28 Months

Leif is getting so big! He and Asher are best friends and he loves to do whatever Asher does, but he is still very much his own person and will do things independently as well.
Now that we are in a bigger house, it seems like there is just more square footage for the boys to make messes in ;) but the funniest part is that the boys seem to "lose" each other more often. When they get separated for too long Leif will start calling in his cute little voice "Asher, Asher" or Asher will demand "Leif come here" or "Leif, where are you?"
Leif still loves his naps and will let you know as soon as he feels tired. Whenever he gets upset by getting hurt or not getting his way he will cry for his binki or his blankies and say he wants to go to bed-no matter what time of the day it is. Leif got really attached to one specific blanket about a year ago, but he would accept another similar-feeling blanket if that one couldn't be found. Lately though, he likes to have both of the blankets and isn't truly content if he only has one. I can't count how many times he has told or asked me about the " 'nother blanket"(another blanket, which is how he refers to the blanket other than the one he is carrying).
He is quite the little artist- constantly wanting to color, paint, draw, or play with chalk outside. He refuses to be convinced, however, that he shouldn't color on the house and screen door with chalk or on tables with markers, pens and crayons :)When I find one of his creations on a surface it shouldn't be on and ask "who did this?" Leif proudly exclaims "Me!" and doesn't seem to care how much I tell him that we don't do that.
A funny little habit Leif has picked up on lately is to ask "Me?" in a sweet little voice whenever he hears us talking about him or thinks we are talking about him. Here are the photos I got of him working his magic outside today

Moving

Things have been quite chaotic for us lately, but we are so excited to be in our new house. The boys have been trying to be helpful, but lots of times they just get in the way :) They have been so excited about the abundance of boxes to use as houses, cages for stuffed animals, cars, trains, or airplanes. Every time I got a box out to start packing someone would come steal it and I'd have to get a new one. As I've been unpacking, trying to get rid of the boxes has been difficult since the boys think its a sin to throw away something so fun.

Moving day was probably the most chaotic since I was packing and cleaning while Austin was taking things out. My mom and sister were here to help, but the boys were still a little difficult to manage. They wanted to keep going back and forth between the two houses and wanted their toys out of boxes. Here is Leif with his boots and no pants. He was quite upset that I wouldn't let him go into his room since the carpets were still wet from being cleaned and he refused to take his boots off anyway.

Austin borrowed a trailer from his friend to move the big things. The boys were delighted with it and spent a long time sitting in it and eating cheerios. They were quite disgruntled when we made them move so all the furniture could get in.

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The first few nights in the new house were a little unsettling for the boys. They got up in the middle of the night to wander around. But now that we've been here over a week, they are getting used to their new room and sleeping just fine.
Asher was very eager to help. He kept telling us he is "tough to carry things downstairs" as he helped carry little things into the basement. He also enjoyed helping my mom plant some flowers and plants in the front yard. Leif wasn't very interested in helping, but we found plenty of activities to keep the boys busy. It was really nice to have my mom and sister to help with that.

This is Asher at a park just across the main street from our house. We have another little neighborhood park up a few blocks from our house. We haven't had time to visit it yet, but hopefully we will get there soon. Right now the boys (and their parents) are pleased as punch with having a backyard to go out into whenever they want.

Our kitchen has plenty of room for the boys to paint and color.

They were very excited to have sugar cereal for breakfast (and dinner) on St. Patrick's Day.

I got a picture as soon as I could of the boys sitting together in front of the new house. I thought it would be fun to look back on in later years.

And while we had the camera out, Leif wanted me to take pictures of him with the garden bunny :)

Potatoes

I bet you didn't know potatoes could be a great source of entertainment. I bet you thought potatoes were just for eating. Austin's grandparents sent us some Idaho potatoes when his brother came back from a visit. I was planning on using them for dinner tonight, but the boys got into them before I had time to even start dinner. They told me they were monsters stealing all my potatoes and have been dragging them around the house stashing them places and pretending to eat them. When I told them I needed them to start dinner, they said "No mom, we're cooking dinner". Since then, I've heard comments like "we forgot the marshmallows", "we need some candy" and "where is the broccoli?" :) We got a whole bag full of them, so I just decided to use what they left in the bag for the dinner I'm making-with considerably less sugar in it. I've heard quite a few crashes because they keep dropping them. Good thing potatoes don't really bruise. I just hope I don't find any stray potatoes around the house next when we are packing up and moving to the new house :)