Week by Week 30

(January 17-23) I'll just start this post by saying that Brian went to Paris this week. We had an interesting week. It started off quite well. A few weeks before, we had gone to Conforama and bought a new mattress. Our Ikea mattress was killing our backs and so we decided that it was worth spending a bit of money to save our backs all the pain they were in. The mattress arrived on Wednesday the 20th. It is so much better than what we had before. Here we are playing on it! Well, here are the boys playing on it. Bimmy loves playing on our bed and Johnny-Lu is learning to love it too. They had so much fun testing out the new bed.This was a good place for Johnny-Lu to practice his crawling with a soft landing ensured.
He loves just rolling around on the bed. And he loves eating his toes too!
James always has a hard time when Brian leaves. There were a few times when he woke up crying for Daddy! It makes sleep schedules a bit harder to stick to but I do it anyway. Bubba just wasn't his usual happy self without Daddy around.
John-Luke was very determined to finish this crawling thing. He was practicing so hard all week. Can you see that look of determination on his face as he goes for another try.
Love this kid! But he was very naughty this week as you will see later.
Finally, a smile!
Silly Bubba!
Isn't he just the cutest baby ever? He just melts my heart!
We are fully into teething with no teeth to show for it. We do, on the other hand, have lots of drool and chewing everything in sight to show for it. And some chapped skin from all the drool.
Poor little chapped face. Still cute and happy as ever.
More happiness.
And more. I was still having lots of fun with my camera this week. We have to amuse ourselves somehow. The boys do NOT sleep at the same time right now so it is hard to really get out without hurting someone's schedule (almost always Johnny-Lu's).
I'm still hopeful for some hair.
More crawling practice. He was getting so good by the end of the week. It was interesting to see how fast he progressed. I was talking to Brian all week about his progress (on the phone) and he really wasn't crawling when he left and by the time he got home he was definitely crawling (slowly but still).
And James! Where do I start with my big boy Bubba? First off. I must take some responsibility as I did this. Yes, I tied the cupboards shut. This is where I keep the chocolate that I use to bribe James to do things (like get dressed without a fit). It is also where we keep all the medicine and vitamins. I found that every time I nursed or cleaned or didn't have my full attention on James he would rush into the kitchen and push a chair over to the counter and get into this cupboard and start pounding down as much chocolate as he could before I caught him. This was my solution. Notice his little hand trying to get it off!Do you want to know what James did instead of this every time my attention was elsewhere? Read on.
Looks like he took a shower? Not so. What he did do was take a stool into the bathroom and climb up to the shelf where I keep my hair balm (it is like pure grease that I use a very tiny amount of on occasion). Well, James took it and decided that if a tiny amount is good then huge handfuls in his hair would be great! He also got it all over our old mattress that I had in the hallway cuz I couldn't get it out of the apartment alone.
After he did this he then proceeded to take a bag of rasins (yes, rasins) and dump it out onto the mattress (at least it wasn't my new one) and spread it around. He liked how they bounced when he jumped on the mattress. When I finally got to him (he was unsupervised for about 5 minutes while I nursed Johnny-Lu) he threw a huge fit about getting the stuff wiped out of his hair. It was all I could do to take a dry handtowel to his head to clean off the excess. Needless to say it was still in his hair when Brian got home the next day. Shampoo was just not cutting it. It actually took about 3 days to get it to wash out completely. Yuck! That was Thursday.
Friday was even better. I left my purse on the counter. Duh! Why didn't I put it in the tied up cupboard? I should have. I went to the bathroom and changed a load of laundry and then found this! He told me he was painting his eyebrows. What? Who does that? And he obviously didn't stop there. It was just too much fun. Can you tell how proud he is of his accomplishment. He was so excited to see himself in the mirror and he threw another fit when I insisted on wiping it off his face. He wanted to wear it all day. He was still in his jammies (it was first thing in the morning).
Later in the day we went shopping. I decided that I deserved a chocolate cake from the store. I bought it. I hid it up very high. James found it and climbed up and was enjoying it by the fistful when I found him. He was very excited. He saw me and started prancing around and taking huge handfuls. Naughty little guy. He was very proud of this moment too. At least he didn't throw a fit about getting his hands and face washed. He did insist on seeing his "chocolate face" before getting washed.
James also was able to get to a half full bag of split peas and he proceeded to spread that all over the living room. While Johnny-Lu was sitting there. This one actually made me pretty mad! I had just vacuumed the living room and was in the hallway when he came running in to tell me what he had done. He just said, "Uh oh! Mess!" Then he said, "Purpose!" Meaning he did it on purpose. I put him in his room for a few minutes while I cleaned it up as quickly as possible. Johnny-Lu was totally irritated when he was confined to the port-a-crib instead of being able to get at all those peas! All I can say is that it was a good thing Brian got home that evening! I was done! I have to give props to any single moms out there. It is tough work. Even when Brian gets home after the boys are asleep (that happens a lot right now) it is still so helpful just to have him around. He always helps with the cleaning (especially folding and putting away the laundry which I hate).
Despite all the ups and downs of the week it ended on a high note. We decided to take the boys to the Tropiquarium on Saturday. We went about a year ago and James really liked it. It was fun this time too. The boys were good and we enjoyed ourselves. It is about an hour away from our house. There are lots of tropical animals (lizards, crocodiles, turtles, bugs, birds, fish, frogs, snakes) and some not so tropical ones (penguins). James kept calling the crocodiles dinosaurs. And he loved when they fed the penguins. It was a great! James even got a new stuffed snake that he has been sleeping with ever since. If you are in the Geneva area you might enjoy a trip there as a family. It is small enough to see it in a couple hours so it is great for those of us who have to rush home for naps!

Week by Week 29

(January 10-16). With all the hard readjusting to Geneva time behind us we had a great week! We did a lot of picture taking and here is but a small sample of our picture taking frenzy. A self-portrait that isn't too flattering of me but Bubba looks so darn cute! Two of the happiest boys in the world!
Bubba happily playing on his daddy.
Two brothers! They are so good together.
Yummy thumb! Johnny-Lu decided to master the art of sitting up. I mean sitting himself up from a crawling position. He just worked and worked at it! Can you even resist that yummy baby? No wonder James takes a nip every now and then.
Still no teeth but plenty of drooling.
This is James getting mad because I won't let him use my new camera. He juts out his little chin and furrows his little brows just like me when he gets frustrated.
Johnny-Lu also worked on perfecting his crawl but that took a bit longer to do. He was still lunging and army crawling around this week. Check out those muscles!
More practice.
James attempting to smile (not super natural yet but we're working on it).
Another attempt. Don't mind the inside of my dirty blinds or James' dirty shirt.
Some drooling.
John-Luke decided he does like playing with a pacifier (I think it helps his gums). I wonder if he will ever get hair.
But when you are this cute do you really need hair?
Chilling together.
Up close and personal.
Loving my new camera. Doesn't James have beautiful eyes?
More smile practice.
Hmm?
Yes, we had a lot of fun this week. No, we didn't leave the house too much. It was super cold and yucky out so we stayed safely tucked inside and played with our camera. Stay tuned. I'm determined to get this blog caught up! At least I'm not falling behind more!

Week by week 28

(January 3-9) This was a week of (well let's just say not a week of good sleep). James (and Johnny-Lu but mostly James) did not adjust quickly to Geneva time. It was hard. Waking up at 2 a.m. to play and then sleeping in till 2 p.m. I'm just glad that school hadn't started yet for me. So what did we do while trying to readjust to Geneva time? Well, Johnny-Lu got his first food (on Jan. 4th). It was rice cereal from Daddy! Doesn't he look excited? Well, James was excited enough for both of them.Not too impressed.
Loving it!
Can you tell?
Wait! I think it may be growing on him. Or maybe it is just that Daddy was smiling at him.
Here is some video of James enjoying the baby food.
It also snowed a lot this week. It started the day after we got home and it snowed for a few days. A lot! They even shut down the airport here for a while. It was the most snow that they have had here in many years (like decades). Here are Brian and James going for a sled down our "hill" in the back.
Can you see the snow?
Well you can for sure see it here. Brian and James (mostly James) lasted about 30 minutes before coming inside from cold fingers. They made snow angels and threw snowballs at me in addition to the sledding.
Here is some video of James sledding with Brian.

Another day, it was my turn to go out in the freezing. James was blowing the snow away with his leafblower. Yes, he also ate the snow.
James seems to get lots of bruises. Perhaps it is because he is such a climber and has no fear of trying new things. Funny since he is always making sure the the baby doesn't to anything that he deems dangerous.
Johnny-Lu worked on his moving skills and sitting skills. He was just starting to move (army crawl) at this time.He got really motivated when James left his sippy cup within reach. (It is only water).James thinks that Johnny's night time bed (yes we move him into the living room at night) is his personal play area/treasure chest. He likes to hide things under the mattress. It took me a while one day to find all the butter knives until he revealed where they were hidden under there.
James also played a lot more with his Christmas toys. Here he is bowling. He really gets a kick out of this game.Overall, it was a relaxing yet stressful week as we tried to adjust (it literally took 8 or 9 days to get James back to normal and a lot of crying in bed). We also spent much time inside since it was so cold outside and wet and muddy and slushy. It was impossible to push my stroller through it all. (This prompted me to buy yet another stroller #4 which will hopefully solve this problem and similar problems in the future). And last but not least, here is a video of James singing (and playing on my bed). He loves to sing and perform. Enjoy!

Week by week 27

(December 27-January 2). Ahh! The end of a year! The last week of 2009 was also our last week in Utah. We spent the remainder of our time at my parents house . This is what we did.
James played a lot. He played with Grandma Shelley (and a balloon). He also got a haircut halfway through the week. You can easily see which pictures are pre and post haircut. It snowed this week and James helped with the shoveling (with help from his cousin Ashlyn). He also further helped to destroy my mom's Christmas tree. (Sorry mom!) And he played with his toys. It was a good week with family.
John-Luke got lots of attention from his aunt Karen (notice her sniffing his head in one of the pictures). He played with all of his grandparents and worked on his cuteness and crawling skills. John-Luke also turned 6 months old this week! The time has flown by with this little guy. He is truly an angel! I get comments daily (no lie) from friends to random strangers on how good and calm he is. He is so nice to have around. He makes our life so much better and we "lub" him to death!
This week Brian and I continued to take advantage of having "help" around. We took some self-portraits with my new camera! Aren't we cute? And we also took some naps and ran some errands.
Here is my dad! He did great with James and John-Luke and helped out a lot. James now likes to make "Edpa shakes" all the time so that he can be healthy and big just like Edpa! Every time we give him a cup or anything that can be imagined to be a cup he pretends to make a shake (sound effects and all). It is great! He sure loves his Edpa!
I also very much enjoyed irritating my brother "Boy" (as he affectionately called in our family). I'm not sure what it is about him but he sure is fun to bug! No, we haven't grown up enough to not bother each other yet! We have too much fun doing it. We played lots of games and I love to rub it in every time I win (I'm pretty competitive). It was the most I've seen him in a while.
And here is my super-smart, amazing, talented, accommodating mom! Thanks for a great stay! She got us food that we liked to eat and helped a lot with those early mornings when the kids were not adjusted (like 4 am or earlier). She also got strep throat from James (as did my sister, Wu and my brother-in-law, Nick). (Sorry again!) My mom even liked my haircut so much that she went and got one for herself. She has more bangs though. Isn't she a hottie?
I also did A LOT of shopping this last week to make sure that I had everything I wanted to take home with me (thank heaven for Amazon Prime shipping)!
We flew back to Geneva on December 31, 2009 (yes, we spent New Year's in the air and no, they didn't make a fuss about it while we were flying). We arrived Jan. 1, 2010. So we had a pretty uneventful New Year's but I must say that it was the easiest flight with 2 kids that we have had so far. No meltdowns and not too many wiggles either (considering their respective ages). When we got home we just tried very unsuccessfully to readjust. We ended up paying for 2 extra bags and 4 of our 5 bags were overweight. They had pity on us and didn't charge anything for the overweight even though they were over by more than a couple pounds!
When we got home only 2 of our bags arrived with us so we were able to take 1 taxi (instead of 2) home and save that money. They delivered our bags later that afternoon. Here are a few pics of us after we arrived home. Can you tell Brian was wishing he were in bed and not helping with kids at 2 am? I was too!
In case you didn't know, John-Luke is VERY ticklish! It is so fun to torture that baby! And James had fun running around in his mushroom hat that he got at a primary activity.
As fun as it is to go see family it is also super fun to be home!