And that has made all the difference.

No, this is not a post paying homage to Robert Frost.

It's about sleep. 

Hank has never been a great napper. For the first eight months, he slept in a sling on my chest because he just couldn't settle himself at the 45-minute mark (which is the length of an infant's REM cycle). Then for awhile, I nursed him to sleep and placed him in his crib for naps, but he just could not sleep past 45 minutes. Sometimes I'd get an hour, but that was pretty rare. I figured out pretty quickly that if I went in there, nursed him back down, and then held him for the rest of his nap, he would sleep soundly and thus, sleep better at night. So I would hold him for about 1.5 hours on the weekends and a couple days during the week when Johnny was occupied with something else. But the guilt! Oh, the guilt. I'd be sitting in there holding Hank, knowing I couldn't put him down or he'd wake, listening to Johnny talk to himself down the hall, sometimes coming to Hank's door and saying, "Mommy? Can you come play with me, Mommy?"And the fact that he wanted to play with me and I couldn't (or wouldn't, depending on how you look at it) come out really wrought havoc on Johnny's and my relationship.

FINALLY, as in, for the last nine days or so, he has started sleeping for a full two hours. Sometimes longer, depending on how long our morning was. And I don't have to do anything at the 45 minute mark. I guess he finally got to the age where one nap is enough and is no longer overtired by the time I put him down.

Napping like a boss.

Now Johnny and I have some one-on-one time together and it's great. I'll tell Johnny, "I'm going to go put Hank down for his nap. I'll be right back, okay?" And he'll say, "Okay. Then we'll have some Johnny and Mommy time?" It's really nice that my independent, will-not-hesitate-to-leave-me-behind-in-a-public-place little boy wants to spend time with me. Hank's napping really HAS made all the difference.

Product of Johnny and Mommy time.

Backlog: Outside in March

I was just doing some photo organizing on my computer and came across these ADORABLE pictures I never got around to posting. You know, because I'm gestating a fetus and all that. (That excuse may get old, but at least it's legit.)

What do you mean I can't slam this shut repeatedly?

Hanging up our paintings to dry

He painted numbers. Because NUMBERS!

Loving the swing.

LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! Heart explosion cute.

I think we spent much of the beautiful weather weeks in March at home with major colds. Or maybe that's just my cynical memory speaking. But some of the days in March were gorgeous! Luckily April was just as nice. Hopefully May will be awesome, too.

Red cake

I feel like many moms on facebook are often saying something like, "Kid1 and I made brownies today! Then we busted out eight kinds of cookies and decorated them perfectly with royal icing. And to top it off, we made our own baked, painted and glazed some clay plates, so we could put the cookies on them and hand them out to our neighbors. It was SO MUCH FUN!"
I am not one of those moms. I made brownies with Johnny once, when he was about 27 months and I ended up with three broken eggs on the floor, wet brownie mix on the floor, in my hair and all over Johnny's head. The brownies were good, mind you, but it was not what I would call SO MUCH FUN.

So I decided to try again today. The boys were asking for cake and I agreed to give them some as long as we made it at home. I got out all of the cake mix flavors I had so they could choose a flavor (red velvet, because Johnny wanted a purple cake and it was closest I could get), then I got out the step stool so we could all mix up the ingredients. Johnny lost interest before I even set up the step stool, preferring to sit at the counter eating Goldfish demanding cake right this instant. Meanwhile, Hank stood on the stool and added the water and oil (with my guidance) and tried to crack an egg, but was not okay with having a hand covered in egg whites. Then he was done. Down he went to stand at the back door asking to be let outside to paint. I finished the rest of the mixing, pan greasing, batter pouring, cake baking and frosting making to end up with a cake.

I may have done the majority of the work, but they thought otherwise and man, they were so proud of the cake they made. And they were so cute eating the cake and saying "Mmmmm! Great cake, Hank/Johnny!" that it was completely worth it.

Stuffing their faces

I think they approved.

And now I have a ridiculous amount of cake left.

I have come to the conclusion that when a parent says, "My 18-month-old and I made chocolate cookies today!" What they really mean is, "I mixed up the cookies, dropped them onto baking sheets and baked them while my 18-month-old added a cup of sugar and then decided that pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets was more interesting."

Boys + Running = Presh

It was a relatively typical night. John got home at a normal time, I was scrambling to put dinner together, Hank was clinging to my leg and screaming his head off because I wouldn't pay attention to him right. that. second. and Johnny was upstairs putting his letters in order. Normal.

But then it was suddenly... abnormal.

John and I sat down to our meal and the boys actually sat down with us and ate their meals. No whining and crying about not wanting to eat dinner. No rejection of the food on their plates in favor of PB&J (that's just Johnny, Hank is not a picky eater, that's for sure). Just sheer hunger and enjoyment of their parents' company while we had a toddler-esque conversation about the day.

And then this happened directly after:
Head explosion cute, right? All I could think about while watching it happen- no, wait, my brain had fizzled out because of the CUTENESS that was happening in front of me and no thinking was going on during the performance. But later, once all of my synapses were firing again, I was thinking about a conversation I had eavesdropped on between two moms at the grocery store. I had Johnny in the shopping cart and they were behind me talking about how they really wished they had boys because boys are so much QUIETER than girls.

Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ha ha.

Ha.

The video above is a pretty accurate example of the volume in my house at any given moment. Which I love and embrace because really? Laughing, talking and squealing kids are what makes my world go 'round.

Rubber duckies

Lately, in the bath, Hank has decided that he LOVES these three little rubber duckies more than anything. Okay, that may not be true. Johnny just doesn't throw a fit/try to drown him when he touches the rubber duckies. He picks them up and puts them all in a row on the lip of the tub and it's adorable.

Look! They're my size! And they're cute! Like me!

Suspicious toddler is suspicious of your copious picture-taking while he's naked in the tub.

Credit for the very artfully placed rubber ducky can go straight to me. It's all about angles. And patience.

Clash of the Circadian Rhythms

You know how some people are night people and others are morning people? Well, I'm a day person. I have never been good at staying up really late or getting up really early. Or both, for that matter. I tend to do most of my productive work starting at 8:30pm and do best going to bed at 11pm and getting up around 7am.

Well, my boys are not day people. Johnny is most definitely a night person, I mean, as much of a night person as a two-and-a-half year old can be. He's much happier going to bed around 8:30pm or 9pm and getting up around 6:30am (though on those rare days he wakes up at 7:30am he's REALLY happy).

And Hank? Yep, you guessed it. He's a morning person. He likes to go to bed at 6pm and wakes up at 5am like clockwork. Obviously, he doesn't sleep all of those hours yet, but this is just a general overview.

So that means that with Johnny going to bed at 9pm and Hank getting up at 5am, John and I get squeezed in the middle. After Johnny goes to bed and we spend a few precious minutes talking about our days while cleaning up the house/getting sippy cups filled for tomorrow/doing laundry and then try to go to bed at a decent hour.

I can only hope that Hank will eventually decide nighttime is awesome and start to go to bed a little later so that we can put Johnny and Hank down around the same time in the evening and they'll get up later in the morning.

I'm not even sure how this works with three kids' (or more) circadian rhythms to work around. It must be hell.

But the two I have sure look adorable when they sleep.

Hugs all around

Despite the sibling fights that sometimes go on around here, there are moments that make my heart melt. Johnny has been really into giving hugs lately, which I'm am just LOVING! He'll say, "Mommy hug!" and give me a big hug around the legs. Or he'll go to his friend and say, "Hug Blake!" and give Blake a hug, whether Blake wanted it or not. My personal favorite is when he says, "Hug Hank!" and then this magic happens:

I dare you to tell me that the cuteness streaming out of these pictures didn't melt your face off.

Yeah, I thought so.

P.S. Hank's holding of the H was totally coincidental. These shots weren't posed at all.

Why I know I'll have more babies...

Because of expressions like this:



As you can see, Hank is still fascinated by the camera, but he's gotten better at performing for said piece of technology. Thanks, Hank!

The time I got Johnny to wear pants.

I know the title of this post makes it sound like Johnny never wears pants, but what I really mean is that he usually only wears shorts. I've tried to put long pants on him on a few occasions, but he just ends up standing there looking me while crying, "OFF!! Pants off!!" and squirming as he tries to remove them on his own. Up until now I've always given in and then put him in shorts. Now that's getting colder, it's much more practical for him to be in pants. So I tried it this past week.

Turns out that all I had to do was put them on while he was watching Cars. The best part? He didn't complain about them at all. Not once during the entire day. I must say, they make him look an awful lot older, don't you think?

This is where I need to rave about Oshkosh jeans and their designers: PURE GENIUS! See, Johnny has a big belly and very narrow hips, thus, jeans do not stay on him unless they have elastic in the waistband. Well, when I went to Oshkosh to get Johnny some new clothes, I was dumbfounded that they do not have elastic waistbands... what they have instead is adjustable elastic! Even though they're a little stretchy, I can make the waist even smaller if I need to, like when he's going through a growth spurt and gets all skinny. Then when he's eating a lot and getting chubby, I can make the waist bigger so it doesn't bother him as much. Those baby clothes people sure know what they're doing!

And finally....

... Halloween pictures!

Having two kids means that I get to do coordinating costumes!! However, since they're so little, and thus don't care much about Halloween, I chose to do something easy and cheap: The Super Mario Brothers! I made their hats using this tutorial and the rest (overalls and shirts) I either had already or got for cheap.

 Johnny didn't dig his hat (he removed it after the first picture), but he LOATHED his mustache. So I drew one one him instead.

Sad Mario.

 Hank, however, LOVED the mustache. But we had to take it off because he started eating it. So I drew one on his face, too.

I know, they have little Frenchie mustaches and not the big, bushy Italian plumber mustaches like they're supposed to have, but do you know how difficult it is to draw a mustache on a baby's face?? It's like trying "to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse" as Scotty from Star Trek would say. [NERD ALERT!]

Off with the hat!!!

Off with HANK'S hat!

Empty??

Aw, a picture of the brothers!

Scratch that. No picture of the brothers.

Halloween is fun!

The crew walking home from a wearying candy expedition.

My in-laws, John and Gail, joined us for the Trick-or-Treating event (which stopped at approximately three houses and then involved Johnny running down the street and toward the supermarket) and Gail took all of the pictures for us. Thank you!

Now... what do I do next year that doesn't involve hats? Or mustaches, for that matter.

Gratuitous Bathtime Cuteness

Happy Halloween everyone! What's more appropriate for a blog post on Halloween than naked children without costumes? Yeah, I can't think of anything either. Hopefully I'll manage to post some cute pics of the boys in their costumes tomorrow... Key word is "hopefully".

O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D

Johnny has an obsession with Cars, as I may have mentioned previously. Multiple times. So when I saw Lightning McQueen and Mater toys at Target, I didn't hesitate to purchase them. Just as I thought, they have become his favorite things in the world.

He has them while drinking his morning milk.

He has them while watching the Cars movie.

He has them while going places in the car.

He takes them shopping with us.

 These little cars have gone EVERYWHERE with us. I used to be really nervous about him dropping one and consequently losing it, until he dropped one in the grocery store and lost. his. mind. "DROP! MAAAAAY!!! DROP!!!! MOM!!!!" (Maaay = Mater, the brown truck) I have to admit, it's really cute that he has an attachment to these toys. Sometimes it's a little obnoxious, like when I'm by myself trying to get both boys to bed and Johnny won't settle down until I get him Mater and Lightning McQueen, but I can't find them and run around the house repeatedly until I find them in his toy barn... true story. But most of the time, it's adorable.

More evidence as to Johnny's obsession: he has six Cars shirts. I counted. SIX. He had one that I got at Target on clearance:

Yeah, my kid's eating an Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie... judge my parenting skills accordingly.

It was a double whammy: his favorite color, red, and it had Mater on it. But then he wanted to wear it all the time. And I mean every day and every night. After a couple of days and nights I had to put my foot down and put it in the hamper... only to have him take it out again and give it to an unknowing Daddy to put it on him. He's sneaky, that kid. There have been other instances where Daddy will tell him that he can't wear his Mater shirt because it's dirty. So Johnny will say, "Wash!" and put it in the bathtub and run water over it. Or he'll give to me and insist I wash it right then and there. So, I had to invest in a few more shirts. Oh, and a couple sets of pajamas.

Mater and Lightning McQueen making yet another appearance.

I know, you've seen this picture, but he's wearing his black Cars shirt in this one.

Thank you, Walmart.com for your uber-cheap character shirts and even cheaper shipping!