June 26th

Wynnie enjoying bath time

Dori hanging out with us in the kitchen

Ben riding his bike for the 1st time like a pro!

Alex fully concentrating on his bike without training wheels. yay!

We're only into the 3rd week of summer but the boys are developing a good routine to keep themselves busy throughout the day. When it's time for the babies to get therapy, they go upstairs to play video games or go into my room to watch cartoons (if not they'll stand over the therapist shoulders and be like protective body guards anytime they hear the babies cry) so that the therapist can do their jobs without having to answer to Ben and Alex. :)

For Father's Day the boys made him colorful cards and we all stayed out of his way while Chris was busy all day with cleaning out his closets and organizing things. I told him he is supposed to be lazy on Fathers Day (since I don't lift a finger on Mother's Day!), but he had the urge to purge so we let him go after it. It was a very low key day for him here at home. Then this weekend we celebrated his birthday. Viktoria made him a surprise German chocolate cake. Unfortunately the cake deflated so it really looked like the Grand Canyon but it tasted so scrumptious it didn't matter what it looked like since we all covered our pieces in ice cream. Ha!! Then Saturday night we went out for drinks in downtown then up to Allen to a Brazilian steakhouse his friend owns. It was a weekend finished up with playing around in the pool with the boys last night.

Ben and Alex are staying busy with a 2nd grade curriculum book. Chris worked out the lesson plans so we sit during the day and do the daily lessons. Ben's lesson on Friday included to compose a "poem" about someone. He chose to do it about Chris. He was hard at work and wouldn't show me anything til he was finished. Half way through the poem composition, Ben looks up and says "Mami, what's a word that rhymes with bald?"

For Father's Day I had the boys make a magic time machine card. On one side of the card they drew what their favorite thing to do with Chris is (in the "present"). Then on the other side they drew what their favorite thing will be to do with him in the "future". Alex drew shopping with him in the present, and playing poker with him in the future. Ben drew playing basketball with him in the present, and playing with his kids & Chris in the future.

Today after Chris told the boys he was going to teach them how to ride a bike, Alex said "Hold on, let me get a first aid kit put together!" To our grand surprise, once the training wheels were taken off, both boys zipped on their bikes as if they had ridden for years. It was nuts! No need for bandaids. NICE!

Dorian is working on making the "SH" sound with his speech therapist. He can't work it out with his mouth, so he just blows out of his nose when he is prompted to do it. It's so cute. She loves it when he does it. Wynn is trying his best to mimick facial expressions and sounds. He loves to roll up to Dorian and try to hold his hand or touch his face but Dori gives him a swift kick or a loud yell and Wynn knows to back off. It's hard being such a snuggle bug if your bro doesn't want to snuggle back!! We need to send Dorian to some sensitivity training. :)

This week the babies have both been party boys in the middle of the night. They get the night nurse to feed them then play with them for at least an hour, or FOUR. They keep the babies happy so we don't hear any fussing or crying to actually wake US up. Twice this week Dori partied til 4 or 5 AM. Hopefully this is just a phase, but at least while they are awake with the nurse they are happy just talking and playing with toys. Maybe they are practicing for college all-nighters (?).

Mavs Maniac

Jason the Jet Terry & Dirk

Dirk doing the Dirky

Tyson Chandler

The awesome parade crowd!

My two cute parade dates!

I'm happy to report that in our household we have come down with a serious outbreak --- of mavs fever!

What a fun past week it has been... staying up late with the boys to watch the games, trying not to cheer too loud because loud cheers scare Dori, being proud of Wynnie staying up real late with us to join in on the chanting, doing victory dances for our night nurses (who I have no doubt think we are totally nuts), and just sharing the excitement of the mavs NBA championship with Ben and Alex. It's really neat to see their excitement. Chris says I'm a "superfan" and Ben is not far behind from me, he likes to watch the games over and over again.

Today we woke up at 5:15 AM and took the train to downtown... sunscreen, DS's, sunglasses and cooler in hand (packed with sandwiches and gatorades). We left the babies at home with Viktoria because I thought the crowds and the heat would be too much for them... that was the best call I made all day since there were over 200,000 fans and over 100 degree heat.

Ben LOVED the train ride and was so pumped to see houses and businesses all dark as we choo-choo'd all the way to Victory Plaza, he kept clapping and saying what a good day it was. Alex within 5 minutes of boarding the train Alex said "This is my second most important dream come true!" I was so excited that I didn't even think of asking him what his FIRST most important dream is. I just gave him a big hug. Since we got there 4 hours before the parade started, we got a great area to watch the parade from... here are the pictures. What a fun time, I'm so glad I was able to share this experience with the boys. CHris wasn't able to take off from work to join us but we kept him informed through phone calls and texts.

Thanks mavs for giving our family so many neat memories this year!! As I screamed to Dirk, Terry and Kidd as their float went by "WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!"

Let's go Mavs!!

Game 3... tonight here in town... we've got Mavs fever, and only a NBA championship can cure it!! I made the babies' mavs shirts last night (iron on letters) since no stores carry Mavs gear so small. The boys are really excited... Let's go Mavs!

New bath chair & pool time

The babies just LOVED the water

Dori's new bath chair... what a handsome fello!

I couldn't wait to post this and share with you all... Dori and Wynnie apparently have a new passion -- swimming! Well, more like hanging out in the water with cute German girls. What guy doesn't?

Here is a picture of them with Viktoria and her sister, Olga. Sadly Olga is leaving tomorrow after visiting for 6 weeks. We know Viktoria will miss her big sister, they've had alot of fun these past couple of months.

Dori also got his new bath chair and we tried it out today. He cried the whole time, not liking it one bit... but I was able to distract him long enough to get a picture of him without him screaming. Way to go Dori!

For more updates on their PT and Speech therapy, please view the blog post from earlier today.

June 2nd

Dori smiling at dinner table

Wynn unimpressed by the baby dinosaur he was petting on Monday

Alex in field day

Ben with the look of a crazy man at tug-a-war (he gets that from Chris!)

School is over on June 9th so just a few more days and *freedom*... so that means lots of activities to plan and fun play dates to book so the boys have a fun and eventful summer. That also means Dorian and Wynn will feel like Atilla the Hun has invaded their private quiet days until school starts up again! ha ha ha!!

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the boys and babies lately... I tried many times to post new videos to this blog entry but for some reason it's not working. I'll post it once I get it figured out. It was some cute ones of the babies laughing, talking to me and eating my iPhone (otter box) case.

Football has had us really busy (the season ended last Saturday, they got 2nd place in the league). Now we're in full basketball mode. Chris started two select basketball teams and is coaching those. Our team name is "Big Red". No surprise there, right?

Wynnie has had a fever the past couple of days and throwing up, but I'm taking him to the doctor to see what's going on. Probably an ear infection I assume, but I don't know what his vomiting is about.

Dori has been improving by leaps and bounds in PT. With the help of his bobby pillow around his hips, he is able to sit up for a total of 7 minutes!!! His PT is really proud of him, as are we. He is also stealing the show at speech therapy. His speech therapist Hope has become a stay at home mom so we miss her dearly. :( But his new speech therapist Lauren is great and the babies have really blossomed with her. Dori is mimicking alot of her words during therapy and Wynnie is trying his best too. He recently discovered his tongue so he is more preoccupied with folding it over and sticking it out than actually saying words... but that's ok. It's a start!

Their old OT left the company so they have a new OT. The babies are taking a little while to get used to her but she does all sorts of fun things (play with shaving cream, color with markers) so they are beginning to warm up to her because of her new tricks and toys.

Wynnie is still everyone's friend... anyone willing to hold and cuddle him is alright in his book. As for Dori, he is developing his "stranger anxiety" like a typical 2 year old normally does. If he doesn't know you very well and you try to touch him, he'll let you know he wants you to step away... far away, fast. Lauren told us that is a good sign of his mental development since a "normal" 2 year old would also begin to exhibit that same aversion to strangers as well. So please don't take offense... it's just Dori being a normal 2 year old.

Ben and Alex had field day at school last week... it was a hoot! The babies enjoyed it for about an hour then they started getting hot and fussy (they get hot and sweaty way faster than normal since they are both on heart meds and that is a side effect). But before we left I was able to get some good pics of the boys in action. I was proud of them! The boys were very busy the last two weeks keeping watch of a mama bird that made her nest on our garage door opener. They rigged a step ladder so they could climb up and see the eggs and babies every day.

Chris made an observation last week that really struck me. This past year in Dallas we have hosted the World Series, the Super Bowl and now the NBA finals! Even though we haven't purchased actual tickets to go to any of those big time games, we've enjoyed the festivities around the city with Ben and Alex and it's been really neat to get caught up in all the excitement. Not many kids can say they've had fun at all those events, so it's a blessing to make those memories with them and our friends down here.

We hope you start to look at your calendars and think of when you might come down to visit us. The pool is ready, the lounge chairs are waiting and I'm sure we can whip up a nice cold beverage for you upon your arrival. Just to tempt you I'm putting picture of our front door and back yard on here to get your road trip juices flowing. Come on down!

Oh ... and one more thing... LET'S GO MAVS!!!!!