Pipe Cleaners and Pony Beads

For the last few weeks I have been thinking about new activities Charlie can do. He seems to get bored with his toys really fast and I have been having trouble keeping him entertained and occupied. He is almost three, so I decided to start working on some dexterity skills.

This morning we tried my first idea—pony beads and pipe cleaners. I sat the boys at the table and showed them how to string the beads on. The pipe cleaners are fuzzy enough so the beads will not fall off. Charlie knows his colors well, so this activity re-enforced colors and worked on counting. I didn’t think Noah would be able to get the beads on, but he surprised us and enjoyed counting to three over and over again and got a good introduction to colors.

An added bonus: they sat for 15 minutes playing with the beads.

I will have to start spending more time looking for activities that they can do at this age. They both enjoyed the challenge and were so proud of themselves once they got the hang of it!

Adventures in Potty Training

Today is the first day of intense potty training with Charlie. After reading lots of different articles, I was prepared for Charlie not wanting to sit on the potty, fears on falling in, and not wanting to flush or wash his hands. Charlie (being Charlie) presented me with a whole different set of issues.

We started the day off well. Charlie loved sitting on the potty and was so excited that he got to flush. He was able to tell us when he wanted to go. The issue is that he loves the potty. All he wants to do is sit on it. He talks to his pee. He waves bye-bye to it. He even hugs the toilet. He threw a pretty good tantrum when we made him get out of the bathroom and drink something so he could go some more.

I am interested to see what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully he hasn’t lost his enthusiasm.

Visitors!

Last month we have been busy with visitors!! Sam’s parents came down at the end of September, then Jen and Leah came down, then Corie and Henry came down this past week. The boys had so much fun seeing and meeting new people!!

Sam’s parents spent most of their trip house hunting. They seemed to have made their minds up that they want to continue retirement down here…and I can’t blame them. No snow AND getting to hang out with the Handsome Haag boys? Sounds like a good deal to me. Sam and I are just excited to have two more people around that love the boys. Wish them luck with selling their house in Michigan!

Charlie and Noah loved playing with Leah and Jen. They had never spent much time playing with a little girl before but Leah seemed to keep them in line well. It was also so much fun for me to see my sister again! I hope that they will make the move to Georgia someday. I can dream. I think my boys would have a ball playing with the whole Cox Cutie bunch!! (And I would totally love to play with girls! I love my boys, but a tea party every once in a while would be nice, too!)

I just dropped Corie and Henry off at the airport this morning. I hadn’t seen Corie in about six years, and that was way before we were even thinking about babies. It was so much fun catching up with her and giggling about the “good old days” of high school. It was also the only visit that I took pictures of (sorry Marla and Jen!) Corie and I decided she would have to visit me again soon, six years is WAY too long.

Henry is such a cutie! I tried to get Corie to leave him, but she insisted that his grandparents and daddy would miss him.

My boys taught Henry some new tricks, like how to move chairs to better get what you want in high places.

Charlie also decided to showcase some of his new tricks….

Like this face.

And this cool pot holder trick.

And, of course, Maddie LOVED Henry, too.

And Noah? He still hides from the camera.

Our next visitors are not scheduled to come until December….but Charlie told me this morning he can’t wait to play with Mickey and Gigi. (Well, maybe not, but he did tell me: “I’m all clean Mama”, “I colored it purple and green”, and he has SO MUCH to say about his blue Buzz Lightyear shirt. I am truly amazed at the rate his vocabulary is expanding and his ability to use sentences!)

Charlie’s First Bloody Nose…and his love of Buzz

Yesterday Charlie and Noah were playing a chasing game. Basically, Charlie will run after Noah roaring, and then Noah will chase after Charlie yelling “NOAH!!!!!! NOAH!!!!” They can do this for hours. This time, the game was cut short when Charlie ran into the wall and gave himself a bloody nose. The sight of blood makes me queasy, so I gave Charlie lots of hugs while Sam and Maddie cleaned Charlie up and took pictures to commemorate the moment.

In the pictures, you might notice Charlie’s shirt. From the pictures I post on Facebook it may look like I never change Charlie’s clothes. Charlie LOVES his blue Buzz pajama shirt. When I put him down for a name he will dig through all of his dresser drawers until he finds it, then will put it on. Sometimes he will just randomly bring it to me and ask for help putting it on. When we change his diaper, he will cling to it and declare it “MY shirt”. Luckily, we have two sets of the pajama set this shirt came in so I try to have one in the laundry while he is wearing the other.