Our busy Month.

In this email I am going to write about random stuff we did last month. Again, let me warn you, I will probably be long winded and boring. While I love to keep people posted, my principle reason for this blog is for my own benefit and for my kids... It is a much easier and more fun way for me to keep a journal. With that said, here goes...
The thing I am most thankful for in this last month is Jay. The beginning of this pregnancy was very difficult for me. I felt sick ALL OF THE TIME and barely wanted to get off the couch! Needless to say, my house looked pretty much unlivable by the end of those months. I have tried to get on top of things since then, but with little result. I get tired so easily and felt that it took me all day to do one project on top of all of the care my children need. So in the end, I never got on top of it all. Jay was my knight in shining armor once again! We bought several things to help us get organized once and for all. Then, he spent a weekend going through our entire house with me. He did all of the dirty work, like mopping and the bathroom stuff, not to mention LOTS of picking up and vacuuming. He helped me go through everything and get rid of a lot of it! I love going through things with Jay. I am more of a pack rat, and am prone to keep a lot more without his help. He helps me to prioritize and REALLY think about if we need things. And 99.9% of the time, I am not sorry later that I didn't keep something "just in case". So after a car load of DI stuff and a couple cans full of trash were hauled out of here it was looking AMAZING! We set up a routine and have been able to stick with it. So every night (almost :) I have the dishes done when I go to bed and Jay sweeps the kitchen and helps the boys pick up their toys and books. It feels so good to have order in our house! It is so much easier to keep up than to catch up. I feel so free to do things for myself and the boys without guilt of what I should be doing around the house. It is the best gift I have gotten possibly ever! It has improved my life so much. Thanks Jay, for always being there for me, and going the extra mile to take care of us.
As a result of this great change in our house, the boys and I had such a fun month! We played outside A Lot, because the weather was so pleasant. During the hotter months, I would always make them wait till evening, when our tree was shading the yard, and I would tell them it was too hot during the day. Every time we went outside this month, Jayden excitedly exclaimed "It's not too hot!" They LOVE to play in the dirt and get covered in it! We have "garden" areas in our front yard. They are mostly empty, so I let them dig in them, and this year they got a sandbox that they love as well. They also like to ride their bikes, run around the lawn and throw the ball at mommy. Jayden loves to jump off our front step too. It is so cute! He loves to discover new things he knows how to do and his only frustration seems to come when he can't do something himself yet. He is very independent. He wants to be able to do everything!(without help of course) Yesterday, on one of the tv shows he was watching, they were hopping on one foot. He was so upset that he couldn't do it too and kept trying until he felt he had done it.(he held on to the couch :)
Some other fun activities we have done a lot this month were painting, coloring with sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. And thanks to grandpa Turpin, they got their first experience with play dough too! Jayden loves to color with crayons, but Ethan has an easier time with paints so we do that more often. When he gets tired of his brush he can just use his fingers, and he really likes that. They didn't know what to do with the play dough at first, but after I showed them that they could make snakes and roll it into a ball, they started getting into it. Jayden broke one of his "snakes" and was very upset about it, but I showed him how he could mush it all together and start over, then his creativity took off. He made these three "robots" all by himself! (I called them monsters and he corrected me) I made the eyes and mouths for him, but he put them on too. Then, we made an optimus prime truck (I made the truck, Jayden made the trailer), and many other creations, we played for hours. Of course, Ethan had to have a hat, we'll go more into that later...
Jayden's red letter moment was that he conquered his thumb habit! We went to the dentist last month and he said that he could already see the effects of his thumb and suggested we give him a roll of quarters and make him give us one every time he sucked his thumb. I don't know about your kids, but Jayden hasn't any interest in money yet... So we decided to try toys instead. We made a little sticker chart, he could earn a certain number of stickers based on how well he did each day. Then he got toys at certain intervals. This worked for about a week, but he had a hard time sticking with it and eventually decided he wanted his thumb more than the toys. Everything I read said you need to wait till they are ready and then help them set a goal. Most of them said to wait till they are five and explain why it is important and they will want to stop. I was a thumb sucker and my mom told me all of the reasons to stop. I didn't decide to till I was 9 or so. All of her predictions came true, but as a child I didn't care enough to stop. Because of my own experience, I decided to take things into my own hands. I researched on the internet to find the best reviewed "yucky stuff" to put on his thumb.
Fourteen bucks and a couple of days later, and it came in the mail. I immediately put it on his thumb and spent the whole afternoon wondering if I had made a mistake. He came to me the first time with his mouth wide open going "ahhh, ahhh" I suppose that was meant to mean, "my mouth tastes yucky, get me a drink please". He took drinks of water and then spit them back out trying to get rid of the taste. That didn't seem so bad, but when it was repeated 10 or 15 times I started to worry a little. He drank a lot of water that first day, but by day 2 he only put it in his mouth a three or four times and after that he was cured! We have continued to use it, just to make sure the habit sticks, but I would recommend it to anyone!!! It is just a nail polish you put on every couple of days (Mavala stop). He was so excited when he earned all of his stickers each day. And he earned his toys in no time! Now he proudly tells everyone that he doesn't suck his thumb anymore and that he's a big boy.
Of course I have to include some of the funny things he said this month... Getting him to eat is probably our biggest current challenge with Jayden. That is why this one was funny to us. He is always telling us he is full or that he doesn't want to eat his dinner. We were going to eat Sunday dinner at a birthday party for Jay's brother Felipe. Laura and Dalton are staying with us and had made their dinner and were just sitting down to eat as we prepared to leave. Jayden must have been hungry for once because he totally threw a fit. We told him we were going to eat at Felipe's party. He screamed through his tears: "I don't want to go to Felipe's, I want to eat my DINNER!"
He sometimes likes to be tickled, but half of the time he doesn't like it. One day while waiting for Jay to leave work, I was playing with them in the car. I was just reaching back and tickling them. Of course, Ethan loved it, but Jayden said, in such a polite voice. "Babies like tickles, big boys don't", and then later as I continued to tickle Ethan "Ethan likes it, I don't." Another day I touched his back for some reason and he turned to me and said in a stern voice "tickle my back again, and you'll be in trouble". On another day when Jay was playing with him, he put his foot on his tummy to tickle him. Jayden said "Step on me again and you'll be in big trouble!" I never get tired of these sweet boys. Everything they do delights me and they bring endless joy into our lives.
Ethan's greatest enjoyment comes from Hats, glasses, and cars, and more recently "wobos"(robots). He has used any number of things for a hat: his bowl or apple sauce cup after eating everything out of them, cooking pots of all sizes from small to large (it's still a hat, even if it covers his whole body!), a pop up folding hamper, plates, blankets, sand pails, you name it. He of course likes his transformer baseball hats or any hat he can find (even if someone else is wearing it, like uncle Steve). In fact, he turned a basket at aunt crystal's into a hat and now she hates it because her little Coda uses it as a hat too and gets stuck in it. Ethan's favorite is probably his orange hard hat. He is talking so well now and I am amazed how much I understand of what he says. It seems like there is a stage where you can't understand any of their jabbering. Then all of the sudden you realize that you know exactly what they said and it makes your heart leap. There is nothing like that feeling! In fact, now I understand most of his conversation, if not the first time, then after he repeats it. And He is so patient with his mommy! He calmly says phrases over and over sometimes until I get it. Those are special moments too, because the look on his face when I understand is so triumphant and so precious. I have to include some of his funny quotes too. For a while when we would ask his what his name is he would say "I'm venom."(the spiderman character) He also surprises me with the colors he knows, he will say he has a blue or red car, and the other day he had a red transformer robot and he said "red bumblebee" actually it was more like "re bublbee". I guess they have no hope of being anything but transformer fans with their father. I don't mind, they have so much fun together.
Kids just do the cutest things! I just wish I could tape all of the things they say and do, you know like on a surveillance camera or something. Even just the way they say things, or the cute faces they make communicate so much more than the words. I hope I never forget. I guess I'll just enjoy the moments now, and take in all I can. Then, I'll and hope my memory is perfected in the hereafter because it sure isn't now!

This is just a little side note, check out the hands on this boy! He is only three! I am hoping to get a picture of his hand next to his friend Zack. Zach is six months older than him, but his hands look TINY in comparison. Does that mean he'll be tall? Jay hopes so, he'd love anything that increases his chances to be a good bball player :)