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Going "bye bye" lately has been a big deal.  Lucas and Brodie say and wave bye bye, any chance they get....  when the garage door opens, when the front opens, when they put on their socks and shoes, when they put on a coat, when they see their running stroller, bike trailer, or their tandem tricycle.

One day I couldn't figure out why Lucas kept saying "bye bye" all morning.  I finally I figured out that he just really wanted to go outside and play.  When we go on walks or runs in the neighborhood, and they see the park, they start saying "bye bye" over and over again, until I take them to the park to play.

Recently they just started saying, "da da bye bye" when my husband leaves for work.  The funny thing about this, is when my husband says, "bye bye" to Lucas and Brodie, they just stare at him.  Once he closes the door, and is out of sight, they both start waving and saying, "da da bye bye." 

"Bye bye", two short words that have so much meaning. 

The loud noise of the juicer filled the kitchen.  Lucas and Brodie kept running into the kitchen staring and pointing with curious faces, as empty orange peels piled up on the counter.  After juicing about 20 oranges, the pitcher was full of juice. We all sat down on the floor of the kitchen to drink some orange juice.  Lucas and Brodie grabbed their cups of juice and took a quick drink.  Then they both made the funniest tart faces.  Truly a moment I wish I had captured on video.  Brodie's entire face wrinkled up, but he held tight to his cup as he watched Lucas and I drink our juice.  Lucas kept puckering and smacking his lips, as he nodded his head up and down, as if he was saying, yes.  I couldn't tell if Lucas liked the juice or not, but he continued drinking it.  After watching Lucas and I drink our juice, Brodie started taking pretend sips of juice.   He didn't like the orange juice, but still wanted to join in on the fun. 

I sprained my arch, so no morning run toda with the kids.  I thought about walking instead, but decided to take a rest day.  Plus I was kinda of curious to see what would happen if I tried to get the kids to skip their morning nap, and take them to a playgroup instead.  Almost all the kids in our playgroup are taking 1 nap a day in the afternoon.  So we have been missing just about all the play dates lately.  Maybe I can get my kids to start taking their 1 nap in the afternoons?
Our morning was off to a bad start.  As nap time neared, they grew increasingly fussy and grumpy.   I was already irritable because I couldn't run.  I kept thinking I'll just take them for a walk, but then I knew they would fall asleep, and this would defeat my plan.  They had already made it to 10AM without a nap, so I loaded the kids into the car and headed to the Curtis Park playgroup.  Brodie was asleep in less than 5 minutes of being in the car.  Some how Lucas managed to stay awake.  Brodie took a 1 hour nap, while Lucas played with all the kids.  After Brodie woke up, he played awhile, then a large group of moms and kids went outside and played at the Sierra II playground.
After Brodie repeatedly kept walking toward the exit, I buckled the kids into the stroller and headed to the car.  It only took 20 minutes to change diapers, feed them applesauce, and load them into their car seats.  By the time I got Lucas into his car seat, he was melting down.  Before I even drove out of the driveway, he was asleep.  Brodie was wide eyed, wiggling, chatterbox in the seat next to Lucas. 
As we drove home, I wasn't sure what to do.  What was I going to do with one asleep, and one not.  If I didn't let Lucas take his nap, he was going to be in a bad mood until bedtime.  If Brodie stayed awake, I knew he would never take an afternoon nap.  Considering he had only slept 1 hour, he was also going to be in a bad mood until bedtime.  As I neared my freeway exit, I decided to drive until Brodie feel asleep.  I rarely do this because I feel like I am wasting gas, and polluting the environment unnecessarily.  I ignored my conscious, and drove until Brodie was in a deep sleep. 
Luckily the weather has been spectacular, so I parked my car in the garage, opened the car doors, and let them nap in their car seats.  So far, Lucas has been sleeping for nearly 1 1/2 hours, and Brodie for nearly 1 hour.  I hope they wake up rested and happy.....

      

We were in our back yard this afternoon picking oranges off our tree.  Lucas and Brodie kept saying ball, everytime they picked up an orange.  Oranges were being tossed through the yard.  I kept telling them they were fruit, not a ball, and they could eat oranges.  Then they started taking bites out of the peels.  Yuck!  They didn't seem too phased by the tartness of the peels, but did spit out each bite. 
Once we were back inside the house, they watched me peel an orange, and I gave them small pieces to eat.  Brodie spit it out immediately.  Lucas chewed until the juice was gone, and then spit out the orange pulp. 
I had to put the bag of oranges out of site so they would quit taking bites of the peel, spitting it out, and then throwing the oranges around the house like they were balls.  A few minutes later, they were taking pretend bites out of their orange balls in the playroom. 
After picking oranges this afternoon, it got me thinking of a few questions people need to consider when buying fruits and vegetables.....   
Were your fruit and vegetables freshly picked or have they set for several weeks in a cooler waiting to arrive at their destination?  How far did they travel so you could buy them at the grocery store?  Has your fruits and veges been altered to look bright and shiny no matter how many times you turn them around?  Were your fruits and veges organically grown or sprayed with pesticides that you need to clean off before eating them?
There is something comforting about eating fruit and vegetables that are locally grown and pesticide free.  Its important to me, to know I'm feeding my family pesticide free food.

This evening my good friend dropped her two kids, 4 1/2 year old daughter and 20 month old son, off at my house to play with Lucas and Brodie for a couple hours while she went to a meeting. At one point, all four kids were playing the piano, and had every noise making toy on at the same time.  In addition to that, they all had something to say, but it was so loud, no one could hear themselves talk.  The kids had a great time playing together!   

Last week we went shopping for kid friendly refrigerator magnets at Toys R Us.  We left the store with our new jumbo sized alphabet magnets and headed to our car. Lucas was already buckled in his car seat.  I walked carrying Brodie around the back of my car in route to buckle him into his car seat, when our lives flashed before our eyes.  If I had taken one step further, we would have been run over by a car driven by a man, NOT PAYING ATTENTION!  It happened so suddenly, I didn't even have the time to be startled.  I was in shock and thankful we weren't hit.  I hope we scared the &$#! out of him.  Since we were literally almost face to face as he drove by us, I saw that he was driving with one hand, while eating with the other, as he cut through the parking lot, across several lanes, and then proceeded to drive up the lane against traffic.  I have so many things to be thankful for.  Thank God our guardian angels were working overtime!

Now that Lucas and Brodie are no longer afraid of the vacuum cleaner, I can finally vacuum without them melting down into hysterics.  I vacuumed this morning, and they just casually followed me around observing.  Since Lucas and Brodie were happy and content, I decided to sweep and mop too.  They love to help sweep.  I had to get out all the brooms so they could each have their own.  They swept the kitchen, while I finished sweeping and mopping the other room.  Eventually, I had to pry the brooms out of their hands, and carry them against their will to the playroom, so I could finish mopping the kitchen.  It is quite the hilarious sight to see them sweeping using brooms that are 3x their size.  Cleaning with my two little helpers takes twice as long, but its a lot more fun.   

I thought Brodie was tackling Lucas and knocking him over for fun.  Well, he does do that occasionally, but after making a point to watch closely for a couple days, I realized Brodie is simply giving Lucas BIG HUGS.  The bug hugs result in knocking Lucas off balance, and then they both fall over.  Lucas, being the one getting knocked over doesn't appreciate the hugs.  Brodie has turned into quite the love bug.  He has even started to give Lucas hugs when he's crying.  Of course, this makes Lucas cry louder, but at least Brodie is making an attempt to comfort him.  In order to soothe Lucas I usually have to intervene by giving him a big hug.   It's really sweet to see such brotherly love.

Lucas and Brodie were done with their baths.  Since my husband wasn't home to help, I brought everything I needed into the bathroom with us.  Lucas stayed in the empty tub playing with toys while I diapered and dressed Brodie in his PJs.  Just as I was getting Brodie into his PJs, Lucas started grunting and I knew I was in trouble.  I tried to hurry, but Brodie was squirmy and wasn't helping me get his PJs on.  It was too late, Lucas pooped before I could get him out of the tub and diapered. 
I left the hazmat in the tub, and lifted Lucas out onto the towel I was using as a changing pad. Lucas was all upset, shivering due to still having a fever, and Brodie kept trying to walk on him.  As Brodie pranced around the bathroom, his cough worsened.  As I cleaned Lucas, so I could put on his PJs, I tried to keep Brodie away.  In the process, Brodie stepped on Lucas's face, kept tripping and falling over, stepped on the poopy wipes, and then coughed so hard he puked all over me and the bathroom floor.  At that moment I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.  Tears filed my eyes, as I sat there taking it all in.  I had two coughing, snotty nosed, crying kids, one naked with a poopy butt, the other now had puke on himself, and proceeded to walk in it, tracking it all over the floor.  I grabbed the extra towels, covered the poopy wipes and puke. I took Brodie and sat him in my lap, and finished cleaning and dressing Lucas as quickly as possible.  I picked them both up and carried them into their room, closing the bathroom door behind us.  I quickly striped off my yucky clothes and grabbed new ones from my room.  I changed Brodie into new PJs, and headed to the kitchen to warm their milk.  Lucas and Brodie followed me through the house.  Neither of them very happy.  Both of them wanted to be held.  Both of them were ready for bed, and still feeling miserable.  Brodie drank his milk first, and I put him in his crib.  Lucas hardly drank any of his milk, because all he wanted was to go to sleep.  Brodie started crying before I even put Lucas in his crib.  I picked Brodie up to hold him, and he kept coughing.  All of a sudden, he puked again.  Only this time I wore all of it.  Luckily he stayed clean.  Brodie finally calmed down, fell asleep, and I put him back in his crib. 
When my husband finally arrived home, I still had fresh puke on my shirt.  He asked how my day was, and I didn't even know what to say.  I was still stunned by what I had just experienced in the past hour.

Three days ago, the day after New Year's Brodie woke up from his afternoon nap with a temperature of 104.  I was shocked.  He seemed completely normal when he fell asleep.  But once I thought about it, I realized he had been shivering during his bath the night before, and not interested in eating.  I should have known.  I gave him Tylenol and kept checking his temperature.  The Tylenol kept his temp at a low grade fever until Friday night when his temp spiked up and down, ranging from 102-104.  By Saturday, he was quite grumpy, his nose was running, and he had developed a cough.  I still thought, he just had a bad cold.  (I was wrong!)  Brodie, my always on the go, energetic, refuse to nap kid, just wanted to lie around or be held all day.  By evening, he just wanted to go to sleep.  I talked with the advice nurse twice, who recommended we take both kids into the doctor in the morning.  Then I suffered along with Brodie through the the first part of the night waking up every hour, holding him until he time until he fell back asleep.  Finally at 1:30 AM, my husband got up and rocked him to sleep.  After about 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, we all woke up to Brodie crying. 
Originally were going to bring Lucas into the doctor because he had a small amount of discharge coming out of both of his eyes. But when he woke up this morning, he had a fever of 102, a runny nose, cough, was shaking, and could barely stand up or walk.
After lying around on the couch with Lucas and Brodie for awhile, we finally put them back to bed.  Their doctor appts were set for 9:30 AM.  I went back to check on them after a little while, and they were both sleeping.  But there was a terrible smell in their room because Lucas had puked up his milk, and continued to sleep while lying in it.
In order to get them both to the doctor appt on time, we woke them up, cleaned Lucas, loaded them into the car, and were on our way, barely arriving on time. 
The entire drive there, I kept thinking, they'll probably just tell us they have colds, and there is nothing they can do to help.  (I was wrong again!)  Within 72 hours, Brodie had developed a double ear infection and pneumonia.  Lucas had a bacteria infection in both eyes, and the doctor told us that if his fever/symptoms do not improve within the next 48 hours, he would need to be seen again to ensure he doesn't develop the same symptoms as Brodie. 
We left the doctor office with two tired, grumpy kids, with fevers in the 101-102 range.  All they wanted to do was sleep.  We picked up their prescriptions at the pharmacy and headed home so they could sleep.  And sleep they did.  Now I just hope the antibiotics work, and they start to feel better soon.  Now my husband and I have sore throats and coughs.  Happy New Year...cough...cough.

Lucas and Brodie were circling me like sharks.  The steamed broccoli was finally cool enough to eat.  So I offered each of them a small tree.  The broccoli trunk worked great as a handle. Lucas carefully examined the small green tree he held in his hand with concern.  But hunger took over, and he munched it down, immediately signed more, and held out his hand.  Brodie was still trying to wake up from his afternoon nap, and wasn't in the best of moods.  He definitely didn't have any interest in eating something new and green.  (They've both eaten broccoli before mixed in other food, just never plain.) After a few minutes of mmmmm goods and yum yums, Brodie held out his hand and took hold of a small tree.  The unbelievable part is he took a tentative nibble, and didn't spit it out.  He ate it and asked for more.  They continued to eat little pieces of broccoli.  The ironic part, they haven't eaten it since.  They don't want anything to do with it.