Another Day at the Zoo

Thanks to a nice collection of buy one get one free coupons (our zoo is ridiculously expensive), Ashley and I took the boys to the zoo again this morning. We tried to start early enough to beat the heat, but we were still pretty hot and tired by the time we got done.

Starting the day off...
We saw lots of animal babies today (Brychan has been talking non-stop about the baby animals all day). Baby monkeys (laying in her lap)
Baby tigers (this tiger has a twin, and they are only 2 weeks old)
Baby Kangaroos
And...Baby Giraffes. We also saw baby Ocelots, Storks and White Tigers.
Bug and LaLa feeding the ducks
Lovey flamingos
And by the end of the day...
The following videos are of the monkeys playing, and Brychan feeding the Lorys.

Little Chef

Making breakfast for Biggs this morning. Yummmm!!! (By the way, I had no clue that dog food was so greasy and difficult to wash off skin. Yuck!)

Splash Pad

Summer is in full swing around here...temps in the high 90's (we've only had one 100 day so far which is not normal), school is out and loads of fun activities have started. This morning, we met a bunch of friends from church to play at one of the splash pads.
Although his face says different, Bug had a BLAST!! We are so excited for swim lessons to start in 2 more weeks!
He loved watching all the other children and made himself right at home with a few different families (I think he based which family to hang out with based on their swim towels).
This boy HATES to be cold, and therefore did not appreciate the cold, splashing water. He did have fun watching, though!
My friend Vanessa with Baby K.
Brychan was no where near ready to leave when it came time, so we came home and played in his little pool while Kehlton took a nap. I didn't take any photos of that, but we did see this momma dove and her baby on our fence.
And then this momma dove has a nest in our huge palm tree out front. She is super protective of that tree!

Yum!!

This is what happens when all the adults in the house are finishing their dinner while they think the toddler is playing quietly by himself.

I was so looking forward to more of those yummy baked beans today...

Revenge

For the first time ever, I had to force Brychan to go outside and play. He really wanted to watch a movie. With just a small tantrum, we made it out the back door.

Well, he found the one mud puddle he could and jumped right in, as if he were doing it out of spite. I had to laugh and ran for the camera. I asked him if he was having fun (because clearly he was). He glared up at me and said "NO!". After playing in the mud for half an hour, he's now enjoying a bubble bath, attitude free.

Such A Character!

I am SO in love with this little boy. His personality shines more and more everyday, and he is just so much fun!

While Brychan is definitely his Daddy's boy (looks just like him and the personalities are very much the same) and Kehlton is looking more and more like David everyday, I think Kehlton is his momma's boy. Not only is he totally a momma's boy in the sense that he seems to think that Mommy is the only one who can take care of him...but his personality matches mine a bit more. The kid has a temper. A bad one. It's easily and quickly extinguished, but it's there big time. As much as I hate to say it...that is definitely a Mommy trait. And he HATES to be alone. He has to have people around. They don't have to be paying any attention to him, but he has to have at least one other person in the room with him pretty much at all times. And if mommy is anywhere around and can be seen, or even heard, that one other person MUST...BE...MOMMY.
I think he's going to be my little jokester. Everything is so stinkin' funny to him! He already acts like he's trying to get me to laugh. The other day he was screaming at the top of his lungs (about nothing) while looking at me out of the corner of his eye. I started laughing at him and he instantly started laughing hysterically. It was hilarious!!

He is always so happy!! Well, not always, but as soon as you fix whatever problem he may be having, he goes right back to smiles and giggles. He laughs all the time and I love it!


Kehlton cherishes, loves and adores his big brother. If Brychan is in the room, Kehlton is as alert as can be, following his brother's every single move. And as long as Brychan is paying some sort of attention to him (positive or not), Kehlton is as happy as can be! Brychan can be trying to sit on Kehlton's head or trying to poke his eyes out, but Kehlton doesn't care. As long as brother is doing it - it's all okay and it's nothing but smiles!! I really think they'll be best buds.


And...just to prove that my baby does, indeed, sometimes wear clothes...here's a photo of him right now. My sweet little boy.

Who Knew?

That the piano is such a perfect parking garage?

I realized the other day that no matter where I'm at in the house, I can always spot at least one Matchbox car. Bug L-O-V-E-S them.

Patching Problems

So...it turns out that getting a toddler to cooperate with wearing a patch is next to impossible. Brychan wore the patch for 10 minutes this morning and then was done. After nap, I waited for him to ask to watch a movie (he typically asks several times in a day, and most of the time, the answer is no). When he did, I jumped on it with "Of course you can watch a movie, but Mommy needs you to put a sticker on your eye first". After coaxing like that for 15 minutes, putting a patch on my own eye and promising chocolate chip cookies, I managed to get him to wear his patch for 30 minutes. When he was done, he ripped it off, snapped his glasses in half and refused to even consider putting one back on.

This is Brychan's new sticker chart! As you can see, we're keeping our fingers crossed that bribery will work it's magic. He gets a sticker for each day he wears his patch. If he has a sticker every day leading up to a star, then he gets a new toy. If only toys for medical "purposes" were tax deductible!

Sporting one of his patches. Lovely, no? I am now nursing a massive headache and feel like my eyes are crossed.

By the way, potty training is now back on the bottom of the "to do" list. I can't imagine him cooperating with potty training while trying to get use to this! And as mommy, I can only handle so many fights in a day! :)

Eye Appointment

This morning, we had Brychan's 3rd eye appointment. He ran right into the room and crawled up into his chair so he could tell the nurse what images he saw on the screen and then watch a bit of Finding Nemo. No problem...he was a great patient as always!

This is after we got home from the appointment. If you look really close, you can see a gigantic tear under his right eye. The doctor said his eyes are doing great and looking good, but felt that patching would help even more. So, for two hours a day for the next 3 months, this is what we'll be doing. Probably sitting in front of a movie for most of the time until Brychan gets use to it.
When we got home, we put the patch on and he sat down with Daddy to watch tv, so I thought all was well. The next thing I hear is a terrified little boy screaming for mommy as he's running through the house looking for me. So that huge tear on his cheek? Matches the one on mommy's. I think the patching will be really beneficial for him; I just hate to see him so scared and uncomfortable. It will be interesting to see what kind of progress he makes in the next 3 months!

*Kehlton will probably have his first eye appointment in the next 2 or 3 months as well, just to be sure. Since Brychan has problems, Kehlton has a higher risk of having the same problems. The earlier it's caught, the easier the correction!

Compare and Contrast

Can you tell who's who?

Brothers

People ask me all the time how Brychan does with his baby brother. And although the first couple of weeks were a little rocky, I love how much these two brothers LOVE each other!!

Brychan is very good about making sure that Kehlton gets to see almost all the pictures!

Mother's Day

While Daddy and Brychan were out running errands on Saturday, they picked me up some early Mother's Day flowers. David said Brychan was very insistant that he carry them through the store and all the way home. I opened the front door to my little boy handing me these beautiful tulips! (*I finally gave in to the need for a haircut and once again, it's butchered. Why is it so hard to give my child a decent haircut? Granted, it's not as bad as the last time, but still!!)
Sweetest boy ever!!

Good Stuff!

This week I let Kehlton try some rice cereal just to see how he'd do. By 5 months, Brychan was past cereal and eating fruits and veggies, but Kehlton hasn't seemed quite as eager to try it.

First spoonful

Thinking about it...

Mmmm, not quite sure!

Once he got use to it, he actually did quite well and ate the entire serving! Maybe we'll start thinking about making it a nightly ritual!

Friends

Kehlton and Brutus. Kehlton is really starting to LOVE the dogs...especially the one with lots of jowels to grab on to!

Football Star

Last night, the scouts went to the park for their activity. There was a girl's softball game going on at the same time and I guess a nice family let Brychan play with their football. When I got there, Brychan was having SO much fun throwing the ball and chasing after it, and he was so happy when I was available to play catch with him. He was very sad to give it back. I guess we need to get him a football. Papa Davis? :)

Bath Time

For those of you requesting a blog update...

During Brychan's bath last night, I decided to put Kehlton in to play for a minute.

Brychan was very excited to have baby join in on the fun! However, baby was not allowed any bath toys.

Crazy hair washing! He desperately needs a hair cut, but after the last nightmare of a cut, I'm really afraid!