Glue 'n' Scissors...and bonus material

 The boys are enrolled in a once a week class all about animals (Thanks Mimi and Papa for the gift of this fun class, we LOVE it!)  Since my parents are traveling I promised I would take pictures and fill them in on details of the class.  Fail.  I finally remembered my camera on week 3 and then only took like 4 pictures...there are a few weeks left so maybe I will do a better job of documenting, but crafting with two 2 year olds and an infant strapped to your belly leaves Hilary and me with little capability of taking pictures.

 The boys are doing really well with listening and participating which makes me excited for preschool in our future.  It really makes me feel confident that Scott is ready!

Scott's favorite part of the class: SNACK!  Who's shocked?  He always asks for seconds (which is allowed) and I'm doing a decent job of not being overly paranoid about the gluten situation (a couple of weeks they have been served regular crackers (gasp, I know!) and skippy peanut butter (killing me!!!!) but I kept cool and allowed Scott to partake, the portions are very small and Scott does get gluten every now and then, and I try to reserve it for times like these, but skippy peanut butter, really? trader joe's organic unsweetened would have killed you? I digress.  And if you are a skippy user (like my husband) no judgements, but I implore you to read the ingredients....peanuts and a little salt, its really all ya need).

So here is a collection of crafts from the past 4 weeks (week 1: giraffes, 2: monkeys, 3: elephants, 4: lions), with many more to come.  The kids do 2-3 crafts each class, read 2-3 books about the animal of the day, have a snack of course, and then go outside for a game of some kind.  Its really quite fun!  Bonus: check out our new kitchen table!!! I kinda love it, and excited that its our first ever piece of furniture that we have bought (not that we don't love our hand me downs, but excited to furnish this place ourselves.)

Pretty proud of these!  Today was the lion and the bigger one on the right Scott drew circles in his eyes so well! (Maybe I'm a tad biased...)

 And tada- my partly completed pinterest burlap board.  I'm on the hunt for those metal pins for the edge.  Another giraffe from our class and then the boys did ghost footprints that says "trick or treat, smell my feet" (pinterest agin)

We have not been able to escape the sickies in the Campbell household.  Last week Scott set up this fort on the couch himself, went and got a blanket and was out for 2 hours.

I think this was his 3rd nap in 2012.  That's how you know your kiddo is not feeling well....

The boys have taken a liking to having baths together.  Scott's great about sharing tub toys, Owen just wants to climb out.  I think the baby tub has one or two more uses then back to the garage (unless you want it?  Holler at me, we got tons of baby stuff that's up for grabs!!!)

Super stoked to be in the bath with big brother!!!

Anniversary

Four years ago (yesterday) we said 'I do'.  We spent the day with two runny nosed babies, a tummy bug, then mommy went to work all evening.  I got home in time for bed time for the boys then Brian and I watched a little West Wing on the couch.  This weekend Brian is attending a bachelor party and we have a birthday party to go to as well.  So we are 0 for 4 on big anniversary celebrations (or really any celebration, big or otherwise) but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I can't think of anyone I would rather do this life with.  And we rocked our late night TV and snacks on the couch!!  Some day when our kids are bigger maybe we will go all out!  Love you Brian! Best 4 years ever!

Blood, Sweat & Tears

 Remember when I used to do super cool things with the boys and write really detailed posts with lots of pictures.  You could almost read it and get a little taste of our experience, almost like you were there, or if you went in the future you'd already have a little taste of what to expect because you read my blog (lucky duck!)....yeah, so that's over.  I thought about starting a new blog called "All our random crap" but decided against it.

So I'm just going to tell you a little about what the boys have been up to and also about our day today.  I wish I had a time frame for when these were taken (I guess I could look it up, nah too much work) probably over the last couple weeks-ish...

Scott and Owen love playing together.  Scott likes to include Owen (for now) in whatever game he is playing.  Above he was pretend taking a nap (its like he taunting me..."hey mom, watch while I pretend to nap, but don't think about leaving to do something because that's not the game, just laugh at me while I hide under the blanket and pretend snore...naps are for babies, LOL")  This particular time he wanted Owen in bed with him which was really sweet and Owen ate it up.

Speaking of eating...Owen is not yet. I swear its not the "second child I do things way later with you or not at all" syndrome (ok maybe a little).  He just hasn't shown an interest in solids much (unlike Scott, it was all I could do to get the kid to wait until 6 months).  And he is killin' it with the breast milk - 28in. (96%) and 19.6lbs (85%) at his 6 month check...so I figure we are just fine.  And it saves me having to start making baby food for a few more weeks.  But he is digging the high chair and I give him tiny tastes of avocado on a toddler spoon.  He thinks he's big time and I get to cook/eat for an extended period (of 5-8 mins).

He crawls (old news).  And pulls up to standing.  Is it bad parenting to pull him back when he gets close to furniture he can pull up on...because I do.

And these two crack each other up.  They have they're own little language.  Scott makes weird noises.  Owen laughs hysterically.  Scott laughs hysterically.  Repeat.

This past weekend we were in town and I had a list pages long of DIYs for Brian, which he did happily!  This is the only picture I took of his handy work.  Frames up in the hallway between the boys bedrooms.  I love it.  I made him hang some frames that don't have pictures yet because I wanted to see how it would all look.  Its driving him bananas.  I will try to fill them this week honey : )  He also painted and hung a mirror in our bathroom which completes it and makes it exponentially more functional.  Amongst other things but those are the 'fun' projects.

Which brings us to today.....so the fun thing we did today (that I took zero pictures of) was go to a new learning center in the valley (ironically right down the street from our old house).  We started the day bright and early with grouchy pants throwing his yogurt across the kitchen for breakfast : /  Thankfully no mocking song followed this time out.  Then we hit cardio barre, then the learning center.  It is such a neat place, a big tree house slide in the middle, a book room where kids could read and use puppets and they did a few story times as well, several stations of building supplies, arts and crafts, a nature station with seashells, rocks, bugs etc. with magnifying glasses, an infant room with lots of soft toys and climbing apparatuses, dress up center and that was just inside.  Outside has a sandbox, garden, more climbing, lots of picnic tables, a music area etc. etc. etc.  It was amazing.  And free.  WOW!  We met up with Andy and the girls and played our brains out for about 4 hours.

On the drive home I realized we left about an hour too late, Scott was in full break down mode.  When I would ask him what was wrong he was say "I don't know, I don't remember".  Break down city!!!

We got home and I let Scott watch some 'Wonder Pets' (more on that later) while I tried to get Owen down for a nap.  Fail.  Owen slept 20 mins, combined with his maybe 45 mins from sleeping in the ergo at the learning center and we had ourselves a very tired, cranky baby boy.  Sweet.  So then brilliant mommy decides to cook dinner and have it ready for when daddy gets home.  Fail.  Scott was still cranky and I was able to calm down by convincing him to help me.  He was going to press the garlic (we were having lasagna) and he was so excited about it that as I was turning around to wash something/throw something away/tend to Owen/or something he pulled the cutting board down on which I had been slicing the garlic to crush and the knife sliced his toe.  Really not that big of a deal, nothing some pressure and a Buzz Lightyear bandaid couldn't fix.  But to a cranky 2.5 year old that amount of blood = certain death.  So I turned off the burners and we spent the next hour on the floor in tears, applying pressure and feeling sorry for ourselves.  We eventually managed to get up and finish dinner (not before we talked to daddy on the phone to share our story, to have his co-worker over hear and {jokingly} say he was calling child protective services).  So that covers the blood and the tears....the sweat, well happy October 1st, here's a little 110 degree weather for you southern California.  I literally cannot stop sweating! UGH!

After we bandaged up, Scott helped some more.  He took his job of mixing the cheese layer of the lasagna very seriously!  CUTE!

After dinner Scott hopped in the bath, where I could over hear him playing "wonder pets" with his plastic animals.  It is so cute...he tells them to "come on guys" "let's save the animals"  "we have to help" "good teamwork" etc.  If you are not familiar with wonder pets (I wasn't until a week ago, my seamstress who was altering my bridesmaid dress, oh yeah, Kelly's wedding, no pictures, ugh, maybe I will steal some and blog about that, I want to, we will see, well she put the show on for him and he's been obsessed every since, he loves animals!!) its a duckling, a turtle and a hamster/guinea pig who go on missions in a flying boat to save other animals.

And last night we had company for dinner and Scott was so sweet and told me "Mom and I want to get some grapes to share with everyone" and then proceeded to take the bowl to everyone (we had guests) over and over until the grapes were gone.  It was sweet.  He has also been coming out of his shell a bit and saying hi to people again, the other morning he even said "good morning" to the gardener getting in his truck across the street.

And just now he was hiding under the pillows on the couch and passed the heck out (tough day).  Tomorrow we have our little jungle animal class, maybe I will take pictures, but probably not!

Too big for his britches...

Well wouldn't you know it, homeboy can crawl.  Aaaand life as we know it is over.  Baby proofing.  He has probably, technically been crawling for a few weeks but I have been in major denial.  He would do a full pace then fall to his tummy, then another pace or two then back to his tummy then some army crawling so I pretended, in my own, sweet, easy little world that he wasn't mobile.  Well for about the last week he has been cruising - don't get me wrong, I'm proud of him but man that's fast.  And as of today....pulling up to standing.  T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

In other news, here is a picture of big bro EATING A VEGETABLE.  Is it weird that I kinda want to throw myself a little parenting party?  He has recently taken a liking to apples too. Happy mama

6 months

 Happy half birthday Baby O!

6 more months until 1!

Time flies!

Owen turned 6 months old yesterday and despite being so tired from date night we were still able to get home and capture a picture in a good mood on the big day.  Owen goes for his 6 month well baby tomorrow so I will be curious to see how big he has gotten.  Ironically he is not actually well for his well baby, poor guy is fighting a low grade fever yet again.  Hopefully he is napping it off as we speak.

 So we are sitting, crawling (thankfully not too fast or efficient just yet but I can no longer be in denial about it), following Scott around.  Owen can get from sitting to his belly or back and then back up again all on his own, which he is LOVING!  He thinks his brother is the coolest and funniest guy in town, which is sweet, hilarious and heart warming!

He is finally showing some interest in solid foods but we haven't started them yet.  I was thinking this week since he has now hit the 6 month mark, but with him not feeling well I think we will wait.  Still no teeth.

He loves when daddy gets home and reaches for him and screeches until Brian picks him up! Love!  He continues to be the happiest baby, only cries when he is tired.  He goes down for longer naps on his own these days which is nice for mommy to get things done and play with Scott.  He still sleeps with us at night, which I love because I know its not going to last that much longer.

And clearly these pictures are getting harder and harder to capture.  But I learned from my block days - chalk board is much easier then resetting up the blocks between every shot like I did with Scott.

"Later mom!"

Pretend City + Rascal Flatts

 Friday we ventured down to Orange County for a big night out!  Brian had to work in the morning so he dropped the boys and me at Pretend City.  I had heard about it from a friend and it just so happened to be practically next door to Brian's work engagement so we thought why not?!?  And boy are we happy we did.  Scott could not have had more fun!  There were all the things you could imagine in a city (post office, grocery store, bank, fire station, police, doctors office...but no chiropractor office, ahem, library etc.) plus a construction site, farm/garden area, beach, water play area.  There was so much to do that 3 hours flew by in a blink.

Pictured above is part of the water area, you could build boats and sail them down the stream, use nets and fishing poles to catch fish and ducks etc.

Then we hit the "beach" because of course there was dump trucks available so Scott was thrilled and Owen even got to take part.  Right after this pictured he definitely face planted and got a mouth full of sand, but he didn't mind too much!

We went shopping in the grocery store (which Scott is all too familiar with as it seems we hit up trader joe's at least 3 times a week, anyone have any suggestions for how to go grocery shopping less send em my way...it feels like I'm there every day and we still have no food in the house).  Scott loaded his basket with fruits and veggies, if only he really ate that well, and then checked out at the register.  Behind the grocery store was the farm and Scott really left with a better understanding of where food comes from so that was neat.

Of course one of the biggest hits of the day was the cars.  Scott tried each of them, multiple times.  Owen fell asleep for about half the time we were there but woke up with about half an hour left to play so he got to ride while his big brother drove.  Makes me flash forward to these two in 14-16 years cruising around town checking out girls, I'm so not ready!

Mommy needed a potty break and Scott didn't want to stop playing so I told him if he would come with me and be patient we do whatever he wanted next (which how that was different than what we had been doing all morning I don't know but he went for it) and he said "I want to drive cars with Owen!" Sweet.

FUN

After our fun morning we went to Uncle Bob and Aunt Rachel's house to leave the boys while mommy and daddy went out for our big date night (our first in 2012, but who's keeping track?!)  Farmer's sponsors (Brian's department) Rascal Flatts tour so we scored awesome seats and a "meet and greet" with the band before the show.  It was pretty neat and a great show!  Thankfully I was able to snag this picture from the Rascal Flatts photographer website or else I wouldn't have a single picture of date night just 30 pics of the boys from the morning...such is life with kids right?!  The other people in the picture are Brian's boss and his wife (far right) and some other coworkers.

We got back to the boys around 1am and its definitely true that it doesn't matter how late mom and dad stay up, the kids still wake up at the same time.  Soooo yesterday was a bit of a rough day but not too bad and definitely worth it for such a fun night out with my man!  Thanks to Bob and Rachel for keeping our kiddos all evening, we were able to relax and have fun knowing they were in such good hands!

Noculars...

Recently Owen has been taking longer naps on his own leaving lots of Scotty and mommy play time.  During a recent afternoon nap (3 glorious hours) I gave Scott a pair of binoculars (he first played with some at Ryker's house and has been obsessed ever since) and we went exploring.  Its been entirely too hot out for September so we took a boat (Scott's bed) and paddled it to an island and explored the "jungle" in Scott's bedroom.  We played this game almost the whole nap time and Scott has been playing with his "noculars"daily since then.