The weekend of everything!

This year the stars aligned and Chris's birthday, Easter, our anniversary, and passover all occurred on the same weekend.  On Saturday (Chris's birthday) we woke up, showered Chris with gifts and went out to breakfast.  Our favorite local restaurant has great chocolate cake, so good in fact that Chris requested that we get this cake for his birthday instead of me making it (I swear my cake is good too, but he wanted to save me the work).  The boys tried to blow out Chris's candles before he could get to them and they attacked the cake with such gusto and excitement that you would have thought they were competing in a sporting event.  Brody ate the line of frosting from the middle of the cake first; I found this particularly hysterical.  Brady took little tiny bites and smiled ear to ear the entire time.  Cake makes them very happy!

I love so many things about this first picture:

  After cake, we decided we wanted to go away for the night.  You know you live in a remarkable place when you can flip flop between thinking you want to stay the night at the beach, the city, or in wine country.  In the end, we decided on wine country and booked a room in Sonoma.  Less than three hours later had packed ourselves, the dogs, and a few things and were sitting down to a wonderful lunch.  We ate, played in the town square, swam (even though it was way too cold out!) and had a great night.

This era of toddlerisms is so funny.  I love the facial expression they get when they are trying out a new saying for the first time to see if they are using it right.  I also love when they come up with funny sayings that they use over and over again in random situations.   For example, I was trying to prompt the boys to tell me what they think Chris wants for his birthday so I said: Tell me what you think dad likes, you know, like when you think of things that mommy likes you think of taking pictures and cooking...  Brody responded "No, you like toy grabbers and ray guns". Ok, Brody, you know me too well (clearly).  When we were swimming at dusk, Brady was shivering nonstop for several minutes.  Chris and I had to convince the boys that it was too cold to say outside and swim.  We told them that Brady was "shaking like a leaf" and we needed to go inside.  Brady has since used that phrase whenever possible, including to describe actual shaking leaves(which is kind of like simile cannibalism but how can you explain that to a toddler).  Brody likes to say "Something not right here" when he discovers that something is awry   He does it in sort of a eureka way with a sole finger pointed to the sky and super high eyebrows.    It is so darn cute.  
Other funny and random quotes from the last month are:

After a friend of the boys gave Brady a blue pencil (Brady has immediate affection for all things blue) Brady said "I'm going to write Anna a love message.  Probably she wants a monster."  Brody then said "D- you're a genius".  The best part was that we found out that Anna actually loves monsters so Brady was right on and Brody proved to be a terrific wingman.

Brody: Mom, get the scrub brush, there's dirt in our house everywhere".  Thanks for pointing that out, son.

I came out of my room wearing a pink striped shirt and Brady said "Mom, you need pink pants to go with that pink shirt".  When I told him I did not have any he said "You should go buy some".

Brody and Brady were in their music class and I was sitting outside the door. I could hear the teacher ask "What does F stand for" and the boys yell "Forte".  Next the music teacher asked what P stands for and Brody yelled "Poop!".  

Brady said to me one day (I was wearing a ponytail) "Mom, I don't like your hair up".  I said "That not a very nice thing to say." so Brady paused, looked at me and said "Mom you look better with your hair down".  Umm, thanks, sort of, but excellent logic skills kid.  

Brody likes to ask Chris "Dad, you spinnin' yarn" when Chris is talking to me in the car.  He knows that means telling stories but he does not know how funny it sounds coming out of his mouth!

The next day was Easter and our anniversary.  We made a reservation at a winery that was rumored to be extra kid friendly.  They were hosting an easter egg hunt so this seemed like a really good sign.  It was overcast and rainy for some of the morning but it never actually rained on us when we were at the vineyard.  The easter eggs hunt was a success and lots of fun.  We got to wine taste while this was all going on so Chris and I were happy.  We hung out in Sonoma to eat and play for the rest of the day.  We decided that we were having so much fun that we should stay one more night!  All in all it was a great celebratory weekend filled with family, food, and fun!

Mid-"Winter" Update

I did not think we had been up to all that much since my last post, but after looking through my pictures and Instagram posts, I can see I was wrong.  Here is a report on how we have been spending our harsh winter days.

Basketball
The boys started playing basketball a few weeks ago and they are LOVING it.  It is so fun to see them get excited and have a blast doing drills like "walk like a crab" and "starfish".  Chris left work early one day to watch a session and I was so happy to have someone to laugh with.  Everything they do is funny!  Brody is incredibly persistent.  When given a task, he will not stop until he gets the task completed (even if that means he is no longer following directions).  He just can't stop until the basket is made or the ball is bounced into the bucket like it is supposed to be.  Brady is so funny during practice; he narrates the whole time: "Mom, I did it, Mom I runnin', Mom I shoot the ball, Mom, Brody passed the ball to me".  They are all smiles for 50 minutes and it is great fun and their skills are really improving.  They are the youngest kids in the class but they have improved quite a lot after only 4 classes and they have several more to go before the end of the session.

I am almost positive Brady is talking to the coach while jumping telling her "I jumping".  Her smile says it all.

I hate to say it but lots of shots end with Brady getting beaned in the head.  His little face in the end picture kills me.

Bikes and Hikes
In addition to basketball, we have been doing a lot of bike riding.  The boys have tricycles and balance bikes and each time we go out I let them choose what they want to ride.   Brody picks the tricycle every time.  He loves pedaling and has ridden as many as 3 miles at a time on that bike (an incredible accomplishment on such a heavy little bike).  Brady switches back and forth between both bikes and he is getting better every time he rides.  It is such a pleasure to see them getting better and enjoying riding.  It won't be long before they are riding their bikes and Chris and I can run after them.
We have also been doing a lot of hikes, both as a family and with friends.  The kids are getting so good at just going out and finding fun wherever we go.

dueling skunk bottoms, their idea, not mine

single track tricycle riding with Aunt Kappy

someone likes blue

 Piano
We recently started a music appreciation/piano class.  It is a nice mix of movement and singing as well as actual piano playing.  We have only had one class so far, but the boys seem to like it.  I am hopeful this will be a more organized way for the boys to learn to play some music (as opposed to our at home jam sessions). In reality,  I am counting down the days until one of them busts out their first Billy Joel song.

Kite flying
The other day the boys and I flew kites by the bay on a super windy day.  It was crazy trying to get two kites into the air and keeping the boys from getting everything all tangled up.  But it was nothing short of perfection.

Harsh winter mornings:
We have gotten into the habit of going outside first thing in the morning so the boys can "breath fire" a.k.a. see their breath while the cool temperatures give us something to call winter. I have tried capturing this on camera and have gone one okay picture and one completly original picture.  I am so happy I have followed these guys around trying to capture this moment because this Spiderman picture will make me laugh for a long time!

Funny sayings:

Kids do say the darnedest thing and I find myself laughing at the random things that come out of their mouths daily.  The other day after playing with some friends, Brady proclaimed he wanted to write one little girl a love letter (because she gave him a blue pencil, clearly she knows the way to his little heart).  Here was the conversation:
Brady: I want to write her a love note. [pause] Probably she wants a picture of a monster.
Brody: D- you a genius

Who knew they would be romeos and wingmen at such an early age!

One day when we were driving home, I was going over the plan for when we got in the door (shoes off, hands washed, right to rooms for naps).  After listing this out I Brody yelled out "Aye Aye, Captain!"  I lost it.  His comedic timing is perfect!

Brody also has also developed the habit of coming in close to my nose or mouth-in an affectionate way- turing to gaze into your eyes and say "You're pretty stinky".  It gets me every time!

And last, I hear "D- let me see your poop" after one of them has gone to the bathroom.  This makes me laugh, and cringe, every time! Such funny guys.

Happy New Year to Your Stinky Behind

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tickle Grandpa came to visit for a week! The boys were in seventh heaven having them around (at some point 'Tickle Grandpa' has become my Dad's official name so we just go with it!  Since Brady and Brody are creatures of habit,  I suspect the name will linger for quite some time!). We had a great time visiting and spending so quality family time together.

We had a very nice, kind of low key week.  One night we invited the California family over for dinner and some visiting.  It was so fun to get everyone together and to spend some quality time catching up.  We do not typically entertain because our house is small, but with a quick switching of some furniture and a lot of help from my parents and everyone who came, the house worked out quite well.  It was especially nice to have the boys in their own element and not have to worry about them getting into [too much] trouble because they were on home turf.

The rest of the week we did fun things like go to the park and farmers' market, play mini golf, go out to dinner and just hang around the house playing with new toys and spending time together.  Chris and I headed to the city for a date night (dinner and a show) and had a very nice time.  We also rang in the new year with a local 5K.  The boys were able to run the last lap and ring in the new year with joy and energy just like us! The trip went way too fast, as usual.

Being that we now have 3 year old toddlers, they are doing their due diligence and acting like little boys.  They like to talk about their stinky behinds A LOT and when Nana wished Brody a Happy New Year- his response was "Happy New Year to your stinky behind".  That may be the tag line for 2015!  So- to everyone we are missing, Happy New Year to your you know whats!