Brink Boys Recap

Noah is a full-fledged walker now! It's truly amazing.  He has been walking some on his own for a while but lacked motivation/desire to do so in the house.  My guess it's because he's in his comfort zone at home and he knows he can get around much quicker by crawling while at home. It was kind of frustrating because I would see him walk at school and church. At the end of May he did away with crawling and just decided it was time to walk, all the time.  He has also learned how to go from sitting to standing without any assistance or without holding onto any objects for support.  He began doing this completely on his own, just out of the blue at the end of May.  We are so so proud of him! We have recently added speech therapy (private therapy, in addition to what he receives through the school system) and hope to see some progress in his speech and more attempts to begin talking.  At times he does make noises that seem like he is trying to communicate with us and several times in the car, he will 'sing along' to songs that he likes.  Its a softer sound, not his usual sounds that he makes when he's excited or trying to talk.  He really loves Adele, Gotye, and Drive By - Train.  He always claps along to those particular artists/songs.
Collier is 20 months old today and at such a fun age.  Yes, there are the temper tantrums that seem to come as 2 is drawing near but the good definitely outweighs the bad.  He still has the same sweet, funny, energetic and happy little disposition.  He is like a little sponge, just soaking up everything he sees and hears.  He surprises me daily with things that he understands and knows.  He is able to follow simple commands, for example, he will throw his dirty diaper away in the garbage when I ask him to and in fact, now does it without being asked; just yesterday I asked him to share his blocks with his brother and he put 2 of them in Noah's lap.  Some of his new words are: Harper (his soon to be cousin's name, sounds like Ah-pa), Papa, Mimi (sounds like Ne-Ne), MawMaw, flower (fla fla), balloon (boon), green (geen), blue (boo), dude (dew), cool (gool), Mickey (ghee).  He has recently become a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we hear alot of "ghee" and "dat doh" (hot dog).  He has been testing his limits in learning how to walk up and down ramps, taking steps down off curbs and walking backwards(?!?) so if there is ever a slope in the grass or a ramp (at church) he walks up and down, up and down it. He has mastered steps and goes up and down the steps of our front porch on his own and knows that he must hang on to the railing. I am trying to raise him to be independent as it really just makes things easier since Noah needs so much help.
I recently took both of the boys to the pool (by myself) and they had a great time playing in the baby pool (gotta love the fence that surrounds the baby pool!).  I eventually got brave and put them both in the big pool with me (floatees on of course) and at first they were both nervous.  Okay, Collier was terrified and screaming (which of course upset Noah). So yes, I looked like Mother of the Year forcing both of my children to play in the big pool, despite their screams of protest. I was definitely getting 'the look' from the other mothers.  However, after a few minutes of boucing and floating in the water they both warmed up to it and were laughing.  By the end of the day, Collier was jumping off the edge into my arms and trying to swim and float on his own!  After 2 hours of playing at the pool, we loaded up our caravan of towels, toys and snacks and headed home.  I glanced back during the drive and I had not 1, but 2 little boys passed out in the backseat.  Despite all of the effort that goes into taking both boys by myself, I believe we will be visiting the pool more often this summer!