inevitability

It's unfair to broadly label the boy's personalities.  But I'll do it anyway. LT is the cautions and reserved one while Adler is the daring and fearless one. So I actually consider us pretty lucky to have made it two full years of Adler's life without taking Adler to the ER for stitches or a broken bone. Unfortunately, we didn't make it too far beyond two years. Today at nap time he was trying to get his water bottle off the bedside table and fell cut his head.

Kari picked me up at work on the way to the ER.  We took him to the new Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL which our pediatrician recommended.  They were friendly and efficient and it wasn't much more than an hour before we were on our way with five new stitches in little Adler's head.

As I'm sure would be the case for most two year olds, he wasn't too happy while getting sewed up. But we are home now and he's doing great. We are sitting in the front yard as I write this and he is laughing and talking and even playing a little football with his mom.

A Mountain Playground

Brian had a few weeks off of work and we took the boys to the mountains for a few nights. The weather was gorgeous and so we took the boys to a playground in Dillon, right on the lake. I had been eyeing it for the past year, but somehow the timing never worked out for us to take the boys until this past trip. It was worth it. The playground had a few little areas for Adler to "cook" sand, probably his favorite activity.
Serving daddy some food (probably noo noos).
The views of the lake, mountains and sailboats were incredible.
Next to cooking, the boys love swinging and going "weawwy high!"

swimming skills

Okay, so maybe we aren't headed to London for the 2012 Olympics but I'm still pretty proud of LT considering that just a couple months prior to this he would only go in baby pools or stay on the stairs.

Second round of Telluride

Okay, I've fallen way behind but here are some of photos from our trip to Telluride in July that Kari said I'd put up when she wrote about it two months ago.

 Kar and I only managed to sneak away for one mountain bike ride but it was a really enjoyable afternoon (perhaps thanks in part to the gondola assisted climbs).

The boys really did great on the long drive.  Sleeping and DVDs were among the tools for passing the time.

LT, like his dad, often had his camera with him and took a lot of pictures.

Even my mom got behind the camera (with a little coaching) to take a rare photo of Kari and I together before the wedding.

Inevitably traveling means eating out a lot.  Some meals went better than others.  The two pictures above are of a post hike lunch that went relatively well.

Some things are the same at home as they are on vacation.  Here the boys are fighting over a book before bed.

As Kari said, the pool at the hotel/lodge was the biggest hit of the trip for the boys.  The gondola was a close second and something they still talk about.  They even play a game together sometimes where LT pulls adler around on a chair or a pillow and calls it a gondola.

Here's LT, who just a few months ago wouldn't even leave the shallow stairs in a pool, about to jump in and swim a few yards to his mom.

Fearless.  Well, relatively fearless.  I've got some little videos of his new swimming skills too that I'll put up soon.

Adler liked the pool too.

Below are [links to] a few more photos from the trip on flickr.

Telluride, a set on Flickr.

Camping

We took the boys camping in early August.  It's only the second time Kar and I have camped since we've had kids and the first time with Adler (we went the first time with Z shortly after LT turned one).

The boys absolutely loved it and I have to admit I enjoyed it more than I had expected.  I got to introduce LT to throwing rocks and sticks into a river which we did together for hours while Adler napped one afternoon.  The boys loved playing with dirt, rocks and sticks and they even did pretty well sleeping in the tent.  LT (pictured above) wore his headlamp for a hike at 10am "just in case it gets dark."

Unfortunately we decided to cut our trip a night short (out of just two nights) after Adler burned his wrist on the portable stove.  He loves to pretend he is cooking and we foolishly let him play with the stove during the day thinking it was harmless. But it wasn't so harmless when he went for it right after we'd made dinner on it.  In retrospect we probably didn't need to leave early but, at the time, it seemed like the best thing to do.


Adler in his jammies and mom with her coffee enjoying the morning sun.


The essentials: coffee gear and sippy cups.


Again with the headlamp.


Turns out that rock didn't taste so good after all.


Playing in the dirt!

Adler's 2 year stats

Adler is a tall skinny guy, just like his brother.
I took him to his 2 year check up today and here are the findings:
weight: 26.6 lbs- 30%
height: 34 1/2 inches- 55%
I am not sure how they decide on the percentages, especially because Adler is a pound heavier than LT was and yet rated 25% lower? The same was true of his height. Regardless, we can compare the plain numbers of the two boys and it appears, at least at this point, that Adler is taller and heavier than LT was.
Adler also received one vaccination today and no tears were shed!

Big day for a little guy

Today was Adler's first day of school.

Ten minutes after breakfast he needed a "nack" because he was "hungee." 

Sitting patiently in his car seat outside school waiting to go in while I fiddle around with my camera.

Kari had to work today. While she can make it to drop him off and get to work on-time, it's pretty tight.  I'm not working this week so I was going to drop him off by myself but she changed her mind at the last minute and came along.

His tiny pre-school is in the basement of a family home but he insists on calling it his big school or even  high school. 

He was doing great when we left.  He loves "bacuuming" up the "mess" and there's a big play kitchen where he can pretend to cook, which is one of his favorite things in the world.

Like I said, he seemed really happy when we left.  And he was happy when we picked him up - he was excited to tell Kari that he had cooked in the kitchen..  But, according to the report from his teacher, he got pretty sad about thirty minutes into his three hour day and stayed sad for nearly half the time.  Hopefully tomorrow is a little better (for him and his teacher, it was fine for us).