Nate and Ben have been battling it out over toys lately. It’s a toss up who’s going to win each one, but Nathaniel has been winning more and more of them. Ben, however, has a secret weapon. Once the toy is gone, he often loses interest.
This wonderful activity table was a Christmas present to the little ones from their dear Auntie Dawn. It’s very cool that they can both play with it at the same time. Nate still wants to keep pulling it away from Ben, though.
While I moved away from western PA after college, my sister moved BACK to western PA. This has proven over the years to be beneficial for many reasons. One of these is that occasionally she sends us items that are of a Black and Gold nature. A delivery of that sort arrived less than a week after the Super Bowl. T-shirts for everyone in the family (provided that I’m the same size as my 8-year-old) and that was way cool. She asked me on the phone if they were going to feature in one of my now-famous Tuesday Twosday posts, and my reaction was something like “Oh, not this week. It will be at least next week, if at all.”
Hmmm. That may have been a little rude. In my defense, two of my children and one of my wives were sick that weekend so I was a little preoccupied while on the phone.
So this past weekend I decked out the little ones in their new shirts and Isaac helped me with the photo shoot. It was fun, even if nobody smiled.
Later I gave them a toy to fight over.
Taking these pictures is going to be very fun for a few months.
It wasn’t the refs, it wasn’t the crowd, it wasn’t the weather. The difference in the game was my cooking and you know it. Two years in a row now I’ve picked the Super Bowl winner correctly based solely on my cooking. If any team would like my services I would be happy to start the bidding at two tickets to the game.
And one other thing. I can officially say that the most effective Super Bowl ad was the one for the Hyundai Genesis. With all those people yelling “Hyundai!!!” a two-year-old in the room started yelling it too.
This past Saturday was the first time we actually asked for a table for six at a restaurant. Nathaniel is just now learning how to sit up, and Ben is just now staying seated without trying to climb out. Apparently an unexpected benefit of us spending all that time with Ben at the high chair at home is that he likes sitting at a table and playing with toys now. So we sat them together and ate our lunch.
And Ben looks awesome in his new glasses.
Hi. My name is Mark and here’s my superpower. I can watch the Steelers in the playoffs and still keep quiet enough that two babies can fall asleep on my lap. Ben hasn’t been feeling well and required a lap to sit on all day on Sunday. And Nate was, well, he was being Nate.
So I had two babies on my lap while Karen made dinner and helped Jonathan glue candy fish to a cutout of a snowman for kindergarten. Ask her about that one, I have no clue.
Some good did come out of it. Nathaniel got his first lesson in waving a Terrible Towel.
It’s very interesting to see just what grabs the attention of babies and small children. And if you can hold the attention of more than one at a time (and if you’ve got the assistance of an older brother to make sure Ben doesn’t roll away), well then you’ve got yourself a photo op.
And no, I have no idea what they’re looking at, even though I was that close to them. But Ben rolled away, and then there was one..
One little baby lying on his tummy, started to cry and I gave him to Mummy! (To the tune of Five Purple Conkers)
This is a special guest edition of Twosday Tuesday. Today Karen documents in a series of images the first official turf war between Benjamin and Nathaniel. I am assuming it is the first of many struggles in the never ending battle to lay claim to baby toys. It started innocently enough, with the two of them on the blanket. We were going to give them each an Oball (that is what they are called), and take some cute baby pictures.
Ben had other things in mind. As soon as he saw the ball given to Nate he dropped his and positioned himself for a takeover.
For those of you who were wondering if Ben is mobile, this counts as indisputable visual evidence.
Funny, Nate doesn’t even look worried yet.
OK, now he looks a little worried.
I actually heard the words “It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.”
At this point Nate is asking me “You just sat there and let him do that? Nice. Yeah, you go put those on your blog. Good idea.” At this point we gave Nate the discarded Oball to play with, and he was very happy to have it thank you.
Ben shows Nathaniel how it’s done. Yes, this means I left Ben in charge of Nathaniel.
We’ve had this play mat since Isaac was a baby.
Sitting in the double stroller facing each other, the boys find a way to occupy themselves.
Okay, it was mostly Ben. But he had a blast and Nate seemed to be thinking “What is that odd sensation at my feet?”
In this week’s episode of Twosday Tuesday, little boy #2 makes a special guest appearance.
Now for the quiz: What did Jonathan have to drink for lunch on Monday?
(A) Beer
(B) Chocolate Milk
(C) Red Bull
Not sure how you answered my question, but the answer to your question is yes, he stayed in that shirt all afternoon, even though he’s got a change of clothes at school.
People Laughing at Dinner