Super Bowl Sunday

Before we had the boys, Super Bowl Sunday consisted of Daddy eating nachos in his recliner while Mommy folded laundry and counted the minutes until the next commercial break. Once we had Wyatt, not much changed except Daddy ate his nachos with one hand while holding the baby with the other. After Colby's arrival, Daddy continued the baby/nacho balancing act while Mommy tried to simultaneously fold the laundry and keep Wyatt's busy little hands from unfolding it.

This year, however, all that changed. Make no mistake--we're not trying to say that the boys paid one bit of attention to what was happening on the screen. Heck, poor little Colby kept yelling, "Who dey!" as if he fully believed the Bengals had made it to the big game. Nope, the boys didn't watch any of the on-field action; instead, they created some action of their own. They played football with Daddy in the living room!

Wyatt amazed us with his accuracy in throwing the ball. Just a few months ago, he threw every ball like a...well, he threw like Mommy. On Super Bowl Sunday, though, he was spot on, hitting Daddy's hands with nearly every throw.

 

Of course,  Colby would not be outdone. His throws were pretty good, but his tackles? His tackles were awesome (and probably a little more plentiful than Wyatt would have liked)!

This was absolutely the best Super Bowl Sunday the Hickle family has ever seen. Watching the boys toss around the old pigskin put a little tear in Mommy's eye. We'll never remember which team won Super Bowl XLVII, but we'll always remember how much fun we had while not watching the game.

January in Pictures

We played with snow indoors!

We also had fun painting on an unusual canvas--aluminum foil.

Mommy gave Wyatt a home haircut. He's eating his bribery lollipop in this picture.

Grandpa Carl turned eighty years old with a big surprise party!

Wyatt showed off some interesting style choices. Here he is with his pajama pants on his head, where they stayed for most of one morning.

Stan the Donut Man

Wyatt's school is very good about arranging fun field trips for the kids. One of the best ones we've attended was a visit to Stan the Donut Man, a local donut shop. We got to go into the back of the shop where all the magic happens. Wyatt was a little unsure at first, just poking the dough and probably thinking, "This does NOT look like the donuts I eat!"

 

Or maybe he was a little scared by the giant dough-hook that the donut man showed them.

Eventually, he got into the donut gig, especially when it was his turn to use the giant rolling pin! He went at it and flattened that dough like a pancake!

If you ask him what his favorite part was, though, it was absolutely the free donut that he got to eat at the end. Sorry, but we don't have a pic of that. If you'd like to see it in person, though, you're more than welcome to go buy some donuts and bring them over.  :)

Wordless Wednesday

Half Past Two

Mr. Colby, your personality is growing by leaps and bounds! You never cease to surprise Mommy and Daddy with your silly antics. Even your big brother sometimes giggles at your actions. Here are some of the things we want to remember about you right now:

• You still love construction vehicles. For awhile you were totally hooked on excavators, but you seem to have re-embraced backhoes. Every night we pray that you will grow up healthy and happy so you can be a big excavator and backhoe driver.
• You are quite the singer. You've been known to bust out with your rendition of "Jingle Bells" in the middle of the grocery store. Thankfully the other shoppers seem to enjoy it as much as you do.
• You're becoming quite interested in independent play. For the past few days you've been making up stories with the Caillou figurines. Your love of music sort of seeps into it, as the other day you had one character say to the other, "Jed, move away from there!" (Big thanks to Daddy for teaching the boys a great TV theme song.) You also like to play with Mommy's old Care Bear, singing Rock-a-Bye Baby to it while you gently hold it in your arms. Very sweet!
• You are attached to Daddy's hip. He is the first person you ask for when you wake up in the morning. Your favorite place to be is sitting on his lap in the recliner with a good book.
• Speaking of books, your favorite right now is a book adaptation of "Brave" the cartoon. You also like books about construction vehicles, and you've recently discovered Curious George. 
• You are still addicted to the iPad. If we let you, you'd play Angry Birds all day every day. As it stands, the iPad is a treat that we let you indulge in once or twice per day. Taking it away from you is always...interesting. Let's just say that at 2-1/2, you love to indulge in a daily temper tantrum.
• You like to "hunt" for creatures all over the house. You'll often find Mommy or Daddy and declare, "There's a bear in my room!" Sometimes it's a wolf or a fox, but usually it's a bear. 
• Your favorite foods seem to be toast with jelly and meat products. Mealtimes are often a challenge, though, as you seem to enjoy engaging Mommy in a power struggle over what and how much you will eat.
• Your health is generally good, but we found out today that you have to get tubes put in your ears next month. Hopefully this will end your struggle with frequent ear infections!
• You have very little interest in coloring, but you love to use scissors. You also like to paint, although you don't like to get it on your hands.
• You're starting to get along more with your brother. You still do things to annoy him and vice versa, but at least once a day there's a moment when the two of you interact and play with each other almost like friends.
• You give Mommy very sweet kisses on the cheek and you say "I love you" from time to time.

We sure do love you, little guy, and we look forward to watching you grow and change as the next half-year goes by!

Wordless Wednesday: Snow Day Edition

Christmas Recap

We kicked off our Christmas festivities with a stellar performance by our little Wyatt at his school's Christmas program. Although he woke up the morning of the show saying that he didn't want to sing and continued reminding us of this up until about 10 minutes before the performance, in the end he stood front and center and sang the entire time. Mommy and Daddy were so proud of him! And of course, he said he had fun after all.

 

Our festivities continued with classic Christmas traditions including a drive through Light Up Middletown, a visit to Santa at Bass Pro Shop, and baking some cut-out sugar cookies. (The blissful coexistence that you see in this photo was short-lived; Wyatt ended up in time-out a couple of minutes later when he realized he didn't want to share a chair with Colby. There may or may not have been some shoving involved.)

Everyone was feeling the love again on Christmas Eve day, when we sat down to assemble our toddler-friendly "gingerbread" house. Who needs gingerbread when you can use some canned frosting to slap some graham crackers on an old orange juice carton? And Mommy was so excited to put that old trick-or-treat candy to good use as well! The boys were really proud of the final product, and Mommy and Daddy were really proud that no one ended up in time-out during this activity!

 

When Christmas morning finally arrived, Wyatt was so excited to tear into his gifts! He was thrilled when he opened his Trash Pack activity book. It's one item he consistently asked for, and he plays with it almost every day.

 

Colby was excited about Christmas, too, but he was not excited about opening gifts. He was content to just pile up the unopened presents. If we'd left him to his own devices, his gifts would probably still remain unopened next Christmas. Eventually, we convinced him to open his gifts, and he was excited about them after all.  

Christmas 2012 was a memorable one, probably more for the widespread illness in our household than for any other reason. Each of the boys wound up getting sick and missing a family Christmas celebration. The final toll included four head colds/upper respiratory infections, two ear infections, one 24-hour stomach virus, and a double eye infection. Thank goodness we had the distraction of the holiday to get us through the worst of it! And in the end, we made some good memories with our little family and our extended family, which really is the best gift of all.