I love the way Logan calls animals and things “cute” with the sweetest accent. I love how he says “hi” and “bye” in a very high pitched voice.

I love how Forest dances around all the time…always prancing around on his tip toes dancing. And how he’s started singing.

I love how the boys want to do the hokie pokie and other silly songs with body movements. How they actually try and say/sing the words and do the hand/body motions.

I love that Logan wants to climb and crawl all over Brad but understands that he can’t play that way with Mommy. I love how he calls out for daddy at night and mommy won’t do.

I love that Forest always calls for me in the morning. That he gets in bed with me for cuddles and sometimes even goes back to sleep for a bit in my arms.

I love how Logan still can’t get enough of being outside no matter how bad the weather or how cold it is. The kid could live outside.

I love how Forest props up his bunny and pacifier to “watch” him play outside or eat a meal.

I love that the boys help each other and bring each other things. That even though they spend their days complaining about touching each other (the grocery cart has become a nightmare!) they cuddle up together before bed or naps.

I love that the boys learn new words daily and I can’t even begin to keep up with their vocabulary. That they are able to use words like “wow”, “cute” and “fun” appropriately without ever having them explained to them.

I love hearing the boys try to count things. Now that they know the words for various numbers, they are always trying to count but get the numbers in the wrong order. They even seem to have favorite numbers, Forest’s is “five”.

From this:

From Birth

To this:

From 1 year photos

To this:

From Record Cover

In all three of those pictures, Forest is on the right and Logan on the left. I didn’t do that on purpose, it just happened that way. I love synchronicity.

They were flirting with a grandmother in the grocery store today and she said to me “you are so blessed.” She has no idea.

They’ve entered the phase where they love songs and especially songs with hand motions. Like the hokie pokie, and itsy bitsy spider. Talk about an easy way to change a crazy siblings fighting over the same toy situation into fun and giggles. There are a couple that are so easy, they say them to us instead of the other way around. Thanks to Brad’s Owl clan for the banana song for Forest and to Kerry Lemon for the Bear in the Garden game that makes both boys giggle.

At dinner time the day after we got back Logan did not want to get into his chair to eat.  He was just saying “no” over and over and would throw a fit if I tried to pick him up or anything, so instead of telling him to get in his chair to eat, I asked him “Do you want to get in your chair with a spoon or do you want to get in your chair with a fork?”  He looked at me and said “Spoon!”  So then I asked “Do you want a red spoon or do you want a blue spoon?”  By the time he answered “Blue!” he had climbed up into his chair and was ready to eat.

First, ever since the Childrens’ Retreat out at Earthsprings Forest has been obsessed with M&Ms.  Dawn had made some trail-mix snacks for all the children to take on nature walks and they had M&Ms in them.  Now, Forest will just randomly ask me for “Ms?” with a sly grin on his face…  He did this a number of times during our trip and I had to tell him “No, I don’t have any Ms!”  He would then try and negotiate with me and hold up one finger and say “Ms?”  When I said no he’d hold up four fingers and say “Ms?”  I think once he understands quantity he’ll be a much more adept negotiator, but what he really needs to understand is when there really are no Ms to negotiate for in the first place. (:

Also, while packing up a box of toys to take with us I told the boys to put toys they wanted to take into the box.  Both boys started putting things in and then one of them ponited at the ball-pit I’ve made for them out of a portable crib and said “balls?”  I told them that we couldn’t take all of them (there are 300) but that they could take one of each color.  The boys climbed into the ball pit and started handing me balls.  I put one of each color into the box and handed them back the ones that we already had in the box saying “No, we already have that color!”  Once all of the colors were in the box, Forest looks at me for a few seconds (I could almost see the gears cranking), and then picks up two green balls and looks at me and says “Green?”

Really…  now how can I say no to that? (:

Eight or nine green balls in the box later he decided to try and sneak some other colors in but I wasn’t having it…

The obvious post to make at this time of year with a cookie theme would be pictures of the boys making Christmas cookies for their first time. However, I’ve decided to save that experience for later this month when my mom arrives. So you’ll have to wait a few more weeks for those images. To tide you over I thought you might like to see just why I felt that waiting to make the cookies with my Mom was so important.

Because that’s what I loved to do when I was a kid! One of my fondest memories of childhood is making Christmas cookies with my mother every year.

I’ll also leave you with one of my favorite cookie recipes of all time. I love these things. So much so that I didn’t have enough regular oatmeal on Monday and made them with maple. And now they are too sweet and I can only eat like a half at a time. But I love them!

No Bake Cookies:

INGREDIENTS
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup margarine
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 pinch salt
* 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
* 3 cups quick cooking oats

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, cocoa, milk and margarine. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oats.
2. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow cookies to cool for at least 1 hour.

Ever since their ability to crawl out of their cribs began a few months back, they love to fall asleep in the same bed.  At first we thought it was just Logan but recently Forest has been the one making the cross room trip to sleep in Logan’s bed.

Another touching example was today when Forest wouldn’t come outside to play with Logan and I because it meant having to leave behind his bunny blanket.  Right now the boys are teething something awful and we’ve been letting Forest keep his pacifier more then the usual “naps and bedtime” rule.  But with him, having the pacifier is only one half of the equation, he also has to have his bunny/blanket.  It’s cute and all but not good for playing outside in all the fall leaves.  So he played inside by himself while Logan and I ran around the backyard together.  Logan kept asking for Forest.  “Bruder?” and I’d have to explain that he didn’t want to come outside.  A few minutes would pass until Logan ran to the door “bruder?”  When Forest finally did come outside, I was pretty much ignored as the two boys ran around the yard exploring the world together.

It’s been an awesome experience to see how different two people can be from birth.  And also awesome to see how two brothers are already so deeply bonded even if they have already started fighting over space with lots of kicks and pushes enough to make a momma crazy.

Not five minutes after hitting “post”, I sent the following twitter message: Listening to Logan yell “my bed – go!” at Forest after having written a sweet post about twin bonding.

Logan’s started this obsessive behavior where he gets an idea into his head and won’t let go of it which then leads to tantrums. But thanks to the suggestion by a wise woman at a recent retreat I attended, we’ve been talking Logan down with happy thoughts. We ask him about the things we did that day and he starts changing his thought pattern and talking to us instead of crying. It’s an amazing technique that will hopefully also teach him a future coping skill for life.

Logan’s also taken the word “mine” to the typical two year old extreme. Everything is “mine”. Not sure what technique to use with that one but I tend to say “No, that’s yours and Forests.” Or “no, that’s the family’s” or whatever the case may be.

Tomorrow the boys head off with Dusty to visit his family for the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m excited that they will get to see so many of their Aunts and Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, and Great Grandparents. Once again my mentioning it has Forest jumping through the roof to get to that day and go see Nana and Pa, as they call Grandparents. I love how no matter what words we use, they come up with their own anyway.

Brad and I are headed to Earthsprings for Thanksgiving, to visit with good friends who have become extended family to us over the years. It will be different and fun to spend the holiday in the woods.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!