Happy Birthday Levi!!!

And our family still doesn't know how to sing...

Happy Birthday Lucas!!!

Lucas turned 1 last week, and we celebrated his birthday this past weekend.  We got the timing right this time around having learned from Levi's disastrous first birthday.  And now we wait a couple of months before Levi's 3rd birthday.  Time is certainly flying.  Enjoy the pictures!

 Lucas has a shovel in his hand about 99% of the time.

We take about 1 decent picture out of every 30.

The boys with Grandma and Papa Chapin.

Our sweet little guy taking a nap.

Levi showing Papa T how to drive the tractor.

This picture is sure to show up in graduation open house collages and wedding slideshows in the years to come.

Another fantastic birthday cake design by Courtney!

The cake didn't stand a chance.

 

Ray Charles, he isn't.

We're Back!

Did you miss us?

It's been a while.  The last couple of months have been pretty busy but I haven't been very intentional about updating the blog.  Sorry about that.  

I guess the biggest news out the Chapin house is that Lucas is now walking.  He started taking his first steps a couple of weeks ago.  Now he's able to take a number of steps in succession and it won't be long before he's done with crawling.  He's also sleeping a lot better at night so that's been nice for Courtney and I.

Levi continues to impress us with his ability to learn new things.  He has a very extensive vocabulary.  He's also become quite the negotiator with Mom and Dad already.  We often find ourselves saying something like "OK one more time and then its bedtime" and Levi will counter with "How about 2 more times?".  He's not making much progress with potty training though.  Still refuses to go poop in the potty (despite the bribe of going to get ice cream when he does) and he occasionally goes pee but usually only when we make him sit on the potty.  We're hoping that it will click and he'll "get it" soon.

That's all for now.  Enjoy the pictures from a fun-filled weekend!!

Must have got his sense of fashion from his mom.

Notice how Levi has hoarded all the trains and won't let Lucas play with any?

Levi is always very gentle with his cousin Baby Eryn.

Courtney lended her cake decorating skills for Maya's 2nd birthday.

Lucas really enjoyed being outside today.

Exploring the yard.

It's really hard to get a picture with both of them smiling.

All About Lucas

Most of our blog posts focus on Levi, so I thought I would write a little about our other son.  I do feel bad for him in a way.  Levi had our full attention for the first couple years of his life, but Lucas has to fight for it.  I feel like he has grown up so much faster than Levi.  A lot of people are telling us they are starting to look more alike, but I still don't see it.

  

 Both kids around 9 months old.  I can't tell they are brothers, can you?

Lucas is developing faster than Levi did.  Probably because he sees his older brother doing things and he wants to keep up with him.  Within the last few weeks, Lucas has started crawling, pulling himself up, "cruising" along the edge of tables/furniture, babbling ("mama" and "baba"), waving, and he's cut 4 teeth.  He's done all of those things before Levi did.  

One area where he is lagging behind Levi is the sleeping department.  Levi was a roller coaster with his sleep patterns.  He would go a couple months of sleeping good, have a rough couple months, sleep good a couple months, etc.  Around February of last year he started sleeping great and we haven't had any issues since.  Lucas, on the other hand, has had a lot more issues with sleeping.  He started off great, even sleeping through the night for a month or so.  Then around 4 months he started waking up, and from then on he has woken up every single night...until the other night.  And there was never really any pattern to his sleep issues...waking up at different times, sometimes just once a night, sometimes 20+ times a night.  We've tried tylenol, feeding him, changing his diaper, rocking, etc.  But my genius wife had the brilliant idea last week that since his diaper was always soaked, why not try a night diaper?  So we tried it, and the sleeping has been much better this past week, and he's even slept all the way through the night from start to finish a couple of times.  Its nice to sleep.

Think they'll want to wear matching outfits when they're older?

Lucas and daddy having some fun together.

Lucas having the spotlight all to himself, for once.

The blog will returned to your normally scheduled programming next week with potty training updates (spoiler alert, its not going well), more pictures, and more of my random thoughts and lists.  

Colonel Hathi Jr.

You thought we were joking about Levi marching all the time?

Adventures in Potty Training

We're back! 2011 is here, and with it new found hope that this blog will be updated more consistently. We'll see.

Did anyone know that having two kids in diapers at the same time is pretty expensive? It is. So for the last few months Courtney and I have been talking up the big boy potty to Levi. I've even gone so far as to bribe him with his favorite snack in the world, M&Ms. Nothing worked. He refused to sit on the potty and cried when we tried to put him there. I was on vacation the last week of December so we made a concerted effort to have him sit on the potty a couple times a day, and slowly but surely he is getting more accustomed to the potty. We're proud to say that Levi is going pee on the potty a few times every day, and today he had his first poop.

We are learning that being flexible is a very important quality to have when parenting. Levi's interests are always changing, so it can be hard to keep up him. He still loves Thomas the Train and loves to play with all the cool trains he got for Christmas. Over my vacation Levi watched his first movie, The Jungle Book. This was an intentional choice on my part because this was the first movie I watched when I was a kid. He loved it. Since then he's been pretending to be the characters from the movie, most notably Colonel Hathi the elephant. I guess the upside is that we're all in good shape with all the marching we've been doing.

Our family accounts for about a million of this clip's views.

Levi with his "elephant trunk".

Additionally, Levi loves to sing. His current favorites are "elephants marching" (the song from the clip above), "six eight" (theme song to Thomas), and Skinnamarinky Dinky Dink.

Who needs TV when you have this kid?

At about 4-1/2 months, Lucas stopped sleeping through the night. The last three months have been very frustrating with a lot of sleepless nights. Things have been better in the last week, so we're not sure if maybe he's coming out of the whole sleep issue, or if he's just messing with us. He did cut his first tooth yesterday, so maybe he'll be a great sleeper since that's out of the way. He is very good at crawling backwards, but he hasn't quite mastered the art of traveling forwards yet. He's generally a happy boy, especially when his brother is being a ham and making him laugh hysterically.

Lucas and mommy after a bath.

Oh so close to crawling.

Happy after eating another big meal.

That's all for now. The Chapin family wishes all our loyal readers nothing but the best in 2011!

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Last weekend we took the kids out to a local tree farm to find this year's Chapin family Christmas tree. Levi had a lot of fun and was a great little helper. He enjoyed helping dad pull the cart and then helping mom decorate the tree with "twinkle lights". Lucas...well he just slept most of the time, which was a nice change of pace since he hasn't been sleeping much lately at all. Here are some pictures from our little adventure...

Daddy and his little helper.

Levi worked hard at pushing the cart.

Daddy and Levi having some fun.

Mommy and our little non-sleeper.

Levi helping mom with the twinkle lights.

Happy Halloween!

It's been a while since my last post so this will be short and sweet. Just some videos and pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Levi practicing for his future on American Idol.

Not to be outdone, Lucas showing us that he's cute too.
(Now, if he would only go back to sleeping through the night again...)

Our happy boy enjoying his Johnny Jump-Up.

Levi and his cousin Maya enjoying bath time.
What are the odds this picture causes serious embarrassment in about 15 years?

Lucas enjoying his exersaucer.

Lucas in his cool new sling, enjoying his mouse ears.

Getting ready for Halloween.

Showing off their Halloween costumes to Grandma and Grandpa Chapin.

Levi and his friend Annabelle both dressed up as bumblebees.

Levi and Maya before their first trick or treating experience.
Maya couldn't wait to start eating her candy.

The Diarrhea Riverdance

It's been over a month since our last blog update. Its been a busy month, with my 30th birthday, Courtney's 31st birthday, the start of the football season, trips to the zoo and cider mill, golfing, our dishwasher breaking down, growing kids, busy work, and everything else that seems to fill up our crazy days. Both Levi and Lucas are growing so fast. Levi's newest favorite thing in the whole world is Thomas the Train. Pretty much every one of his waking moments is spent talking about Thomas, playing with Thomas, watching Thomas, or singing the Thomas the Train song.

Try getting that song out of your head after hearing it a million times.

Lucas just turned 4 months old. He can roll over already and seems much more coordinated than Levi did at this age. He loves to laugh and coo at mom and dad. And he's been an amazing sleeper...he sleeps through the night better than Levi does.

One story will help illustrate the craziness. So the other day I was running late for work (per usual). I hurried in the the kitchen where Levi was sitting at the table, Courtney was making breakfast for Levi, and Lucas was in his exersaucer just as happy as can be. Courtney told me "I think Lucas just pooped". I looked back at Lucas and he was just smiling and laughing...and then I looked underneath the exersaucer. Lucas had pooped all right, and it was running out of his pants, down his legs, and collecting in a big puddle at the bottom of the exersaucer while he stomped up and down in it. I coined it the Diarrhea Riverdance. Needless to say, I was late to work.

Now that you're sufficiently grossed out, here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Apparently a rainstorm won't stop Levi from mowing the deck.

Lucas can be a very happy boy.

Big smiles with mommy.

Levi enjoying the goats at the petting zoo.

Our first family trip to the zoo.

Lucas showing off his cool winter hat.

Papa Chapin having fun with both his grandsons.

Having some apples at the cider mill.

Lucas enjoying his exersaucer (without pooping this time).

Daddy and Lucas. Awww....

Levi loves holding his brother, Lucas is not so sure.

Apparently Levi got bored with putting the stickers on his paper.

Summer Vacation

Last week the Chapin clan took our first vacation as a family of four. Courtney's parents rented a cottage on Lake Michigan in a town called Shelby (a little north of Muskegon). It was a tight squeeze with our growing clan but we made it work. Courtney's parents and our family were there the whole week, and Courtney's sister and her family were there the first half of the week. We spent a lot of time swimming in Lake Michigan, playing with the kids, playing Settlers of Catan after the kids went to bed, and of course, eating. It was a great week and the kids had a lot of fun. Levi is still talking about Lake Michigan, sailboats, jet skis, kayaks, catamarans, and of course the big camel and zebra he saw (but was afraid to feed) at the petting zoo. All in all, it was a great family vacation. Thank you Freed family for putting such a great vacation together for us.

Here are some pictures from the week. Enjoy!

The cottage.

Daddy and Levi enjoying Lake Michigan.

Best buds, at least until Maya scares Levi.

I apparently didn't get the memo we were all supposed to be wearing sunglasses.

Papa T and Grandma Carla with their 2 eldest grandkids.

Levi scared of the big camel (he's pretty much scared of everything).

Although he did make friends with this little goat.

Enjoying the farmer's market/petting zoo.

Daddy had to ride the train with Levi because he was scared of that too.

Family picture on the beach.

Papa T and Lucas taking a nap.

Lucas hanging out with Grandma Carla.

Eating pretzels on the beach.

Watching Sesame Street with the kids.

We're smiling because we just had dinner without any kids.
It was a good end to the vacation.