My boys...

Look at these two cuties...

Aren't they the best?

I just love these little boys...

with their handsome blue eyes,

wearing their favorite Romeos - just like Daddy.

Dare I say (type) it? Trevor is potty trained... (now hopefully he won't regress because I just typed that!). He also is binky-free, and doing quite well. He still asks for one every once in a while (or asks if we can buy another one), but seems to be past it. And last night he slept in a toddler bed for the first time! I wasn't planning on moving him to a toddler bed just yet, but with the potty training, he wakes up and needs to go, so he cries and calls out for me to get him. I was leaving the rail down on the crib so he could climb out, but that didn't help because even though he COULD climb out, he wouldn't until someone went up there to tell him it was OK. :) So this morning about 1:30 he started crying and said he needed to go potty. I was really hoping he would have figured out he could go by himself, but no such luck. I'm sure he'll get it eventually! My little boy is growing up...

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Trevor's 3rd birthday was last month... I can't believe my baby is 3! To celebrate his birthday, we had family over after church the Sunday before for Dutch soup, muffins, and birthday cake! Trevor was SO excited to blow out those candles -

probably more so than he was about opening the presents...

At 3, we are STILL working on potty training, but we're doing potty training bootcamp this week and last, so no more diapers or pullups (except at night)! And, we are making progress.

Trevor talks a lot (sometimes he doesn't stop!) and is getting a lot easier to understand, too. He loves fruit, but it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to eat a complete meal. If he had a choice, he would would graze all day long.

Kinda funny, the last week or so, he insists on climbing IN to his crib at night, but has yet to climb OUT of it! I'm not complaining, moving to a bed is one thing I don't have to worry about just yet. Probably sometime this summer we'll tackle that. He can now make it through the day without a nap, which is also nice if we need to be gone or have stuff to do...

Trevor is (generally) a pretty happy little guy, and very sweet. Every once in a while, he'll just say, "Mom, I love you." Awwww... how can I resist the little bugger!?

Brothers...

I love finding creative discipline tricks... and a new one I found recently has worked quite well! When the boys start fighting and arguing, I make them sit on the couch next to eachother and hold hands for a few minutes. While they do that, I talk to them about a time when they played nice together and how much fun it was, or some other positive or fun time to get them happy again. I don't even remember where I found this idea, but so far, it's working great!

There were two on the couch...

Both boys love this spot on the end of the couch. Sometimes they fight over it, and once in a while they can get along well enough to be there together. They did this the other night and I couldn't NOT take a picture! It's so fun to hear them playing together. Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs, but more and more lately they love to play together. This is what I had really hoped for when we found out Trevor was a boy, and what I was afraid wouldn't really happen when we found out Jaylen was autistic. But Jaylen has come a long way. At his parent-teacher conference in November, his teacher said last year he wanted to spend more time showing the teachers how much he knew academically, and not as much time playing with the toys and other kids. This year he is much more into playing with the toys and learning to play with the other kids the way he plays with Trevor. He started Awana this past year, and for the most part really likes going. He was chosen to be the Cubbies helper a few weeks ago, and boy, did that boost his self-esteem! He was so excited to tell me about it! And Geoff (who got there early to pick up so was watching him through the window) said he did so good at the front of the class, handing out papers and doing whatever they asked him to do. We still have our "bumps", but overall, Jaylen is making great progress!

Still kickin...

So I thought on the off chance that anyone still checks my blog, I would do a little posting today... :) Since my last post was- ok, this is ridiculous - in October, a lot has happened! I had a birthday, Thanksgiving, went on a train ride with the kids, got a new niece, the Christmas parade, Christmas parties and Christmas presents, and oh yeah, Christmas... And now Jaylen has had another birthday, Wendy and the kids came for a visit, and now we're about to start planning a party for Trevor's 3rd birthday. So let's get some pictures on here of a few of the things that have been happening...

In November, my mom and sister and I got a chance to walk through the house I grew up in (I lived there until I was 15!). This is a picture of the boys in my old room... When I lived there, the room was pink and the carpet was bright red. Jaylen kept asking where he slept. :)

On December 21 came the arrival of my sister Trischa's little baby Addison... so precious!

Then it was Christmas! It was really a fun Christmas, and busy as usual. Lots of family to spend time with, lots of presents to open, and trying to make sure our kids understand that Christmas isn't just about getting stuff, it's about Jesus being born so He could die for US! Sometimes I wonder if we're getting through to our kids, then I hear things like this morning Jaylen said to Trevor : "Hey Trevor, you know what? Jesus is in heaven making a house for you, and one for me. And they're going to be really big houses. And you'll get to live in yours all by yourself! Doesn't that sound cool?" Well, at least some things are getting through. :)

Here we are at Jaylen's birthday party at the Jump Around Fun Zone. The kids got to jump in the bounce castles for a while, then we had cake and presents in the party room. Jaylen is plugging his ears in this picture (he always does this when we sing "Happy Birthday"), but he really didn't plug them for long . We sang a little quieter for him, so he was able to take his fingers out. :) And yes, I'm actually posting a picture of myself. Lovely double (or triple) chin, no less. Guess I forgot to employ my "push-your-toungue-to-the-top-of-your-mouth" strategy for this picture. So Jaylen is a big 5 year old now, and Trevor will soon be 3. Jaylen told me last night he doesn't want to grow up. I agree a little, because sometimes I want him to stay little, but I do want to see him grow and mature and become his own person too... So I'll just try to enjoy each stage while it lasts. :)

Swimming again...

After much deliberation, Geoff and I joined the Y last week. I'll be going to water aerobics Tuesday and Thursday mornings (while the boys are at school) and we'll go together on Wednesday nights (while Jaylen is in Awana and Trevor stays with Geoff's mom). I couldn't believe how horrible I did the first few times trying to swim some laps! But, now that I'm getting used to the whole turning-my-body-to-the-side-to-breathe thing again, I'm getting a lot better. My goal the other night was to swim 16 laps (which is about a half a mile). We both did it! I won't lie and say we did it without stopping, but we did do the 16 laps. My next goal will be to swim a mile (33 laps) but that's going to take a while. Part of the problem is it's hard to get to the pool at the times they have lap swim only. So then the problem is, if we go during open swim, there are no lanes set aside, so we risk t-boning people (since you look down and to the side, not in front of you). So we don't always get a big chunk of time to swim... But regardless, I'm really excited to be back in the pool and getting a little bit back into shape!