My Day with My Boys

Yesterday (Wednesday), I was forced, uhhh coerced, uhhh privileged to spend the day with my two little boys. We couldn't find anyone who could care for the boys, so, since Daniel had something to do, I had to take the day off. What a bummer! At first I was a little miffed, but as I began to see all the cool things that I could do, I began to lighten up. So we...

• went to Babies R Us to get a gate to close off the kitchen from the living room (over 5 feet)
• went to a consignment shop nearby to get a puppet a shirt ($4)
• had lunch at home
• took naps (not I said the cat)
• washed dishes, washed clothes, folded clothes, vacuumed (you get the idea)
• went to the park (for the first time with both boys)
• had dinner at church (as is our Wednesday custom)
• attended service/class at church
• went home

I got some pretty good pictures of the boys at the park. I'll try to post those later within this post. I'm on a different computer that I can't download pictures easily. The park was the highlight of the day! Both the boys were able to slide, crawl/walk on the "toddler" equipment and play with a few random children. Malachi still doesn't like to swing! He loved it when he was a baby. Go figure.

Ezekiel Can...

• say and wave bye-bye "baa-baa" - he usually throws one hand up and open and closes his fist to wave
• say and sign all done "aaa-daa" - he will throw both hands up in the air and open and close both fists
• say "Da-Da"
• sign 'more' by putting his index finger to his open palm (usually with some help---he's not good at this one yet)
  
• sign 'thank you' by putting his hand to his open mouth
  
• Praise the Lord when asked to do so and smile
• Give his Daddy 'five' when asked
  
• climb up unassisted into Malachi's toddler bed
• catch on to everything around him super fast
  

Malachi-isms

• "shish a burrs" - fish & bears (pretzel goldfish & Teddy Grahams)

• "shretch shries" - french fries

• "yeah, me, too" - as in, conversations today---MJ: Momma, My put my un-wear in the trash (I put my underwear in the trash). Mom: Good job, Malachi! MJ: Yeah, me, too!---How funny!

• "Da-doo, hav-in doo-dles" - Thank you, helping, noodles---Thank you for helping me eat my noodles
• "My car in Mommy-Daddy room" - My car is in Mommy & Daddy's room. He likes to arrange the pillows in a certain way and pretend it is a car or a train.
  

Such a Long Way

Malachi James' Journey (thus far)

From This

(2 weeks)

To This

(10 months)

To This

(20 months)

To This

(2 years & 8 months)

Ezekiel Luke's Journey (thus far)
From This

(4 days old)

To This

(5 months)

To This (previous post---13 months)

Enjoy!

His romper says, "I do all my own STUNTS"!

For those of you who know anything about Ezekiel, know that this is absolutely and completely him. He has no limits on what he thinks he can do and will try to do it when I'm not looking:)

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

I know that your birthday was yesterday, but we were all kind of busy. We did "celebrate" last night, and you opened your present and had cake. I'm sorry this is coming a little late. Yay! You are 30 (gasp)!!!

This past weekend I set Malachi up for a "cute" moment. We had planned on buying Daniel a cake from a place in K-town called The Party House. They have the nice, sweet, very sugary icing that we like and moist cake. Anywho, Daniel was sitting in the other room with Ezekiel, and Malachi was "helping" me cook. So, I told Malachi that we had a "surprise" for Daddy, and that surprise was a cake. I told him not to tell Daddy because it was a "secret, shhhh." He was excited about it and repeated the phrase several times. Then I would say, "shhhh. Don't tell Daddy about his surprise. It's a secret." After our little "discussion," Malachi left me to go hide. He was thinking of the surprise that he gets when we play hide and seek. He kept saying, "My hide." He was going to his bedroom. Daniel asked him what he was doing. So, Malachi told his Daddy that he was hiding for the surprise. Daniel asked him what the surprise was, and he responded in saying that it was going to be Daddy's birthday & that we would be buying him a cake.

It was absolutely hilarious! Sorry, kid. I just couldn't resist and see what our 2 1/2 year old would do. You are so sweet and innocent!

Random-ness

We have a tradition that started from my childhood. Every Sunday we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. There are 8 in a pack. It used to be 3 for me, 3 for Daniel, and 2 for Malachi. Now that Z eats cinnamon rolls, that math has changed a little. This morning, Daniel had 2 (on the way out the door), Malachi ate 1 and a half, I had 2 1/2, and Ezekiel ate about 2. Before too long, we'll be making 2 cartons each week! Don't they look cute with icing all over their faces!

I love them, Momma!

Over spring break, we had some gorgeous weather! We all enjoyed being outside.
Malachi is walking "see-ev" inthe front yard.

Ezekiel sat like this for a long time. How precious!

Hurry, Momma, we want to get in now.

"res-oo pak-pak"
All of a sudden, Malachi started running around last week saying, Rescue backpack from Go, Diego, go! He hadn't seen the show in about a week, but decided to put on his rocket bag & hat and run around the living room saying rescue backpack. He continues to amaze me.

More Random-ness

Malachi ate broccoli last night!!! He ate 3 "flowers" of good sized pieces of broccoli. It was frozen and then "cooked" in a pot. Ezekiel will also eat a few small pieces of broccoli when offered. The only other time Malachi had eaten broccoli was about a week before when I had a salad. He asked if he could have one (raw), dipped it in ketchup, and ate the flowers. He called the stem of it a bone. As in, "No, My eat a bone." This is the only vegetable that he has eaten since baby food. Woo-hoo!

Ezekiel finally got to move up to the one year old room today at church. His "teachers" said he was great and had a lot of fun. I knew he would enjoy it much more with all the walkers. Now, he's right across the hallway from Malachi. That means it is a little easier for drop-offs before church.

Ezekiel has also busted his lip twice and his nose once. He busted his lip for the second time yesterday. The first time was Easter Sunday when I was in the nursery with him. The nose bleed happened the day before at FA's Eggstravaganza. The first nose and lip happened because he was holding items in his mouth while walking, then fell. His lip never swelled much. Most of the bleeding took place inside his mouth. I don't have a clue how he started bleeding yesterday. Go figure!

Malachi is wearing pull-ups now. I tried at the beginning of Spring Break, but my nerves couldn't handle it. He just doesn't seem to care about going potty. So, we've decided since he won't go potty, he at least gets to change his own pee-pee diaper. We still do poop. We try to get him to do most of the changing of his clothes now. He can do it but usually doesn't like to try hard enough and asks for help quickly.

Malachi is a good big brother. Yesterday, Ezekiel was crying in his crib while the 2 were trying to nap. Malachi walked over and got his "bop" that dropped out of the crib and went back to lay down. Ezekiel was immediately quiet and went to sleep. He really does look out for his little brother a lot.

Ezekiel has been on one nap a day for about a week and a half now. He was close over spring break, but he sealed the deal when he started his new mood about a week ago. Most of the time, he will refuse to go to sleep unless Malachi is going to sleep with him in their room---more brotherly bonding!

Conversation with Malachi

One day last week I was cutting and about to peel an apple for Malachi to eat with his lunch.

MJ: No My eat paper. (No, Malachi eat paper)
Mom: What paper?
MJ: [points to the apple] No My eat paper.
Mom: Oh, Sweetie, that's PEEL on the apple, not paper. I'm about to peel it. You don't have to eat it.
MJ: Oh! [smiles with new understanding]