San Jose Children's Museum

We took the boys to the San Jose Children's Museum for the first time today and they LOVED it! There is an amazing infant room with lots of activities and places to crawl around. Someday when they are walking and a little older we will enjoy all the other activities of the museum but for today we stuck to the infant room and had plenty to do! They even learned how to crawl up and down stairs! I think a yearly family pass will be a Christmas or birthday request for next year! :)

11-Months-Old

Only one more of these monthly posts. Holy cow. Where has the year gone?! It's funny how pregnancy feels like it takes fooorrreevvveerrr but once they're here time flies!

Lucas is cruising along and transferring between objects. He is working on standing on his own but isn't there quite yet. I'm not in a rush for either of them to walk so that's okay with this momma! Andrew has recently started cruising and transferring between objects but does so very cautiously. He loves to shake anything that makes noise! Both boys love to practice turning pages of books and they still love being read to. They love music and they raise their little pudgy arms in the air and shake them about while they smile and laugh. It's seriously adorable. One of Lucas's other favorite things is to roll around in our play tent and snuggle with the stuffed puppies. It's also seriously adorable. Andrew loves to snuggle too (mainly he snuggles me) but he prefers his monkey pacifier more than just about anything in the world and gets so excited when they are reunited. It's one of my favorite things to see. They both love to rough house with daddy, getting tickled, swinging at the park, playing in the tunnel together, eating, splashing in the bath (Matt and I say that we end up in the Splash Zone), and playing "toss" with a ball. Both boys are also really into sharing, helping, and feeding people. Okay they're not really doing those things but they think they are. They hand you a toy they're playing with (and then take it back), want to feed one another (or change diapers if you make the mistake of trying to change one of them on the floor), and like to put pretend food to your mouth to hear you say "num num num." They are full of giggle and smiles!

My heart beats like crazy for these little boys, I love them so!

Lucas loves to lay on his tummy and play with toys, especially in the tent

Lucas is now in 18-month pjs. Andrew wears 12-month pjs. 

The boys looking at books together. 

Grandma Donna sent cozy slippers and a card to celebrate Fall with us!  (Lucas reading the card and Andrew looking at the slippers)

Andrew loves his new slippers (Lucas does too)

We made our traditional Fall pumpkin together! We traced our handprints and painted them. 

The boys playing in their tent and snuggling their stuffed puppies.

The boys playing in their ball pit. 

Playing with the sensory board Daddy made them

Our turkey feet artwork for November

The boys as dinosaurs for Halloween

My little dinosaurs!

Playroom Makeover

Now that the boys are so mobile and no longer little babies (I know, it's hard to believe!) we thought it was time to update the playroom with things that were more appropriate for their age and development. So (very sadly for this momma) I packed up a lot of the baby toys, and we put up a few new ones in their place. There's now a tent for a cozy place to snuggle, read books, and play. There are new book shelves on the walls for some of the boys' books (and more in a bin that are easily accessible to them). There is a mirror which they love to look in and see themselves. There's a tunnel and a ball pit to encourage gross motor skills, and let's face it, they're just a lot of fun too! We put up a new shelf to store some of the toys, and Matt made the boys this awesome sensory board. He put on latches, a light, numbers, light switches, plastic chains, wheels, a door stop, and some swatches of carpet materials. The boys love it! All these things are things they can grow into. 

We still have the original shelving unit which stores burp clothes, toys, and books. We also have a hook on the wall which I hang laundry bags on for easy access to put dirty laundry away throughout the day. Another thing that stayed in the room are the two bulletin boards that display pictures of our friends and family. Of course, we also kept all our baby gates, only now they are anchored into the walls. That way these little boys can't pull them down on themselves. :) 

I took some pictures last night so they are a little dark but hopefully you can get the idea: