We Are Living in a House Full of Tunnels

I had a funny exchange with Asher this morning when we were looking for his shoes.

He likes to move things from where they belong to peculiar places. For example, I was searching for days for one of my necklaces, Asher had taken it and put it in a bowl in one of the lower cabinets in the kitchen. He defiantly has his favorite places to put things so when I am on the hunt for something I have some spots that I check first before I tear the house apart.

Well this morning when we were getting ready to head out of the house, his shoes were not in my bag where I had left them, so we began the search. I looked in the cabinets in the kitchen, living room and bathroom, in the drawer in the entry way, and in his favorite spots to put things in his room. They were no where to be found so I asked Asher if he knew where they were. This is usually not very helpful but I was out of options, I got so excited when he actually thought he knew where they were.

"Asher do you know where your shoes are?"

"Ummm...Yes. In tunnel, Mommy."

Now in most homes this would probably be a very helpful exact place, not so in the Keltner home. Anything and Everything that you can crawl under or push a toy through is a tunnel. Since Asher could not narrow down which tunnel exactly his shoes were in it took a little bit of time but we finally found them in the the printer. Yes Asher had discovered that the slot where the paper comes out is indeed big enough to shove a pair of shoes in.

Today I learned that....we need to have more than one pair of sandals and fewer tunnels.

So Much to Write About and So Little Time

I have become a terrible blogger. It is kind of funny the way it has worked out, we have been so busy with fun things that would be great to write about but I am tired from all of the fun things that I have not been writing about them.

In the last few weeks we have seen cousins, been to amusement parks, the zoo, driven to Austin, been to birthday parties, a baptism, a graduation, and a going away party. The boys have been wonderful though it all. Asher has gotten lots of opportunities to practice sharing and Judah has been learning how to be flexible with his schedule.

It has been nice to take a step out of the every day routine, it makes me appreciate days like today where all I am doing is laundry and the dishes. I think I am going to continue by bad blogger habits and make this a short one so I can go take a nap!

We Have a Parrot Living in Our House....

And his name is Asher. I know that most two year olds probably all go through a stage where they repeat everything their parent say but sometimes it feels like Asher may be more dedicated than others. It has been hilarious to hear what Asher chooses to repeat and his commitment to doing it all day long.

One day he chose to call Nathan "babe". I did not realize how much I called him that until I heard it about a thousand times from our little man. Hey babe come to my room. Hey babe where are you? Babe more milk please. I felt like I was living with one of those fast talking managers from LA or something. I thought it was quite cute but after a day of his two year old calling him babe I think Nathan was a little tired of it.

Another day his phase of choice was mister. Apparently Nathan occasionally calls Asher mister so he in turn spent the entire day calling anyone he came in contact with mister. Even his Nena, my mom, whose name it seems he was born to say became mister. "Hey mister watch trains." "Mister come on to room."

From mister he moved on to telling everyone "good morning" no matter the time of day. The day he began to say "good morning" started as follows: After waking up at 6:30am staying in his room until 7:00am, he some how got over the baby gate without knocking it over and burst into my room yelling "Good Morning Mommy!" while rubbing his injured side from his escape. The rest of the day he continued to wish people good morning...I guess it was pretty great for him, minus the bruised side.

One of the cutest thing he has parroted is a good hand shake. the other day we arrived at my parents house and we were greeted by my father. He gave Asher a big hug and then shook Nathans hand saying "hey, how are you doing?" Asher was dismayed that he did not also receive a hand shake. Well once dad gave him one thats all she wrote...Asher was addicted to the hand shake. The rest of the week it was "hey how you doing? Mommy...hand." This does seem like something we could cash in on in some way... Walmart greeter maybe?

Ahhhh Sweet Sleep

I am so excited to write that I got seven hours of uninterrupted sleep last night and best of all Judah is still sleeping. We will see if this continues but if not one night was such a nice treat! This is an "old" picture of Nathan and Judah. He always looks so sweet when he is sleeping.

Asher Has is Own Technique

It is true, Asher has his own way of doing just about everything from eating food to shoveling snow.

I found some pictures I took a few weeks ago after we had a surprising snow. You can see that Asher chose to use a dust pan to play in the snow instead of the parental suggestion of his hands...with gloves on of course.

Over Easter we got to see first hand how Asher dyes eggs. It involves dunking your entire hand in the dye, rolling the egg around and then moving on to the next one. This approach did change however, when he discovered that these things he was dying could actually be cracked, pulled apart then dyed. It was quite the event you have to see it to really appreciate it.

Here is Asher opening the plastic eggs he found during the egg hunt.

Asher is also really into eating his food without using his hands. He places whatever food he would like to consume off of his plate and on to the table where he then uses only his mouth...yet another proud moment for mommy. If you are wondering that is popcorn off the couch, yumm.

It seems that Judah might follow in Asher's footsteps, he has invented his own way of moving from one place to the other. Forget all this using your arms and legs to crawl...Judah uses his forehead and legs. When he is finished inch worming around he has a little red spot on his forehead, poor guy. I have yet to be able to get a picture of this in action but I do think I was able to capture his determination. I wonder where they got this independent spirit!?

A Brothers Bond

Things have been a little busy around here which means a neglected blog...but I am almost caught up on laundry, Judah is feeling better after a little strep, Nathan is home for a little bit, and Asher is, well just being 2.

Despite Asher's two-ness the sweetest thing has started to happen around here, he and Judah have begun to be really interested in each others well being. If Asher feels like Judah is in distress he will begin to yell for me or run to get Judah's passie. When Judah is crying in the car, which is pretty much anytime we try to go anywhere, Asher will say, "Okay, Judah" in a oh so soft voice. Asher has also started to read books to Judah or point out exciting sights like trucks, birds, or airplanes while we are driving around.

This is not a one way relationship Judah too is very much in love with Asher. If Asher looks at him or even gets in his general area he will start laughing, but not any kind of laugh it is that deep belly laugh that only babies can really do correctly. If Asher is in the room Judah wants to see what he is doing. Even if Judah is doing something he loves like eating he will move his head around so that he can check out Asher. I know that some babies do this anytime they hear others talking but Judah saves it for his big brother. This afternoon I was trying to get Judah to sleep and Asher was playing quietly in Judah's room, Judah would not take his eyes off of Asher. I tried to turn him around so he could not watch him and hopefully fall asleep but he began to cry and arch his back. He stopped when he could see Asher again. This went on for about 15 minuets even when Asher was in his own room playing if Judah heard his voice he would look around the room for him.

I take such joy in watching my boys together. When I was pregnant with Judah I would rock Asher and pray two things, one that they would love the Lord and two that they would have a good relationship with one another. Having a sibling as a good friend is hard to beat. I love my relationship with my sister. We can laugh, cry, fight, and laugh some more with out worrying how it will effect our relationship because in the end we are always family. I am so happy to see the beginnings of my boys life long friendship.

Mud and Rain

Yesterday was a hard day to be a parent. Between the rain, daddy being gone, and a very tired mommy Asher was in quite the mood. I sent out an SOS to my dear sweet mother who suggested we head to her house after nap time for a change of scenery. Isn't it interesting how your child's attitude can change so much just by moving from one house to another.

Because it was raining I decided that I should keep Milo in while we spent time in Owasso. Some time between letting Milo out then back in and taking screaming Judah to the car Asher had run through the pouring rain into the oh so muddy backyard. As I am standing in the doorway of the garage yelling at Asher to come back inside he is jumping into the biggest dirtiest puddles he can find.

Jacket-less I ran out into the yard to chase my very naughty boy. Right as I was about to grab him I slid on a patch of mud into a puddle. Pants soaked, shoes muddy, and pride hurt I was finally able to get Asher back into the garage. Poor Judah had been crying all the while in the car. When we arrived at my moms house I poured myself a glass of wine and counted my blessings that my family lives close by!