June 4, 2006

Hello Everyone,
The past week has been no good for me in terms of computer time. Mosey makes it impossible to type. Whenever I pull out the keyboard tray, he KICKS it back in (he's generally on my lap), or else pounds on it. So I've only been able to mouse around and surf the net a little.
Tonight, instead of trying to recap the past week, I'm going to brag a bit about my kids. Like all mothers, I think my kids are just the smartest, cutest, and most clever. Here are a few things I'm proud of them about:
Brigham and Joseph love learning. I've been giving them reading lessons and they are catching on really quick, especially Joseph. They also have an Animal book that we read from every night, instead of storybooks. It is a really cool book with 2 page spreads on all sorts of animals, from protists to elephants. It really is geared more to probably 9+ year olds, but Brigham and Joseph understand almost all of it, and what they don't understand, they ask me to explain. Every night each boy gets to pick one animal to read about, and then each pick a scripture story. Last night Joseph didn't want to read about an animal and instead he chose to read about Volcanoes from the encyclopedia. There is no doubt they are Ben's boys. They have also pretty much entirely given up cartoons, opting instead for Animal Planet during TV time. I really like Animal Planet. They don't have the obnoxious commercials like on Nick or Cartoon Network. And lots of the shows are truly educational. Joseph likes it especially, and remembers so much from it.
They heard a commercial on the radio about the Animal Planet Expo that came to Miami last weekend, and really wanted to go. So on Saturday we drove down to Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami and spent about 3 hours at the Expo. It was free, and really fun! We saw a frisbee dog show, a couple of live animal shows, the boys got their faces painted and their pictures taken with a digital image of Jeff Corwin (the boys' favorite Animal Planet show), and got to meet and get the autograph of Moe Rocca, the Animal Planet "celebrity" that was there (he has a show on Sundays called "Whoa Sunday").
Brigham and Joseph have also been playing together so great this summer. Every morning they are up together inventing some game. This morning they got a spool of my thread and made a "spiderweb" that went all around the entire house-- in every room upstairs and downstairs. It was quite impressive. Brigham also used the spiders he got at the dollar store last week and put them on the web in various places. I really haven't had to restrict TV at all the past couple of months because they just find things to keep them busy-- coloring, building legos, playing games, etc. Now is the time that I REALLY appreciate having twins because they entertain each other so well. And not too much fighting either.
And they are making an effort to eat healthier. They heard me talking about how Rosalynde's kids eat really well, and so they are now taking pride in drinking water, eating oatmeal for breakfast, trying vegetables (not always eating them, but at least trying them). They are really growing up.
And Mosey is growing up too! He is well on his way to being potty trained. He's been going in the potty pretty consistently (pee anyway), with fewer accidents each day. No accidents yesterday at all. I do have to buy more diapers tomorrow, but maybe it will be the last box of diapers I ever buy!! Amazing. He is getting to be a very good talker, too. Sometimes a little too good. This afternoon he actually began shouting at Ben! He wanted a blanket and started shouting, "I WANNA BLANKET!!" This is pretty normal for a 2 1/2 year old, I guess, but it shocked Ben and me, coming from our previously quiet and mild-mannered little guy. He's also earned himself a few timeouts in the past week... He's experimenting with being stubborn.

He has recently been really into playing with clay. I bought some modeling clay a couple weeks ago, and he has been carrying that stuff around pretty much constantly. He makes different shapes with it and sticks them together. He also chose a little bag of plastic cats for his dollar store purchase, and he's been carrying those around with him too (along with the clay). He loves those cats. He is shaping up to be just as much an animal lover as his brothers. Oh yeah, he also loves trains! A couple of years ago when Ben and I went to Pennsylvania, I bought this wooden train set at an Amish woodworking store. The big boys never really got into them, but Mosey loves those trains. He puts them together and crawls all around the house pulling the train along. And today he discovered a few magnetic trains in the toybox, and he had to carry those around with him, even to church. It is so fun to watch him discover things like that.
Ok, I'll leave you with some pictures from this past week. Everyone have a great Monday!!

(the pictures that go with this post are down below under the "May 2006" topics.)