2 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

All by himself

I'm so proud of Trey!  He got my label maker from my office and made himself a name tag.  You can probably guess the movie we've been watching lately...

Jonah reached a milestone!!!

You may say TMI, but I say I'm very proud of my little man!

Confession (germaphobes cover your ears)

Trey and I were at the rec center today for our rock climbing lessons, and we took a bathroom break. I said "come on wash your hands Trey.". He replied "but I never wash them with Daddy! And at school I just turn the water on then off to make the noise."

Morning Hike

We had a great hike this morning at Castlewood Canyon.  We covered about 1.5 miles in an hour - the boys used their own 2 legs the whole way!

More pictures here.

Pic of the day

What is a minimalist life?

What is a minimalist life?

It's one that is stripped of the unnecessary, to make room for that which gives you joy.

It's a removal of clutter in all its forms, leaving you with peace and freedom and lightness.

A minimalist eschews the mindset of more, of acquiring and consuming and shopping, of bigger is better, of the burden of stuff.

A minimalist instead embraces the beauty of less, the aesthetic of spareness, a life of contentedness in what we need and what makes us truly happy.

A minimalist realizes that acquiring stuff doesn't make us happy. That earning more and having more are meaningless. That filling your life with busy-ness and freneticism isn't desirable, but something to be avoided.

- Leo Babauta

{this is what I aspire to}

Travel goodies

Of course I'm not excited for my next business trip in a few weeks, but I am excited to try out some of my travel related Christmas presents!

First...this new laptop bag that I LOVEEEEEE!

Next, my super cool folding keyboard for my blackberry so I can catch up on emails on the flight and send them right when I land.

 

My collapsible water bottle...

And (not pictured), my new photo luggage tag with a pic of the boys. 

Trey's 5th birthday (Chuck e Cheese's edition)

Trey really wanted to have his party at Chuck e Cheese's, and after the birthday debacle from last year, I agreed that a party where the adults didn't have unlimited access to hard liquor was a good thing.

The party was fairly small, and luckily Gigi and Bampa were in for the occasion.  Trey had a good time, but he got tired at the end and was really ready to leave.  In fact, he walked around looking for me yelling "I'm ready to go homeeeee!!!!"

Trey's 5th birthday (home edition)

Trey's 5th birthday was on January 27th.  At school they had a field trip, which was a nice coincidence.  When I got home from work, he opened the presents from us.  He had a good haul this year!!  After presents we went to our favorite special occasion place - Mt. Fuji - where they cook on the table with FIRE.  Trey always gets a kick out of that and the food is yummy.

Batman Tshirt

Bucket of How to Train Your Dragon figures

 

Nerf dart guns (2 - the theory being that with 2 he and Jonah won't fight over them)

iPod Touch!!

{he already knows how to take pictures of mommy's bottom and email them to daddy}

not pictured, How to Train Your Dragon PJs

Jonah's speech

Everyone who has been around Jonah knows that his speech is very hard to understand.  He doesn't pronounce Ks or Gs or Js or lots of combination sounds like tr or sh.  Milk is "mutt," Trey is "tay," orange is "ahhh dee," Jonah is "donah," please is "peet."  Even when he can do some of the sounds, if the word is long he sometimes goes back to his nah nah nah.  Like Ms. Stephanie his teacher at school is "ms. nah nah nee."

When he turned 2 we took him to be assessed by the early intervention program run by the state.  At the time they said he didn't qualify for assistance because his comprehension and vocabulary were too high and that outweighed his pronunciation problems.  They said to come back in 6 months. 

He's made some progress, but he's still very hard to understand.  There are many times I even have to ask Joe or Trey what Jonah said.  So Joe brought him back last week for a recheck.  Same story - he's speaking in full sentences, he says more words than normal for his age, he understands more words than normal.  So it's just his pronunciation.  The woman said the sounds he doesn't do yet are the sounds that many kids have issues with, and they come along any time between 2 and 3.5.  So I guess those sounds will just show up one day and I'll try to stop worrying about him. 

If he isn't very easy to understand by 3.5 though I'm taking him to some sort of speech therapy - he's a small boy with cotton white hair... I'm not sending him to kindergarten with a speech problem too.  He'll get picked on.  Am I being overly protective?

advertising at it's best

We're at the mall for dinner, and trey saw Macy's. He said "I know Macy's! I've seen it on TV. We should go there - we'll save $100!"

Trey 5 year old checkup

No shots!!!  Wee hooo!

I took Trey to his 5 year old checkup on Tuesday.  He was 60th percentile for height and 60th for weight.  They now measure BMI too, and I don't remember exactly what that was but it was normal.

He did fine on his hearing test, but oddly enough he didn't pass his vision test.  I say that is odd, but before I got lasik, I had very bad eyesight.  I got glasses in 4th grade, contacts in 5th grade, and my eyesight kept going downhill after that.  So really, I wouldn't be too surprised if I passed my bad eyes to Trey.  Good thing they are BEAUTIFUL!

I take him to the eye doctor in a few weeks.

Flashback Friday

1 year ago...   Jonah at 18 months, Trey gets a shiner, and honesty prevails. 

2 years ago...   We adopt Blackie (originally named Black), asthma strikes, Trey imagines, Jonah teethes, and Grampy gives us a new mudroom!

3 years ago...   Trey loves his shoes, I'm wrong, and Trey starts cussing.

4 years ago...   We intentionally torment Trey and he learns to love bath time.

Yea! Trey passed skating 1

Now just 5 more 6-week sessions before we gets to learn hockey. :)

Hangin' in the stands at hockey

My boy and his imagination

Me: we have honey sticks! You can have one when you finish your lunch.

Trey: thank you for offering mommy but I eat flies.

Big smiles!

Unprompted hand holding

LOVE!

Thanks for the clarification

Trey has dry skin - a combo of dry Colorado air and growing out of his eczema.  He hates to have lotion put on him.  In this clip, he explains to me how to know if today is a lotion day or not a lotion day.

Basketballs

Huh?