Nearing TWO!

The MT Schleicher brothers are officially 3 months shy of their second birthday. These boys are definitely kids on the go! Here are a few of the rare, hard-to-capture moments with both boys looking at the camera simultaneously.

Cody, Jaden-- 21 months

Jaden, Cody

Bathtime for Cody & Jaden-- a favorite time of day

Jaden, Cody -- reading together in the glider

Jaden, Cody

The most exciting aspect of this past month was hearing the boys' language doors begin to open. Hooray! How fun it is to hear their little voices. Their favorite regular words are-- ouch, Amen ("men" after every prayer), oops (opps), Mama, Dada, juice, baby (Cody's favorite), all day (Jaden's favorite, from his Dig, Dig, Digging book), and hi (with a hilarious high-pitched inflection). They also love making the sound of a horse and the roar of a lion anytime they see pics of these animals. The following video captures a few of these language favorites:

Jaden and Cody still LOVE their books. They particularly love bringing a book apiece to Mommy or Daddy's lap. After sitting down and quickly flipping through several pages, they'll throw the book down and grab a new one. Between the two boys' books, our story times often sound quite amusing: "In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf... Diggers are good at dig, dig, digging... Out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar... they can work all day." Their book favorites are ones in which they can repeat some of the words: Blue Hat, Green Hat (to say "oops"); Dig Dig Digging (to say "all day"); Everywhere Babies (to say "baby"); and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (so they can stick their fingers through the holes in the book!). 

Every day, we can find stacks of books scattered throughout every room of our home! The boys can keep themselves occupied for quite some time just flipping through pages of their books. Sometimes, one of them will even babble along as he turns the book's pages. Here are our little "readers."

During the day, Jaden and Cody love playing in their cribs (as long as they're in the same one) and running "laps" around our recliners while pushing their Cozy Coupes, dump truck, or push rider. Sometimes the faster rider (usually Cody) will cut off the slower rider around a turn. Other times, they'll throw aside one vehicle and grab another to push without hardly missing a beat. They are quite amusing to watch!

Another playtime favorite-- sticking their
arms into Mommy or Daddy's shoes and
banging them together

Another favorite-- climbing in and out, and in and out
of anything and everything!

Here are some other random, recent fun facts about our boys:

• They both prefer to walk down stairs on 2 feet, while holding on to the railing.
• After hearing a burp, hiccup, or toot, they will always look at each other and immediately start giggling.
• The most successful places/times for haircuts are: 1. At the front window when the garbage truck is going by AND 2. In the bathtub!
• Started the month with an extreme fear of the bathroom scale (would scream like crazy when getting weighed at the doctor's office), but Daddy taught the boys how to overcome this fear and now we can't hardly get them off the scale!
• If one twin is hurt or crying hard, the other twin will come running to offer a hug, book, or toy
• They enjoy helping with basic "chores" around the house: pushing wet clothes into the dryer, handing dishes to Mommy or Daddy from the dishwasher, placing books on the shelf (sometimes), and bringing their bibs to the high chairs before meals (a daily favorite!)
• Frequently, when one twin is on the changing table, the other twin piles books or socks on top of the brother getting changed!

JADEN

our blueberry-stained boy!

Roaring at a picture of a lion

• Enjoys dumping out a full container of foam blocks over his head 
• Gets very warm and rosy-cheeked when he is over-dressed for the weather
• Following a double ear infection this month, returned back to sleeping through the night (yay!)
• Loves giving tight hugs around Mommy or Daddy's neck
• Will break out into applause whenever he hears the words "good job" (even if the words are directed towards someone else or when they're in the middle of a sentence)
• Likes to sign "thank you"

CODY

Our little goofball-- loves running around
the room with this plastic container over
his head

No, he's not wearing shorts. He just thought
it'd be fun to run around the house while
holding up his pant legs. Of course!

• What a little comedian! Cody seems to do anything to get a laugh from Jaden. Most recently enjoys crawling around with his head touching the carpet while Jaden laughs hysterically!
• Most often comes first when called to wash his hands or put on his coat or shoes
• After a double ear infection early this month, still has not returned yet to good sleeping habits (sigh...)
• Particularly impatient before a mealtime; wants to be held while Mommy and Daddy are trying to prepare the food
• A BIG fan of apple juice (can almost finish an entire sippy cupful in one sitting!)

Our Playgroup

Ever since our Halloween party back in October, my fellow mommy friends and I have been talking about having more regular playdates together. At the start of 2014, we finally made something happen. The four of us moms established two days each month that we could get together. 

Since there are a combined 8 kids among our families (ranging from 20 months to 5 years old), we figured we'd need to have a bit of organization to make our playdates run more smoothly. Between the four of us moms, we take turns planning snacks, a craft or calmer activity, and a game or more active activity each time we meet.

In January, I forgot my camera for both of our playdates, but we enjoyed playing Hullabaloo, using dot painters, baking tortilla snowflakes (with cinnamon & sugar-- yum!), playing with a sheet parachute, and doing a sticker craft.

For our first February playdate, we planned Valentine themed activities. Unfortunately, our family missed that playdate since our boys came down with double ear infections (yet again!!) and had to visit the doctor instead. But, our friends enjoyed playing with homemade red playdough, hitting balloons through large cut-out hearts, playing a hide-and-seek/matching game with patterned hearts, and eating jello hearts & cheese hearts with crackers. We were bummed to miss the fun celebration!

Finally, for our most recent playdate, I remembered my camera! For this gathering, we planned to have a Dr. Seuss theme. Only 3 moms and 5 of the kids attended this playdate, but we still had a good time. Jenna brought some super creative snacks-- Dr. Seuss hats (with strawberries, stackable marshmallows, and blackberries) and green eggs and ham (with pretzels, white chocolate and green M&Ms). Not only cute-looking, but GREAT tasting! Jaden and Cody were huge fans! :) 

Little Ryder shows off his mommy's creation

Our first game was a sort of bowling game with Dr. Seuss hats made from plastic cups and duct tape. This was by far the most successful game of the morning (meaning, it kept the kids' attention for longer than 5 minutes!). Cody and Jaden had practiced the game at home ahead of time, so they demonstrated to the others how to play.

Ryder quickly got the hang of the game and won the award for knocking the most down when standing the farthest away!

Abbie and Landon also jumped right in and took it upon themselves to cheer on the other kids-- so cute!

Next, Ruth read the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" in preparation for our next game. The kids enjoyed imitating Mr. Brown's sounds from the book.

For this activity, the kids were supposed to take turns drawing picture cards out of the bag. They were then supposed to have their friends guess what card they had by making the sound of the object.

As it turned out, the kids weren't really excited about taking turns, so we all drew cards out of the bag simultaneously.

Then, instead of making the object's sound first, the kids would usually shout something like, "Ooh, FROG! Ribbit, ribbit." It was actually quite amusing. Not exactly the rules we planned, but, hey, these 2 and 3 year olds were having fun, so that's the most important part, right? :)

Jenna also planned our craft activity -- Dr. Seuss hats! Landon and Abbie were pros at using their glue sticks.

Ruth kindly helped Jaden assemble his hat (while Mommy was busy taking pictures!).

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Our last activity was "Pin the Hat on the Cat." The older ones did fairly well at actually keeping their eyes closed while sticking on their hat.

Cody, however, kept his eyes open the whole time and still put the hat on upside down and far from the cat's head. :) Gotta love it!

Our final product:

We were all thankful to have something fun to do indoors on this day, as the snow was falling heavily outdoors! We're excited for even more playdate adventures to come... what a great group! 

February Update

Here are some of the latest happenings in the Schleicher household:

Visitors

We had the pleasure of hosting our friends Joe and Laurie for dinner early this month. This wonderful couple from church has shared so much love with our boys. The boys enjoyed playing with Joe and Laurie, eating the ice cream cups that they brought over, and reading stories before bedtime.

Thanks, Joe and Laurie, for visiting us and for your generous care for our family!

Later that same week, our friend Doris (also from church) visited us for a morning playtime. I forgot to take a photo of Doris with the boys, but we all enjoyed her company. Doris bought us a yummy chili lunch and brought over some fun new toys for Jaden and Cody. The boys' favorite new gift was this wind-up chick.

Jaden loved trying to catch the chick as it hopped around,

while Cody simply laughed and laughed as he watched the chick jump.

Playtime

Our weather has continued to be too cold and snowy to spend much time outdoors. In fact, our snowfall total this winter has been over 65 inches-- our 3rd snowiest winter on record! Some of our indoor activities, then, have included playing with magnetic letters,

and playing with snow indoors. We tried this same activity last winter, and the boys weren't sure what to think of the cold snow. This year, Cody and Jaden had no qualms at all with touching the snow...

...or with putting it right into their mouths!

Another day, we put various small objects (like pasta shells or coins) into these tin containers. The boys loved shaking the containers or pounding on the lids to make music.

We took a try #2 with the objects hidden in rice.

This time, the boys actually noticed the hidden objects (rather than simply wanting to throw the rice all over creation).

At first, they enjoyed "digging" through the rice to look for the hidden treasures.

Soon, however, they determined that it was much more fun to dump rice out onto the quilt. Our methodical Jaden-man carefully dropped handfuls of rice onto each colored square...

...until the whole quilt was full of rice. Not quite the activity Mommy had in mind, but, hey, it worked! 

Lately, the boys have been very eager to play inside their cribs during the day. Once inside, they usually like to run back and forth, fall on the mattress, or play with the light switch. Other times, Cody and Jaden are content simply with their books. What a picture to make Mommy happy! :)

Special Treats

For Valentine's Day, both sets of grandparents sent gifts for the boys. Grammy and Papa gave the boys gift cards to McDonalds. The boys had never been to our in-town McDonalds before, so it was quite the exciting outing. Don't they look so grown up sitting at the table here?

Since the boys are such big ice cream fans, we bought a sundae for each boy to share. Cody started with the chocolate...

...while Jaden enjoyed the strawberry.

Mommy and Daddy were quite pleased to discover that our McDonalds already offers the seasonal, oh-so-tasty shamrock shakes. Hooray!! We had to order a couple shakes, too-- mostly for the boys to try, of course. Cody definitely enjoyed his first taste of what Daddy calls "heaven in a cup".

Jaden was a HUGE fan as well. Good thing Daddy got a bigger size shake to share. :) Thanks for making this fun experience possible, Grammy and Papa!

Grandma and Grandpa also sent money for a special Valentine's treat. Our choice for our chocolate-loving kiddos? M&M's! Grandma will be proud.

These candies sure make our boys smile! Gotta love Cody's orange-tinted lips, too. :) Thanks for the thoughtful treat, Grandma and Grandpa!

Talking

We were beginning to wonder when it would ever start to happen, but it appears as if actual words are finally starting to flow from our boys. Cody, in particular, likes imitating the sounds we make. "Baby" is one of his newest favorites, though he often likes to add an extra syllable or two.

Look and Find

In one of our last blog pots, we mentioned the boys' interest in their Baby Einstein Look and Find book, given to us by Uncle Matt & Aunt Kim. Every morning, the boys pull this book out as one of their very first daily activities. They will excitedly point to all the pictures and say, "zzat, zzat" continually until we answer their "What is that?" question. This video shows how much they love pointing out the objects to us.