I'm pretty sure this is called "irony"

Today two boys who refused to drink out of bottles as infants pretended to be babies by drinking out of bottles. Yeah. (Oh, and who wants to guess why Jack's pajamas are on backwards?)

Balloons!

One of the few things that we know for sure that Jack likes is balloons. So, a couple of months ago I decided to try to learn to make balloon animals and creations so that I could do them at his approaching birthday party. I found a ton of how-to videos online and quickly had success making the basic hound dog (this picture is of my actual first attempt).

Justin got into it, too, and learned to do a bunch of animals himself. I now know how to make about 20 simple creations! It's actually quite easy and really fun. The other day my friend Petra gave me a how-to book and I added a few more to my repertoire, including the alien-eyeball hats sported here by my sons, and the SO easy octopus which was a huge hit. I also showed off my new-found skill at a recent MOMS Club "End-of-Summer Party," which has thus far been my only experience twisting balloons for kids other than my own. It was fairly amusing to me that out of the many choices I had laid out for them, 90% of the boys chose airplanes and 90% of the girls chose ladybugs. I hardly got to show off at all! Ah well, there will always be kids wanting balloon animals! I'm pretty sure I'll get another chance!

Handsome Jack

Sneaky

Alexander: Mommy, I want you to go check your E-mail.
Me: I don't need to check my E-mail.
Alexander: Aw, MOM! But I don't want anyone to see me when I'm doing something sneaky!

Dear Daddy,

Alexander just wrote this letter to his Daddy. Obviously he had help with the spelling, but chose what to write all on his own. Just in case you need a translation, it says:
"I LOVE YOU DADDY
I AM PLAYING ZELDA
I LOVE TO PLAY ZELDA
I WANT YOU TO COME HOME
WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO TO WORK
LOVE ALEXANDER"

Musical Beds

Last night:
7:30- Jack falls asleep on his own in his crib.
8:30- Alexander falls asleep on his own in his bed.
10:30- Jack wakes up crying. I get him and put him in my bed, where we both fall asleep.
12:30- Alexander comes in and gets in my bed. I get up to go to the bathroom. When I come back and look at the two boys stretched out across my bed, I decide to do something several people have suggested. I go sleep in Alexander's bed.
3:15- I hear Jack awake and find him on the stairs. He screams when I try to put him back in my bed, so I take him in Alexander's room and put him in the toddler bed I just got him from Freecycle. I get back in Alexander's bed.
5:00- Jack wakes up crying and gets in Alexander's bed with me.
8:00- We all wake up. This is very late for us! Jack spent part of the night in every bed in the house (well, except Uncle Tim's), so I think he is the winner of Musical Beds. I walk into my room and Alexander says, "Mommy, I'm still asleep."

Someone please tell me why I am SO bad at getting my kids to sleep in their own beds all night! I am just such a wuss in the middle of the night. :( Good thing I got a nap today! Thanks, Justin!

Keys Game

Saturday night we went to another great Keys game! The Keys lost, but we hardly noticed. Alexander was mostly excited to get his ice cream like last year, and to run the bases. Even Jack ran the bases this year. He was the smallest one that I saw! The most frightening part of the game was this Red Cross duck, Waddles. Really, I was scared.