Double the Sweeneys, Double the Fun!: 2013

So much has happened since we posted last!

Since I can't see having the time to fully catching up, here are the highlights:

The boys went trick-or-treating for Halloween and LOVED it! It wasn't even the candy (although we did give them each a Kit Kat, which they thoroughly enjoyed). They liked knocking on doors and looking in windows and mostly how big a deal everyone made out of them in their costumes. We had intended on visiting only a few houses, like we did last year, but they loved it so much, we did almost the whole "little loop" by our house. Afterwards, they did not want us to put away their pumpkins or costumes and continued to put them on and show our guests for weeks.

This is awesome!

Candy!!

We made good use out of those costumes this year: trick-or-treating, Dorney Park, Boo at the Zoo, and the parade at daycare.

Pepa (or Poppop), Mema, and Uncle Anthony joined us at the zoo.

Zebra! Zebra! Logan was extremely excited to visit the zebras and needed to go back and visit them before we left. The zebras and rhinos were clearly his favorite zoo animal.

After the zebra excitement, Riley decided to nap for the rest of the trip, so he missed visiting his goat friends.

Logan was all about petting every goat in the KidZooU

Steve and I feel as though we are forever saying "this is my favorite age" but we truly mean it every time! The explosion of words around 18 months is nothing short of incredible. Both boys still love to read and now they love to learn! They want to know what everything is in every picture and repeat what we tell them. They are so proud of themselves when they can point things out and generalize them to other books and pictures. I feel so proud when they point out their eyes, ears, nose, head, hair, belly, butt, feet, hands, fingers, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, etc to our friends and family. I am amazed at how many animals they know and how they are starting to learn their colors. Steve said the biggest shocker for him was how they can generalize pictures of windows, doors, dogs, etc from book to book as well as in real life. We are loving that they are starting to call more people by name. I love how they call Alex "Alla" and Chris "Chri", but more than anything, I'm amused by how they have both given my father a special name. Logan calls him Pepa (pronounced pee-pah) to go with Mema, and Riley calls him Poppop. Too cute!

So much else has happened to.... Logan started singing along to music (Rockin' Robin) on 11/18 and Riley learned to jump (both feet off the ground) on 11/29. They can both eat their meals with utensils (although they don't always). They have gotten better about sharing (most of the time) and have even taken turns! Riley consistently tells us when he poops, sometimes before he does it. I plan on getting him a potty this week, just to start getting him used to the idea. We hadn't planned to start trying before 2 1/2, but it seems like he will be ready long before that.
Logan is far more vocal than Riley and loves learning new words. Riley has better fine motor skills and is better at stacking blocks and puzzles/shape sorters. They both love to help mommy and daddy and are such well behaved little boys.

In addition to all the other firsts, they got our first haircuts and made our first trip to the dentist

Riley enjoyed the attention and looking at the little lady sitting across from him

Logan did not enjoy any part of it.

As you can imagine, neither kid enjoyed the dentist. The other big thing that happened at the Sweeney house was that Riley got hernia surgery! He was nothing short of perfect. He didn't cry when they took him from us, or when he woke up. He didn't even cry when they took his IV out! He was pretty upset to be away from brother, though...

Thanksgiving with the Sasso/Hood/Dhuy/Salonia families:

Playing with Pepa

Thanksgiving with the Sweeney Family

Army men with cousin Alex

A few more photos that make me smile:

Lehigh Lafayette Tailgate

Helping mommy cook dinner

Loving taking Christmas photos!

Here is our Christmas card this year:

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Whoops! It has been a long time since we updated last. September is a very busy month in the Sweeney household, with all four of us going back to school. I'd love to tell you my excuse for not having updated later in August, but I don't think I have one. I could swear I wrote about visiting the Sassos on Long Island, visiting Beltzville, and the boys going back on the Dorney kiddie rides, but I guess not!

Anyways, the last week of August started school for everyone. The boys started a new room at daycare where they now have moved on to cots instead of cribs and are down to one nap. It was a very hard adjustment to go from sleeping 9pm - 9am with 2 naps to 7:30 pm to 6am with 1 nap. The boys were pretty crabby those first few weeks. Add that to their constant viruses from being back at daycare and we were a mess! The boys went to the doctor's office some 4 times in 3 weeks. Mondays seemed to be particularly bad days for us! Last week was the boys' first full week of daycare and of not being sick (aside from a slight runny nose). They still have residual coughs, but we are hoping this is a sign that their immune systems are kicking in. This week Mema goes back to watching them twice a week, which we know they will be excited about.

On weekends that the boys haven't been sick we have been doing lots of fun things: visiting relatives and friends, going apple picking, going pumpkin picking, and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Here are some pics from the boys' first trip to the apple orchard:

Here are numerous pics (I couldn't choose!) from our pumpkin picking excursion (although the boys favorite part was the corn sandbox):

I'll pull you, brother!

Dad pulls much faster than you... I'm glad you decided to get in the wagon!

Playing with Aunt Ninna!

The boys also had their 18 month check up on Friday. Here are their numbers:

Logan

Height: 30 1/2 inches

Weight: 20 lbs 13 oz

Head:18 1/4 inches

Riley

Height: 29 3/4 inches

Weight: 20 lbs 10 oz

Head: 19 1/2 inches

We knew Logan was taller, but the weight surprised us... on our home scale we had him over 21...

As far as clothing goes, the peanuts are now in 12 month pants. Riley's have to get rolled because they are a little long and fall down. Logan's do not. They are kind of in between on the shirts. Some 12 months shirts are too small, but most 18 month shirts are too big. They are still in size 3 diapers, but we will soon move on to size 4, since we are almost out of the 3's.

So much has changed in the past 2 months! The boys are real talkers now! Each of them says about 15 words with meaning. Its crazy - they said a few before, but it seemed to all explode at once. Riley even gets frustrated if you can't understand what he is trying to tell you.

Here are some of their words, off the top of my head: Hi, bye, Mommy, Daddy, Elmo, cookie, cracker, more, bubbles, tickle, shoe, apple, car, ball, up.....

In addition to saying words, they also understand a heck of a lot! They can understand directions pretty well (although they do not always choose to follow them). They can point to things in a book if you ask them to (Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Grover, Ernie, Abby, apple, ball, dog, etc) as well as name many of the Sesame Street characters. Logan will repeat most sounds we have him make and can tell you that cows go moo, pigs say oink, and cowboys say yee-haw! They also understand if we ask if they want to take a bath or a nap, and the answer is always yes! The run to the stairs and start climbing the second the gate opens.

We have been giving them forks since April-ish upon recommendation of Logan's speech therapist, and they have used them periodically but typically preferred their hands. This past Sunday (the 29th) they each independently fed themselves yogurt with a spoon. On Tuesday the 24th, Riley ate his whole meal with a fork. (Logan is still a big fan of using his hands).

Speaking of food, they still eat a variety of foods for the most part, but Logan gives us trouble about veggies and both of them randomly decide that they don't like something that day, even if they liked it the day before. Some days they eat like teenagers, other days they eat barely anything. (Like last week when Riley would only eat peas for dinner). I guess that is how toddlers are! We are just grateful that they have days where they eat very well!

The boys both love reading. They love books more than toys. Unfortunately for Mommy and Daddy, no matter how many books we buy, they want to read the same books multiple times in a row, multiple days in a row. At this point, I really can read with my eyes shut! We don't mind though - when we read to them, the boys cuddle up in our laps. Riley also really loves peek-a-boo/ hide and seek - without a doubt his favorite game. He also likes to build with the megablocks and to sort shapes (in a shape sorter). Logan still loves to dance. He also likes to push things around in the shopping card or play with trucks. Generally Riley is more easy going and also a lot more independent. Logan is more clingy to Mommy and Daddy and gets upset if he thinks Riley is going to take his toys. They are both funny and like to walk around with buckets on their heads. They go back and forth between tormenting each other and being insanely sweet to each other (clearly it starts early!)

They really are the most funny, loving, happy children I have ever met and we are so lucky!

Last bit of summer update:
August 10th to 11th we went to visit the Long Island Sassos (Vincent, Sally, Trevor, Molly, and Emma). We had beautiful weather and we all had a great time. The boys enjoyed going in the pool and playing with Emma and her giant stuffed dogs. My favorite part was when we went to the beach at the end of their street. Previously, Logan hated sand, so we let Riley play in the sand and put Logan on a beach blanket. After a little bit, he was dumping sand on the blanket. Then he scooted bit by bit towards the sand, until his feet were on it. Before we new it, he was completely in the sand, having a blast!

Since the boys like sand and water so much, we decided to take them up to Beltzville state park for a few hours. They had fun playing, made a few friends, and Steve got to visit where he spent many a summer day as a kid.

As you may recall, the first time we took the boys on the Dorney park kiddie rides was somewhat of a disaster (well it would have been if we didn't just head to the water park). Riley screamed his face off and wouldn't go on any rides. When we went again in late August, our experience was very different! Both boys seemed to enjoy the rides, although Riley did not especially enjoy the waiting while the attendant checked that everyone was buckled in.