Spinning

No, not the kind of spinning you do at the gym. From now on, whenever the boys misbehave, I think we'll just spin them in this chair. It's more difficult to hit your brother if you can't even walk straight....

Where are my kids?

About a week ago my kids disappeared. In their places, I found a couple of stereotypical two-year-olds. You know, the "terrible" kind.

I spend most of the day telling them to stop hitting. The game goes like this: Connor smacks Isaac on the head or in the face. Isaac laughs. Connor does it again. Isaac laughs. This continues until it hurts or until Isaac decides he doesn't want to be hit anymore. Isaac cries, or yells, or hits back (or all three). Now, don't go thinking that Connor is a big bully. You can switch the names for an equally accurate story.

They have also recently developed an allergy to sharing. Exposure usually results in agonized screams, crying, and falling on the floor. Isaac believes the cure for this allergy is Time Out. Recently, when he wanted a toy that Connor had, and Connor would not give it to him, Isaac ordered Connor to go to Time Out.

Both of these stories provide sound evidence that the children living in my house are not mine. I would appreciate it if the person who kidnapped my children would return them ASAP!

Like Father, Like Sons

I think they both inherited their dad's mental instability...

Christmas Jammies

Like many people I know, we have a tradition of getting a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve each year. Here are Connor & Isaac in their Thomas the Tank Engine jammies on Christmas Eve 2008.

Christmas Elves

Our Christmas Elves...

My Brother the Singer

My mom just sent me this recording of my brother, Mark, singing O Holy Night. I think he has a gorgeous voice, and this is one of my favorite Christmas songs, so I thought I'd share. Click the link to hear it.

O Holy Night - performed by Mark Donnelson

The Real Family Picture

A few weeks ago I posted outtakes from our family picture session. It was pretty disastrous, but we did end up getting a decent picture. Here is the Julian family, December 2008.

Ryan is holding Connor and I am holding Isaac.

The History of Eggnog

I hope this does not offend anyone. I saw it & couldn't stop laughing...

Growing Boys

We took Connor & Isaac to the pediatrician for their 2-year-old checkups yesterday. She confirmed what we already knew. We still have 2 tall boys!

The Stats
Isaac is 35.25" tall (75th percentile) and weighs 25 lbs (15th percentile). BMI 14.1 (1st percentile)

Connor is 37.5" tall (off the chart) and weighs 30 lbs (75th percentile). BMI 15.1 (10th percentile)

They are certainly not babies anymore!

Santa 2008

We took the boys to see Santa today. I was very surprised at how well they did.

Early Christmas

Connor & Isaac opened birthday presents yesterday. They received a package from Grandma & Grandpa Leitch today that contained birthday presents and Christmas presents. The Christmas presents went under the tree and they got to open the birthday gifts. They were told not to touch the gifts under the tree.

Shortly after they opened their gifts, I left to pick up something for dinner...and the boys stayed home with Ryan. I came home to find that Isaac had opened almost every gift that I had just put under the tree. He only opened them enough to see what they were, then he moved on to the next one. He didn't even try to play with the ones that were toys for him.

My first reaction was to burst out laughing. My second reaction was to laugh some more as I grabbed the camera.

I guess I'll have some extra wrapping to do & we won't be putting any gifts under the tree until Christmas eve...

2nd Birthday

Connor & Isaac turned 2 years old yesterday! Here are a few pics from our small family celebration.

Brotherly Love

Family Pictures

Now I remember why we haven't ever tried to take a formal family picture since Isaac and Connor were born...

Here are a few outtakes from our photo session today (click each photo to enlarge).

Jingle Bells

Playmates

Connor & Isaac really have fun playing with each other these days. They love to copy each other & then laugh uncontrolably. The other night, Connor started saying "Wee Wee Wee" then slapping his knees. Isaac thought it was hilarious, so they both kept doing it over & over. They seriously crack me up.

Isaac is in love...

with everything.

About 2 weeks ago, Isaac started saying "I Love You." At first, it was just to me. I'd be laying on the couch & he would come lay on me & say, "I love you" over and over until I had to tell him to stop. Then he started saying it to Daddy.

This weekend is when he crossed the line into insanity. He started grabbing his blanket & snuggling it while saying, "I love you, blanket."

This morning, in the bath, he was playing with a Thomas the Train toy...a train named Salty. The next thing I heard coming from the tub was, "I love you, Salty." And Salty isn't even his favorite...

He's a little nutty.

Cautiously Optimistic

In a recent blog, I indicated that we might be switching the boys from cribs to toddler beds soon. We did it this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, while the boys napped, Ryan and I assembled the toddler beds. After they woke up, we disassembled the cribs and moved the toddler beds into their room. Connor was distraught to see that his crib was no longer an option. He is pretty sensitive to change.

By Saturday evening, they both had played on their beds enough to think they were pretty cool. Ryan put them to bed while I was out fulfilling a church commitment. They both went to bed without so much as a peep! They slept through the night with no problem and even let us sleep in a little later this morning.

My darling sleeping boys on their first night in the new beds. (We have a pretty amazing flash!)


I was fully prepared for this to be a very difficult fight. I've heard countless stories of toddlers who were still awake 3 hours after bedtime, toddlers who were in & out of bed a billion times, and toddlers who tore their room to shreds. We had none of that. In fact, tonight is their second night in beds & it was just as easy as last night.

We have not done naps in the new big boy beds yet, but we will on Tuesday when I'm home for the Veterans Day holiday. Hopefully it will go equally well.

I'll probably curse myself by saying this, but never in a million years would I have guessed it would be this easy.

Chicken Anyone?

Last night I made a whole chicken for dinner. I put it on the cutting board to rest before we cut it & Isaac decided he couldn't wait.

Synchronized Swimming - Mormon Style

My sister sent me the link to this & I thought it was hysterical. Just thought I'd share a little silliness today.

Two Little Monkeys (a.k.a. Halloween 2008)

The Best Toys

The best toys are the simplest ones. I actually got some things done yesterday, thanks to this box and these laundry baskets.

Super Letters

Connor was playing on the floor the other night when I heard him start saying, "eye" over and over. I thought maybe something was wrong with his eye, so I asked him to come over to me. When he came over, he had a little toy in his hand (a construction barricade), that looks like the letter "I" when turned upside down. We sing the alphabet all the time & we try to reinforce letters when they watch Super Why on PBS, but I had no idea any of it had sunk in! We discovered that he can also consistently identify "O" and "R".

How did this happen?

I don't know how I got so lucky, but I just have to brag on my amazing husband for a minute.

Ryan works so hard at his "real" job, then comes home & helps me with the boys. On the weekends, he is usually working on the house. The current project is custom building the vanity (cabinets) for our master bathroom in which he already built a custom tile shower.

He actually enjoys being in the kitchen. He makes dinner at least once or twice a week. He bakes bread from scratch. Last night he made eclairs. And they were heavenly. All day I've been thinking about the rest of them sitting in the fridge.

He empties the dishwasher, cleans up after he cooks, and helps keep the house clean in general.

He even takes me out on a date every now & then.

Seriously, could it get any better?

Naptime Wars

Nap War I
The boys sleep in cribs at home, but they sleep in pack n plays (a.k.a. porta-crib or playpen) at daycare. When I picked the boys up from daycare on Friday they informed me that Isaac climbed out of his bed during naptime. He was quietly playing when they went in the room at the end of naptime, so no one knew if he slept at all. I suspect not. Thank goodness he hasn't tried to climb out of the crib at home yet. We are going to begin preparing for toddler beds just in case.

Nap War II
The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home from church today & got about a 15 minute nap before we could get home & get them out of their carseats. We brought them in & put them directly in bed. 45 minutes later they were both still awake. We got them up, gave them something to eat, and let them play a little. Finally, around 2:30, we decided to try again. After 30 minutes I could still hear Isaac back there talking. I went back to listen at the door & heard him saying, "Connor sleeping". After an hour I finally let him get up. So, no nap for him again today.

Broccoli

Tonight, while I was eating dinner, I asked Isaac if he wanted a bite of my food (it was a Thai curry). He looked and me and said, "want broccoli".

I nearly spit the food out of my mouth from laughing so hard. This is a child who eats VERY few vegetables (same with his brother). He will occassionally eat canned green beans and canned mixed veggies (mostly the carrots & potatoes), but those are not consistent. He does love asparagus though. In any case, he has developed a very recent affinity for broccoli & will ask for it spontaneously. So, I made him some broccoli. He likes it steamed with nothing on it.

He only ate a couple of bites of the rest of his dinner, but inhaled a fair amount of broccoli.

Silly Bath Time

The boys really enjoyed bath time tonight & they were totally hamming it up for the camera. (You can click on a picture to see a larger version.)

Potty Chair

We've been thinking lately that Isaac is showing some signs of readiness for potty training. In preparation for this introduction, I bought a potty chair. This potty chair will go in our guest bathroom since that's the one we use for bathing the boys. We had guests over for the weekend when the chair arrived, and I didn't think it would be polite to put the potty chair in their bathroom....so it has been in the living room by their toys for the past 3 days. Obviously Isaac has no idea what this contraption is for, but he's found some creative uses for it.

1. The removable bowl makes a fine hat.
2. It makes a perfect tunnel for toy trains.
3. It's a great place to keep a barking toy dog.


4. It's fun to sit IN rather than ON.

New Olympic Sport

We just bought the boys a new slide. On the first day, we let them play with it in the house. Connor is totally obsessed with it & will slide over and over (and over and over...). He is the most proud of himself (and usually claps for himself) when he "sticks" the landing.

Best Dancing Yet

If you thought the previous dancing post was funny, wait til you see this one! He kept pushing the button on the toy until he found just the perfect dance mix...
If you don't laugh at this one, you need to have your funny bone checked.

My Little Wiggles

I think the boys have been learning their dance moves from The Wiggles.

Soccer Star

Connor absolutely loves to kick balls. He kicks them outside and all over the house. Here's a little video of our soccer star. He will go on kicking like this for 10 minutes at a time.

Big Shoes to Fill

Utah Vacation

We just returned from a week-long vacation to Utah. We visited family & friends, but mostly we got to spend some time together as a family. Here is a little slideshow with some pictures from our time away.