Both boys had a checkup at the doctor today. Despite Kyle's significant increase in appetite he still hasn't made it onto the normal growth curve yet. He is still under 20lbs! His development is right on track though. Bryson is in the normal range for all his development, but is on the low end for speech and fine motor skills. The doctor said it wouldn't hurt to try potty training the boys at the same time, so I think I'll at least try it. I really started working on potty training with Bryson this weekend. It didn't go as well as I thought is could, but he's had multiple successful events and is still interested in trying. He has been wearing underwear at daycare too.
We had a short visit with my sister and parents the end of oct. It was nice to have some of the family together. We even stayed up late one night and played sheep's head, it was really fun! The boys really enjoyed having the company too. Kyle is a little more shy than Bryson and it took him a little while to warm up. My parents stayed with the kids for almost a week while Ken and I went on a short vacation.
We flew into Fresno, CA (you're right Jess, it is a pretty crappy town) and drove to Kings Canyon and Sequioa Natl Parks. Kings Canyon was very similar to Yosemite and Ken had a hard time driving on the steep winding roads. The trees in Sequioa park were amazing, they were huge. It was different from the Redwoods because you could see the whole tree. The were not as tall, but they were so wide! What as most amazing to me was how the giant trees could be burnt out up to 15 ft at the bottom and still survive and support the giant trunk above it! It was common to use fallen trees as homes or even hotels, they were so big inside.
Then we drove th Monterey Bay. It was a long ride but it was interesting to see all the agriculture. The Monterey Bay Aquarium was amazing. They had huge two story aquariums with schools of fish. The sardines were so beautiful to watch it was mezmorizing. The jelly fish exibits were beautiful as well. There was a lot of hands on stuff too and tons of kids activities. I'd love to take the boys there in a few years. I am so thankful to my parents for giving us the opportunity to get away for a while. I was surprised how much I missed the kids we called everyday to see how they were. I confess I was a little disappionted that they didn't even ask about us. Ken and I even walked to a nearby park and played on the playground (it was the coolest playground ever, Bryson woulda loved it!). It even had a real steam engine the kids could play on.
I surprised how different Kyle looked when we got home, he looked bigger! (We were only gone 5 days!) I was sad for my parents to leave, it was fun having them here spending time with the boys. We all got dressed up and went trick or treating in our neighborhood. There was only one other group that went out in our neighborhood, but everybody was ready with candy. We even scored a basketball hoop out of it! Bryson, of course, wanted to eat all the candy as he got it. The candy has come in pretty handy for potty training purposes.
Bryson had a small birthday party. It was Thomas themed, he got all sorts of Thomas stuff (books, backpack, lunch box, tent), I even made him a book
(about Thomas trains preparing his birthday party)by taking pictures of his trains. It turned out cute, he loves to read it and even knows alot of the words. His articulation is still pretty bad, but he is getting better. He loves to sing songs and surprises me how many of the words he knows. His favorite toys are his lego trains and cars. He is quite athletic and can keep up with us on our long walks.
Kyle is still not on the normal growth curve and is just under 20lbs at 18 months. He is talking more and seems to be putting two words together. He "runs" now and moves pretty fast. HE just learned how to open the doors and will head outside any chance he gets. He loves to play with cars and is getting more interested in the movies that Bryson watches. He loves the cat and tackles her and lays on her just like Bryson used to. He can follow some simple directions like "throw that in the garbage". He moved into a new class at daycare and seems to be adjusting well. He started throwing tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. I'm going to try to potty train him the same time as Bryson. So far he's only had one successful try and it's pretty hard to keep him sitting on the potty.
