Oh no...there are TWO of them!!!

Well, Zachary is now 10 months old and Nicholas is 3 months shy of 3 years old!  :o)  And boy are they a handful!  They are both still sweet as ever (usually!), but they are BOTH all over the place now!  They don't sit still!!  Occasionally we'll find an activity that captures their attention for a little while, but most of the time the boys act like little ants fleeing a smushed anthill!  Woosh.  There they go.

Hair styling 101

Step one:  Dump water bottle onto brother's head.  No worries.  Brother will like it!

Step two:  Brush hair in any direction.  No worries.  Brother will like it!  :oP

The boys went on a trip to College Station recently to watch their Uncle Tony graduate!  They had a great time visiting with their EP extended family...all 11.5 of them!  The boys even did surprisingly well during Uncle Tony's graduation ceremony!  They made it through most of the ceremony by eating and sleeping in their seats, but after 2 hours...the boys were more than ready to clap and cheer for their Uncle Tony, then dart out to swim at the hotel! 

Nicholas enjoys his very first Freebird's burrito in College Station!

The boys are also very anxiously awaiting the arrival of their very first cousin!!  (Another boy, of course!)  At least this time, Nicholas understands that his cousin won't be very much fun for him to play with until he's a good bit older!  We're waiting Cousin!  Any time now...  :o)

Speaking of getting older...
Zachary has hit quite a few milestones in the past month!  He can now clap his hands, give high fives, play Pat-a-Cake, and purposefully strum a guitar!  He can also bring himself to the standing position and stand alone without the use of any props.  He hasn't yet mustered up the courage to walk on his own, although he seems to have the coordination and balance already.  If Nick and I try to walk Zachary between us, Zachary will dive to the floor the second one of us lets go of him.  We're pretty sure that he thinks this is a fun game of "Dive to Mommy or Daddy."

 Don't worry!  I'm still little & cute!!

Zachary has muttered a few things that sure sound like words, they're just not quite as clear as Nicholas's words used to be.  He will say "Hi", "MuhMuh", and "DaDa" clear as day, but "Pat-a-cake", "Addison", "I love you" and other such words aren't quite as clear.  (Addison is Nicholas's friend's 20-month-old little sister and she just adores Zachary!  Zachary seems to return the sentiment.) 

Zachary is so very independent during playtime, but so very dependent at all other times!  He loves playing with all the toys around the house, and unfortunately he just discovered that the trashcan makes a great drum.  He has also taken a liking to music, go figure!  Zachary loves bouncing up and down to any type of music.  He pulls up on various toys to get up and groove!  It is comical to watch both of the boys dancing their little hearts out.  As long as they don't aspire to be the Jonas Brothers someday, then I'll be quite happy!  Zachary also likes to play "Beat up Brother."  Zachary will pinch, hit, and slime Nicholas until Nicholas finally retaliates or calls for assistance.  Ah, brothers!

Learning from his brother and climbing on the furniture!!!  Argh!!

Oh!  And Zachary is finally getting some teeth!!  About 2 weeks ago, his bottom left and top right central incisors erupted!  The top left showed up about a week ago, so he doesn't look quite as much like a little redneck anymore!  :o)  But with new teeth comes more advanced foods!!  Zachary will chow down on just about anything!  To name a few, he loves his tiny pieces of chicken, grapes, muffin, macaroni, freeze-dried bananas and strawberries (he's not so fond of fresh bananas anymore for some strange reason), and BREAD!!!  The boy loves his bread!! 

And then there's Nicholas.  Sweet, spoiled, lovable, hard-headed, smart, clumsy, handsome, loud, wonderful little Nicholas!  His 2-year-old preschool year is over!  Nicholas now walks by the school building after church and says, "That's my school.  Awww...I miss school.  *frowny face*  What will my friends say when they don't see me at school?"   He will be back at the same preschool (if we can figure out this potty training business in the next 3 months!) in September, but in the meantime, he's been enrolled in a summer Tuesday/Thursday morning preschool for June and July.  He seems to be excited about it, so we'll see how it goes!

It is amazing how much Nicholas has matured in the past year!  He sits through an entire storytime at the library while actively participating, he completes crafts at home, school, and at Lowe's, and he seems to have a longer attention span for playing with (instead of just alongside) friends!  And oh how he is in the question stage!!  So many questions!!  He retains so much, too!!

Brushing his teeth with fluoride toothpaste!!  He's so big!

Nicholas quotes of the month:  (I started writing these down so that I wouldn't forget them!  I forgot to write down a few of the more comical quotes, but some mildly amusing quotes beat nothing!)

• "Kentucky!  That's not a real word!"
• The waitress at Macaroni grill asked if she could take Nicholas's plate and put his leftover food into a "To-Go" box, so Nicholas responded, "No, you can't take it yet because I'm not quite done eating my spaghetti."  (He's so very proper.)
• And all month long, Nicholas will look up at me with his big blue eyes and a huge cheesy grin across his face and say, "Happy Mother's Day!!"
• When disciplined Nicholas will sometimes shout while pointing a finger at you, "No!  No, you can't do that!  I'm disappointed in you!"  (For the record, I never say that I'm disappointed in him...he hears that from someone else in this house....but I'm not naming names!!  Zachary!!!)  :oP
• "Oh!  What's wrong Zachary?  Gushy, gushy, gushy!  There.  He's better.  Now let's go!!!"
• "Mommy, you would be very sad if I died and went to heaven.  There'd be no more Nicholas to play with and no more Nicholas to eat muffins.  So I won't climb on the table anymore.  Now is my time out over?"

Well, we're all pretty excited about summer!  The boys are already frequent visitors to the sprinkler park and we've already made a couple of trips to the pool.   If only the evil heat would stay away, then all would be just peachy!  Happy swimming!  :o)

Lower those ears!!

Oh the drama of the haircut.  Nicholas has had two good haircut experiences and all the rest have been pretty much awful.  Nick and I have been taking him to a regular, run-of-the-mill "haircut place" nearby that has a cute little airplane chair for kids.  Nicholas refused to sit in the airplane chair as a 1-year-old, but we managed to get through the haircuts with him in my lap alternating between crying and licking a lollipop.  He enjoyed his last visit there around the holidays, so we thought we'd try again yesterday.  SA Grandpa has also taken Nicholas twice for a haircut at his barbershop.  Apparently, Nicholas enjoyed his first experience in a real barbershop very much, but the second trip was an exercise in the barber's ability to cut the hair of a crying/fussy child. 

Yesterday, we headed off to our haircut place with our fingers crossed to get Nicholas all fancied up.  He was originally okay with the idea of getting a haircut until we walked up to the airplane chair.  Then, he started throwing a fit.  He was kicking, screaming, and pushing the stylist's hands away.  The stylist mentioned that he could get a balloon if he sat through his haircut, but Nicholas announced, "No!  I don't need a balloon!  I already have one!"  Eventually, the stylist gave up and basically told us to get out.  I was not amused, so Nicholas was informed that his candy, junk food, and McDonalds privileges were lost until he had a haircut.  (He doesn't eat that much of the aforementioned foods, but he does look forward to them!) 

Today, I sat Nicholas down and talked to him about why he didn't like getting his hair cut.  He admitted that the buzzers (clippers, if you don't speak Nicholas) were okay since they just tickled a little bit, but the blow dryers were very loud and very scary.  He also said that he didn't like the haircut place near our house and he didn't like Grandpa's haircut place.  So, we decided together that we would try a new haircut place that's just for kids.  Nicholas liked that idea, so I did him one better.  I offered to take him to the haircut place inside Toys R Us.  A little smile crept across his face as he quietly asked, "There's a haircut place inside the toy store?!" 

I packed the boys up in the van and off we went!  I talked to Nicholas about his haircut along the way and he seemed relatively excited about the whole thing.  When we arrived, there was a one year old boy getting his haircut and we were next in line.  I picked Nicholas up to show him how nicely the little boy was behaving for his haircut.  (Thank you, small child!!  You are my hero!)  Nicholas noticed that there was a little TV in front of the boy's firetruck chair.  The boy was watching Elmo's World!  I showed Nicholas the movie selections on the wall, and he chose Blue's Clues as his haircut movie.  Then Nicholas sat down on a bench in the waiting area and played a video game on the Game Cube.  (He was laughing hysterically as he caused his little blue character to fall off the edge repeatedly.)  All too soon, the boy was all finished with his haircut and Nicholas became a little anxious.  The hairdresser helped Nicholas pick out his chair (he chose the firetruck, too) and his movie.  Then, Nicholas and I told her that we didn't want to use the blow dryer today, and she caught on quickly and showed Nicholas that she was putting the blow dryer into a drawer so it wouldn't be used.  Nicholas was immediately happy with the hairdresser and began chatting her up.  She wasn't the most outgoing person ever, but she was very good about explaining everything to Nicholas and distracting him when he was contrary (thank you, Blue's Clues!)  Nicholas made it happily through the haircut and even smiled a few times!  When the hairdresser announced that Nicholas was all done, he looked up at her and said, "Thank you for the haircut!"  Amazing.  He got up, demanded his lollipop, and then went out to explore Toys R Us.  I made sure to sign up for the haircut rewards program, because we will definitely be back...on a weekday.  Thank you, Zachary, for sleeping through the haircut in the stroller!!!  Handsome pictures of Nicholas to come!!!