Tiara

We had dinner with some friends last night.  They have two girls a little younger than our boys, but they all played beautifully together, literally.  They ran around wearing tiaras and the boys found the one weapon in the house, a glowing sword.  

passports

Blane's passport came in the mail this week. He seems so young but I looked back and LT was even younger when he got his. He was so little that he had trouble staying awake for the photo.

 I stubbornly refuse to hand over artistic control or $10 to Walgreens so I insist on doing the photo myself.  Here you get a behind the scenes look at Blane and I working on the photo together. Then I paid Walgreens 29 cents to print a 4x6 with six identical copies of the square photo, one of which was cut out and used with his passport application. It never occurred to me that each copy could have been zoomed in slightly differently. Not until the woman reviewing the application said that the photo might be zoomed in a little too much. Then it seemed like a great idea. Luckily for me, however, it turned out okay and little Blane's passport arrived just a couple weeks later. 

holiday randoms

A card from LT to his mom that melted my heart (even though I was omitted). 

LT playing a scrabble like math board game.

Adler 'playing' soccer with his new soccer ball. 

Baby Yoga and Pilates

Blane and I go to pilates each week.  Its always a crap shoot as to what he will need at that time, but this week he slept on the mat!  We also went to baby/mom yoga and he did the same thing.  

Zoo

 While the east coast was getting hit with snow, Denver was beautiful 50+ degree weather.  We spent Saturday morning at the zoo with some good friends.  

 The boys are always silly together, but the joke this particular day was running around calling all animals "DONKEYS!"  And laughing hysterically of course.

More Reading

 Last night we read in memory of a little girl named Magnolia who died  too young, at 22 months, in her sleep.  Her parents ask that on the date of her death she be remembered by reading in her memory.  Such a sweet idea.  

Big and Little

 Blane has a different baby life than the big guys had.  He gets to go to school for drop offs and pick ups, attends his brothers occupational therapy, orthodontic appointments, tennis practices etc.  But he rarely gets read to.   We run out of time, get home late, or by the time we settle down to read to him, he's too tired and cranky.  

 Last night however, he had both brothers read him a few stories.  Again, its different.  He's being read to by his brothers, not his mom and dad, but it counts, right?

Landon was really looking forward to reading the DOG book to Elsie.  He has a special copy that he got when she died.  Now he gets to read it to Blane, which is pretty special.

Broncos Country

Despite only actually watching about four plays from the whole game, the boys seem to be enjoying the ride on the Broncos playoff bandwagon. They geared up for the Pittsburgh last weekend and I managed to corral them for a few photos.

I'm not exactly sure how it started but for a while now we've been doing math problems as part of our bedtime routine. I went with a football theme last night and asked LT how many touchdowns the Broncos would have, if they scored 28 points in the game. For Adler it was how many field goals did the Patriots need to make to score 9 points. So I guess that constitutes my naive and wildly optimistic prediction for today's AFC Championship game; Broncos 28, Patriots 9. They both figured out the correct answer, which I'm pretty sure guarantees the outcome.

Blane's doctor somewhat politely calls him "a happy spitter." Which means he's a puker but it doesn't bother him. I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother us but, in the scheme of things, there are much worse afflictions so we make the best of it and try to have a sense of humor. I'd like to say he picks the most inopportune times to puke but the reality is he just pukes all the time. All. The. Time. So I shouldn't have been caught by surprise by the puke during the photo session but I wasn't prepared with wipes or a spit cloth or anything. But time with the kids in the studio is short and I knew there'd be no second chances. So I pulled off my t-shirt, used it to wipe away the puke, and kept shooting. True art takes dedication and sacrifice.

The right angle returns (briefly)

The right angle was a short lived sleeping position.  It resurfaced briefly on our run last week however.  

3 1/2 months

Marade

 I can't believe I had never walked in the marade before.  One of the most powerful experiences I have had and I am so glad the boys could experience it.  

 The boys school has a huge group that does it each year so we found lots of friends and teachers along the way.

Manual hoops

 On Friday afternoon both the girls and boys Manual HS bball teams played, but it was a special day because in addition to those two games the first ever alumni game was held!  Our board sold gear during the games.  Blane joined me, and was super interested in watching the games.  

-\]0

me and my baby boy

Boys will be boys

 Landon and Adler had 2 of their buddies over a few days ago.  The other mom and I heard hysterical laughter going on in the kitchen and we finally went in to see what was so funny.  I burst out laughing at their hard work.  We did have a long conversation about how the words are funny, but the actions aren't.  

play date for Blane!

 Blane and B are just a few days apart.  This playdate mostly consisted of her eating while Blane slept and then the roles reversed.  It wasn't until we were leaving that they were both awake and relatively happy.

And he rolls

Playdates and Parkour

 The boys are both very into having playdates with their friends.  Its so fun to see them head off happily to a friends house or invite someone to play at our house.  This weekend was packed with friends coming and going to play.  Saturday LT went over to Zs house while Adler had a friend over.  

But before the playdates, they all went to Parkour!

Body Socks

 When its cold out and you have two boys with a lot of energy, there is nothing better than putting them in body socks!

Children's Museum

 For Christmas Baba gave us a family membership to the Children's museum (thank you Baba!).  We decided to go this week and had so much fun with all the new additions to the museum.  I didn't get a picture, but there is a 3 story climbing structure that the boys climbed, a new water area, an improved food/cooking place and a whole new outdoor area which we didn't get to explore because it was too cold.  Landon is outgrowing the exhibits, but it will be so fun to explore this with Blane in the coming year.

Chef Zorbas

Uncle Steve sent me a text bright and early saying that he was taking Wes to Zorbas for breakfast and asking if we wanted to go.  The timing was perfect for the big boys and so I took them over.  They love their little cousin as much as they love their big cousin.  

 Wes stopped at our house afterwards for a diaper change and a quick time to play before heading to the museum.  Uncle Steve is very loved by our boys :)

These three

Quilt

 Aunt Mad sewed this beautiful (Blane is laying on the backside) quilt for Blane.  He loves it so much!