The End of an Era

So this afternoon, the boys "helped" while I took the railing off of the crib and turned it into a toddler bed. I would have much prefered to leave him in the crib, contained, for at least as long as I did Peter but he has been trying to climb out recently, as well as climb in. So tonight is the first night of Charles sleeping in a big boy bed.

Bedtime went pretty well. He only got up when he would follow Peter out of the room (and tell us that Peter was going potty), and it only took a few tuck-ins before he was good for the night. The big test will be seeing how the morning goes. Fingers crossed it isn't an early morning.

I have been terrible about posting recently, I am going to try to be better. There are some recent photos in our winter adventures album on SmugMug. You don't need to be logged in to view the pictures, but let me know if you need the password. (And if you want to sign up yourself, you can use this link to get a discount on your first year.)

Let Him Eat Cake!

While it may not have looked like the most appetizing cake, it was quite delicious with real butter-cream icing. He was obviously a fan of his first dessert.

More pictures in the birthday party album on Picasa (you need to be logged in to see).

Better Late Than Never

FIVE new milestones and no posts to show for it. I did want to get this up before tomorrow, and they all get overshadowed by the posts that I probably will not get up for few days (since tomorrow will be very busy).

The first four are the four new teeth that Charles has gotten in a matter of days. They are the four on top, and I have be unable to get a photo of them as Charles tries to eat the camera every time.

But the big one is that Charles is now walking. Full on walking. This video is from last week, and he has much improved since then. He can now change direction mid-walk, and doesn't need to pull up to stand anymore. I cannot believe that this time as already come (and a little earlier than it did with Peter).

Please excuse the extreme mess, as I was in the middle of folding an epic amount of laundry (because things like this don't happen when everything is neat and clean).

I know that I haven't been updating here as often as I would like, and I hope to start doing better. There are a lot of changes coming up for both boys, and I want to use this space to keep a record of everything.

A Gift From Jingle McJingles

The boys had a Christmas surprise from our elf, Jingle McJingles, when they got up this morning. Overnight, he had decorated our tree!

Charles woke up first, and was so excited. It is his first Christmas tree, and the happiness on his face (even though I couldn't get it on camera because I was holding him) was just perfect.

Of course he felt the need to try to grab everything, which is why we have the small tree this year.

When Peter got up, he was so happy that the tree was finally decorated. He really enjoyed looking at all the ornaments.

It is starting to feel more and more like Christmas around here.

It's mornings like these that I really love the Christmas season.

Thank you, Jingle McJingles!

Kicking the Ball

This week, Peter started at a soccer clinic at school. He was a little hesitant at first, but really got into it at the end. Even though he didn't participate for most of the class, he has been talking about it non-stop ever since. I'm really looking forward to the next six weeks, it should be a lot of fun.

Time for School

Last Thursday was Peter's first day of school.

He is now in the three's program at the nursery school at church, and he is loving it. Unlike camp, I actually remembered to take pictures of his first day, and got a few of his second day as well.

Last week was shortened days to get the children used to being there, but he started his regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule this week and has been doing great.

I am late in posting as I have been slow getting the pictures online. And I probably won't have many more of Peter in school since he doesn't need or want me to stay. I cannot believe how fast he is growing up.

We have a tooth!

Yesterday morning, Charles woke up from his nap with a tooth that he did not have when he fell asleep. It is the bottom tooth on the left when you are looking at him. I cannot believe that this has happened already, Peter didn't get his until he was just about seven months. I was just thinking how I had to get a few more gummy pictures before his teeth start to come in. Once again, this is a hard picture to take, but I was able to get one where you can see the tooth. More pictures to come as it continues to grow.

Baby's Gotta Eat

I'm behind on posting, mostly because I've been slow getting the pictures off the camera. Here are a couple of pictures of Charles' first taste of banana, as assisted by the ever helpful big brother. He has since had sweet potato and avocado, and he really seems to be enjoying eating. He grabs for the spoon and "helps" put the food in his mouth. We have a couple of new fruits to try over the next few days, so I will hopefully have some new pictures soon.

Mobile Baby!

I know I owe a bunch of updates, and I (hopefully) will post them over the next few days, but I caught this video today and I wanted to share. Not quite yet crawling, but scooting. Crawling won't be too long now. Funny enough, the things that usually motivates him to scoot are his brother's toys.

Big First Day

Hard to believe that this day is already here, today was Peter's first day of "school". It is a mom cooperative, and I was one of the teachers today, but Peter did very well. He had a lot of fun playing, and he already knew one of the other children. The real test will be next week when I don't stay. He looked like a little boy all dressed up this morning, he really doesn't look like a baby anymore.

Shocker of Shocks

Peter told me that he wanted to sit on the potty. He has said this to us before, but he always freaked out and ran away when we finished setting it up for him. Today, he actually sat and was so proud of himself. I didn't hold out much hope of him actually going since I had just changed his (rather full) diaper, but he insisted that he was going to pee. And he did. It was just a little, but still much better than I ever anticipated for his first attempt.

Looks like it's time to get some training pants.

We have a toddler!

Peter took his first real steps today. A couple of weeks ago, he stumbled from the couch to my knee, which was about four steps, but he didn't really have a lot of control.

Today, he was standing at the couch, looking out into the living room, took four unassisted steps, paused, and then took four more before going back to crawling. He was walking long enough that I was able to get the video camera and get it out of its case, but not long enough for me to turn it on and record.

But fear not! Peter seems to enjoy his new skill, and I was able to catch it again about half an hour later. And by catch, I mean I stood him up in the middle of the room and waited for him to go.

A Little More Snow

It snowed again this morning, like it hasn't snowed enough this winter. The difference is that this time there wasn't so much snow that it would bury Peter, so this afternoon I took him over to the park so that he could play in snow for the first time.

At first he didn't seem to know what to think. He would pick up a little in his hand and take a look. It was different from the leaves that he played with in the fall.

He found it a lot harder to move around, I don't think that he expected to sink into the snow. Luckily, I thought to bring the video camera, so I have some rare video to share.

It wasn't too long before he had enough, and was ready to go back inside. He seemed to enjoy it, but his tolerance was short. We are both looking forward to the spring, and everything thawing out.