Little Babies Update

I really love my kids. They're super awesome. And they really love each other. Charlotte just loves to watch Ivan and whatever he does. Ivan loves to hug and kiss and fist bump Charlotte any chance he gets. In the mornings when he wakes up before her, he walks around the house looking for her. He gets so excited when she makes any kind of noise and usually makes a big deal about her flatulence. He'll say "what's that!" and look all around.  And we've laughed at him enough that he does that when he toots too! Silly kids. Ivan's vocabulary has greatly increased this week. Here's a list of words he can say now.
bird
dog
cow
hat
up
more
mom
dad
bite
bug
boom
uh-oh
ouch
hair
where did it go
what's that
please
amen
moo
george
go
truck
button
apple
juice
bottle
Ivan
Charlotte
bath
car
jump
blocks
down...
and probably more than that I just can't think of them all. He really has only started saying half of these in this past week.

Ivan can say moo when we ask what a cow says and bark when we ask about a dog and caw when we ask about a bird. And I've been teaching him that all birds sound like the Eurasian collared dove, which is one of the most annoying sounds ever. Now we all think it's pretty funny. Charlotte has found her hands and she very much likes to suck on them. She has the prettiest smile and the same blue eyes she was born with. We'll see how long that lasts... Ivan still loves his pacifier and he has this weird word for it that I can't even describe.

His latest mischief moments... let's see... He climbed onto the back of our recliner and climbed onto the counter. One time he actually leaned the seat back and slammed his face on the edge of the counter. He's still sporting that cheek bruise. He can move the bench from the kitchen table so that he can touch everything on the stove. He loves to climb, so any opportunity is taken. He likes to dump bath water all over the floor any time he is given a cup. And if he even sees the cup ( I use one to rinse him from the soap) then he screams til he gets it. We're getting really good at saying please though. Now sometimes he just start saying please and we have to figure out what he wants. He likes to bring us our shoes and make us put them on. And he really likes to wear our shoes.

 Charlotte has those cute baby noises now. I just love this age that they're both at. Ivan is so interactive and has such a personality. He loves giving kisses and even makes the "mwah" sound. Charlotte seems more like a real person lately. You know when they're first born and they just sleep and eat and poop all day it just doesn't seem real. Well, she's real now! She likes to sit in this bouncer chair thing and kick the little toys that dangle down. She doesn't really care for tummy time any more but still rolls over most of the time. She's still in 0-3 month clothes and is about ready to move up in size. Speaking of size, we just move Ivan to size 4 diapers! Woo-hoo! He was in size 3 from 9 months old til 20 months old. How crazy is that? I almost thought he would be potty trained before we switched sizes. He does like sitting on the potty, though I think it's more because I give him a gummy every time he does. Oh well, whatever makes it interesting for him. He's such a little helper. When I do the dishes, he puts the silverware in the dishwasher. When I do the laundry he hands me dirty clothes to put in the washer and picks the wet clothes off the floor and puts them in the dryer. He loves throwing away diapers. He still takes a 2-3 hour nap every day and days that it's not at least 2 hours are not good days. He loves going on walks and riding on the stroller. His best friend is Sterling Wilson, the next door neighbor's kid. Sterling is a couple months older than Ivan, but they're both so mild mannered and play so well together. Whenever the Wilson's are gone and come back home, Ivan freaks out with excited and starts yelling and runs to their car (thankfully not til it's stopped) to greet his best friend. And that's about all I can think of. Here's picture proof.

This is what he does when we say 'show me your muscles' Yea he's just that cute. Especially in my wading boots. 

My version of a double stroller. It works pretty good unless I have  to back up. The front wheel swivels all the way around and pokes out front when you back up. Getting it turned back the right way kinda gets Ivan's legs caught. He's learning to put his legs up when I ask him, so it's all good. 

Ivan loves swinging like this. It's pretty much the best thing ever. 

 As for the rest of the family, we are super busy! I am working at the university as an adjunct faculty member in the animal science department. I am in charge of all the labs for the vet tech program and the animal anatomy and physiology class, which puts me at 7 classes altogether (3 sections of that are just anat and phys). I get to substitute for any of the teachers if they are going to be absent from lecture and I grade a ton of stuff. I really like it and the more time I spend with each of the classes, the more I learn. I signed up to take my national licensing exam for vet tech in August, so I have until then to study. The test costs 300 bucks and is 150 questions. I'm not excited for it, but once I get that done I can stay at home as long as I want and go back to work whenever without further schooling. I have a soccer league in Idaho Falls that plays once a week from June to August and I just joined a team on campus that plays once a week for a couple weeks. Michael is busy as ever with school. This is one of his toughest semesters with Chem 106. He is taking an archery class that he really likes and has fulfilled his bowhunter's certification through it. He really wants to get into the hunting scene and has been doing research with all that. He got a fishing pole a couple weeks ago and has been learning how to do all the knots and what kind of tackle to use and stuff. We haven't been able to go adventuring as much lately, but neither of us has anything to do over the 7 week break so that should be plenty of time.