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.

13 Months

Our little Leif isn't quite a toddler, if you define it only by walking, but he definitely isn't a baby anymore. He loves to get involved in all that he can and seems to learn so much each day. He is so close to walking and acts like he is going to several times a day. But then he just drops to his knees and crawls to where he wants to go instead. One of Leif's favorite activities is "cooking" at the play kitchen. He loves to stand there, with his little spatula in hand, moving pots around or taking the sink out. For Christmas, we got him some little wooden fruits and veggies that velcro together and can be "cut" in half with a little wooden knife. If his brother will leave him alone for long enough, he likes to put these in his pots and stir them around. Another of Leif's favorite activities is to play peek-a-boo. His version involves sitting on the ground and shoving his face into a blanket or pillow, waiting for someone to pretend they are looking for him, then popping up with a huge smile on his face before he buries his head again. This game is very entertaining to him and can go on and on long after the adult playing with him has become bored with it ;) Leif's all-time favorite activity is probably taking a bath. No matter what the ailment, taking a bath will always solve it for Leif. He loves to splash and play with the water. He tries to drink the water too. Out of little cups at first, but after I tell him no a bunch of time, he will secretly try to slurp the water up directly out of the tub. I have no idea what his draw to it is since he always ends up choking and coughing over it.
Its so cute to see Leif shake his finger back and forth and try to say "no, no". I guess I must have done this to Asher at some point, because he started doing it to me and Austin occasionally when we were doing something he didn't want us to. Leif picked right up on it, and since we thought it was so cute we only encouraged it by laughing at him and doing it back. So now, quite frequently, he wags his finger at us and babbles something very similar to "no, no, no"
Up until about a week ago Leif only had his two bottom teeth. Accompanied by lots of grumpiness and fussing, his top two teeth have finally emerged. I think they are still bothering him because he pulls at his ears a lot and gets fussy for no real reason sometimes.
Leif has nearly mastered sleeping through the night--we are talking 7 pm to 7 am. Its only been about a month since I started trying to get him to sleep through the night and it has gone smoother than I ever could have imagined. I just stopped feeding him when he woke up, but instead just gave him his binki, tucked him in, and stood by his bed until he fell back asleep. I thought he would be upset and try to get out of his crib, but he never even tried to get up as long as I was touching him. He quickly started waking up less often and now if he wakes up I only have to go in, give him his binki, tuck him in, and stay with him for about 30 seconds. He wakes up about once every other night, occasionally we have a bad night where he wakes up twice, but all in all I have been getting more sleep. I really hope any future babies take after this brother instead of their oldest brother when it comes to sleeping :)

Here is Leif busily cooking away at his play kitchen:

Christmas Morning

We had a fun Christmas morning! This was the first Christmas we've had with kids that semi-understood what was going on. It was nice that no one knew enough to get us up early, but they had fun opening up presents and eating sweets. Leif mostly enjoyed ripping the paper and Asher loved having lots of new things to play with. Most of Leif's toys have already been confiscated by his brother who seems to think that everything is his. Leif is pretty good-natured though and will easily find something else to play with. After we opened all the presents, Austin made crepes. We had whipped cream to put on them, and both of the boys loved that. They both ate quite a bit and we had lots of time to play with our new toys until they needed a nap.

29 Months

Time seems to go by so quickly. Asher is getting so big and changes so much from month to month, although sometimes I don't really notice the change until I look back at pictures or something I wrote down about him. Asher continues to be a busy little body. He wants to be into everything and wants to try anything he sees us doing. He wants to help with all the stages of food preparation, cleaning, crafting, etc. Since he wants to be involved with everything we do, I knew it was only a matter of time before he would want to do dishes. Its nice that he wants to help, but he misses minor details like making sure all the food gets off the dish, rinsing all the soap off, and making sure that food goes on the side of the sink with a disposal. I also don't think its the best idea for him to be handling dishes made of any material besides plastic :) Asher is no longer satisfied with watching me vacuum or using his popper toy to pretend he is vacuuming. He now wants to push my vacuum around by himself, but he usually just sticks to going back and forth in one little area and nothing really gets clean. Asher has very definite ideas about what he is going to do and does not like anyone to interfere. He usually eats at a stool next to the kitchen counter, but lately he has been moving it all over the kitchen and insisting that he eat in that spot. Whenever we are at the store he tries to push the cart by himself and won't let Austin or I help him. If we try to help direct it, even from the front of the cart, he will tell us "Hands in pockets". He is getting really good at speaking and astonishes us sometimes with what he is able to communicate. He tells us what to do a lot, with the majority of his commands ending with the word "now". The other night at dinner, kind of out of the blue, Asher asked Austin "How job going, Dad?" Austin and I talked about it later and tried to figure out if I had been asking him about his day before that, but we don't think so. Asher is good at his colors most of the time. He can usually name a color accurately, but is still way off sometimes. His favorite color continues to be orange, so he can name that one 99% of the time. Asher has started counting to three every now and then, but consistently says "one, three, two" no matter how many times we correct him. 
Asher's newest friends are a stuffed fox and a little toy cat my mom sewed for him about a year ago. It actually came with a whole set of animals, but he has taken a special liking to the green cat and calls him "Kitty Mouse". Kitty Mouse comes to church or on walks with us sometimes or watches Asher eat. When he does come to church, Asher likes to show him to everyone and tell them his name. Asher also loves a stuffed fox that I named Volpe (meaning fox in Italian). He can't say Volpe though, so he has named it Baby Boltay. Baby Boltay may actually be winning Kitty Mouse out in popularity. He goes on walks with us, gets wrapped up in a blanket and thrown around the house many times a day, and watches Asher eat. If Asher hasn't seen Baby Boltay in awhile, we have to search the house until he is found and can once more take the abuse of a loving two-year-old. Of course Asher's blue bunny, Jelly Cat, is still his favorite, but since he isn't allowed to come out of Asher's room (I don't want him to get lost or too dirty) except on special occasions, Kitty Mouse and Baby Boltay are the daytime animals of choice.
Asher loves to lock doors and often locks the bathroom doors-whether he is in the room or not. I have become pretty expert at unlocking the doors from the outside. Another big love of Asher's is sweatpants. He LOVES sweatpants and insists on wearing them everyday. We only have 4 pairs, so a couple days a week he has to wear something else, which does not make him happy. I'm happy on those days though, because sweatpants are so nerdy looking- especially when his cloth diapers make them look too short for him. 
 Here are some photos of Asher decorating the Christmas tree this afternoon (only achieved because I bribed him with two M&Ms :)

Thanksgiving and Leif's Birthday Party

Our Thanksgiving was pretty low-key, which is how we like it. In the morning my mom, Austin, and I all ran the Loveland Turkey Trot. Austin's brother, Brent and his wife, Niccolle, also ran, but we only saw them for a few seconds at the beginning. It was only a 5K, but I was pretty impressed with Austin, who hasn't run in a couple of months and usually only runs about a mile or a mile and a half at a time. He pushed the stroller with both of the boys almost the whole way and lead the way the whole time (except the last 20 yards or so, when I sprinted in front of him and beat him across the finish line :) Here I am pushing the stroller at the beginning of the race.

We spent the afternoon baking birthday cupcakes (Asher was thrilled to help mix them up) and pumpkin pies. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Austin's parents' house, then had Leif's party there. We just had a few games--Thanksgiving Bingo, a pinata, and tape the crown on Leif (kind of like "pin the tail on the donkey").
The theme for Leif's party was "crowns" so I made a crown for him to wear and decorated the table and cupcakes with crowns. Here is a picture of the cupcakes with Thanksgiving dinner in the background:

Leif isn't much of a fan of cupcakes, he only at a few crumbs and ended up mostly just playing with it. But he ate a bunch of pumpkin pie later on. I guess its fortunate for him that his birthday will always fall around Thanksgiving.

 Leif was pretty aloof during most of the party and Asher was really busy playing with trains, but their cousins seemed to enjoy it. Leif got some fun presents, which his cousins enjoyed opening much more than he did, but he enjoys playing with them when Asher isn't trying to steal them from him. Here he is trying to open a present.

Here is an action shot of the pinata. It may look like there is just a streak in the photo, but those are the goodies falling out of the pinata. (It was a pull-string pinata, so it was easier for Leif to open, although his cousins ended up needing to help him to get it open)

LEIF IS ONE!!!

It's hard to believe that our little Leif is already a year old! He's getting to be such a big boy and learning new things each day.

Leif is expert at throwing things on the floor. He loves to watch as he drops something and as soon as Austin or I pick it up, he'll drop it again. As I've learned with Asher, this phase will last for a long time yet, so we have resigned ourselves to picking things up for him until we get sick of it, then just hoping that he will move onto something else.
Leif is a ravenous eater. I swear he eats more than Asher most days. When he sees someone eating something and he feels like its not getting over to him fast enough, he will howl and whine until he gets food in his mouth. He is especially vocal while I am peeling Cutie oranges. Those seem to be his favorite food, although he will eat just about anything given to him.
Leif loves to stand up and cruises around a little, but doesn't show much interest in walking yet. He likes me to help him stand up, but if I try to get a step or two out of him, he automatically drops all his weight onto the floor.
Leif is delighted at the game of passing something back and forth with me. He is thrilled with himself when he passes something to me when I ask him to, then even more excited to get it back into his hand. This is a very easy and effective way to entertain him and get him giggling.
Leif loves to babble and when he is really talkative, he puckers up his lips for some reason. He says "dad" in reference to Austin, but when I try to get him to say "mama" he just laughs at me. My feelings aren't too hurt though, because Leif makes it very obvious that I am his favorite person with his separation anxiety. He's got a pretty bad case of it lately and wants to be with me all the time. I think our trip to Utah intensified it a little because he has been a little bit better since we've gotten settled back into home. He will usually fall asleep on his own now after I nurse him and he's okay staying in a room by himself or with Asher or Austin for at least a few minutes.
Something that I love to see Leif do is lie around and kick his feet in the middle of playing. Maybe a lot of babies do this--just hang out and look around--but Asher never did this, so we love to see Leif take a break in the middle of his playing to lie around and check out the world. Also, if someone leaves a blanket on the floor, Leif will go roll around on it and shove his face into it.
To celebrate Leif's birthday, we had crepes for breakfast.

 Then after his nap, my mom and I took Leif and Asher to downtown Fort Collins. We stopped by the toy store to pick out a toy for Leif then we stopped by the cookie store and everyone got a cookie.

 Leif liked playing with his, but didn't eat very much of it. He seemed to like drinking water out of a cup instead. We also went to the fabric store and kitchen store, but that was more for us than for the boys, although Leif was a pleasant little fellow the whole time (not something I could say for his older brother :) For dinner, my mom, Austin, and I took the boys to The Olive Garden where the boys could both enjoy some pasta.

Then Austin insisted that we go to Dairy Queen for dessert. Leif doesn't really like ice cream, maybe because its too cold for him, but he ate a little and enjoyed dancing on the table and flirting with the girl behind the counter. Here he is checking her out.
All in all it was a very fun birthday. We will have his birthday party along with Thanksgiving celebrations.

28 Months

Asher is getting bigger and bigger. Its fun to watch his personality get bigger and bigger too, although its not fun to hear his often-repeated "No, Mom". He usually says it when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to, but sometimes he just says it for no apparent reason. And yet, somehow I still find myself arguing with him "Yes, Asher" even though I'm not sure what he is saying no to. I've found that when I catch myself doing that, if I just say "No, Asher" back to him, he stops pretty quickly. Something else that Asher says quite a bit lately is "Oooh", like he has made some great discovery. From everything I can tell, he has made no such discovery and is just saying it to entertain himself while he is playing throughout the day or maybe because he heard someone, somewhere, say it once.
Asher is full of energy and if he doesn't get it out by running or some other physical means, he tends to take it out on his brother. Sometimes while they are sitting next to each other Asher will suddenly reach out and pinch Leif or pull on his clothes as hard as he can like he just can't contain himself. He also loves to jump on and wrestle with Leif but can't understand why Leif cries and mom and dad scold when he jumps on on lies on Leif's head. He also is very good about getting toys for Leif or trying to make him feel better when he seems upset. Asher prides himself on being a "good boy" and often tells us that he is one, or nods confidently when we say he is a good boy.
Asher isn't much for eating lately, unless it's a treat or Cheerios (he would happily eat those for every meal), but he does love cuties oranges. These are the only pictures I got of him-they aren't even in focus, but that's what you get :)