Spring? Could it really be almost Spring?

And I haven't posted in over a month? Oops. Well, everyone who knows me realizes that I'm a busy gal. Never been more so, not ever in my life I don't think. So...sorry. Here is your Noah and Caleb fix for the week...I'll try to get back to a regular update.

First an update on Caleb--we've been working on all sorts of "skills" with Caleb, so he'll be ready to start Kindergarten next fall. He's registered and we've attended the parent orientation. Caleb has a morning routine chart that he follows to get ready, with some persuasion on our part. And the most tough for him...learning to live without a nap. It was rough at first, as you can see! He'd fall asleep on the way home and curl up on the couch until dinner:

And then this is what we'd have to deal with AT dinnertime:

But all in all, Caleb is adjusting to the no-nap schedule. We weren't going to eliminate nap until summertime, but Caleb decided in January to be in the awake room and he is doing better now, although he still occasionally falls asleep in the car on the way home.

Caleb has also been very into pretend play, and loves having his face painted at the children's museum. One time he wanted to be a dragon, and so we copied the best dragon face-paint photo we could find:

Not too bad, eh? I love to do face paint, as it's one of the few areas where I feel somewhat artistic. It's lucky for me and Caleb that Grandma Hammi bought us a professional face paint kit for Valentine's Day! Yay! So now I can practice anytime I want, and Caleb can have all sorts of face paintings...we have to limit him, though, and wash them off before bed since his face gets a bit broken out if we leave the paint on for days.

Oh, one more bit of update on Caleb and then we'll move to Noah. Caleb has been growing and growing, and often goes through bottomless pit hungry phases. This is new to me, but I hear it's only going to get worse! Tonight Caleb only ate half his personal pizza for dinner, as did Noah...so initially I commented to Mark that it was a shame we bought two personal pizzas for the boys--we should have had them share one. However, Caleb finished ALL of the pizza on the way home from the store (where we went right after dinner). Bottomless pit, indeed.

And now for Noah. Mark likes to call him "Destructo-boy" right now. It really does fit, as half the time Noah plays with something he just tries to figure out if it comes apart. I'm starting to remember a story from my mother-in-law about a stove panel being taken apart years ago by Mark...hmm, it would seem Noah is a mini-Mark in more than just appearance!

Noah is also learning words at an amazing rate. He's very good at picking the words I don't want him to learn, and saying them very loudly. At Ash Wednesday service a few weeks ago, Noah tried to eat a wipe and I whispered, "No! Nasty!" Then of course, Noah shouted, "NASTY!" during a quiet part of the service. Yes, yes, it's very funny...when you are not his mother. Noah's favorite sentence right now is "I want it!" which comes out kinda nasally and sounds a bit like a hispanic accent, sort of like Cheech Marin is saying it. I can't help laughing when he says it, which is like 20 times a day.

Of course, none of these updates have any good pictures to go with them. So here are a few. First, Noah trying to be like big brother. Caleb wears the Batman mask, and then Noah must wear it. Even though it doesn't fit, and when Noah walks around with it he cannot see where he is going...

And Noah and Caleb have been very much into the Pile-On game. As in, when any parent is lying down on the couch or the floor, the boys must pile on. Here is a Caleb Sandwich...

Final update on the boys...they've started back up with Kindermusik this semester, and it's going well. It's so interesting to see the differences in my two kiddos. At Noah's age, Caleb was such an outgoing kid (and he still is). He was the rough-&-tumble-running-around-the-room-kid at 21 months old. Noah is so not that kid at Kindermusik. At home, he can be outgoing and wild. But at Kindermusik he's my wallflower who sits in my lap and wants to be held. He's not shy, he just hasn't been interested...that is, until last week. Noah finally warmed up. He's still not the life of the party, but he's starting to get comfy with the idea of participating in the class. And it's great to watch that--I love both my extrovert and my cuddlebug!

Happy March!