It's been a while....so I don't really know where to start! Time flies when you are having fun, and that's just what we have been doing. The last month or so, the boys are just really seeming grown up to me. They are pretty independent now, and they have such unique personalities. Grant loves being outside with this warm stretch we are having. When you bring him inside, he gets so mad. Grant is a momma's boy and pretty much has my personality. Hes very innocent and easy going most of the time. But its like it builds up and then he explodes all at once. He lets Gabriel take his toys away and his pacis and whatever else, and then he FINALLY gets sick of it and just blows up and either hits him or throws a toy at him. I don't condone that at all, but I do believe that they have to learn to sort out their problems a little before I jump in. So I kind of watch and if I need to jump in then I do. I always tell him it's not nice to throw things, then he gives me the 'mean look' , which is signature to him, its a look that he gets when he thinks something's funny, but he doesn't want to laugh and he tries to hide his feelings. He is so animated in his facial expressions. Anything that Grant is feeling I get...I understand. He tries, but can't hide his feelings from me very well. He has now got 14 teeth, and is very happy that he can chew more things now, as am I. He takes 3 sippies of milk a day now, and does pretty well with it. Thank God he grew out of that milk allergy!!! I figured he would, because my dad and Matt both had severe milk allergies as babies, and they both outgrew them between 10 months and 16 months.

Gabriel is a very good baby...ummm..toddler, also. Where Grant demands your attention, as he has from birth, Gabriel enjoys playing on his own a lot of times and is pretty rigid in the things he does. He is a lot more focused than I thought he would be. He enjoys anything with strings. He is fascinated with dragging his daddy's belts, telephone cords, dog leashes, whatever he can. Unlike Grant, I have trouble telling what Gabriel is feeling, and I know that if he is crying, it is for real. He is a very happy boy, loves rough housing, loves riding on his daddys shoulders, and dancing. Anytime any music comes on within ear shot he starts dancing. Its adorable! He was weaned from nursing at 15 months. He just doesn't want to take his sippies of milk very well for me. I had to start giving him nutripals just to get some protein and milk in him. He's actually quite thin compared to where he started at, and that worries me a little. He has excema still, but hasn't had a whole lot of trouble with it this winter thank God! Just a few flare ups is all. But now he has a patch of psoriasis on his head. poor guy. So now we have medicated shampoo, but its not really cutting it anymore, so I don't know what the next step is. We will probably have to go see a dermatologist in Eville. He has 14 teeth also. His appetite is better now that he can chew more things, but he is still so thin, just because he runs from morning to nap, and from the time he gets up from his nap until bedtime.

both boys are taking one nap each day now for about 2-3 hours. It works out well, because that is when I get my cleaning, excercising and whatever else done, and on Fridays when i have to work night shift, I still get to take a nap (sometimes) before I go to work.

Mydad taught them a new trick. Any time they get a can of anything, or anything shaped like a can, they act like they are drinking it and say "Ahhhh!!" like 'that is so refreshing!' They both did it at wal mart the other night, I let them each hang on to a can of shaving cream in the cart to keep them entertained, and they did it simultaneously..."AHHH!" it was adorable andI started laughing right there in walmart. People probably thought I was crazy. I love these boys so much and they are such a joy in my life. It is very difficult to not have much support at home though. It's sometimes like my wildest dream come true, and then BOOM! the person you love most isn't happy, and it's almost like you wake up from that dream and feel sad because you see what you could've had. It's very sad sometimes, but Matt doesn't handle stress very well, and comes from very different family dynamics than I do...and those family dynamics are that children should be seen and not heard. This concept to me is totally obsurd. Oh well, I guess...Hopefully he will come around. All I can do is keep praying and having faith.

The boys went out for their first romp in the snow...kind of, they didnt have snow boots, so they weren't allowed to leave the sled. They were not so happy with me as I was putting on their mittens. Actually at one point I had so many layers that Grant, my bigger boy, just gave up because he couldn't move. He just lay there on the floor like a helpless wounded animal. He looked at me like, "Help me mommy, I am exhausted and I can't get up."Matt always makes fun of me because he says they look like the kid on "The Christmas Story" where they can't move. When I put them in the sled before we went outside, they had another melt down. They didnt realize we weren't just sitting in a sled, and that we were going to go do something fun. They thought I was trying to torture them with tons of clothes and making them sit still I think. As soon as I got one in the sled, the other one would bail, and so on and so forth. this went on for about ten minutes until I realized that I was the adult and I needed an alternate plan. So I opened the door and grabbed the string to the sled and yanked the rope attached to it. Then they realized that we were going to do something fun. We went to get the mail, and then for a lap around the house. They were flailing their little arms around and pushing the snow with their little mittens. They loved it. I loved it. We were only out about 10 minutes if that, but it was a much needed break from my living room. When we got back to the back door and I opened it, we had our 3rd and final melt down before nap time. They Did not want to come in and take their mittens off. They wanted to stay out and play in the snow. But it was nap time, and we had no snow shoes. So we would have to save our snow play for another day.