18 things at 18 months

First....a few pictures I just love. Last week after Drew woke from his nap (Grant was obviously still sleeping when I took these, otherwise he would definitely have been a part of this!), I decided to finish off the last of a pint of Blue Bell (hey, that's what stay-at-home moms do, right?). I gave Drew a couple of bites, then he walked off. A second later he came back with a spoon for himself! It must have been on the floor somewhere, because he doesn't know where I keep these little spoons. Anyway, when there was just a tiny bit left I gave him the container. He had such fun with his little treat!



Drew turned 18 months old a couple of weeks ago. Here are some things I'd like to remember about my little guy at this age:

1. He can finally run, instead of his straight-legged fast walk that he's perfected over the past 6 months.
2. He likes giving kisses (tonight he gave them to me over and over again), but he doesn't always do it on demand.
3. When he's hurt, he will immediately come to ask for a kiss. He scraped his knee pretty badly a few days ago, and he asks for a kiss every time he notices it. Today he even bent over and kissed it himself about five times in a row.
4. Mischievous should be his middle name. He drives me batty because he's constantly climbing things, opening drawers and reaching into them, getting into my purse if I forget to hang it up, etc. Sometimes I can't even keep up with up; I take one thing away just as he's reaching for something else!
5. Bedtime (and naptime) routine: we read 3-4 stories, then I rock to him and sing him a few songs. When he's really tired he'll fall asleep, but usually he's just very drowsy when I lay him down. Sometimes he cries and throws his blanky out, but I think he's getting better with this (for now).
6. Favorite books: There's a Wocket in my Pocket, Go, Dog. Go!, Are you my Mother?, Mr. Brown can moo....can you?, The Foot Book, The Fire Engine Book, lots of Karen Katz' lift the flap books, Zoo Train, Goodnight Moon. If it's not one of these, he usually will push it away and not even let me open it.
7. When we leave Grant's room at naptime, he blows kisses to Grant.
8. He is a horrible shopper! He tries to climb out of the shopping cart, then screams when he ends up getting stuck sideways, etc.
9. He will repeat lots of words we say (although not nearly perfectly), but he doesn't say many on his own yet. Some he can say: up, down, juice, bye-bye, ball, kitty, doggie ("aah aah"), more, hi.....also some others that I just can't think of right now....
10. He likes listening to music in the car (Elizabeth Mitchell's Little Liza Jane is the boys' favorite song) and will clap his hands and dance.
11. We have a little bench swing on our swingset (two little benches facing each other), and he LOVES that thing. He could sit on it for hours and gets quite mad when we tell him we're finished.
12. He'll put on Grant's pirate hat, grab a sword and make an "aaah!" sound as he walks around hitting anyone around. A lot of times I have to take it away from him (amidst much jumping, screaming and tears) when he ignores our instructions to hit gently with it.
13. When Grant sings "ring around the rosie," he yells "down!" and falls down at the end. Every time!
14. He loves watching Little Einsteins with Grant...he pats and does all the hand motions proudly.
15. If Grant is in silly mode and runs around yelling (this especially happens after baths), Drew will do the exact same thing.....stomping his feet just like Grant and even making the same types of sounds.
16. He can point to most of his body parts when you ask him where they are.
17. He likes to bathe himself.....when Dean's washing him, he'll lift up his leg and pretend like he's helping. He also likes to wash his belly.
18. He is obsessed with sinks...any time Grant's washing his hands, Drew wants to do it too. Then he doesn't want to stop!

Strawberry pictures

Riding in our wagon out to the fields (the wagon was a hit...all the kids wanted to pull each other around in it):

Twist, and pull!
Squish!
Look at all of those yummy red berries!
Drew was proud of all of his strawberries too, even though most of them were either squished or mostly green!

"No, Drew! You can't eat them until we pay for them!" (although he had eaten his fair share already)


Drew was so focused that I could hardly get him to look at the camera. Here's the closest I got to a smile!
We ate lunch with some friends after the strawberry picking and took pictures on this beautiful old tree:

Grant with some of his friends:If you live anywhere near Houston, Froberg's farm in Alvin is definitely worth a day trip at this time of year. They have homemade jams, fruit pies and other things in their market, and you can have a barbecue lunch out there too. I want to go back soon and take Dean with us!

Going a little more crazy with every short nap!

Skip down a few paragraphs if you're not interested in reading about more mommy frustrations (I know I write about that often....but hey, it's my life right now!)!

So let's see....it's 2:54 as I'm starting to type this.  I just finished some chores and sat down at the computer about 5 minutes ago, and now I hear Drew crying.  I left his room at 2:11.  A 43-minute nap isn't my idea of a decent break (both boys woke up before 6am), so I'm hoping he will go back to sleep.  This is the kind of stuff that makes me go crazy!

I gave him Brownie (his blanky) and now he's stopped crying...for now.  He did this yesterday too and woke up in 15-minute increments until I finally got him out of his crib after a total of an hour and a half.

I know I've said this before (and we talked about it in my Bible study group today, so I know all stay-at-home moms deal with this): I love my kids, but when they wake up at 6am and go to sleep at 8pm, I need a break during that time to do my own stuff!  Grant is great with naps (usually 2-3 hours), and it would be heavenly if both of them did that every day.  When Drew happens to take longer naps (by longer I mean at least 1.5 hours), I feel so refreshed and like I actually was able to accomplish something!  Those are the only days I can blog or work on some other project.  It's just a huge adjustment having little kids and not having the time to pursue my own interests, except maybe for an hour or two per week.  It's like I'm not the same old "me" during this stage of life; I'm having to put my own interests on hold for these few years while I have itty-bitty kids.  And again, I suppose this is a normal way to feel, and in the scheme of things, this stage won't last long.  I know I'm supposed to selflessly remember that my kids are my top priority and I couldn't be doing any more important work than this, etc.  I know this, but when you're with your kids almost every waking hour, you desperately want time to pursue your own non-kid-related interests (at least I do!).  

The real purpose of this post:
I was going to post some pictures from our trip to the strawberry farm in Alvin.....I took the boys on Monday and we met up with friends from my Bible study group.  We had a blast!!!  Now that it's finally warm, it's wonderful being able to spend entire mornings outside.  Froberg's Farm in Alvin (about 17 miles from us) is great....they have a perfect little farmer's market and a barbecue smokehouse, not to mention the strawberry-picking fields.  I will wait to post pictures, but the boys had so much fun picking berries and putting them in their buckets.  Drew (like Grant two years ago, when he was basically the same age) squished most of his as soon as he picked them.  But Grant remembered from watching Special Agent Oso (a Disney morning show, for grandparents and others who may not know) how to pick strawberries.....every time he picked one, he'd say, "twist, and pull" (just like he learned from Oso).  He had fun finding the red ones, and discerning which ones were better than others. 

Like I said, I will hopefully post pictures soon.  Our fence at the end of our cul-de-sac is being replaced, and the machines are making so much loud noise!  Right now it sounds like they're drilling straight into concrete....I have no idea what's going on, and was surprised the boys were still asleep....but Drew has started crying just in the past couple of minutes.  Now it's 3:33, so I guess an hour and twenty minutes will have to do for today!

Brothers

These little guys have been acting so silly. They're definitely playmates now.....Grant cares a lot about Drew, and he thinks of him as a friend instead of just his baby brother. They both instigate little games with the other (which usually involves tackling of some kind), and I'd say that they spend probably half of their playtime together. Now, about half of this time is spent fighting, but I guess that's probably a fact of life with brothers. They usually start off playing well, but what starts as a "game" gets a little bit frustrating to Drew, and before too long he's screaming. Or Drew might be playing with some toy, and Grant snaps it up when Drew puts it down for a second. So I'm constantly having to play referee, which is awfully tiring. And did I mention that they are VERY loud? Again, I'm just starting to realize that along with boys comes a lot of screaming.

For the most part, Grant is very good with Drew. He likes to play the part of "mommy," in a way, by asking him in a sweet voice, "Do you need some juice, Drew?" or at the end of a meal, "Are you ready to get down?" Then Drew nods his head, and Grant will tell me, "Mommy, Drew's done." Today at an Easter Egg hunt Drew fell on the sidewalk as we were leaving, and Grant went over and kissed each of his hands. Here are some cute pictures I took on St. Patrick's Day (see how behind I am with pictures?). Drew thought it was so funny to slap Grant on the head after dinner, and Grant played right along, acting like he was hurt, then coming right back for more!





Then Grant forced Drew to hit himself in the face with his own hand, which they also thought was hilarious!

Whew! That was tiring!

Free ice cream!

Today is Ben and Jerry's free ice cream day, from 12-8pm.

Go to their website to find a location close to you!

We've been busy and it's been hard finding time to blog.....we had a fun spring break last week and hopefully I'll get around to posting some pictures soon.