Friends

We took the boys to the Museum of Flight last weekend, with another family who also have 2 boys. They has a 6 year old and a 3 year old, Finn, who is a friend of Simon's from school. The four boys were so funny there, they were so excited and they ran all over the place. Here are a few cute shots:

Then, this past Friday, we had an ice cream social and art fair at school. Simon and Finn buddied up again, with Sammy as well.

Big haircut

While we have taken Nate for about 3 haircuts already, we always chicken out and just have her trim his crazy curls. After 3 people referred to him as a her this past week, we thought it was about time to actually really cut it. We knew he would come out the other side looking much older, so here are a few recent pictures of Nate pre hair cut:

Yes, I put his hair into a ponytail the other day. He was not amused.

On our way to the salon!

Getting mentally prepared while big brother had his hair cut.

The lollipop got us all through...

Ta Da!

Swimming Progress

Both boys are making some great progress in the water! This past week, Nate learned how to "walk" himself along the wall of the pool:




And Simon used a noodle to swim on his own! He was so proud:




Finally, a quick goodbye kiss from Nate!

Communication

Nate still doesn't speak many words, but his understanding of us is increasing so fast. If I ask him if he wants to eat, which he always does, he heads off to his high chair and bangs on it until we put him in. At bedtime, after a book and a song, he will point to his crib, I'll ask if he wants to go to bed, and he will nod and grunt in the affirmative. As the last video showed, he gives kisses when he hears the word "kiss" and says bye bye, but today he also learned to blow kisses. Check us out!

kisses and bye-bye

Cutest video of Nate ever.

videos

Just a couple of recent videos to share:

Here Simon shows us his angry face and tells us what he would do if he saw a monster in the room.



And in this one, King Nate the Great eats with gusto and discrimination.

Silly Nate

Nate was slightly sick last week, so we had a sick day at home. His fever went away quickly, so we just played for most of the day. At one point, he showed me his new trick, how cute is this?

Busy Weekend!

We had a really busy and fun weekend!

Saturday started with swim lessons as usual. Nate floated by himself (kind of) for the first time, tied up in a noodle, and loved it!

Later that afternoon, Matt took Simon to a live Yo Gabba Gabba show at the Paramount Theater. He had a great time! Apparently he was kind of dumbstruck the whole time and didn't get up and dance, but instead stared intently at the stage.

At home, Nate and I took a nap and then waited for Aunt Karyn to come visit! I introduced Nate to headphones, and he jammed out to the Beatles' White Album for a while.

On Saturday night, Karyn stayed home while the boys slept and Matt and I got to go out to dinner, our first dinner out alone since October. It was a wonderful meal at The Blue Glass in Ballard--we shared fried brussel sprouts with honey and sriracha, beef shoulder with mashed potatoes and broccolini and a duck confit salad with goat cheese and a fried egg. It was delicious!

On Sunday, Matt and Karyn took the boys to the Arboretum. Karyn had given the boys a few fun gifts for spring, and they brought their new bubbles and kite out with them.

Karyn showed Simon what it really means to be a treehugger:

Bubbles!

Simon flying a kite for the first time!



Matt carrying a couple of tired kids back to the car:

And finally, after Karyn left on Sunday afternoon, with Nate waving at the door and saying "Da Dye" (bye bye), we went to the library. It was a bit of a debacle with both boys on the slightly crazier side, so we split them up with Simon and I headed home while Matt and Nate went to get a few things from the grocery store.

Simon and I played outside--we played hopscotch, drew pictures on the walkway and Simon set up a lawnmower repair shop, of course.

And of course, as great weekends often tend to do, it ended with underwear on Simon's head. 

February

Just a few quick highlights and pictures from February:

Simon went to a birthday party for a school friend--he had lots of fun checking out the sweets and being silly on the slide:

As I've mentioned, the boys are playing and interacting more and more:

Nate being super cute and trying on Dada's shoes:

And of course we celebrated Valentine's Day. The three boys got me a beautiful bouquet and Matt and I got Valentine's from both boys that they made at school. Matt and I exchanged cards and I got him a bottle of wine. And of course, I made chocolate treats!

And finally, Nate has been really interested in Leia recently, so we gave each of the boys a cat toy and they had lots of fun.

Fetch!

Nate has a new game that he plays by himself--he throws a ball, runs after it, spins around and does it again!

Helper

Simon has started helping Nate around--he will hold his hand as we leave the house and help him out the door, for example. Today he went the extra mile, walked Nate over to Matt and said "this boy has a poop, Dad".