A big day!

On Saturday, we spent the day with my Mom's side of the family for an early Father's Day celebration. We went to Homestead Creamery in Franklin County for their Open House/Customer Appreciation Day. The boys had a great time and got to do lots of fun things. Here, they had just gotten onto a wagon and were ready for a pony ride.
This was the best picture I got. I tried to take some video clips but they turned out blurry. Unlike the infamous $11 pony ride back in October, this one was free and lasted about 3 times as long!
There was a small petting zoo and the boys were able to pet some calves and goats.

There was a lady making balloon animals for all of the kids. Ian got a dog...
...and Brady got a giraffe. Unfortunately, both of the balloons popped within an hour, but the boys were proud of them while they lasted! During all of this fun, we sat down and ate some ice cream made by the creamery. It was great!
We went back to Pop's house for a picnic. Ian (and the rest of us!) enjoyed Great-Aunt Wanda's fried chicken.
Brady and Ian had to "help" Pop and Great-Uncle Bobby with Pop's new weed eater.
The boys had fun letting these toy cars go down the ramp.
Back in Christiansburg, the boys thought they were big stuff carrying Granddad's present to him. As they walked, they kept repeating "Here's your present, Dan-dad".

Colds

The boys had bad colds last week and their noses were dripping constantly. It seems like I had to chase them around with tissues all the time. At one point, it was time to wipe noses again and I got to Ian first. Brady ran away while I wiped Ian's nose and all of a sudden I heard nothing. I realized Brady was hiding from me, so I tiptoed over and here's where I found him. I thought this was a pretty good hiding place for a 2-year-old!

Berries

This morning Ian discovered that his fingers are the perfect size to fit inside raspberries. (Check out his bedhead!)
Here's what I got when I asked him to smile:

Here, he was saying "one" and holding up one finger. He thought it was hilarious that he ate a berry from his finger.
Brady (also with great bedhead) had already eaten his raspberries so he demonstrated that you can't put a blueberry on your finger:

The Inn at Riverbend

Jeremy and I were able to spend an evening at The Inn at Riverbend in Pearisburg right before Easter weekend. We had a gift certificate that we finally got a chance to redeem. Thanks to my parents for keeping the boys so Jeremy and I could have a night away! This was our first night out of town (if Pearisburg counts as out of town!) without the boys since they were born. We had a really nice time and would recommend the bed & breakfast to anyone staying in the Southwest VA area. The innkeepers were very friendly, the inn was beautiful and very clean, and the food was great.

This was our room:

Our semi-private porch:The view from our porch:
The view early on Friday morning:
There was a rec room complete with a Wii, so I finally got to play the game system that everyone has been talking about for so long. We had great weather, so that made for a wonderful getaway!

Brady and Ian at 28 months

The boys are at such a fun age! It's so fun to be able to have conversations with them and to see the world through their eyes. They have definitely turned into little chatterboxes! Here's a little glimpse of what they're up to these days.

• They still love to read! Reading is the first thing they want to do when they wake up in the mornings and the last thing they want to do before getting in their cribs at night.
• They are obsessed with cars and trucks of all types. As soon as they get downstairs each morning, they have to get out all of their cars and trucks and line them up - sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on the sofa, sometimes on the coffee table. If you ask them what they're doing, they'll say "park cars". When we're riding in the van, they'll point out all the different types of vehicles. For example, I'll hear "wee-ooo" if they see a police car, ambulance, or fire truck. Other things I hear are "white jeep", "ment micker" (translation: cement mixer), "red car loud", and even "that car dirty". Ian is very quick to point out dirty cars!

• They like to build "fences" around themselves, usually out of cars or books. You can't tell in this picture, but they've built a fence of cars in front of them. Sometimes, if Brady knows that I'm getting ready to put him to bed or ask him to pick up his toys, he'll quickly build a fence around himself because he thinks I can't get him (think again, Brady!).

• They love to work puzzles! We have several 24-piece jigsaw puzzles and they can work them with just a little bit of help. They always applaud for themselves when they finish a puzzle. It's cute to see how proud they are. One morning while I was washing the breakfast dishes I heard applause from the next room. I looked in and saw that the boys had worked a puzzle all by themselves!
• We are working on "weaning" the boys from sucking their thumb (Brady) and sucking on stuffed animals (Ian). This is going pretty well. Right now, they only get the thumb/animal at naptime and bedtime.
• We are also working on potty training. This is not going so well. We definitely want to get them fully potty trained before the baby gets here.
• They love to eat at Cracker Barrel! It has become a tradition to go to Cracker Barrel on Sunday evenings with Nana and Granddad. They eat so much, I don't know how their stomachs hold all the food. They especially love the macaroni & cheese and the biscuits/corn muffins with apple butter. We're not sure what they love more at Cracker Barrel, the food or the toys out in the store. Every week they head straight for the toy cars.
• They are so excited about learning. They know their colors and shapes, and we're working on letters and numbers. They can count to six on a regular basis but have counted as high as ten. Their vocabularies are unbelievable! We are constantly amazed at the things they know, and sometimes find ourselves asking "How in the world did they know that?"
• They are best buddies! We occasionally have to referee, but for the most part Brady and Ian are inseparable. Here they are, showing off their Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas (po-jamas, as they call them):

Storytime

We've taken the boys to Storytime at Barnes & Noble a few times, and they usually enjoy it. The local Barnes & Noble tries to bring in a costumed character every month or two, and they'll read a story about the character while the character acts out the story. In April, the boys got to meet Froggy.

They were so excited about meeting Froggy. They talked about Froggy nonstop before we got to the bookstore, and as soon as we got in the store they asked where Froggy was. After the story, they were excited to get to hug Froggy along with the other boys and girls.




They talked about getting to meet and hug Froggy for days and days after the fact.

Peter Rabbit came to the store last weekend and things didn't go so well. The boys were very excited about meeting Peter Rabbit before we got to the store, but this time around was not as fun. There was a new girl reading the story and she wasn't as engaging as the lady that normally reads the stories. The Peter Rabbit experience lasted only about 10 minutes in total, but it went something like this: (*Disclaimer: I am a math and science geek, so I put this in the form of a chart.)

Here are the boys watching Peter Rabbit walk in.

Peter Rabbit. He sat still the entire time (not much fun for the kids). And what is with the bright pink carrot??

Their faces say it all...

Excitement level is fading fast...

They gave Peter Rabbit an obligatory hug, but as you can see, Brady was not happy about it:

As soon as Brady got back to me, he said "Leave now". Poor kid.

They had much more fun at the train table:

Clifford the Big Red Dog is coming in August. He is one of the boys' favorite characters, so we are hopeful that meeting Clifford will turn out to be lots of fun!

Brady and Ian are going to be big brothers!

We are happy to share that Baby #3 will be here around the first of the year! We are looking forward to the changes that are in store for our family. It has been neat to try to explain everything to Brady and Ian. When we told the boys that there was a baby growing in Mommy's tummy, Ian said "Ian see it" (translation: "Ian wants to see it"). That evening at bedtime, he lifted up the bottom of my shirt and said "Baby is?" (translation: "Where is the baby?").

The boys are doing very well with being careful around Mommy's belly and understanding that Mommy feels sick a lot of the time (sometimes they try to take advantage of this!).

Yesterday morning, the boys were playing in their room and I noticed they had gotten a few diapers out. I asked them to put the diapers away and they said "changing baby's diaper". I guess they're getting a head start on being Mommy's helpers!