Remember when?

Remember when I used to post about my kids and all the cute little things that they were doing mainly so I could go back and read it some day and remember myself? I really need to start doing that again. I don't get around to posting something and then something new happens and then I think I better post that but I'll have to allow extra time because I will have to talk about two things so I don't do it and then a third thing happens and I realize if I don't have time to write about that one along with the other two I am going to eventually have to post a giant run on sentence like this one to try to fit everything in.

Let us begin.

Marcus:
There are times when I just look at him now and realize that those days of being my little baby are long gone and it won't be that much longer before toddlerhood is behind us too. Two months ago I made a list of all the words that he knew out of curiosity. I couldn't even possibly make a list now because everyday he is saying more and more words and it is impossible to count them all. His mind is thinking so fast that his language frequently involves him just interrupting himself with words on top of words. If he doesn't know a word for something he says, "What's this?" Sure enough, next time he sees that object he knows what it is called.

He LOVES pointing at things and telling you who they belong to. I am sure this comes from us constantly saying, "You can't have that. It's Mommy's." Like the wise young man that he is, he pretty much realizes that everything around here is mine so there is lots of pointing and saying "Mommy" around here.

Last week we were visiting with my parents and my mom got out a whiffle ball bat and a ball. She and I decided to show Marcus how to use it. I helped Marcus hold the bat and my mom tossed the ball. We swung the bat and ball bounced off the bat and we all cheered. Marcus decided he didn't need our help anymore. He took the bat and held it at one end with one hand while the other end rested on the ground. With his free hand he threw the ball at the bat. And of course he cheered if the ball bounced off the bat. You show that kid something one time and he TOTALLY gets it!

Today we were playing with nesting blocks, something we haven't played with too often. It was great sitting there watching Marcus with them, figuring out exactly how to get all of them nested together. It was like watching him learn before my own eyes.

Marcus is totally into kisses. When Greg gets home from work he races Greg over to me to try to kiss me before Greg gets a chance. He has been handing out lots of random kisses too - to Greg, Will, the dog, the top of the gallon milk jug. While visiting my parents the other day, Marcus ran over to my dad and started making kissy faces at him. I told my dad that Marcus wanted to kiss him. After Marcus planted one on his cheek, my perpetually straight faced, dad who tries his best not to get emotional about anything was grinning from ear to ear.

Will:
He is 17 months now. How did that happen? I realized the other day that he has been home for 6 months now. I knew there was a reason that I could barely believe life without him in this house. From day 1, he has always been quite the babbler. He will go on and on in these animated monologues full of gibberish. All of a sudden all that gibberish has turned into words. I am not even sure I can count how many words he has now but I am thinking it won't be too long before he catches up with Marcus. These are his words off the top of my head.
Hi
Bye-bye
Pay (for our dog)
Ball
Book
More
Down
Bowl
Spoon
Diaper
This
Vroom (meaning car)
Potty
No (which is entirely overused in my opinion)
Yes
Away
Excuse Me
Please
Night-night
Pap-pap
(and the best word of all) Mommy
There are lots of other words that he will say if you say them first and he is repeating you. He does say daddy but usually only when I prompt him.

Will has been doing lots of playing with Marcus lately. Up until a few weeks ago there were some interactions that didn't just involve him stealing something from Marcus. Now they play together all the time. They chase each other and make each other laugh and wrestle (which I think is going to need to come to a stop soon) and hide from each other and find each other. Oh, and of course they still fight with each other but for the most part they do get along. Will does still have such a great laugh and spends a lot of time smiling.

The only downside right now is that Will is 17 months. Thankfully, only a few more months to go for him to stop driving me completely insane some days. There are lots of whining and temper tantrums. He flashed my sister one of those devilish grins the other day and she said that, oddly, he looked exactly like his rather mischievous Uncle Willie (my brother). One of Will's favorite past times is making sure that you are watching him while he smiles that ornery smile at you and does something he knows he is going to get in trouble for. (My brother is 33 and STILL does this so maybe the fact that Will is 17 months has nothing to do with this.) I do my best (although sometimes my best just plain sucks) to stay patient when he keeps repeating the same bad behavior over and over again despite my repeated attempts to get him to learn the rules. We started timeout for Marcus officially at 17 months so we are introducing Will to it now too. We have been putting him in the timeout chair sometimes over the past few weeks when he throws temper tantrums just so he isn't screaming in our faces or standing under our feet. Sometimes now he sits in the timeout chair on his own and pretends to cry which is just plain funny. Today I started to yell at him for doing something he had just been told not to do. He ran over and hugged me. Yeah, he already knows where my soft spot is.

The Pooch:
The pooch is finally beginning to rejoin our family. It isn't all the time yet but she has realized that just because there are two little kids running around and one of them (Will) loves her so much that he has to lay on her constantly, it doesn't mean that the only place for her to be is asleep on her bed.

Greg:
He is busy at work as usual. He has also been pretty busy around the house. We are moving. We don't really know where to yet but it will likely be somewhere a little closer to my parents' and sister. Sometimes I am really excited but other times, not so much. Moving is just such a big deal and we have yet to find a house that really blows us away. Also, I really do love this house. The yard is great. The neighborhood is great. The schools are great. The proximity to everything (apart from our family) is great. I also know that although we could definitely stay in this house forever, a little more space would be a bonus for sure. I'm not sure really when our house will be on the market. Our real estate agent came over to talk to us today and suggest a few things that we might want to consider doing before it gets listed. Once that is all taken care of, I guess the big sign will go out in our front yard.

Me:
I have been getting up at 5:15 every morning to work out. You don't have to tell me how insane this is. I already know. You can tell me how fabulous I look though since I have lost 6 lbs. Sure, 5 of those pounds were ones that I have gained over the winter but you don't have to mention that part. These past few days, the only other thing I have been doing in my free time (yes, I really do have some) is watching Grey's Anatomy. I never watched this show. I started watching season 1 on Saturday. By Monday I was done with season 1 and an episode into season 2. I have no idea what the appeal is really but I must say, I certainly don't mind the scenes with Patrick Dempsey in them at all. (How did I miss how hot that guy is all this time??) In conclusion, I also am going to attempt to post more often in hopes to avoid these massively long posts. (And no Amanda, my keyboard didn't break as a result of my marathon blog entries.) For now, I am outta here. My kids are napping and I have some Grey's Anatomy to watch.