Evan's made the move to a big boy bed!!

Yes, after nearly 3 years of sleeping in a crib (good thing we got some good use out of our crib bedding), we finally made the move to a big boy bed for Evan.  Well, since his bed is a convertible bed, we just made his crib into a toddler bed.  But no railing to contain him any longer.....that was a big move....at least it was for us.  We thought we might struggle with getting him to stay in bed, but we are now into day 3 and no problems thus far.  He has actually done really well.  No sneaking out of bed in the middle of night just yet!  Since our video monitor would not work here we learned to manage without it for the last couple of years, but we were a little worried about how we were going to keep an eye on him with this latest move. Then my mom suggested using our old laptop upstairs to Skype with our new laptop downstairs (why we had never come up with this one on our own who knows....thanks Mom!).  So that is exactly what we did for his 1st nap in his new bed and we found that while yes, he stayed in his bed the entire time, he also did a bit of balance beam practicing (on the guardrail that we left on to keep him from accidentally falling out) and also that he is using his bed as a trampoline of sorts......is this what he had always been up to in his crib while we weren't watching him ....of course, minus the balance beam act!  In any case, after an hour of playing around in his new bed, he settled down comfortably under his new bedding and took a nice long nap.  This particular day his nap was going a bit long, so I went in to get a picture of him in his new bed (first pic above) and happened to wake him in the process (second pic above).  He was pretty excited about his new bed and could hardly wait to try it out again that night!  His first night was just as easy, he fell right asleep and called for us in the morning to get him out of bed.  We were hoping the transition would go smoothly since he'd already had a trial run in a toddler bed while we back in the states for Christmas last year and he did wonderfully.  Fortunately, it looks to have been an extremely easy transition so far...hope he doesn't have any surprises for us in the near future!  For now...YAY for our big guy who will be 3 next week....he's an official "big boy"!  You are growing up way too fast, buddy!

This is right after he opened the box BeBe sent us with his new bedding...he couldn't wait to try it out!  He decided to make himself a bed right in the middle of the kitchen floor.

And little Coop sporting his new hat BeBe sent the boys!  Doesn't he look just precious...blowing his bubbles with his spit?!?!

When watering the garden turns bad!

So Marte was out watering the plants and when the boys got up from their naps we decided to go have our snack out on the porch and watch. But, once they saw the waterhose...it was all over! It started out with E wanting to "help" water the plants and turned into him drenching his little brother. So after that, I let Cooper get him back and soaked E with the hose also...well then the little man was hooked and it turned into tug of war as neither of them wanted to give up ownership of the hose and share. And let me tell you, Cooper gives Evan a pretty good fight for a little guy! So after about 30 minutes of playing in the water, I'd had enough refereering that we headed back inside for a bath before dinner. Fun times!

Earlier in the day, the boys actually played well together while they got ready to paint.  E showed Coop how to put paint in the palette - Cooper loved taking the caps off the paint and handing them to Evan, but once it came time to actually paint, Cooper stayed more interested with the tubes of paint and didn't get much painting done.

My little musicians

So I guess my constant singing from the time both of the boys were tiny babies has had some effect...both love music and any instrument they can get their hands on...the louder the better (for them, of course!).  Lately, it's been the harmonica and the guitar.  Cooper more so than Evan, but as soon as Cooper gets to playing, big brother is right there wanting to steal it out of his little brother's hands and have a go himself.  Sometimes they like to share....one plays the harmonica while the other strums the guitar...and other times it is all out war for the same instrument - seems to be the story of our lives lately!!  It's adorable when E gets the guitar and thinks no one is watching, he'll get to strumming while singing along.  And Coop will do the same, but he wants to be sure you are watching when he plays!  He loves the attention!  And the boys love singing too, we listen to alot of kid's songs, but also to a lot of R&B since that is all that is on the radio in English here.  One of their favorites at the moment is the Black Eyed Peas, Boom Boom Pow.  E practically knows all the words (yes I know, I should be ashamed of myself for letting him listen to this trash, but he loves it) and Cooper is right there with the "boom boom"s too! 

 

This is from a couple of other days when Cooper decided to have a jam session!

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And  as I mentioned, they love singing as well.....here is E singing one of the color songs that Nana sent us...in case you can't hear him (some guy at the clubhouse started cleaning his golf shoes off with the air pressure thing towards the end of the song), the words are:  R-E-D Red, R-E-D Red, I can spell red, I can spell Red, Fire trucks are red, Stop signs are too, R-E-D, R-E-D (sung to the tune of "Are you Sleeping?")  I'll have to try to get him on video singing the others...we now know the "blue", "pink" and "orange" songs as well.

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Holiday in Pulau Tioman

We had the best time on our latest vacation!  I don't actually have much to blog about though because we didn't do much more than eat, swim and relax....actually that IS all we did!  The boys had the best time playing in the sand.  I could hardly believe how well they played together.  It was the best hour and a half of every morning - we sat back and lounged and they played with their toys in the shade digging holes, building sand castles and well, Coop decided he also liked the taste of sand, so a little sand eating also took place.  I seriously considered hauling back home a couple tons of the stuff...no, not to feed Cooper, but so that play time is always that pleasant and fight-free!!  That is until I ended up with about 30 bites from sand flies!  If you have ever had these bites, I don't have to say anything further....but for those of you who have not had the privilege of these delightful bugs, they leave an itch like no other!  We've been back for a week now and I've been miserable every day since due to the itchiness...everywhere...even though the majority of the bites are on my back and arms!  I've been taking an anehistamine the Dr prescribed me as well as applying ointment several times a day and they still itch!  So ready for them to start healing now! I'm just so grateful the boys didn't get bitten!  Actually, no one else did but me...isn't that about right!  Outside of that, we had a fantastic time!  We seemed to create a nice routine while we were there.  Our mornings started with breakfast, then back to the room to change into our suits and lather up in some sunscreen, then out to the beach for some sand time and sea time, and then it was to the pool to play on the slides.  Then it was back to the room to change up for lunch; we lunched on some of the best pizza we've had since we've been here and some pretty delicious burgers too!  After lunch it was back to the room for naptime, and this is when Marte would stay with the boys and Andrew and I would get some "us" time.  A couple of days we just kicked it at the pool bar and relaxed on the beach and then the last day we did some awesome snorkeling at a reef that was just a 2 minute boat ride off our resort beach.  It was awesome, some really beautiful fish - wish I'd had an underwater camera.  After naptime, it was more beach/sea time (the tide was very low in the late afternoon so we were able to wade in with the boys since it was only about knee high) and pool time.  In the evenings by the pool (as well as at dinner), they had a Philipino band that Cooper absolutely loved watching - he would dance and clap and ask for more when they would finish a song...it was pretty adorable!  Then it was back to get cleaned up and head to dinner.  After dinner and some roaming around the grounds, we'd head back to the room and get the boys down for the night!  Pretty much the same routine for the 4 days we were there....nothing better than lots of eating, playing, and relaxing....I'll take these types of vacations anytime!! 

I didn't get many pictures of us doing much, but here are a few (or 20-something actually) of the boys having a really great time!  It was one of the first trips where both boys really got into the beach thing and looked to have had an awesome time!

Ready to head to Pulau Tioman

Daddy and Evan chillin' in the pool...right before he decides to get out of the pool and pee on the pool deck....Evan, that is, not Andrew!  I guess we can't scold him for not wanting to pee in the pool :)

Cooper getting into some sort trouble before we head out to dinner on our first night!  We have to keep our eyes on this one at all times these days!  He absolutely loved all the buttons we could push in the hotel room....especially the buttons on the aircon remote and turning on and off the lights!

We get E's best smiles when we don't ask him to smile!

The gorgeous sunset on our first night...wish I'd gotten some more pictures of the sunset each night, it was just beautiful!

Our first day on the beach and in the sand...turned out being the boys' favorite thing to do each day!

Cooper's initial reaction was pretty funny, he wasn't sure what to think of the sand on his feet and in between his toes...but once I gave him the "it's ok"and he got used to it, he loosened up and really enjoyed himself.  It wasn't that he intentionally ate the sand, he just did alot of snacking while in the sand, so he inadvertently ate some...but didn't seem to mind one bit...the extra crunch must have been pretty tasty!

Renggis Island where Andrew and I went snorkeling

Chilling and eating....seemed like a common occurrence with Cooper our entire trip! He was actually having a chip here - E is usually pretty good about having only one or two and then he doesn't ask for anymore....but not our Cooper, he would eat an entire bag of chips if we let him, so we have to hide them from him!  It's amazing how much more we let the 2nd child get away with already!

Evan was actually flying a kite by himself here, but it was too high up so I couldn't get it in the picture too

More brotherly sand time....ohh, it was total bliss!

They shared so well while playing in the sand, it must have been there was so much of the stuff to go around that neither was bothered by the other!

There were two slides at the resort...a big one and a little one.  Evan surprised us and would go down them all by himself, with us at the bottom to catch him of course!  But, he is usually so cautious about new things we thought he would want us to take him down, but that wasn't the case - he had the best time.  Cooper even enjoyed taking some rides down the small slide with Mom and dad.  I wish I'd had my camera while we had slide time to have gotten some pictures but I never did!

Cooper loved the sand so much, he even let his big brother and Daddy bury him in it!

Cooper eating!!

The "bus" that took us around the resort. These rides were probably the highlight of the trip for the boys believe it or not...they loved it! Cooper spent the entire trip saying "ba" for bus and "bo" for boat every time he would see one of the two....or even when he saw one of the worker's golf carts, he called it a "bus" or "ba" rather!!

They had a small playground that we played on for a bit the day we were leaving

Cooper looking up at the plane that was flying overhead

My big boys looking at the fish before we head out to catch our flight!

I love this picture...I think Evan was asking Coop whether or not he wanted to go with him across the bridge in the background.  Although it looked more like he was saying "hey Cooper, want to see what sort of trouble we can get into?"  Of course, if anyone knows my boys, it would more likely be Cooper saying it to Evan!  Oh the trouble I'm sure they are going to get into together...I can hardly wait!!

Yummy Cheese!

I finally got one of my boys to enjoy snacking on cheese, just like their mamma.  Today, Evan says "Mommy, I want some cheese.... Cooper do you want some cheese? I'll share with you Cooper."  As Cooper is running away not wanting a bite, E continues chasing him saying "you want some cheese Cooper"...Coop continues to shake his head no and then E proceeds to say "Cooper have some, it's good!   Cooper, want to smell it?!?"  Ohhh, he IS his father's son....what is it with wanting to smell everything?!?!?

Today, while Cooper napped, E and I went to our clubhouse to hang out and have some lime juice...our favorite.  E loves to run around and pick flowers for his mamma....after this picture was taken he comes up to me with his hands behind his back and says "Mommy, I have a surprise for you" and pulls out the flower....what a sweetheart!!

Happy Birthday, BeBe!

We just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday, BeBe! We hope that you have a wonderful day. We wish we were there with you to help you celebrate! We want to thank you so very much for all that you do for us, you deserve a very special day! Have fun and have a piece of cake for us! Love you so very much and miss you terribly!


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We then went outside to watch the rain and listen to the big thunderstorm we are having right now!  We aren't scared, but it's still "too louder!"

Taking Daddy along on our 2nd movie date!

This time we decided to take Daddy along on our movie date.  We went to watch UP!  Unfortunately, they weren't showing it in 3D so we just got the standard version.  Evan did just as great this time as he did during our first movie.  We thought the movie plot was a bit above his level of understanding, and were sure he wasn't going to make it through the whole thing, but he really enjoyed himself and watched every minute of it!  It isn't one he has asked to watch again (like Ice Age 3 that we've had to watch about 20 times since we saw it at the movies), but I think he liked it and thoroughly enjoyed the Mommy, Daddy and Evan time!

 We had lunch before the movie and E had been playing with baby wipes to clean his hands and face....and well, he is really allergic to them - thus all the redness around his swollen eyes!  Luckily, it disappears after a couple of hours!  I've yet to find ones that don't cause the same reaction!  Poor kiddo!