trying to eat healthier (ignore the picture above where my children are downing chocolate milkshakes at lightening speed) so I've made a few new recipes this month. Crockpot stuffed peppers were great in theory but were mushy and bland.  I'll definitely try again, tweak the recipe, and not cook them as long.

On the other hand, my spaghetti squash turned out great. So as not to freak the kids out, I mixed the spaghetti squash with our regular noodles and didn't say a word. Wes ate his spaghetti right up!!! Elliott hates spaghetti so I didn't expect him to eat it anyway, and Xavier was having a stubborn day where he just refused to eat any dinner at all. But Walter and I loved it!!!

My New Fav Pic

We got a break in the cold yesterday and went on a family walk before dinner. I let Elliott out of the stroller toward the end. To my surprise the boys started all holding hands and walked peacefully together the rest of the way back to the house. It was adorable and so nice to see them showing gentleness towards each other :)

Free Pancakes

Free pancake breakfast at IHOP on national pancake day. YUMMY! And they taste even better when u go in your pjs :)

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday -- "Time" to Sleep

So, after throwing a HUGE fit about going to bed one night, we finally find Xsound asleep with a clock next to his head. Guess he decided it was finally "time" to go to sleep (even though the clock had no battery and he can't tell time anyway).

Swim Lessons

Xavier and Wes started swim lessons this month at the YMCA. They are in the same class which i thought would be best since I knew swim lessons would be met with some resistance.

Oh my!

Xavier is pretty afraid of the water if it's not zero entry -- even when he can touch. Wesley used to be fine, but I think he's being influenced by X's attitude toward water.

Do you like the boots and the sock and flip flops?? They dressed themselves for their lessons that day. 

They have had 3 lessons so far, and they've come a long way already. The first week Wes only got in the pool for about 3 minutes of a 40 minute lesson. Xavier cried the entire time and kept asking me if swim lessons were over.

Their poor teacher, Miss Kathy, is so sweet and patient with them. She's got some really good techniques for helping them too, so I'm trying to take mental notes as I watch her. I've given Miss Kathy license to push the boys a little even if they protest.

The second week Wes was in the water much more. And Xavier still cried and tried to run away :)

Last week both boys started to turn a corner. She got them out in the water more and Wes was even swimming unassisted (with a float belt). He really started to enjoy the lessons. Xavier did what she asked but was still unsure.

  I have high hopes that they will at least LIKE the water by the end of the 7 week lessons.

I Love Toy Trains

They boys are train fanatics (if you can't tell from other posts). They love real trains, toy trains, wooden trains, remote control trains. You name it, they love it.

Lately they've been obsessed with a DVD series called "I LOVE TOY TRAINS". It's pretty corny in my opinion, but they can't get enough of it. We got them from the library. The boys would carry these DVDs everywhere and even sleep with the cases. Xavier would go so far as to take pictures of the DVD cases with my phone just so he could have another place to look at toy train movies.

Santa brought a train table and Geotrax remote control train. It's been a big hit! So of course when I was told about a model train show coming to town we were in!

Gma Tina and I took Xavier and Wesley to the train show. They had a blast and just went from one thing to the next in awe and amazement.

 The show had a mix of plastic "kid friendly" toy sets, as well as some pretty high dollar model trains. They even had a free Thomas the Train that the kids could take a short ride on.

The boys walked their way through and I think they ate their weight in popcorn while watching all the trains run.

There were several different sections set up to "play" trains as well. 

It's a little fuzzy, but I took a picture of this man who was the quintessential old man who was SERIOUS about his model trains. Love the outfit, HA!!

A fun time was had by everyone. Thanks Gma Tina for coming to the show with us. And thanks Gma Debbie for watching Elliott so we didn't have to chase after him all afternoon :)

Bye Bye Bink-Bink...Bink-Bink Bye Bye

(Warning -- long post about a pacifier...but it was a MAJOR part of life so I want to remember this story)

When Wesley turned 3 it was time for the pacifier (bink-bink) to go. We did it cold turkey with Xavier the same way. 

About a month  or two  before he turned 3, we started talking about how 3 year olds didn't need bink-binks anymore. This time it was great because we even got Xavier in on our project to convince Wes to give up the bink! We talked about how when Wes turned 3 he would get to send his bink-binks to "the babies" who needed them, just like Xavier had done.

Walter and I were bracing ourselves as the day drew closer. We knew it was going to be hard. Wesley was waaayyy more attached to his bink bink than X (which we didn't think was possible....we were wrong!) and would have been content to have it in his mouth all day long. It was such a sense of comfort for him to have his "bink bink and deb-debs" (debs is his lovie). He wanted it in the car, around the house, and even got to the point where he would go get them to watch tv. He was a bink bink junkie!

Part of me thought, who cares, why take it from him?? But the other part was keenly aware that he was using the bink-bink as his only way to cope with life. If he didn't have it, he had no clue how to cope with a situation that wasn't 100% going his way. I started to feel like he really needed to develop some ways to work through his emotions. AND I was darn sick of looking for that thing all over the house when he couldn't find it and was freaking out!

We came across a cute video of Elmo saying goodbye to his binky. Xavier thought it was great, but Wes wasn't quite sure. I think reality was setting in :)

On his birthday, we did the farewell to the bink-bink and Wes didn't protest at all.

He took one last suck, and mommy took one last picture with it. 

 

Then he put the bink bink in an envelope. I tried to get him to decorate it with stickers and markers, but he wasn't interested. 

It was a little snowy morning and he headed out with his envelope to the mailbox.

In return for the bink-bink, "the babies" gave Wesley a green locomotive and a red milk tank car for his train set later that day.

So at first things didn't go well. And I really thought Wes was going to stop napping completely. He just could not settle down when it was time to sleep. He was just so hyper without the sucking. I thought that with the bink bink gone, he would turn to DebDebs even more for comfort. But, the complete opposite happened. All of the sudden he was done with DebDebs too. He totally shunned that thing. Left it in his bed all day, sometimes didn't even want it in the bed when he went to sleep. I was SHOCKED, and a little heartbroken for poor DebDebs that was getting the cold shoulder.

Almost a month after we bid goodbye to bink bink, I'm happy to say that Wesley is doing much better. He's napping again, although not every day, and he's fallen back in love with DebDebs after about a week hiatus. We still have a rougher time getting him to settle down at night, but he's in a stubborn phase too. For the first week, every time we put Wes to sleep he would say "Mommy, I need something...something small and green." (meaning his bink bink). I would gently remind him that we sent bink bink to the babies because he was 3 and didn't need them anymore. Now he doesn't even ask about it at all. Occasionally he'll say "when I was little like Elliott I used to have a binkbink." But that's about it.

I for one am glad that he took DebDebs back. He's just to cute and soft to give up! And apparently he makes a great sleeping hat :)

We are so proud of you Wes for giving up the bink-bink!!!