"Tatts" and Rock & Roll

Meet our ROCK STARS- complete with with "Tatt's" and CrAZy personalities!

Spencer and I both had a fabulous idea that came to mind... we decided that since we'll have 3 boys, all pretty close in age, we'll just capitalize on their good looks, train them to play instruments and we'll form our own multi-million dollar boy band sensation like Disney's Jonas Brothers! Great idea huh??? Or maybe since they'll all be in high school together, just one year apart from one another, we'll make them a TRIPLE THREAT in baseball, or football or some other sport. The possibilities are endless!!!

Quite a few people in the last month or two have brought to our attention a few good points to consider that I felt were worth mentioning in this post- like how each of the boys will be just one year behind each other in school- which can possibly mean that ALL THREE of the boys at one point or other during their adolescence could be fighting over the same girl; it could easily resemble the "Legends of the Fall" drama.

Another good point that has been brought up is that all three of our boys will "likely" be serving missions for the church all at the same time or back to back. Supporting one missionary can be pretty expensive- but THREE all at once- it will be a BANK BREAKER! Imagine the expenses between their missions and their college tuition's!!! You better believe we'll be teaching our boys what it means to "work hard, and save wise" once their old enough to push a lawn mower or clean windows.

Do you like how we've started to teach them the idea of "saving" already at such a young age? These are their "Missionary Banks". Noah loves to put whatever loose change he can find in his bank- he asks us for money ALL the time! Ian still doesn't understand fully the purpose of his bank, but he likes to copy Noah actions and put coins in the slot any chance we give him.

Remember last year at about this same time when I was blogging about how I was convinced Noah was a rock star?... well the "rock star" in Noah is back and I guess he's on tour now- only this time- he has a 2ND band member- his younger brother Ian! Together the two are a "RIOT"!!! For a while there both of the boys even had tattoos! Noah called it his "tatt"- he sported one of Mickey Mouse skateboarding, while Ian flashed a "tatt" of Pluto to admirers.

Now that Ian gets around independently on his own with out my help, he and Noah play a lot more often together. They seem to enjoy each others company- it's nice because they can distract and entertain each other allowing me to have a moment to myself sometimes during the day. Sometimes though- like brothers- they have their brawls too and I'm forced to take charge and separate the two. They have a "love-hate" relationship- "hate" is maybe not quite the word- but they do get frustrated with one another at times- at least once or twice a day. Like boys usually do though- they quickly forget about their squabbles, forgive each other, and they're back to being best friends again. They have a blast when they're chasing after each other- they both nearly choke cuz they're so exasperated from laughing so hard!

Ian is Noah's little shadow. He likes to follow Noah and play with whatever toys Noah may be playing with at the moment. Usually Noah doesn't mind Ian shadowing him or even borrowing a toy or two from him- but Noah does have his moments where he'd prefer to play alone and Ian doesn't quite understand, so it can lead to a push, sometimes resulting in some minor bumps or bruises, which then leads to crying, which then results in a separation of the two and "time-out" for Noah. DISCIPLINING is my least favorite responsibility as a parent- especially since Noah's our first and oldest child, so anytime we have to discipline him, it's all "TRIAL & ERROR": sometimes a technique works, sometimes it doesn't, and when the technique doesn't work- OHHHH it's SO FRUSTRATING!!! It's pretty pathetic when a two year manages to out-wit me! Where's my SUPER NANNY JOE?!

The boys like to party like "ROCK STARS" especially at night, right after bedtime. Just when we think they've fallen asleep, we'll hear the two boys from their room pounding on a set of drums, strumming a guitar, or yelling back and forth to each other from their beds. Sometimes I'll walk into their bedroom during the middle of the night to find their room TOTALLY TRASHED- every book and toy of theirs will be out and strewn across the carpet. I never put them to bed in a messy room- the mess is made by the boys, at night, in the dark!!! They must both have great night vision! They trash their room like rock stars trash hotels! Sometimes I've even walked in on Noah dancing around the room, in the dark, in his jammies, rocking out to a melody on his guitar, while Ian looks on and bounces up and down on his crib mattress as if it's a trampoline.

As a solution, I've gone to the extent of taping their light switches with masking tape (so Noah can't flip the lights on at 2 A.M.); I've also taken all the handles off of their closet doors and every night, just before bed, I gather all of their toys that are usually kept stored in toy boxes, and I shove everything into a closet that Noah can't open. No toys are allowed out until morning, after they've both woken up and been bathed and dressed. I'm a "killjoy". I realize I can't keep doing this forever; it's just a temporary solution for now, but it does seem to work. The boys don't get distracted by their toys any longer since they're not accessible to play with, so usually they just babble to each other in the dark for 10or 15 minutes before sleep sets in upon them. There were a few nights where Noah decided to take EVERY book off of his book shelf and meticulously arrange them in fashion order of one book in front of the other forming a "book bridge" (as he called it) from the door of his room, over to Ian's crib and then on to his own bed!!! I'm beginning to think Noah may be an engineer when he gets older- he loves to build things and he's very detailed oriented. That same night, Noah found a book of stickers and proceeded to line the stickers up along the railings on his bunk bed, one after the other. He was pretty proud of his work that following morning when I went in to wake him up- I explained to him that even though it looked nice, it couldn't stay, so I agreed to take a picture of his "sticker train" at his request and then I proceeded to peel EVERY sticker off of his bunk bed railing- it required lots of patience on my behalf...

Oh, I forgot to mention another restriction we had to enforce at night; I used to always let Noah listen to soft music as he fell asleep- he had his own little c.d. player right next to his bed. He loves listening to music, and it didn't take him long to figure out how to work the c.d. player. A few weeks ago, at 3 in the morning, Spencer woke up to hear music blasting on high from the boys room. He said he found Noah dancing in the dark to the music!!! I didn't witness it, but I can only imagine how funny he must had looked! The very next day during nap time, Noah tried to pull the same trick, so since then we've been storing the c.d. player away in the closet. During the day, the boys closet is very well organized and only has clothes it it- during the evening though- it's a TOTAL MESS!

The weather this last month here has been so UNPREDICTABLE and WEIRD! One day it's sunny and warm outside, the next day it's snowing lightly, or it's in the 90's and SWELTERING HOT, or it's gloomy and raining. It makes it a little difficult to plan ahead and plan for any outings with the boys. In fact, a few weeks ago, we'd been experiencing really nice weather- not too hot, not too cold... so I planned to take the boys to the Hogle Zoo. I hurried around all morning, getting them ready and finished some chores I had to do around the house and finally when we were ready to leave by noon, I opened the front door to find it SNOWING outside! UMMMM yeah!...needless to say, we didn't visit the zoo that day. I ended up taking them the following day, because surprisingly it ended up being another beautiful, warm sunny day despite having just snowed the day before.

Spencer's taken Noah on a couple of occasions out miniature golfing. I've never gone with the two of them, but every time Noah comes back he's pretty stoked and excited about his "outings with dad". He likes to grab Ian's empty bottles and swing them as if they're golf clubs and knock balls around the house. He's quite creative. He also likes to use Ian's empty baby bottles and pretend they're pirate swords!!! He's still OBSESSED with pirates, especially CAPTAIN HOOK- forget the hero Peter Pan- who's that?! seriously he only likes Hook and Smee! During the day, he usually sings Disney's Pirate of the Caribbean song at least 10 or 12 times a day- instead of saying "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" he says "Ho, Ho, Ho, Yo a pirates life for me"-it's so stinking cute to listen to him sing it- I don't have the heart to correct his his lyrics. This last Sunday I replaced the CD in his music player that had his pirate songs on it with a Children's Primary CD- he was definitely NOT happy with me- he wanted his pirate music on! We don't actually own any fake pirate swords, or any toy pistols, but despite the lack thereof of - Noah's been innovative and has decided that sticks outside can be swords, or pencils and pens, or butter knifes at the dinner table. The kid's got an imagination. Be careful sword fighting with him though- he'll grab a huge tree branch outside as his own sword and then try to offer you a tiny twig to use as your sword- something tells me he knows he's got the bigger advantage with the tree branch.

He's growing up so fast and he's learning things so quickly these days, it just AMAZES me. He can count to 20, and he can actually count objects to see how many there are. He also knows a lot of his alphabet- and he's beginning to point out letters on signs as we're driving to places or when we're in the store. The other week we were down in Provo and he kept pointing out the letter "Y" on the mountain. He's also learning all of his colors, and he's learned that while we're driving, red means "stop" and green means "go". His vocabulary is continuing to expand immensely, and his comments from observations he's made have been pretty impressive. Two or three weeks ago, we were driving on the freeway at night and it was just after 8:30. The moon was already out, but it hadn't yet gotten dark because the sun was still out too. Noah noticed both the moon and the sun were in the sky and it must had confused him slightly, because he made the following comment: "Mommy, sun still out at night with moon"- then he asked "why". I wasn't quite sure how to explain "why" to him. I was however totally shocked and impressed by the nature of his observation! He's a smart cookie.

Spencer and I are both pleased to say that Noah's finally beginning to piece together his own prayers. He can't say a prayer yet on his own, but he does remember during prayer that it's important to bless our prophet "Thomas S. Monson" (and yes- he REALLY does know the prophet's complete name), and he remembers to mention thanks for temples and missionaries, and he's learned how to close the prayer. He's perhaps the loudest person in all of sacrament to say "Amen"- it's slightly embarrassing- cuz sometimes he'll say it before the prayers actually over, but I love to hear him say it because he says it so enthusiastically- sometimes I'm afraid I just say it out of vain repetition.

Oh before I forget to mention- something funny I have to add about Noah is that he's decided to call belly buttons "baby tunnels"!!! I'm not even sure that he ever heard anyone call a belly button a "baby tunnel", in fact I'm almost positive he made the name up himself- but isn't that funny??? He just looked at my tummy one night and pointed to my naval and said "baby tunnel". It was even more funny when he turned to Spencer afterwards, pointed to his hairy belly button and called his a "baby tunnel" too!!! Noah's a HOOT!

Ian's growing up so quickly too! He just turned 1 a little over a month ago on the 9TH. I wish I actually had more pictures from his birthday party we threw for him but my dumb camera and memory card experienced an error so all the pictures we took at the party were totally deleted before I could download them onto my computer! Camera woes!!! Speaking of cameras... Noah has developed an interest in photography-it's too cute... he'll find my digital camera in my room and come out and say "Mommy, say cheese, 1.2.3." and then he'll actually take the picture! I'm impressed that he can even figure out how to turn on the camera- let alone, look through the lens and actually snap the picture- I know adults who have difficulty doing this. I would normally discourage him from playing with my camera, but since our camera's on the "outs" I figure I may as well let him use it- maybe he'll grow up to be a world famous photographer!

Noah loves to be outside, and just recently he's started to pay more attention to "creepy crawlys" outside. Ants really fascinate him, along with potato bugs. Just the other day he was collecting ants from off the ground and putting them on his slide, where he'd then proceed to push them down the slide. I suppose he thought the ants would enjoy a ride down the slide just as he does himself. He has to be slightly careful because if somethings kind a gross- like a slimy worm, he has an annoying gag reflex that makes him dry heave. It's something I've only noticed him doing this last month and I think it's self taught- he's also started to dry heave at times if he's around me while I'm changing a REALLY STINKY poopy diaper of Ian's. It's too funny to watch- but at the same time it makes me nervous wondering whether he's actually going to make himself vomit. He's really been into snakes, so it was a real treat a couple weeks back when he spotted a gardener snake out back in the yard by his sand box. It didn't scare him at all, in fact I'm positive he would have tried to pick it up had I not told him to stay away from it. He's ALL BOY!!! Did I forget to add he's picked up a new bad habit I'm sure most little boys pick up somewhere along the line. He likes to spit- not at people thankfully, but he does this spit thing where he'll spit a lugee, let it hang for a second and then slurp it back up- I'm not sure what it's called- it's a boy thing though and it's SO DISGUSTING! I've also caught him on a couple of occasions recently picking his boogers and eating them! Yuck! Yep he's all boy- boogers, spit, and stinky feet!

Anyhow, I mentioned it was Ian's birthday. I feel awful we didn't get any good pictures from the party- I did however capture a lot of video of Ian digging into his birthday cake- he LOVED eating the cake, and he actually ate most it!

At his 1 year "well check" doctors appointment, Ian topped the charts!!! He's strong and healthy just like Iron Man. He's in the 80TH percentile for weight- (24 pounds, 12 ounces), only 1 1/2 pounds lighter than Noah is RIGHT NOW- his head is measuring in the 90TH percentile and he's in the 95TH percentile for height!!! I had to add exclamation marks after noting his height because he's always been really tall, so maybe, just maybe there's a possibility that he'll reach 6 feet in his teens! Spencer would absolutely LOVE if Ian were tall and could play basketball! I'm afraid Noah though will NEVER be tall- he's always been in the 0 or 10th percentile for measurements and he's much shorter than a lot of kids his age. It's funny because the two boys are practically the same size- you can't tell Noah's still taller than Ian by an inch or two when they're sitting next to each other in a shopping cart, so just imagine how many people stop me to comment on my TWINS!!! It happens all the time! If I try to correct someone and tell them the boys aren't twins, they immediately assume they're cousins, or maybe just good friends- it NEVER occurs to anyone that they're actually brothers and they're 20 months apart in age from one another!

Ian's growing in his 6th tooth- as of date he already has his two bottom teeth and 4 teeth on top! I can't believe how many teeth he has already, because I think Noah only had one tiny tooth when he turned a year old. OHHHH, Ian has this really annoying habit of grinding his teeth!!!... he does it ALL THE TIME! The sound of his teeth grinding drives me NUTS!

He's always in "perpetual motion" from the moment he wakes up in the morning to the moment I lay him down to sleep either for nap time or bedtime. He's definitely MUCH more active than Noah had been at his age. The boy keeps me on my toes! I'm SO THANKFUL HE NAPS- I can't imagine how exhausted I'd be if he NEVER slept during the day.

He still doesn't walk yet on his own, but I don't think it will be long before he takes his first steps- and then from there I imagine he'll be off and running! He likes to walk around things, and sometimes he'll walk in between pieces of furniture, only holding onto a chair leg with one pinky finger for support. He can even stand up on his own from sitting position.

He LOVES to look at books. He also LOVES to dance and play with musical instruments. He's fascinated by the piano that Spencer's parents have upstairs in their living room. He's much too busy to worry or be interested in anything that may be on television. Ian's a very curious little boy. He's CONSTANTLY into something he shouldn't be playing with- and I call him the "DESTROYER" because he usually comes along and destroys something Noah has built or something I had just arranged and put back in place. It's frustrating at times, but I have to appreciate his desire to discover new things and be hands on. He likes water, but doesn't LOVE it like his brother- after having had him in swimming lessons though I can see he's gotten way more comfortable in it and enjoys a good soak. He doesn't mind sitting on the grass, but he HATES crawling on the grass. It doesn't matter how far from the patio we're seated while sitting on the grass, he'll crawl IMEDIATELY from the grass over onto the cement patio just to be off the grass! He hates having his diaper changed or getting dressed or undressed- funny fact about Ian- I can't tell you how many times I've walked into his bedroom in the morning to find him partially undressed! Somehow the kid manages to squirm out of his pajama bottoms, and I've even found him once or twice with his shirt off and just hanging around his neck! Noah even still has a hard time undressing himself! Funny fact about Noah though- over the last week or two he's been undressing himself down to the bare nude!!! I've found him in his bed after naps completely diaperless because he undoes them! I guess I should be happy it's starting to get warm outside just in case the boys decide to be NUDISTS- at least they won't get pneumonia!!!

It's been so much fun watching the boys play together, learn and grow. I'm excited to see what kind of brothers they'll be to our new addition.

Before I close, I thought I'd share another funny story about the boys for memory's sake. About two weeks I let both boys go upstairs while I was putting away the vacuum. I followed them upstairs about 5 minutes later to find Noah running around the house with this pendulum type thing-a-ma-jiggy that came off of my mother in-laws Grandfather Clock. I panicked immediately because I thought Noah had broken the clock- it never really worked before- but I could just imagine how upset it would make my mother in-law to see her fathers Grandfather Clock totally destroyed by my two little monsters! I quickly grabbed the pendulum thingy and shoved it back inside the clocks case and then gated off that room with a child gate so the boys wouldn't go back in there to tinker with things they ought not to play with. Well, here's the funny/interesting point to my story- as I mentioned before, the clock hadn't worked for years!!! In fact, I remember just after Spencer and I first moved into the Campbell's house, nearly 3 years ago, Les and Linda finally hired some old guy to come over and fix the clock. It worked for about 2 days, but then it just quit again. The old man was supposed to come back and fix it, but he'd already left for a vacation out of state, and my father in law said he never returned because the old man unexpectantly died on vacation. Apparently there aren't too many people any more who work and know how to fix Grandfather Clocks, so imagine what we all thought one by one as each of us heard the clock chiming, every quarter hour 2 weeks ago just after the boys were tinkering with it!!! Somehow, in the midst of their mischief, the boys managed to get the clock to WORK again- and it's actually only off by 2 minutes!!! It's so funny and bizarre!