17 months

Carson and Avery will be 17 months next week. I never posted anything about 16 months, so here is 16 and 17 months...

At 17 months Carson and Avery are:

-talking so much. So many new words everyday. Some of the latest are: snack, cracker, outside, sit down, bubbles, bite, off. Carson has started saying up and help (he says, "upa" and "helpa") instead at whining at mommy when he wants to be held or needs help with something. Avery's new favorite word is stuck. Just about everything is "stuck." When she wants out of her carseat or stroller, when she can't get a toy to turn on, or when she actually is stuck.

-doing so great with saying please and thank you. They often say it without prompting now.

-love to give high fives

-doing really well feeding themselves with a spoon, escpecially Avery. She needs everything to be in a bowl with a spoon now.

-doing their fair share of fit throwing and fighting. Makes mommy sad. But I guess that's what toddlers do.

Carson is just my busy boy!!

He plays hard and sleeps hard.

He is such a great sleeper, probably because he burns some serious calories.

He still runs everywhere, climbs on everything and can get things that I thought for sure I had put out of his reach.

But he is still my sweet, sweet boy. He gives me the sweetest hugs. When I sit on the floor with them he'll come over and lay his head on my back and wrap his arms around me. I love it when he does that. Melts my heart!

He pulled this hot pad out of the drawer and put it on his hand while saying, "hot, hot."

Then he walked over to the oven and tried to open the door. It's amazing how much they learn just watching us.
And the climbing, it sure does wear me out!
He likes to climb up onto this window seat and play with the picture frames. He can actually name most of the people in the pictures.

He told himself to "sit down" It was really cute, guess he is listening when I say that.

Oh Avery. Sweet, sassy Avery!

She has been strong-willed since day one, but strong-willed has a whole new meaning when they become toddlers. We've been learning a lot about discipline lately. We've all been learning! Disciplining is hard, emotionally draining, and something I just was not ready for. I think I need a good book on the ways to discipline, so let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Anyway, back to my sweet girl.

She sure does make me laugh. She knows exactly what she wants, but is still learning how to communicate that to us. Which can be very frustrating for her sometimes.
She loves to pick up and carry around the most random things, mascara, the cap to my seam ripper, chapstick, the list goes on and on. I love to watch her little creative imagination. Here she is with two gift bags that she filled up with stuff and carried around all morning.

And she is still such a little mother. She gives Carson his paci and blanket when he is crying. She likes to pretend to give Carson medicine and last week she started giving her babies medicine. Future nurse?? We'll see!!

"Daddy, if I pretend to be one of the dogs, can I go hunting with you?" Oh those lips, I just want to kiss them!!

They keep me busy, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything. They are just growing up way too fast!!

Valentines Day

We had a fun day today.

A day full of love!

And they do, love each other!

Goody bags for the funky monkey, the drama queen, and for daddy too.
Digging into their Valentines Day goodies

And what is Valentines Day without some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert?

Wrong side Carson

I think the strawberries were a hit!

Happy Valentines Day!

Is it Spring yet?

Winter has been rough this year.

We've been inside, wishing it was warm enough to go outside, or at least just leave the house.

We did get a few days of nice weather (before the ice and snow came again) and were able to get out and go places for a change. We started up our spring semester of Tiny Tots and Tunes music class at church yesterday. It was so nice to let Carson and Avery run around and get some of this energy out. And boy did they! Carson was a wild man in class, running all over, dumping the buckets of instruments, trying to steal the other baby's pacis and hair bows, while I chased him around the room. He keeps me moving!! Avery, on the other hand, has become a little mother. There was one little boy in class who had his paci hanging off his shirt on a clip, and she kept going over to him and putting it back in his mouth. She's been so sweet to babies lately (I hope she's not trying to tell me something). She wants to cover them with their blankets and the other night she was feeding Carson his bottle while we were getting him dressed for bed. It was really cute.

Anyway,

Here they are sitting in their lawn chairs praying for an early spring!

They love playing with chairs now.
They drag their little chairs all over the house.
And have learned how to climb up on them to get things they want.

So many ways to play with one toy:

Someone's been watching too much Handy Manny.

Avery loves to talk on the phone.

Everytime my phone rings she says, "Huh-row daddy" (hello daddy).

And she holds the play phone up to her ear and says, "huh-row"

Still talking on the phone.

Carson has his two bottom molars coming in and has had a really rough week. So fussy. I even took him to the doctor Monday because I was convinced he must have an ear infection. Nope, just teething. Poor baby. Avery got all 4 of her molars at the same time and never acted any differently, but Carson is having a much harder time with it.

But I was able to catch a few smile from him this week.

Sweet boy!

Snow much fun...take two!

We have been having some crazy weather here in Texas. Ice, snow, schools closed for 4 days, temps in the teens and twenties for days. This is just not normal for Texas, but I have to say we have been enjoying it.

We woke up to a beutiful 6 inches of snow this morning. And it's still snowing now.

So pretty outside!
I took Carson and Avery out to play in the snow this morning which was much more fun for them this time around. I safety pinned on their gloves and made Carson some plastic knee-high socks with the help of some rubberbands (so the snow wouldn't get in his shoes, poor child doesn't have any boots), and we went outside for the first time in 4 days.
They loved it!

They walked all over the yard,

checking out the snow.

Carson did a couple of face plants.

Uncle Ryan stopped by for a few minutes.

Avery trying to give Django a kiss. (Django was playing nice today!)

One last face plant, and I think we are ready to head back inside!

Happy snow day everyone!