Sunday, June 27, 2010

Brothers

Daniel and Christopher absolutely love each other. It is such a treat to watch them together. Unfortunately Daniel is strong enough to really cause damage with Christopher. Over the past week or so he has become much more interested in having Christopher be part of the action. It's getting to the point where I have to be right next to them if they are within reach of each other. Daniel does really nice things for his brother. He helped Christopher move over to a new toy by grabbing his arm and dragging him there or he shared his new Playdoh with him. I had my back turned, and I heard, "Here Christopher, one for you." Christopher's 7th food was Playdoh. On the good side of the sharing, Daniel shared his sippy cup with Christopher the other day. Christopher found the spout and started taking sips. It took over six weeks and about 10 different cups for Daniel to get the sippy cup.

Here are a couple videos of the boys together. I had finished feeding Christopher dinner, but Daniel wanted to have a turn. He hopped up on the stool, and Christohper smiled and squeeled with delight. They just had a ball with each other.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Potty and Money

Daniel has a love/hate relationship with the potty. He will have days and weeks where he uses the potty more than five times in a day. He even poops in the potty. Then there are days where you ask him if he wants to use the potty and he starts throwing a fit and running the other way. Well, I think I'm ready for him to start using the potty, so anything that seems remotely promising, I jump right on.

Well yesterday Daniel tells me that if he uses the potty he gets a Thomas sticker. So I think, seriously, all it's going to take is a sticker chart. Well, let's go. I'll make one tonight, and we can buy Thomas stickers at Target tomorrow. Well this morning Daniel used the potty twice before swimming and twice at the pool. As Daniel would say, "Woo hoo!" Four stickers before noon. We are on a roll.

Little did I know that sticker charts could be complicated. The original placement of the sticker chart was prominent but high so Daniel could not take back the stickers that make it to the chart. This proved to be a problem because Daniel really wants to put the stickers on the chart. The second spot was on the refrigerator at eye level. Great, he can put the stickers on the chart... and take them off. Now we are down to one sticker hanging on by it's last stick. To boot, we have had no interest in the potty since he got two Thomas stickers. Maybe he will find renewed interest when he has finally lots all the remnants of the last sticker, or maybe Christopher needs a sticker chart to provide a little motivation. I'm not that mean.

Daniel loves money. Who doesn't really? I made the mistake of giving him my wallet in the store one day to buy a few extra minutes. Well, now he goes into the change part and grabs all the pennies. He really likes having a penny to hold. Tonight he was playing with a penny, and decided to put it in his mouth. Matt scolded him and said something like, "Daniel, take that out of your mouth, you could choke." Daniel replied, "Un-huh, choking hazard Daddy," in his most serious voice.

Later in the evening I had the special treat of getting a glimpse of Daniel's imagination. He was playing in the pillows on our bed which must be really fun for him since he can hide his entire body behind one of them, and decided that he wanted to visit the giraffe. First he drove to the zoo. At the zoo, he visited the giraffe then he picked up a balloon and a ball for me. He brought me my balloon, but then he made me let it go. I was sad, so he said he would get me another one. He drove back to the zoo to got me another balloon, and brought that one to me to. In case you were wondering, the balloons were orange. I'm not sure what happened to the ball.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Picture Time

Daniel and Christopher were being particularly cute this morning before church. Daniel has become very interested in playing with Christopher and sharing toys. I had to run downstairs to get the camera, so I put Christopher in his crib to keep him safe from Daniel's big and somewhat uncoordinated hands and feet. Well, this is what I arrived back up to. Daniel decided to join Christopher in the crib. He felt left out.
So we tried a few poses...

Daniel wanted to hold the camera case.
He thought Christpher might like it...
...to chew on.
Then he thought he wanted to get back in the crib.
Christopher liked having the chair to himself.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Two Boys and Shirts Off!

Daniel learned to take off his shirt at the dinner table the other night. Dinner was finished. We were just chatting. He was so proud of his efforts. It makes me wonder about the things to come.

Cheers!