The Joys of Playtime

We recently joined a place called "Kidville: The Ville for Kids" and it's been great. The boys take a class called "Little Maestros" every Wednesday and it's singing, playing, story time and tiny bubbles all within a 45 minute span.

The boys are stimulated - possibly overstimulated - and then crash into a lovely nap afterward. There's also a delicious cupcake/cakeball establishment next door that we may or may not frequent.

With our membership comes access to the open gym, where the boys can explore, knock over and do pretty much anything they want to. Check out a few videos below:

Noel climbing through a tube and then backin' it up. Check out Ethan in the background in the last 15 seconds.




In the last 5 minutes of class, the boys just went crazy!!!

Weekend alone with Dad (plus some help!)

Adam and I have worked out a pretty nice system whereby we're each able take a weekend or two on our own each year . . . I head to Vegas with Joanna every May and Adam chose late March to visit Kathryn & Mikey B. in Angel Fire, NM. This was actually the first time Adam had taken his weekend pass and the first time Dad would be left on his own with boys . . . and by "on his own," I, of course mean with lots of assistance from Gramma & Papa and Weezie. :)

The boys and I actually had a fantastic time and managed to survive with no physical injuries to the boys and no emotional injuries to Dad. Some cute pics below . . .


The boys found their way into my office and discovered the pen/pencil holder . . . was actually pretty sweet, one of the few times that they happily shared an activity without any sense of possessiveness . . .



















I swear I only looked away for a moment, only to discover that the stroller had become the preferred climbing apparatus . . .

















We went for a walk on an amazing spring day and I looked down at their legs in the stroller and it hit me just how big they're getting . . . I remember when we first started walking in the double stroller and their little feet barely stretched over the orange in the seat . . .

















Lastly, a shot from a fun family dinner at Lucky's . . . we were all happy to get an unexpected visit from Papa, who joined us and was amazed that the boys loved their dinner of broccoli, okra and squash casserole . . .















We all love it more when Pai is home, but it was definitely a fun weekend for the three of us.

A few random pics....

We're in a good groove with the boys and just wanted to post a few cute pics from the past couple of weeks:


The boys were playing one morning while I was folding laundry and things got too quiet. I peeked around the corner and this is what I saw:


















They LOVE sweeping, mopping, laundry, minor electrical repair:

























And Noel Cool throwing some major attitude courtesy of Uncle Ron's shades:

One small step for Noel...

The day has finally come! Big Butt Benson (aka Noel) has taken his first real steps towards freedom!!!

We predicted it would happen this way - it would just click and off he'd go. He's been very cautious and focused on cruising for the past month or so and most of you have seen him strolling around with his little walker. In Mexico, he started taking two or three steps pretty consistently and tonight he just went for it! See a few videos of Noel's fancy footwork below:









Three cheers for Noel!

Punta Mita Outtakes!

In going through the rest of the vacation pics, we came across some that were too cute not to share . . .

First up, some pics of the boys getting ready for the beach . . . Noely Canoli is debuting his new punk rocker hair style while Ethan is getting his performance ready for American Idol 2026!
























Lastly, a couple of beach shots . . . aforementioned picture of Ethan resisting all efforts to try and bury him in the sand followed by our submission to "Thug Babies 2012 Calendar" . . . "you lookin' at us???"

Punta Mita - Winter, 2011 Vacation with the Boys (Part 2)

We have returned safely from our family Mexican adventure and I wanted to provide pics and commentary from the second half of the trip . . .

We continued our daily ritual of taking the boys to the beach after their morning nap . . . they definitely started acclimating more and more to the sand and surf with each passing day. Ethan even tried to wander down on his own one day, which was an encouraging sign - he was definitely a much larger fan of the water. Below is a cute pic of Adam playing with the boys, including one where Noel allowed himself to be buried in the sand, which he was much happier (vs. the water).
















The common form of our transportation within the walls of Punta Mita, which is about 4 square miles, is a golf cart . . . below is our trusty cart, which is what transported us to/from the Beach Club and the other hotels, etc. The boys absolutely loved riding in the cart which were thankfully free of any sort of car seat (lap rides for all!)













We had a number of good meals out with the boys, who were given an incredibly warm reception from all of the waiters, owners, etc . . . they made fast friends wherever we went. Here's a fantastic "up close" pic of each of the boys arriving at our favorite restaurant, Rosa Mexicana:


















Below are more pictures from our last meal at Rosa Mexicana . . . couple of action shots with each of the boys. Ethan was a perfect patron in this meal, while Noel demanded to be set free of from his high chair. Earlier in the trip, he'd really embraced the concept of walking and couldn't resist the opportunity to put in some more practice, albeit with Dad's assistance.




















Lastly, here are a couple of really great family pics . . . the boys and their fathers seemed to appreciate every minute of the trip and were sad to see the trip come to a close.

Punta Mita - Winter, 2011 Vacation with the Boys (Part 1)

The Brigade has headed to Punta Mita for our Winter vacation with the boys . . . and we're happy to report that all has been fantastic. Punta Mita is about 45 minutes outside of Puerty Vallarta and is a commercially made community that contains two very nice hotels and a handful of condominium properties. We're staying at the Hacienda de Mita, which is a beachfront property that is walking distance to the restaurants of El Anclote (original Punta Mita village).

Our unit has been ideal . . . its expansive with plenty of room for the boys to roam and roam they have. The decor had a few too many shiny, breakable objects, so Pai and Dad spent the first hour moving everything into quarantine zone with the hopes we might salvage some of our security deposit.

First pics below of our great lanai . . . big cushy furniture and place we planned to spend far more time until the boys learned how to climb on the railing:

Our daily ritual is to wake up and have a big family breakfast and play around the condo until the boys go down for their morning nap . . . once they awake from that, we all load into our rented 4-seater golf cart (pic coming up in part II) and drive to the members beach club, which has been ideal . . . two heated pools, lots of families, a great restaurant and a very pristene beach.

This has been the boys first beach experience and its been met with mixed results . . . Ethan loves walking in the sand and gets his giggle going when the ocean tide pushes the water over his feet and legs . . . Noel . . . not so much. On this trip, Noel has developed a raspy screech that he puts to good use whenever we try and drag him towards the ocean. He's been much happier romping in the pool and playing in the sand. Series of pictures below from the first few days . . . more to come in Part II . . .

Professional Photos - 1 year - Ethan's Series . . .

While Noel may have taken the spotlight for the overall shoot, I couldn't help sharing the best series of the day with the two of the most naturally photogenic members of the family . . . it was hard to choose which of these was our favorite, as Ethan showed so much personality.

Professional Photos - 12 months

Performing a little blog maintenance today . . . realized that we failed to upload the GREAT pictures from the 1 year session of the Brigade . . . maybe it was due to how hard it was to filter our selection down from what was a big population of great pics.

This was a fantastic day . . . a little windy, but Chad and Marci picked a great location surrounding the canals of Las Colinas. We dressed the boys in some cute sweater vests and their new topsiders and enjoyed the day . . . well, at least three of us did . . . the normally "easy to smile" Sweet Pea Ethan was having a rough day . . . or maybe he just decided to let Noel have most of the spotlight on this day.

Starting off with the very first picture of the day . . . comparing this to their 9 month photos, our first impression was how much Noel has really grown into a boy . . . he held onto the "baby phase" a little longer than Ethan and we're said to see it go . . .














Next up a couple of family shots . . . I tried to find matching stripes sweaters in our size, but Adam vetoed and even decided to abandon the sweater vest theme that the rest of us were carrying. Definitely the best overall family pictures that we've taken.































The wind really served as the third person in the shot below, which Chad did a great job of capturing this moment . . . you can see that the breeze definitely brought out a good giggle from the boys.

Next up, a couple of individual shots of the boys . . .

• Ethan showing off his gait, which just received an official upgrade from stumble to walk to trot.



• Noel doing his best over the shoulder, spontaneous and adorable grin . . .

Some of our favorite pics ever . . . each of us with one of the boys. Fantastic smiles from both of the boys . . .

Towards the end of the day, the boys were struggling to stay engaged, so Dad pulled his old "throw 'em up over your head" trick and that resulted in some great shots of each boy. More great camera work from Chad . . . really was a great day.