Beach time at Jamesville Beach, just about 15 minutes from home. Much less crowded than Green Lakes, and very beautiful.

 Cousin Debbie with Theo yesterday.

One of my projects this week was to organize our main downstairs closet and "junk cabinet" in the kitchen. There's something about having an organized closet that puts my mind at ease. Already several times since Tuesday (when I did this during nap time) I have wondered where something was, realized I had a bin for it, and found it! Hooray! Also about two weeks ago I was gifted a big tub of 18 month-2T boys clothes from a colleague at Hiscock Legal Aid who was unloading from her son's closet. I loved nearly all the clothes but didn't have anyplace to put them. So I had to throw away (give to Goodwill) some of Jeff's clothes while he was gone in Philadelphia, so that I could use his plastic drawers for the boys' clothes. I got rid of a bunch of boxes which had been holding other clothes in the process as well. Ahhhh, organization....

Last night we left the babies for the evening to attend the wedding of friends Kristina and Dave (Kristina was Jeff's former paralegal) at Turning Stone. The babies had terrible naps yesterday afternoon, at least partly because Theo's still fevery on and off from the Coxsackie and Beck's just been a little bit of a grumpasaurus. Anyway, we put them down for a brief late afternoon nap as we left around 4:45 which made them more manageable for dinnertime with Grandma Joanie, Grandpa Stu, and cousins Debbie and Kelly. They reportedly didn't each much for dinner but went down at bedtime without a problem. Unfortunately the rest of the night, after we got home, was a hot mess. Beck woke up screaming just after we got home around 11:30, and even after nursing them both (Beck woke Theo up) Beck was still unsettled and crying and squirmy. I checked his diaper after trying unsuccessfully trying to rock him back to sleep and realized he had a poopy diaper, which hasn't happened overnight in probably a year. It had been sitting on his skin for a while so he had a pretty awful, swollen diaper rash which made cleaning him up even more painful. But when I got a new diaper on him he settled down and went back to sleep pretty quickly. Beck woke up again around 3:30, when I nursed them both again before changing Beck's diaper again, and then at 5 when Jeff got up and rocked him for a while (or maybe I have those events mixed up-it's hard to keep everything straight when you're getting sleep in three, two or one hour segments!). Jeff was good enough to get up with Theo when he woke up at the normal time, 7am, allowing Beck and I to sleep in til close to 9am. Things seemed to even out at naps, when they slept for about 2 hours, and they went down tonight as easily as ever. I HOPE last night was a one-time (awful) event! We all need some sleep to recover....

Mama Lovebo's favorite moments of the last few months

I've been posting a lot of photos lately without much commentary. I have enjoyed so many beautiful moments with Theo and Beckett in the last several months that I thought I'd take a few lines to record some of them here.

• Catching the boys' eyes from across the room and watching them break into a smile 
• Realizing how much receptive language they really have--like when I say, "time for a bath!" and both the boys grin and run toward the stairs, down the upstairs hallway, and bang on the wall of the tub, or when I say, "who wants num-nums? let's go to the num-num chair!" and they grin and laugh hysterically while they run over to my favorite nursing chair and reach their hands to be picked up
• Walking into the house while the boys are in the back room downstairs, dropping all of my stuff in a pile by the door, and watching the boys look up, see me, and run to me
• Learning their likes and dislikes, whether it's food or books ways they like to be tickled or times they like to be held and to be put down
• Having them come up to my legs and reach up to be picked up--one of the best feelings!
• As diaper changes get harder and harder with two squirmy, on-the-go boys, it's always a feeling of success when I change one of them while keeping them laughing and entertained
• Watching Beckett quietly sit down amidst a pile of books and carefully read each one
• Watching Theo surround himself with many toys, especially small ones, and then enjoy moving them all from one side of his body to the other, then back
• Looking up to Beckett saying "Ma" while pointing to something he knows is a "no-no", then shaking his hand and his head to say "no touch"
• Putting on music (ANY music) and watching the boys instantly break into their signature dance moves 
• Walking out the door to their room at nap time or bed time after rubbing their bellies and kissing their cheeks and squeezing their legs and putting their lovies in the crooks of their arms, and exchanging blown kisses and smiles before closing the door

These are such incredibly special times and I'm starting to see what people mean when they have said to us that we must try to appreciate this time, because it goes so fast! I will say I don't miss the heady, exhausting, emotional, newborn days but for at least eight months or so, I've thought every stage was super fun, followed by another stage even more amazing!

Green Lakes

 Yesterday Kelly and I took the boys to Green Lakes State Park. I'd never been in the water but I thought with the sand and warm-ish shallow water it would be a good place for the boys to try out a beach. It was a huge success, if you ignore the pervasive sand that continues to haunt our stuff. I didn't know to bring beach toys (duh, you might say) but Beck wrested this green shovel from an older girl who tried to snatch it back from him with my help but her mother said they had lots and he could have it, while the girl scowled at us. I'll have to hit up the dollar store soon to get some more stuff like it and a mesh bag to hold all the gear before the next time we go.

 Both boys but Beck in particular love anywhere where they can roam freely. Though a public beach with ready access to water and cigarette butts (a favorite of Beck's) requires especially close supervision, which is why a 1:1 ratio is crucial.

 The water was actually really lovely. It was a very hot day and the boys loved walking in up to their chins, grinning the whole time. Both took some good falls face-first into the water but didn't seem to mind. Theo especially loves to drink any water he's put in (bath, pool, lake) so he ingested a fair bit of lake water, but I felt less yucky about it than either the bathwater or the pool water.

Our new giant bear

This is the fabulous gift from Cousins Deb and Kelly. Beck likes to give Bear kisses on the nose, and Theo likes to poke at its eyes. Yep, that sounds about right.

Rolling around on the floor of the nursery

We spent a good while on the floor of the nursery Monday evening when I got home from work. Daddy Lovebo spent his first workday with the boys by himself, which was quite a milestone. My buddies at work asked me if I hoped he was totally overwhelmed and had an awful day, so that he would appreciate me more. I said no, that I hoped he had a fabulous day and realized how much fun I have with them, so he'll want to spend more time with them himself! And I think he did--everyone was in a great mood when I got home!

Welcome to the House of Coxsackie

Coxsackie. It's fun to say, so I say it a lot. The boys have Coxsackie virus, AKA hand, foot and mouth disease. Beck started with a little pin-dot rash on Saturday afternoon while we were in Johnstown, which progressed to most of his body. He was up for a short while Tuesday night around 10pm, which is very unusual, but he went back to sleep with the help of some Tylenol. He has had a bit of a runny nose but nothing major. Then Theo started getting the rash yesterday morning, starting on his feet, so we took them both to the pediatrician. We were pronounced lucky not to have gotten some of the other symptoms that often come with Coxsackie, like diarrhea, vomiting, and painful sore throat. Nothing to do but wait it out, but we have some tough guys here who are handling it like champs.

In much better news, Cousin Kelly is here to visit for the week!

Yesterday was the first experiment with self-feeding yogurt. It was a bit messy but the boys really seemed to enjoy the power of controlling the spoon. Of course they ate much less than usual and was a terror to clean up but they have to learn sometime!

 Theo didn't do so great with the spoon at first but used his hand as a shovel. (Note: spoon in left hand.)

Visit with the Grandparents Leibowitz

 Theo woke up early from his nap Saturday afternoon so he got some lounging time with Dada.

 I thought Grandpa Greg might have a coronary spinning both babies around but we all survived.

 Theo and Aunt Debbie.

Baby's first seltzer

I guess the boys haven't had much exposure to fizzy drinks, so when they had seltzer this weekend at Jeff's parents', it was quite a treat. Or maybe treat isn't the right word. It looks like that first taste is quite horrible, but then the next experience is pleasurable. Watch for yourself.

Theo... acting weird

One of Theo's "things" is trying to figure out how things work and sorting them. I call him the little engineer. Here he's definitely trying to figure something out, I just can't figure out what.

Theo dancing

Prepositions

 Over, under, up, down, through, behind.... These are the activities we are exploring these days! This is BEHIND the chair in the living room, which Theo loves to creep behind to play peekaboo. He also loves this game at the cottage, behind the woodstove (luckily it has been a warm summer with no need to use the woodstove yet!).

 Swiffering is still the number one most popular activity in our house. Whoever at Swiffer created the extension system to make the wand longer or shorter is a GENIUS.

 Climbing ON our brother.

 UP on the nursing chair, using the cushions he had pushed off to climb up.

 Opening the wrapping paper cupboard--ooh, RIBBON!

 Closing the door between the kitchen and the dining room. Means the boys can make faces and knock on the glass.