14 Months

Leif has officially taken a few steps a few different times, but doesn't show any real interest in walking. He prefers to crawl around or climb up on everything. He is pretty adept and both, so what's the need to walk? Lately, Leif has taken to climbing up on the dinning room chairs so he can get to whatever is on the table. He loves to push the buttons on my phone if he can find it and has tried to open my laptop a few times when it was within reach. Sometimes he just stands there precariously and looks around-I'm so paranoid that he is going to fall since he doesn't seem to have any concern for the fact that he is standing on the edge of something. He gets really upset and cries like he is hurt if I tuck the chairs in so that he can't climb up onto them. Leif's talking is stalled at about where it has been for the last few months. He says a few words every now and then, but mostly just points, whines, or cries to get his point across. He shows that he understands things really well though, so I'm not concerned. This is about the same thing that Asher did- showed understanding but little speech until he was about 2, then his language exploded. It looks like Leif will be doing that too. Leif is still a little pig and amazes me at how much he eats. He has finally started drinking milk, so maybe that will add some calories to his diet and he'll stop eating quite so much. Despite his eating, Leif really hasn't gained much weight in the last few months. I think he is just growing longer and he moves around so much that he is burning up everything he eats. He is sleeping through the night almost every night now and takes a good nap most days. He still gets pretty grumpy by the evening though because I think he could use a short afternoon nap, but with Asher around, those were cut out long ago.
 Here are the photos I got of Leif today:

Park Day

In between snow storms, we have been having some pretty warm weather. Couple that with Austin being home (i.e. we can use the car) and needing to work (i.e. he needs the boys out of his hair) and we have been logging a lot of hours at the park. We have been to 3 different parks over 4 park-days this week. The boys LOVE it and its so nice to have them get some energy out. Asher runs all over the place getting into whatever he can while Leif prefers to stick by me, but still wants to explore all the fun things he sees. Asher is funny with other kids- he wants to play with them, but he's still too young to have many social skills, so he just runs up to them and stares at them waiting for them to initiate something. When he runs up to older kids, they usually get the hint and try to include him in whatever they are doing. (He had lots of fun playing on the merry-go-round with some 7 or 8 year old girls.) But when he runs up to younger kids, they usually just stare back at him. Leif loves to sit on the ground and play in the wood chips or sand on the ground while he watches other kids play. Leif is also a huge fan of climbing up the stair and going down the slide and insists that he can do it himself. Today is the only day that I got pictures, but they are pretty much the same as every other day.

Here are some videos of Leif and the slide. He stuck to feet first quite a few times, but then figured out that it was a lot quicker to go face first. Silly boy!

Two and a Half

Asher is now two and a half years old and quite the little force around our house. Asher's favorite words seems to be "No". He says it to us all the time even before he stops to think about if he really wants the answer to be "yes".
Asher loves destruction, which drives me crazy. He loves to just dump things out for the sheer pleasure of watching them come out. Sometimes he plays with the toys he dumps out and other times he runs off to find something else. He loves to rip the blankets and sheets off of our bed right after I make it in the morning. I used to re-make the bed, but he would just rip them off again. So now I've learned and sometimes the blankets just stay on the floor until bedtime, but that kind of drives me crazy, so sometimes I sneak in and make the bed then make sure he doesn't get back into our room. Remember the cute little box car I blogged about a few days ago? About 20 minutes after I posted that, we were sitting in the living room all together and Asher started ripping off the wheels, lights, and license plate I had taped onto the box. The whole time he was doing it, he was looking at me and saying "oh, no, car is broken". I have been trying to work with him on the difference between broken and ruined. He thinks that he can just break things and daddy will come home and fix them. I want to teach him that some things can't be fixed or won't be the same when they are fixed. So now when he starts destroying things, I tell him that they are ruined instead of broken. We'll see if he catches on.
Despite his destructive side, Asher is a pretty good little helper. He will go around with me while I vacuum and pick things up for me. I started doing this mostly to distract him from wanting to vacuum himself, but I keep doing it because I think its good for him to follow directions and help clean up. He also loves to help make mac and cheese. He likes to carry the box to the stove, pull up a chair and pour in the noodles to the boiling water. He then stands on the chair and watches the noodles boil for 7 minutes, stirring every now and then after I do. I put the butter, milk, and cheese in and he gets to help stir, then he and Leif eat it all up.
Luckily for Asher, his half birthday falls on Austin's birthday, so he gets to have fun activities for his half birthday. This morning we made crepes for Austin's birthday breakfast. The boys loved to help me mix up the batter. These are the only photos we got of Asher today, but they are pretty cute :)

Refridgerator Raiders & Box Car Kids

Here are a few photos Austin got last night of the boys sneaking into the fridge. As you can probably imagine, Asher is the guy who opens the fridge and helps himself to whatever he wants, but Leif is the guy who gets caught perusing through the food. This sight is becoming more and more common at our house as Asher refuses to eat his meals and prefers to find a more tasty treat on his own and Leif is just constantly hungry no matter how much food you shovel into him at meal and snack times.

Here are some photos of a project the boys and I did a few days ago.

Before:

 After:

 The car is upside down in the pictures, but usually the boys like to sit in it and Asher demands that I drive them around the house. This lasts for about 2 minutes before I'm tired of pushing 50+ pounds of kids around on my knees.