Home of Douglas Loots

Now that the kids are getting so that they are both in the toddler stage they have started playing little games together. Somtimes it’s blocks, sometimes it’s baby dolls, sometimes they put together puzzels. Normally these exchanges are dominated by Brayton sheerly because of his size and assertiveness. Lauren normally just plays along and puts up with her brother dominating the entire exchange.

Recently though, the kids have been playing this game of “peekaboo” around the back of the TV set. We aren’t exactly sure how this started, but they do it several times a day. They each go to separate sides of the TV and peek around the back side. They usually say “Uh Oh!” back and forth, but often times the conversation behind the TV deteriorates from normal human English to some type of toddler gibberish that evidently only they understand. They will have this exchange for 10 or 15 seconds, then switch sides and do it all over again. They keep this up until each child has been to both sides of the TV several times.

Brayton has really started climbing up on the household items recently (as you’ll see in the video). He has started showing feats of strength that boggle our minds. He leans on the end tables and does “dips” by lifting himself off the ground multiple times in a row. He will also do modified pull ups on the playground equipment. We have recently started considering putting him in gymnastics classes because of this and also because he has so much energy we think the gymnastics may help him expend some of that energy. Not sure of the price tag for the classes yet, but we’re checking into it.

Here’s a little more video of Lauren walking. She’s really taking off more and more each day. In this video it was almost supper time, and she was wanting to get up into her chair to eat. At the beginning you can hear her saying “chair, chair”. I on the other hand wanted to get this shot of her walking so I used the occasion to coax her into walking toward me. Evidently she forgot that she wanted to get up in her chair in the time it took for her to go from the table to me, then past the fridge and into the dining room. You’ll see she was almost tripping over the clip on the string attached to the balloon.

Earlier in the day, Colette, I and the kids went to Hy Vee to eat brunch with Aunt Audra and Uncle Matt. Matt’s parents Kathy & Tim Meyer also came along. Uncle Matt told Brayton in Mass that Kathy was there and Brayton stood up in the middle of the Homily and said “I want to see Kathy Meyer.” After brunch Aunt Audra took Brayton over to the flower shop in Hy Vee and bought both kids a balloon. Once Lauren had that balloon, she hauled it around all day.

If you listen closely, you can hear Brayton saying “don’t bite me”. If you’re wondering, we’re not biting our children, rather we got two puppets (an elephant and octopus) from the library. Brayton was playing with them and the octopus was biting the elephant in his little game. I’m not sure where he came up with this, but nonetheless in his little game the elephant was telling the octopus “don’t bite me.”

Some of the best money we’ve ever spent is our membership to the Blank Park Zoo and the Science Center of Iowa. The kids love the animals at the zoo, I don’t think they could ever get enough. Brayton loves the fish, the otters, and the emu’s. In this little clip, he has a close encounter with an Emu and I’m certain he didn’t think he’d ever get that close. Matter of fact, when Colette showed me the video, I was a tad bit concerned about the proximity of the Emu but I guess they see so many people there’s little chance of getting kicked or pecked or whatever an Emu might do to a child.

Over the last week or so, Lauren Claire has really taken off walking. She has been taking a few steps here and there for about a month, but normally after just a few would drop down and crawl seemingly because it’s much faster. She was only putting together 4 or 5 steps at a time until this week. Now, she’s getting up and going much longer distances often times across the entire room, so long as her brother doesn’t come and knock her over.

This afternoon, I took the kids out to play at a park and Lauren would climb up the stairs on the playset, walk over to the tube slide, climb in, sit down, slide down, crawl out, and walk back over to the stairs and do it all over again. She is really getting independent and does very well on her own until her brother starts running interference on her.

Colette took this video on Friday, September 26th. It was about 85 degrees out and a really nice day to take the opportunity to play in the water table one last time before it starts to cool off outside.

If you listen closely, you can also hear B singing the veggie tales song again.

Brayton is becoming quite the singer lately. Seems like everyday he is singing somthing. So far, I’ve heard various theme songs from shows like Veggie Tales and the Wiggles, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday, lots of nursery rhymes, and of course his ABC’s. I guess he must be taking after his Grandma Cindy or Aunt Audra. It seems that he has quite a good ear for music. Colette said he heard a song on PBS the other day 2 times and after just twice was able to sing the entire song himself. Of course, he always sings best off camera and when he’s not being induced by his father, but it’s still pretty good entertainment.

In this video, he’s singing the theme song for Veggie Tales. The lyrics go like this:

If you like to talk to tomatoes.
If a squash can make you smile.
If you like to waltz with potatoes,
Up and down the produce isle,
Have we got a show for you!

This morning the weather was so nice out that Colette decided we should try painting in the garage. It was about 75 degrees with a slight breeze. We opened up the garage door, threw down Grandpa Gordon’s blanket and put some paper, paint brushes, and some water color paints down on the ground and just let the kids play.

Lauren didn’t want anything to do with the paint brushes. Brayton jumped right in though and started painting away. After a bit Lauren evidently thought B was having alot of fun so she got down off my lap and proceeded to stick her fingers in the paint which she then started to smear on her face and tummy much like she does with lotion. By the time the kids were done, they were both full of paint because B took Lauren’s lead and started painting his face as well. Finally the last thing they did was paint the bottom of each others feet and stepped on the paper making green and orange footprints.

Can’t believe it’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve posted. Been very busy around here lately. With school, kids, work, wow. Well, Colette has been working with Lauren on her ABC’s. It’s quite funny, and she actually has done them much better than what is on this video. But, whenever she is doing them we don’t have the camera rolling, or when we go to get the camera out she immediately stops doing them.

Lauren has really been growing by leaps and bounds lately, not just physically but also intellectually. She is getting better at her shapes, she recognizes them and puts them in the correct place, she says her ABC’s now when led by us and she is getting quite the attitude at times. Sometimes I think she is 16 months going on 16 years. If she makes up her mind she is NOT going to do something, you can guarantee she is NOT going to do it no matter what you do.

Last Tuesday, I came home and Colette and the kids had built a fort with some blankets and the kitchen table. That night I had a late night conference call for a web deployment so I wasn’t expected back to work until noon the next morning.

The next morning morning, Colette had a Dr. appointment, so what did the kids and I do? We played in the fort all morning. We read books, put together puzzles, played shapes, and had a grand old time. After a bit, I could tell they were starting to get a little hungry. So, we decided to have a nice raisin snack.

The kids love raisins, and I feel good giving them raisins because they are healthy and promote regular bowel movements!

This morning, I got up with Bratyon and Lauren while Colette slept in a bit. They were both ravenously hungry as usual. After a brief debate with Brayton about the fact I was not going to give him sugar cereal (especially before Mass), we settled on eating oatmeal with blueberries. We haven’t had blueberries in a few weeks, so the kids were excited to get them. I poured two bowls, tossed in a handful of blueberries, and cooked them up in the microwave.

We’ve been trying to get Lauren to use her spoon and fork recently. She’s doing well, at least she is trying. Most of the time she just pokes herself in the face with the fork and then we have a brief crying spell until she realizes she’s okay and goes back to eating.

This morning, after I sat the kids down with their oatmeal, Lauren started making a big mess. Not that she usually doesn’t make a mess, it’s just that oatmeal is messier than I anticipated it would be. So, I pulled out the camera and started shooting.

What ensued was quite comical, and I don’t want to ruin it, but watch the video and you can see the back and forth interaction between our two children. Needless to say, Brayton is no longer the sole instigator in our family.