Milestones

Seems like both the boys have been changing and growing so fast lately. Shep has started showing interest potty training and having success! He is only 21 1/2 mo, so needless to say, I am thrilled! We're taking it slow. I think I pressured Conner too much and turned him off to it. I'm sure the 2nd one is typically easier, since they want to do everything their older sibling does. Shep is so proud. He loves to wear big boy under ware around the house.

Conner has had some big boy moments, too. Sometimes he wakes up pretty early (like 6 am) because he has to go to the bathroom. Usually he would come into our room and wake us up. We'd been talking a lot about how if it's still dark outside and Mommy's light isn't on, he probably needs to go back to bed. It's finally sunk in. He's started either getting back in his bed or playing quietly in his room. The other morning he played in his room 30 min! Hallelujah! What a break-through...any Mom can appreciate 30 extra min of rest! I love having a 3 yr old!!

Here's the boys talking to my family on gmail video chat.

Fun Target $$ bin find. Conner likes to pretend he's on a soccer team, so we made him a jersey of sorts. He wanted to be number 34??

His uncles' basketball team is called the Falcons, so he wanted to be the Falcons.

Trying it on.

Shep doing his shirt.

Conner supervising.

Brother time! Shep just got up from his nap, so that's why he looks so out of it.

February has gone by so slowly for some reason. I think I had hit the "it's been 6 weeks since I've had a break" wall. Zack's family came in Friday for a visit, so it's been a wonderful break from the ordinary. I've had some nice to to myself to get a few projects done. Another milestone for Conner: tonight he's spending the night with his grandparents and some uncles at their hotel. He was so excited. He got to use his new suitcase for the first time. When he left he said, "Don't worry. I will always come back." Zack is having a wind ensemble piece premiered tomorrow night by one of the UT wind ensembles. Looking forward to hearing it.

March looks to be a fun month. So far we have 4 birthday parties, a week-end trip to Houston to visit my brother while Zack is out of town and the county fair to name a few things. Hoping this semester goes by as quickly as the last one.

maybe we need to address bitterness?

Last week we had the following discussion.

Me: "Shep, I love you. You sure are a sweet boy."

Conner: "Shep's not sweet."

Me: "Shep's not sweet?"

Conner: "Shep hits me and takes my cars and remember how he took the candy out of my hand and ate it?"

I didn't realize a three year old could hold such grudges=)

Dandelions

The boys love the dandelions that cover the little hill outside our apartment. Shep always puts them right up to his mouth and all the little seeds get stuck on his lips.

I wish I could enjoy life, especially the simple things, like a child. It amazes me. Many times there a things I'd rather be doing or places I'd rather be going, but they are just completely and perfectly happy blowing the seeds off of dandelions. I want to be more like that.

a singer in the works

Conner likes to make up songs. He always uses the same toon, but changes the words up. He has some old standbys like, "I like trees", "I like running" etc, but most of them are made up on the fly.

This second one is completely spontaneous. Yes, I have a 3 year old boy. I think any mother of boys will be able to relate.

in which we drink hot chocolate

We've been making the most of the cold weather. The boys talked me into letting them watch Bambi this morning. (I admit it. It wasn't hard to convince me. I was more than happy to sit on the couch with them and drink my coffee)

Like the cool mugs? The boys made them. Usually we would use sippy cups, but I wanted them to enjoy the marshmallows.

Dumping the marshmallows in was a big hit. Conner had killer bed head this morning. Time for a haircut!

Shep is already on his second pair of pants and it's quite early.

He put his straw in upside down.

And then I actually let them drink it in the living room. I'm so past caring about my carpet=)

hehe...love the duck.

Well, that's what I get for letting a 20 mo old drink without a lid. So now we are on to shirt #2 and pants #3. (Shep ended up going through 3 shirts today and 3 pairs of pants)

He would not budge until he had eaten all the marshmallows off the table. I don't blame him.

it's been awhile

This is the first time I've felt like blogging in awhile. It overwhelms me right now. I think I also feel guilty writing anything, and expecting anyone to read it, since I haven't read or commented on anyone else.

I've had a lot on my mind lately and I think that makes me blog less, because I don't know where to start. Anyone else ever feel that way?

Conner wanted to listen to the Cars CD.

Shep is really catching up. They wear the same size shirt now.

In other news, it's frigidly cold here. The coldest I ever remember it being for several days straight. And all this after such a mild winter, even for southern Texas. (It was almost 80 just prior to this Arctic blast) We had dug the shorts out and now today we had to dig out the ski jackets and gloves. My hat off to all you Northern people. I don't know how you do it!=)

Our power kept going on and off all morning. I guess the state of Texas couldn't handle the cold weather and had to do rolling power outages. We were reading books and trying to stay warm. Shep hates jackets of any kind, if you can't tell.

He was saying, "Cheese."

Quotes:

Conner likes to play hide-and-seek. Today when he asked if we could play I said, "Sure, I'm a REAL good hider." Conner: "I'm a real good peeker." I initially thought he meant to say seeker, but then he said, "I always peek when you're hiding."

Often when Conner comes in the room in the morning he says, "Hi Sweetie, what's going on??"

Ever since Conner turned 3, he has decided he's the big brother. It's funny because Shep is almost 2 and he is always referring to him as "the baby". He never did this when Shep actually was a baby. I think maybe he is trying to assert that he's the oldest, maybe? Anyway, most of you probably saw how I locked Shep in the car. Shortly after it happened we had this conversation while driving home. Conner: "Mom, don't lock THAT baby in the car." Me: "What baby?" Conner: "That baby right there." (pointing to Shep)