Jackson 33 months- July 2011

Dear Jackson-

You continue to be a sweet little guy but you certainly have a stubborn streak in you. You are very accommodating and at times you will play anything and you say "Oh, O.K. mommy". You are a happy boy but when you are not in a good mood watch out! You sometimes bite your brother and on more than one occasion have pushed him down to the ground for no apparent reason we are hoping that will subside in the coming months.

You enjoy having your cousin Katie here with you and every morning you get up and yell her name asking for her to come into your room. Katie has gone to stay with Uncle Adam and Uncle Dave but she will be back. When I told you that she wasn't here you started to really cry very loud. You also love looking for the pizza guy- outside everyone that walks by is the pizza guy!

Your new favorite toy is the red fire engine truck, you play with that truck for hours. You still like to pick out your own pajamas- usually only the shirt you pick up as you tend to wear what ever bottoms i pick out for you but you have to pick out the shirt.

All my love Jackson Reid. You are mommy's sun, moon and stars.
I love you with all of my heart-
Love Mommy

Shane 33 months- July 2011

Dear Shane-
We've had a good month and you continue to be a happy little guy. Your imagination is getting more vivid every day and you love to play by yourself but only for a short while as you immediately start to look for Jackson if he is not by your side. You continue to smile most of the time (that is when you are not crying). However you can cry at the drop of a hat.

We have had some visitors this month and that has just made your day. Auntie Kris and cousin Katie came out to Boston to say good bye to Auntie Ru and they stayed with us. You were sad that we couldn't see Auntie Ru anymore but delighted to see Auntie and Katie. Every morning when you get up you ask for Katie and the other day you looked through the key hole in her room and said "I see you".

During some of the days that you and your brother decided NOT to nap you have knocked over the chest of drawers in your room and we had another close call today. We have explored new parks in the area and had fun in the back yard. You have also started to fill in the word to certain sentences, my favorite is when I kiss you good night and I say that you Mommy's sun, moon and then you say stars.

I love you Shane Kilday with all of my heart.
-Mommy

A. Ru

This morning Auntie Ru passed. We will miss her and our trips to Bear Hill Nursing Home to visit her. While Shane and Jackson are very young and may not remember her, they brought such joy to Auntie Ru. We tried to go visit every Sunday and bring snowball visit in the library with the birds and have a wonderful day.

One of Auntie's favorite poems:

An Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His Hand.

~A St. Patrick Blessing

Long before the boys were born Mommy and Daddy visited A. Ru on larch lane all of the time to eat supper in her pink kitchen and of course to play scrabble. The list goes on and on of how Auntie Ru impacted our lives, she was a very special lady to all of us and we will miss her dearly!

I wrote your name in the sand

but the ocean washed it away

I wrote your name in the sky

but the clouds blew it away
So I wrote your name in my heart

and thats where it shall stay.

~Author Unknown

Jackson calls flamingos- mangos
The boys went to a puppet show at the Watertown Mall! who would have thought but it was air conditioned and a lot of fun.

Twins

Two faces to wash, and four dirty hands
Two insentient voices, making demands
Twice as much crying, when things go wrong
The four eyes closing, with slumber song
Twice as many garments, blowing on the line
Two cherubs in the wagon, soaking up the sunshine
Work I do for twins, naturally comes double
But four arms to hug me, repays all the trouble
~Author unknown

Misc. weekend fun

This weekend was HOT! Saturday we just played in the yard with the slide and sprinkler and as much water as possible. Saturday night we went to the Sand Castle Building contest at Revere Beach- we prayed to the Godess Asphaltina for a parking space. The traffic was bad and the beach was very crowded, but, we did find a parking space. We walked through the crowds and the noise to see the giant sand castles, Jackson and Shane weren't very interested, they were more over whelmed with all of the people and the noise. We didn't even get a chance to build our own sand castle- we walked around, got a bite to eat and then headed home by 7pm- it was an adventure to say the least.

Sunday was our traditional visit Grandma and Grandpa day- the ATE everything in Grandma's fridge and played with their new Clifford the Big Red Dogs. Then we went to the playground and to lunch. all in all it was a great day!

How old are you?

Part of the Early Intervention group that Jackson and Shane go to is circle time. During circle time Fran asks the kids their name and how old they are. For a few weeks now Jackson and Shane have both been saying that they are six years old. This is better than being nine like they tell mommy. Well today, Shane told me that he was two and that Jackson was two as well!

listening for birds

Jackson and Shane LOVE birds! They look for them on the roof tops all of the time and as of this weekend, Jackson has started to call the birds. Coo Coo or he tries to whistle, clearly I am not capturing the essence of his cuteness here in the blog as I don't have a video, but please take my word for it when I say he is cute- wondering why the birdies won't answer back!

July Photos

Washing dishes. Running through Daddy's new sprinkler.

Shane in his favorite workbelt, Shane at the beach.

Jackson and Grandma.

Jackson outside on Father's Day.

Images of Cape Cod.

We had a wonderful time with Mommy's friend Courtney.

Shane's pants continuously fell down, but he had a great time digging for clams despite the pants.

Making Pizza

Today during a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Jackson made pizza. For real, they went to the pizza place and the guys let him behind the counter to make his own pizza!

Imaginations

Last night Shane and Jackson used socks as telephones. They were talking to Big Bird about butterflies!

Summer Days at the Ocean

We live in New England, surrounded by ocean water and so far this summer we have taken advantage of it, by going to the beach. Last weekend we visited with mommy's friend and her family at Cape Cod for a wonderful clam bake. The boys played in the water and got more than their fair share of sand all over everything- it was great!

Today, we went North to Cape Ann and Good Harbor beach with the Lilley's and what a great time we had. Shane and Jackson didn't stop the entire day- they ran and ran and ran in and out of the ocean- playing ball, building sand castles, playing with new friends back into the water. Shane especially liked the water and would sit down at the edge waiting for the waves to come in and splash him in the face, this was great until he drank the salt water. It was a wonderful day and we thank our dear friends for inviting us to their home and beach for the day!

Shane 32 months- June 2011

Dear Shane-
My little Shane- you are becoming even more of a snugly little boy- you love to give hugs and kisses- very often unsolicited! Just this morning you came into our bedroom and got into bed with mommy and just snuggled for a half hour! Shane, you still have your snappies and sometimes I think we are going to have to send you to snappies anonymous but when I take them away from you, you are pretty good about it but you do like to have them around. Your brother likes to get up very early and he proceeds to wake you up very early- but very often you chose to sit on your bed and read some books instead of banging on the door like Jackson does :-) You now know your ABC's and sing them frequently as well as counting- you count like this sometimes: One, two, three, four, nine, seven, - Yeah! and then you clap. We are working on the counting but like I said, you know your ABC's and lots of other songs.

One of mommy's friends gave us an Elmo work bench and you LOVE it- you like to wear your little tool belt and walk around with all of the tools around your waist. Shane, you still love to help make breakfast and even more so help to do the dishes- to be honest, you make more of a mess doing the dishes rather than cleaning up but you have fun doing it so that is what matters. Pretend play is becoming more abundant with you- you play with the tool bench and try to fix things around the house with your tools, you play with your books, ELMO and others. Last night when going to bed I'm not sure what you were playing but you and Jackson spread out your blankets in your bedroom and played for about 20 minutes with no toys- just yourselves and the blankets - very cute to watch and listen to.

Playing outside is still one of your favorite things and you like to wear your helmet and "ride your bike" around the block". You have become very observant about the things around you and you state the things that you see very often- especially animals. You continue to read books and sit quietly to read your books- this week your favorite book is Olivia and Things around Boston. While you like to sit quietly and read your books you also LOVE to wrestle with daddy and the first thing you ask him when he gets home from work is to do "Daddy Dives"- that means that you basically just jump on top of him and wrestle for as long as possible until someone gets hurt and starts to cry. Sometimes when Jackson cries you go over to him and pat is his back, tilt your head and say its O.K. Jackson, no cry.

During the month of June we celebrated Father's Day. With Trish's help you and Jackson made Daddy a t-shirt with your hand prints on it. We had a BBQ for Daddy and Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Adam and Uncle Dave come over- you and Jackson played in Daddy's new sprinkler and got soaking wet and loved every second of it! Trish got you and Jackson a new slide so there are even more things in the back yard- between the slides and tunnels and big sandbox you have a zanadoo land out in the backyard. We went to the zoo one weekend and you especially liked the flamingos- you kept running back to the flamingos! Also while at the zoo you and Jackson rhode the little train- but unfortunately you did not like the train ride too much and you cried the entire ride :-( but none the less you wanted to go one some big kid rides. Uncle Adam and Uncle Dave also got married in June and it was a big celebration! You and Jackson came to the wedding and were little celebrities at the wedding-you weren't the only twins there, Uncle Dave's nieces are also twins so you had other kids your age to play with.

Shane, you are becoming a very good listener and you follow directions so well- and it makes mommy's job much smoother. Even this morning you and your brother decided that you wanted to go outside and when I asked you to come back up the stairs you listened and came back up- THANK YOU for that Shane. The hot weather is here and Trish is taking you to the spray park more frequently now so you get to see your little friends during the week. In September you will start Pre-School (I can't believe it) so I'm sure you will make a lot of friends there as well.

Shane Kilday, I love you with all of my heart. As you can say now, You're mommy's sun, moon and stars. I love you Shane Kilday.
All my love-
Mommy

Jackson- 32 months June 2011

Dear Jackson,
My little Jackson Reid you aren't so little anymore. You are getting taller and love to wear your elmo socks, sneakers and baseball hat backwards a lot! Your vocabulary is coming along and you have more words every day but you still like to express your emotions by crying a bit too often- you can cry at the drop of a hat and then in two minutes you are running around smiling and laughing! Shane sometimes will ask me with his head tilted- Mommy why Jackson cry?

You have taken a liking to getting up very early- some days you wake up at 4:45 am! That is a bit early for mommy and daddy- when you wake up you try to wake Shane up and then you go to the door and yell- Moommmy, Moommy wake up! Sometimes you open the door and you are very proud of yourself and you coming running into our room saying "I open the door" wake up. You have also started to bring your own clothes down stairs to get dressed- you would wear winter clothes every day if I let you (and I don't) and you like to "help" make breakfast and do the dishes. When you want to do the dishes you stress mommy out because you really make a mess and get water all over the place, but you certainly love to do the dishes!

On the friend front, Trish keeps you very busy and some of your new friends are Kelly and Aiden- they come over, make cookies and play outside with you. Next fall I think you will make more friends as you start pre-school two days per week. Some of your favorite things remain playing outside- you can now undo the gate and make your way downstairs to the door on your own! Mommy is not a fan of this and we have to keep the doors locked at all times so that you can't get out. Riding bikes and wearing your helmet are another favorite- sometimes you wear your bike helmet around the yard but most often you like to "ride your bike" up to the corner to look at the diggers at the construction sites on our street. Pooh bear and your doggy at times are almost permanent attachments to you- you carry them all over the house with you and try to feed them etc.

Uncle Adam and Uncle Dave got married this month- it was a big event for them and for the family at large- Congratulations to them! You attended the wedding and played with the bubbles and balls while you were there. You cried during the ceremony but aside from that you had fun. Your cousins- Zach, Abby and Katie came to Boston for the wedding as well and you had great fun playing with them! They have been gone for a month and you still ask for them- even this morning you wore a Harvard shirt and you said- Zach wear this shirt? because Zach wore a Harvard shirt like yours one day. While they were here we went on a Duck Tour around Boston and you liked the boat and we went to the beach- you loved going in the water and playing with the sand. One day when we went to the zoo you rode the little train and LOVED it- you had a huge grin on your face the entire time!

For Father's Day we had Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Adam and Uncle Dave over for a BBQ- daddy got a new sprinkler and you and your brother had a great time in it- you got soaking wet and loved every second of it. We made daddy a shirt with your hand prints on it for his present and he loved it. You now know your ABCs and love to sing them often- at the end of the song you always clap and cheer yeah!

You are mommy's sun, moon and stars Jackson Reid and I love you will all of my heart and then some- you are a special little guy.
All my love-
Mommy