I'm the Big Brother!

Today we had our 15 month check-up. I (Jonathan) now weigh more than Josiah, but Josiah is taller (by a whole inch!!) than I am. I think that he'll say that he's the big brother, but I am still older and therefore am considered the big brother! :) For those of you interested, I am 21 lbs. 7 oz. (I grew by over 3 lbs. in 3 months!) and I am 29 inches long (almost an inch longer than the last measurement). My brother is 21 lbs. 3 oz. (Up 2 1/2 lbs. from last check) and 30 inches long (1 3/4 inch taller than before). We are definitely growing boys! The doctor watched us play and explore around the exam room together. He commented that we are aggressive at play. We think that's a good thing, though Nolan and Isaac may not necessarily agree. :) We don't have any new pictures to post at the moment, but hopefully Mommy will download more so we can post them soon! Thanks for checking in on us!

If Only They Were Ugly

Uncle Phil requested a shopping story, so Mommy wants to share a story with you about an outing to Sprouts last week. Here is her version:

We took a family trip to Sprouts last Wednesday, which happens to be double ad day there. Sprouts is a farmer's market type store, with lots of produce and healthy things in it. Because the prices are usually very good there, a lot of the senior population also likes to shop there. Double ad day is extra busy because it's the day that the ads from two weeks overlap. On a normal trip to Sprouts we're accosted once or twice, on double ad days, you never know!

On this particular trip we were stopped almost immediately after entering the store. I had the boys in the double stroller and Mark had the shopping cart. He is great at evading, avoiding, and escaping the gawkers (which we say with love, of course). So he started on the shopping part while I was stopped by what looked like an older couple and the mother of one of the members of the older couple. They started asking the 'obligatory' questions - are they twins? how old are they? etc., etc. As they were getting ready to close their part of the conversation and I was about to walk away, the mother interrupted. So now I have three people talking to me at once, and asking the same questions again. I politely answered and then got my shopping face on and tried to look like I was leaving. Well, apparently that was not in everyone's plan for me.

The 'mother' of the group put her hand on mine to stop me from pushing the stroller away. I'm a nice person, so I won't use physical force to shove an old lady away so I can shop. However, this lady not only touched me, she leaned over and kissed my son! I thought I saw a window of opportunity to leave, but instead of stepping back, she stepped in front of my stroller. She made some comment like, "I have to kiss the other one, too!" and proceeded to lean over and kiss my other son. Mind you, this woman weighed all of 90 pounds wet and her structure looked like it matched in age. I thought she was going to fall on the boys - what a traumatic experience that would've been! We finally freed ourselves from our first entanglement, with only minor wounds - and most of those will be fixed with some therapy.

We were met with comments, glances, etc. through the rest of our shopping experience, but thankfully no more physical contact with strangers. As we were getting ready to check out, I took the boys to the end of the check-out line that Mark was in. It's easier to wait for him on that side than for me to attempt to maneuver the double wide stroller through the narrow lane. As one man in a restaurant so kindly informed my boys as we hit the door frame, "Your mommy isn't a great driver!" Anyway, the woman in front of Mark was still checking out, but was immediately drawn to the boys instead of paying attention to her own shopping.

The first comment was something like, "They're not identical, are they? His cheeks are rounder than the other one's." I smiled and told her that yes, in fact, they are identical. Then she said something like, "And his head is rounder." Yes, lady, identical twins still have differences - the characteristics are expressed differently in each child. Then there was a third comment which I don't even remember. As she was (finally) walking away, a man standing next to me looked over and said, "And one's wearing brown shoes and the other is wearing blue shoes!" The woman stopped and turned around and I put my head down to look at the boys so as not to have to make eye contact with her. :) That 'grandpa' made my day!

As we walked out we only heard one comment in the parking lot about how cute they are. I love being the mommy of two adorable boys...even when shopping with them is filled with such drama. :)

Shiny Red Wagon

Thanks to Papa and Nana, we got two new toys at their house! Mommy and Nana took us to buy a new wagon on Friday! Mommy put it together (almost) all by herself. She did most of the work while Nana, Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Jim watched. We don't have pictures of our first ride in it because Daddy and Mommy's camera broke and they're borrowing Nana and Papa's camera. However, Mommy forgot to put it in the diaper bag on Friday, so it was at our house while we were at Papa and Nana's. Here are pictures of us in our wagon - and with our other new toy: the box the wagon came in!

Here we are playing in the box:

Come on out, brother!
Look at me, Mommy!! I made it!

"Ta-Da!" Time to go for a ride!! We're all strapped in and have our drinks...let's go!
Why aren't we moving, Nana?This is the life...Josiah is saying, "I don't know where we're going."Hey look - it's Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Jim! Can we please get out?"You put your cup here, Josiah.""Well, I changed my mind. This is a good foot rest."

We love getting rides in our new wagon! Papa and Nana said we'll keep it at their house so we can visit all of our other 'grandparents' down the street! Thanks, Papa and Nana!!!

Weekend at Papa and Nana's

Last night we got to stay overnight at Papa and Nana's house. We had lots of fun with them! Daddy and Mommy came over this morning and we stayed all day with them. Here are some funny pictures of us playing!
I (Josiah) love the rocking chair! Here I am falling out of it... And laying on the floor thinking it's kind of funny.
Mommy took a picture of me when I got back in the chair, but it didn't turn out quite right.
Here is my brother in Papa's shoes!
Here he is looking down. I think he's wondering how Papa manages to walk with these huge shoes on his feet!
As you can see, we're wearing matching outfits today. We've been called "The Red Baby" and "The Blue Baby" before, so Mommy decided to dress us alike. :) She finally realized that she really does dress us red and blue a lot!

Swings!

The weather was so nice last week that Daddy and Mommy took us to the park at lunch time for a picnic! We loved being outside, and we got to swing in the 'big kid' swings for the first time! I (Jonathan) loved it - especially when Mommy pushed me higher and higher. Josiah didn't enjoy it quite as much, but I think he'll like it better next time.
We also got to go down a slide with Mommy and walk around the play ground area. It was so fun and we hope that Daddy and Mommy take us on picnics more often!

A Day in the Life...

Here are some of our 'typical' activities in a day. First, there is learning and playing with our toys. We are learning sign language since we're not talking yet. Daddy and Mommy think it will help us to communicate with them. We don't know why they can't understand us! Along with the 'official' sign language, we've come up with our own fun gestures:

Then there's the playing with things that aren't our toys:
It looks like I (Jonathan) am squishing Josiah, but I wasn't!
Then there's just looking cute for Mommy. Our hair is kind of funny because we like to put our dirty hands in it when we're playing. Yep - we needed baths!And of course the day wouldn't be complete without some funny faces - this one courtesy of me (Jonathan).The weather is so nice now, that Mommy thought we'd enjoy a walk! Here we are before...
And here we are after. Contrary to the looks on our faces, we really do like walking in our fancy stroller!Here is a new game that we play. Mommy says she doesn't know what's so funny, but when we play it, we think it's hilarious! You can see that we talk to each other...again, we don't know why Mommy and Daddy can't understand.

And then there is playing with our doggies. We love it - even if the feeling is not always mutual...

Spoons!

Mommy thought it would be fun to see what we do with utensils. So last week we got to use our spoons at dinner time. As you can see, we found better uses for them than the intended ones.

Sibling Rivalry

As you've seen from most of the pictures and videos, we love each other. However, we've found that we are two distinct people, and really try to assert our individuality. What that means is that we now like to fight. The other day at Nana's we decided that we both wanted to sit in the rocking chair that is big enough for only one at a time. Here were the disastrous results. (Nobody was permanently harmed in the making of this blog post.)

Josiah was in it first, and Jonathan came behind him: Jonathan will do anything to get his brother away - this time it happened to be pinching (Mommy didn't see that until she uploaded the pictures to the computer - she thought Jonathan just pulled my (Josiah) arm away.)
I (Josiah) was so troubled I just put my head down and cried.
I don't know if brother was trying to console or hold my head down.
Mommy saved me and my brother got in the chair.
Later on I got a turn and all was well.

Off to the Races

We have these fun toys that convert from push toys to ride-on toys. We love it when Mommy helps us get on them, but we can't quite figure out how to make them go forward. We seem to only make them go backward (kind of like the pony). Here we backed them up to the gate: Then we tried to figure out what to do next - get off, or maybe if we put our feet up Mommy will push us forward...
These things are hard to get on and off of:
Maybe it will work better upside down.
In the end, we just pushed them around like walkers. Oh well - maybe next time!

First Blood

Last Wednesday (the 12th) was such a sad night...I (Josiah) was playing and pushing the chairs around like I normally do, and then I slipped on the floor. I fell forward, and hit my lip on the bar on the chair. It was so sad and I cried really hard. Mommy came and cleaned up some of the blood and made sure that my teeth were all there. Daddy cleaned up the blood from the floor. Then Nana and Papa came in because they were going to spend the evening with us. It's a good thing they came, because I needed a lot of sympathy - the kind that only a grandma can give! After Mommy got me mostly cleaned up, she took a picture of my fat lip and blood-stained shirt. Yes, you should all feel sorry for poor, little me.

Speaking the Truth

Picnic at the Park

Last night we had a picnic with our multiples group (Way Out West Parents of Multiples) at the park! We got to go and splash in the splash park before we ate. It's so much more fun now that we can walk and run through the water on our own! Mommy forgot to take the camera when we first got in the water. When we went back, Jonathan was tired and didn't want to splash anymore. I (Josiah), however, kept going and going and going! Jonathan just stood here in this same spot while I ran all over the splash pad!
We had lots of fun at the picnic, but were very tired by the time everyone got there. It was too close to our bedtime. We hope that they keep doing picnics like this when we're bigger! Mommy arranged for jumpers/bouncers for the big kids and they loved them! There were lots of families there, and lots of twins and triplets. The other people in the park are probably all having their eyes checked today from seeing double all evening! :)

Doggie Time

I (Jonathan) love the doggies. I am an equal opportunity attention giver, as you can see below.

Here I am with Chloe. I came up behind her:I think I'll lay on my side...
What a comfy pillow!
Here's what George was doing while I was giving Chloe love:And then I decided later to give George the attention:

If you look closely, I'm holding his back paw.
I went on to inspect his front paws, too.
Eventually I tried laying on George, too. He doesn't like to be used as a pillow.

Mondays with Isaac

On Monday we got to spend the evening with Isaac! It was so much fun to have another little boy around. We think he might love our doggies more than we do!! Mommy got some pictures on Grandma's camera (ours is not working at all) and on Miss Sheri's camera, so you can see some of them on Isaac's blog! Mommy said that we're going to get to do this again in a few weeks...we can't wait!!

Here we are playing at the activity table...and Jonathan decided that Isaac's water cup is better than his.

Isaac was excited about something! He does this funny thing where he gets up and then flops himself down all spread out on the floor. Apparently this is a happy move...

Here we are playing in the hallway with our school bus, blocks, and cup. We kept trying to give Isaac our blocks that go with the school bus, but he wouldn't take them.

Here is Isaac after one of the sippy cups mysteriously opened and all the water came out. Isaac just sat and ignored the water until we came up and showed him how much fun it was to play in it! We had our own little splash park in our house! Afterward Isaac was all wet so Mommy had to change him. He played like this for a while, then we all got ready for bed. We think this look is something like, "No, really, Miss Jen, I'm innocent!"