Evan’s Thoughts on Turning Two

Clearly, turning two is a big deal. Here are some things we have learned after our first day as two-year-olds.

1.    There is no need for naps anymore. Mom and dad put us down for a nap, but I just jumped around, rolled around, and threw my stuffed animals. I was quiet though, and just played along with the whole nap thing.

2.   Being two means playing at new parks! We started our day at Fairview park—there are TWO playgrounds there!  

 In the evening we went to Anderson park. It was a really big park. Mom looked a little scared watching us climb so high, but since we are two now, we could do it, no problem!  

Jaden is really quick!

I even got to zipline!

3.   You get to Skype with a lot of family when you are two! It was fun to see everyone morning, noon, and night! Grandma tried to feed me a cookie through the computer screen, but it didn’t quite work. 

4.   I wonder if every day that I am two I will get to eat an Elmo cupcake? It was D-licious!

Where'd the cupcake go?

5.    I heard this was our Golden Birthday, and it really was a special day!

King Crib Update!

Many have asked how the King Crib (double wide crib) is working out for Evan and Jaden (and for us!). For the most part, the boys have done great and seem to enjoy the big crib- as you see in the pictures, although they have a double-sized crib, they are often together on one side or the other.

 Typically, I’ve been told that it takes 3 nights to make a change with a kiddo; like with unswaddling, taking away a pacifier, etc. The king crib took more like 5 nights. I guess 3 nights times 2 kids = 6…….so 5 nights isn’t bad!

During those first nights they would ‘play’ for about 2 hours: jumping, racing, rolling, laughing. Then for the next 30-60 minutes they would whine and cry as they were over-tired. It was 11:00pm at this point when they (and we) would fall asleep.

We stuck it out and for the last month they’ve cut down playtime to about 45 minutes and typically they are asleep by 9:15pm.

The only issue we have had is that Evan is a night owl. Always has been! So he will jump and bounce and do tuck jumps on the mattress----all while Jaden is trying to sleep, or is sleeping. And you probably guessed it, this also means that Jaden is up earlier. But most of the time we get there soon enough to take Jaden out of the crib before he wakes up Evan.

This routine seems to be working for them.......for now! 

South Dakota Summer Fun!

Although it’s been a few weeks since our trip to S.D., I wanted to post some pictures of Evan and Jaden’s fun with family. After a quick stop to run around the car in Sioux Falls visiting Aunt Laurie, we finally arrived in Volga around 11pm. Since Evan only napped 5 minutes the whole day, they were both pretty tired and ready for bed.

Friday the boys helped out in the garden……clearly they had fun, and got a ‘little’ dirty. Who knew how much fun dirt could be!

 Aunt Rachel's Birthday!

 I got to go shopping with nephew Elliot- we had a great time in Downtown Brookings. Evan and Jaden loved spending time with Elliot, too.

Saturday we were up early in Watertown. Although the hills have not gotten any smaller, Laurie and I had a nice run-around-the-lake for the Kampeska Half Marathon. Pretty sure the only reason I registered is because I won a door prize last year: Free Registration for this year! We had great spectators! Mom and Dad, the boys, and Aunt Bondell saw us numerous times along the course. I felt bad for Jaden at mile two- after we ran by him for this first time, he realized it was us and started running after us- blanket in hand. Poor kiddo. After the third time, I think he started to get the run-on-by concept of the race. In the end, I won a watermelon for traveling the furthest for the race!

This post won’t be complete without pictures from the farm. Little Farmer Evan and Farmer Jaden ran right over to the tractor and took turns driving it to haul hay.

 They also got to see the cows. It was pretty amazing to me, to see how amazed they were to see cows. Evan waved to them all!

Grandma taught the boys to skip rocks at the lake. 

Taylor was also visiting her grandparents next door. She wasn't too sure about Evan and Jaden, but liked coming over to play with their toys. 

We had a wonderful trip visiting family and friends. 

However, once we got home, the boys thought all tractors were for riding......