Belated Birthday

This is really slow in coming, considering that Isaac's birthday was three and a half months ago and he has had three haircuts since then. Better late than never...

Summer fun

It has been a while. We have been enjoying good summer weather and our two little boys. I head back to work in a week and am already sad to be losing the time with the boys and being outside so much. Here is an update on some of our goings-on.

Benny has been by for some visits. He has developed a recent awareness of and interest in William. It is pretty cool that these guys are only five months apart and live a five minute walk from one another.



William is growing and developing like a champion. He has been wearing his six month clothes for a while now and I am afraid that he is going to start outgrowing them really soon. At his two month check up he was in about the 90 percentile for everything. Isaac always had a 90th percentile head to go with his 30th percentile body. William actually fits that big head.





The morning of the two month check up our car broke down and had to be towed to the dealer. So we hopped on the bus and headed to the doctor. It took two buses and about 45 minutes to get there. It was a really hot and humid day and thankfully three of the four buses were air conditioned (I would not have complained if the fourth had AC, but oh well). Isaac and William did great. William slept and Isaac was fascinated by being on the bus and going to the train station to transfer buses. As a side note, the car repair was covered by warranty and we got a loaner car later that evening.

We got a little plastic swimming pool and have been enjoying that on hot days. Isaac is not a big swimmer, but hopefully this summer he will get in to it more. Benny came over and really enjoyed himself.



Sporting the new swimsuit (he wore the same swimsuit the first two summers of his life, but has finally gotten a new one this year):



We had a little rain this week and resorted to playing inside with blocks. Isaac has been fascinated by all things Humpty Dumpty and we practiced making Humpty Dumpty with legos and having him fall off the wall. The destruction was impressive.



Memorial Day weekend we went to the zoo. The weather was perfect and Isaac had the time of his life. He is obsessed with animals and trains. So not only did he get to see a lot of animals there, but he also got to go on some train ride that they had. When it ended he kept repeating "again" over and over. They had a great petting zoo with lots of goats. I think he would have been happy to stay there all day.



He brought some of his own animals from home. Here we are looking at the lions or tigers (Isaac had his own tiger). This was toward the end and he was starting to get a bit tired and ready for his nap.



We left the zoo with him crying hysterically because he wanted more. He was asleep within minutes and took an over three hour nap (that is not normal, unfortunately).

Finally, some fun moments at home:



He likes my running shoes.

The boys

The boys were hanging out yesterday on the playmat. William looks concerned for a reason. The last time they were both there, he ended up with an ouchie.

In other news, we finally busted out the six month clothes for William. I probably should have done this a while ago, but I just couldn't believe that he needed them yet. Isaac truly wore his three month clothes until he was three months. William almost made it two months. It does mean that he gets to wear some great outfits like this:

Smiles and not smiles

We finally captured William in good form this morning. Love those smiles. Unfortunately it was followed a while later by this:



Unfortunately Isaac is learning the power of violence this week. We had to get a book called "Hands are not for hitting". It is kind of embarrassing to have your kid hit other kids at the playground, even though I know it is not abnormal toddler behavior (believe me I have been reading about it like crazy). But still I do not enjoy having to pull my child away from some innocent kid. I am pretty sure that it must be related to William coming in to the family and the decrease in attention that Isaac is getting. He definitely gets more attention this way. Any ideas or experience with this one?

The other night Isaac decided to help me out with cleaning. It was great. Hopefully this behavior continues.



William has also discovered toys. It is nice to see him becoming more aware of his world, even if it is only the fish on his swing.

Training

Naughty

Isaac has recently become very good at helping us out in a new way: he lets us know when he is being naughty. It is now not uncommon to hear him say, "I'm being naughty". This picture is from this morning when he was climbing on the desk to get to the cabinet with "treats". He knows that is very naughty and was vigilant in pointing that out to me. He said "I'm being naughty" over and over again.

Let the weekend begin!

Last night we rented and aerator for the lawn. Isaac was really interested in this and wanted to be a part of the action. It turns out that he is not quite big enough to help push, so we resorted to this approach. It was a win-win. Aleks could aerate and I could make dinner and tend to William. Isaac was having the time of his life. When Aleks would grunt because the aerator was really hard to move around, Isaac would grunt, too.



This morning we have been making pancakes. Isaac was a good helper. Most of the ingredients stayed in the bowl.



Yes, that is a wet wire whisk going in the canister of flour. Needless to say, cleanup was a bit more involved than usual, but Isaac really had fun and enjoyed his pancakes (he ate five).



We also had some tummy time this morning. Isaac got jealous of William getting all the action, so he had me place him on the ground on his tummy, too.



No post is complete without a picture of our adorable William. We really like this guy. He has started to bust out some smiles this week. We will have to work to capture them on camera. He has a lot of similarities to Isaac at this age-we will see do managing two hyperactive kids. Aleks has already starting talking about getting covers for the furniture.