Yes Please or No Thank You

I find myself constantly asking Daniel to say, "Yes please." or "No thank you." You would think this is because I want to teach him good manners which is certainly why I started asking him to use those words, but I quickly discovered it is much easier to differentiate between a positive and negative response when he uses the two-word phrase. Funny the things that work when communicating with toddlers.

I've also discovered that sometimes making up songs to encourage whatever activity I need to happen like getting dressed or putting on shoes or getting to the car works wonders. The problem is that I'm really awful at making up songs. They don't have a good rhythm and I have trouble coming up with words that fit the beat. An example of one of my lame songs is, "1,2,3,4, I can put my pants on, 5,6,7,8, I can do it really great." Daniel, who is somewhat slow to put his clothes on in the morning usually puts his pants on immediately after this. I bet you can guess the next verse. It goes, "1,2,3,4, I can put my shirt on, 5,6,7,8, I can do it really great." Creativity is a strong suit for me. Funniest thing is that Christopher tries to get dressed to the song, too. And since that does not work too well for him, he just starts dancing instead.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Both boys are keeping me very busy these days. Daniel is starting to nap inconsistently at home which leaves me very little time and much more exhausted than when both boys would nap for a few hours in the afternoon. I guess we are just in another phase of life. Christopher is still climbing on everything, talking/babbling up a storm, and just as curious as his brother. He's starting to throw his weight around a bit which adds a new element to outings. I'm thinking that the eruption of molars and the desire to talk has been the source of much of his recent angst.

The boys really enjoy each other. Cristopher particularly likes to keep tabs on where Daniel is at all times. He can't understand why we can't go in a wake him up when he is sleeping when Christopher wakes up. Daniel loves to play games with Christopher. Christohper just discovered that he can do peekaboo by himself, and they boys will peekaboo across the table and just laugh and laugh. I'm looking forward to the summer when the boys can get outside a bit more. Yesterday was warm enough to get out for a bit, and I was amazed to see Daniel hop on the tricycle and pedal for himself. That was new. I feel like the boys would just tumble in the grass for hours if I would let them. Much like the tumble for hours on the couch right now.

Alright, enough rambling for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I promise we will have lots coming up in the next few weeks. We have the St. Patrick's Day Parade which we are walking in tomorrow, a trip to Florida, and Easter coming up.