Tate is 19 months old

Tate is 19 months old! As promised here is his update. Tate is getting very grown up, but still my "big", silly, baby!

Tate is now 32 3/4 inches and 27 lbs 8 oz. He and S.Jessen are officially 2 1/2 inches and 5 lbs apart.

He is full of gibberish, but more words are coming through all the time. I know he has over 40 words at this point and says lots of phrases. He is a little smartie and can identify the animal sounds when we ask and when we look at his favorite book (What Do You Say?) he'll make the sounds for the correct pics.

The other morning I woke up to him singing "You Are My Sunshine" on the monitor. He can do whole phrases or when I say the phrase and pause for the last word he'll say that word. Sometimes it is hard to understand, but once you get that is what he is saying it is darling! Sometimes he does the shortened version of "SHuhsine, happy!" So precious...

Tater runs all over the house saying, "Oh my!" and STILL plays with dog food! He is already using a spoon and fork with "some" success...
When we pick out movies he says, "Shu wu wa" and I finally figured out that that meant "Should we watch..." because that's what I always say when we are picking out what we want to watch in the mornings.

The boys have been back to daycare 2 times now. The first time only S.Jessen cried; the second time, they both cried! They really know how to wrip a Mommy's heart out. At least I trust and love their provider so it's not as bad. I'm getting ready to be back in the swing of things at school. It will be so nice having last year under my belt and working with the same grade and co-teachers again! S.Jessen is beginning preschool this year, too, yikes! Where does the time go?

Dedication

On July 22, Roger and I had our boys dedicated. This was very special to us for several reasons.

#1 We promised to dedicate S.Jessen and Tate's lives to Christ and to teach our boys all about Jesus. We dedicate them and when they are old enough they will choose to be baptized on their own.

S.Jessen was so cute. During the ceremony, he asked if it was his birthday. I nearly choked and cried and laughed all at the same time. So many emotions. Leave it to our 3-year-old to lighten the moment :)

#2 My brother Aron, who is a pastor/chemical engineer, dedicated them. My boys were his first dedications and my brother Adam and I were his first baptisms when I was pregnant with Tate. It was 10 times more meaningful because he did this for us.
Roger and I had to read a promise together

#3 My cousin Bridget and her husband, Lowell, had their son, Evan dedicated the same day, by Aron as well, AND we got to promise this journey together. Bridget had her first huge family get together that afternoon with all of us! It all worked out wonderfully.

Bridget and Lowell and Evan

THEN, we took 10, 000 pics. The boys were very ready to be home after such a long week away from home, but it was terrific to share this moment with each and every one of them.

Below: Nanny and Papa Roller, Great Grandma and Grandpa Kolosik, Grandma Brecht, and Granny and Pops Kolosik.

Behind!

So I'm a little behind I guess... The boys and I took off for Iowa City 2 weeks ago and Ayla (sister-in-law), my Mom, and grandma had a garage sale! They are such hard work! Last week we were back, but trying to get back to normal and I was caught up in reading Harry Potter #7, which I finished today! I loved it and that's all I will say for those of you still enjoying. I still have a million things I'd like to do before I have to go back to school, but am already dealing with the fact that it's not all going to be done. I guess some of it has waited this long, the list will still be there later :)

18 month Pics

So I finally got Tater's 18 month pics. They turned out awesome. I like to get a lot of identical ones as I had with S.Jessen's. The basket pics were fun. These are both of the boys at 18 months. I'm so excited to put both pics next to each other in our living room :)

Then, of course, they had to take more poses! They turned out awesome! S.Jessen was not even going to be in them, but he asked if he could smile, too, and who has the heart to tell a 3-year-old no? They are edible, enjoy!


I will put Tate's 18 month update on here when we have his well-baby checkup up at the end of this month!

Fresh Cuts

I'm finally brave enough to take the boys to get their hair cuts all by myself. Today was my second time. I know it sounds weird, but it took me a really long time to do things while they were smaller. They are only 21 months apart and it just took me a while to get comfortable!

Now we have hair cuts down to a science. S.Jessen get skittles from the machine and holds them in a bowl and eats them while getting his hair cut. This also works for me because I tell him that we only get candy from those stinking machines when we get hair cuts, which is like once a month! Maybe it's mean, but I feel like it's very smart :)

I have to hold Tate, but if I hold his raisins down really low, they can cut the bottom of his hair. This time they both got really great cuts. I'm so glad as I've got to get Tate's 18 month pics before he's 19 months! I've been waiting bc one week, he had a cut. The next week, a bruise. This week, his hair cut had grown out, ugh! I didn't send an 18 month update yet as we couldn't get our checkup until he's 19 months. Ok, I'm rambling!

Another thing I wanted to share is how our 3-year-old speaks like an adult. He told the lady cutting his hair that she was a "great hair-cutter" and to "be careful with the scissors so you don't get an owie." She was cracking up! He also told her when he was done that it would be time for his sucker and toy! She said he definitely knows the routine and she's right!

Always the "Picture Taker"

Do you ever feel like the "picture taker" and that you're never in the picture? I am always catching the boys and Roger in the best poses. I know that we have those poses all day long, but there is no one to take the picture, and I am not quite to the point that I want to use a self-timer and there is no way the moment would be savored for that long anyway. I just feel frustrated some times because I love getting these pictures, but when I'm going through the pics that we have I don't see any of me with the boys, or with Roger for that matter. I wish we could have a little assistant around to take those pics without our asking :) It's not like I want all these pics of me, I just want the memories for the boys and me, too. I know I'm probably being ridiculous, but this is also my blog to vent in :)

Off to the Petting Zoo

We had our first picnic at a park in Fort Dodge today with some of my friends from school, and some other friends that we play Bunco with. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have a petting zoo so we planned to eat first and then go pet some animals! I was proud of myself because I am not so "outdoorsie" and I did pretty good. Even when the goats were trying to get my receipts out of my purse I maintained. The boys had a good time, but were ready to rest when we got home. It was such a hot day that the slides were off limits and Tate burnt his hand, poor baby! I couldn't get to him fast enough. He cooled off on the swings though. There are minimal things for both boys to enjoy in the community so it was nice to get out and enjoy what the town does have to offer them.

This is S.Jessen and our friend Susan with her little boy J.T. It was his first time there, too.

Tater took his turn petting the goats.

July 4th

We had July 4th at our house this year with some friends from Roger's work. Roger had to work Thursday and Friday so it didn't make sense for us to drive 3 hours and come back in one day. It was a nice time. We enjoyed the outdoor weather AND the air conditioning when we came back in :)


When we were getting ready to eat on the patio, S.Jessen asked if it was his birthday. I told him it was America's birthday and we were having a party. He probably wondered as the only time we have enough people for two tables is birthday parties.


After everybody left we drove to the park. It really did get hot, but for those of you who have never been to our house, it is less than a block and a half away. It was just too hot to walk! S.Jessen wanted to show Daddy how brave he is at going down the big slide all by himself now. Of course Tater had to teach him how to do it. I was proud because we never made him go down (he'd go with us, but not on his own) and now he's ready to do it alone and feels so proud that he was "brave." S.Jessen also likes to give Tate pushes on the swing so we did that too. It was a good day. I hope everyone else had fun. We sure missed everybody.