Random update on the boys

Here's just some things the boys have been doing lately in a very random format.

Bryce has been talking more lately. I counted 20 words that he says consistently, some are probably only clear to me though. He says uh-oh, aww, banana (nana), ball, balloon (one of his favorites), hat, shoe (another favorite), cheese, mmm, bubbles, eww, up, hot, waffle, drink, phone (another favorite, he loves phones), hi, bye bye, peek!, and night night.

He is still signing, I counted 17 signs that he uses regularly: eat, all done, potty, apple, banana, hat, fly (as in the insect), more, ball, star, milk, fan, airplane, light, fish, no, bird.

He also still loves animals and he makes the following animal noises: dog, cat, elephant, tiger, lion, duck, bear, monkey, bird (a favorite), cow, pig, and horse. Although tiger, lion, and bear are all the same "roarrrr!"

Rycie loves to play chase and he doesn't care if he is the chaser or the chasee. He always has a huge smile on his face and laughs when he is running.

Rycie loves to pick up random items of clothing and then carry them around the house. He gets really mad if you take them away from him. I have seen him carry underwear from all three of us around the house (yuck!) One day I was in the shower and I saw him come in the bathroom and go in our closet. He grabbed a pair of underwear out of the hamper and started to take off with them so I told him to go put them back. He disappeared back into the closet and returned with a random shirt. If he picks up a shirt or pajama pants that belong to him or Cason, he will put it over his head or around his neck and pretend to put it on.

Rycie learned how to blow a whistle and is actually really good at it!

Just about anytime I set food in front of Bryce, he holds his hand over it, says "hot", and then blows on it. It doesn't matter if it's hot or not, he's done it to cottage cheese and grapes. So stinkin' cute!

Rycie loves to imitate anything we are doing and he totally gets a kick out of us imitating him. He will clap his hands together, then put them over his ears. If I copy him, he gets a huge grin and then just does all kinds of silly stuff for me to copy.

Rycie is a huge pacifier addict. I keep saying I'm going to limit him to just having his pacis when he's in his crib but somehow he always ends up with one. He's even to the point where he likes to have one in his mouth and a few more in his hands to carry around.

Cason has a new interest -- building things. Every day for the past month or so, he plays with two things. His Trio blocks and the tubes that Grandma got him for his birthday. He builds all kinds of stuff with them. With the tubes, he builds a big light (like a street light), a whisper-ma-phone (from The Lorax), a blower, edger, pitchfork or else just a super long thing (he steals all the straight pieces and leaves Rycie with just T joints and elbow joints). With the Trio blocks, he usually builds a tall tower, a house with lots of sprinklers and water founts, or a dinosaur with whiskers. I will have to take some pictures of his creations. I already made up his Christmas list (I know it's only September, I'm a planner) and it has lots of building stuff on it.

Cason is obsessed with whether things are on or off. He always has to announce whether lights are on or off and is forever telling us if they need to be on but they're off or vice versa. He said he wants a light switch for Christmas. I think he's just a control freak like his mama. He is also obsessed with the status of doors and fans. He will go shut all of the bedroom doors and tell us that they need to be shut because the air (conditioning) is going to be on. At CrossFit, he is concerned about where fans are and if they are on or off. When we pull up, he will observe whether the big overhead doors are open or closed. Then he will announce it: "The doors are open! That means the air is off." If it gets over 100 degrees in the gym, Coach closes the doors and turns on the a/c.

He is finally getting over The Berenstain Bears books -- thank goodness! He still likes them but doesn't insist on every book we read to be Berenstain Bears. Right now we are reading him lots of Dr. Seuss and his favorite is The Lorax.

It has rained here a few times in the past few weeks (after not raining practically all summer) and he calls windshield wipers "whimper wipers". "Mommy, it's raining! Turn the whimper wipers on!"

The other day Cason said "my ear hurts". I replied "oh no, what happened?" He replied matter of factly, "it broke."

Last week one day, Cason went potty. He jumped off the potty and lay down on his softy blanket on the floor before putting his undies on or washing his hands. I quickly said "you need to wash your hands before you touch anything, you don't want to get softy blanket dirty". He stood up, put the blanket between his legs and said "I'm touching it with my butt" in a VERY funny voice. I about died laughing. Yeah, that's so much better than touching it with your dirty hands!

We are doing a Clean Eating Challenge with our gym in which we can't have most starchy carbs (only oatmeal and quinoa) and no added sugar or artificial sugar. It's not too bad for breakfast, lunch or snacks but our dinners have been killing us. We can't use any sauces like soy, stir fry, ketchup, BBQ sauce, etc. We have only had a few dinners that have actually been good so far. Anyway, one night last week, Kelly made a quiche with green peppers in it. There were a ton of green peppers and they were the last thing on my plate I ate. After awhile, my plate was full of peppers and Kelly said "have you even tried the green peppers?" in a somewhat sarcastic tone. He got up to get some more veggies to eat and Cason leaned over to me and said in a hilarious tone "have you even tried the green peppers?" It was so funny how he said it, I couldn't stop laughing. He has been repeating a lot -- way too much -- of what we've said lately. We definitely need to start being more careful!

Cason's new excuse when he doesn't want to do something is "my hands are full!" For instance, if we ask him to pick something up or put on his shoes, he says he can't because he is already holding things. This morning I asked him to put something away for me and he said "my hands are full!" We both looked down to see his hands empty. He gave me a sheepish look, then grabbed the item I requested him to put away and ran off.