Picture post

When getting the baby activity mat out of storage for Nathan, 

Caleb decided it would make a fun tent.

While I was putting Christmas stuff away in the closet, 

Caleb had fun exploring.

Caught reading books

While David was out of town traveling, Caleb and I had a picnic
dinner on the kitchen floor.  We shared a four-course meal of sweet
potatoes, chicken, noodles and apple slices.

Reading to his animal buddies

"Want a closer look, Mr. Bear?"

I tried to capture Nathan's sad face.  He has the most pathetic pouty lip.  

This is about halfway there.  He needs to scrunch his eyes for the full effect.

Caleb's Escalade.  Must have in hand at all times.

At the zoo.  "Daddy, this doesn't feel good on my boy parts."

"Jaguar" and "Escalade"?

Are these words a less-than-two-year-old should be saying?  If your kid is obsessed with cars like mine is, you hear it a lot.  Although, Escalade sounds more like "eh-cade."  And he just started saying "station wagon" today.

Poop in the sink

Before

After

(blocked out the grossness so you don't gag)

Oh, the joys of parenting.

I need to end with a cute baby in a towel picture:

Recent stuff

Some words I've heard coming out of Caleb's mouth lately - "Yes, mommy."  "Obey."  "No throwing cars."  I guess you can figure out what stage we are going through!  Most of the time I'll ask him to repeat these phrases, but sometimes I'll overhear him talking to himself and saying them.  hehe.  I feel like we're able to have conversations now.  He talks so much.  It's a new word or phrase every day.  The other day he put his hand on his head and said, "Oh, gosh!"  I guess I say that a lot?

Overall, he is such a good, compliant kid.  We're so blessed.  Yes, he is pushing boundaries occasionally, but he is just trying to figure out how things work in his little world.  And I'm realizing how I react to it makes a world of difference.  He plays so nicely, loves reading, behaves really well in public, does well at naps and dinner time.  He sat through our Christmas Eve service like an angel - we were so proud of him. 

Nathan is getting much more alert and strong.  We must have smiley babies because he was smiling before his 2-month birthday!  He rolled over several times one day, but hasn't done it since.  I love his sweet personality.  He seems to be a good napper.  I've been so blessed that most days the boys will take an afternoon nap around the same time.  Even if it is only 30 minutes of overlapping, it is great.

Most of the time things go smoothly during the day.  Caleb has gotten good about letting me go upstairs without him when I have to put Nathan down for a nap.  He holds up his little pointer finger and says, "be back", which means "I'll be right back."  I really thought I'd have to rely on TV for Caleb while I was nursing Nathan, but that hasn't been the case.  Caleb will usually play well by himself, or he'll bring a book up next to me and read.  So I'm very thankful for that.  I usually do fine all day, until I hit a point of exhaustion around 5:00 as I'm juggling both boys and getting dinner ready.  I'm usually counting down the minutes until David gets home so we can tag-team!

Boys hangin' out together.

Caleb loves reading in his chair. 

Precious little Nathan

bubbles  :)

Two little heads

Caleb is reading a sign language book I had when I was little.  He is doing
the sign for "ball."  He has picked up a lot of signs from us reading it together.

I love Nathan's face here!

I told Caleb to show the book to Nathan, and he really showed him!
I had to watch closely to make sure Nathan didn't get clobbered.

Family portraits

This year we did family portraits for both families.  They turned out great!  I know the trend these days is to hire a photographer and do more photojournalism/action/catch-a-special-moment shots - something I love and am working at learning.  But there is something I still like about getting a family group together and doing a sit-everyone-down-and-smile-in-front-of-a-plain-background picture.  (Wow, I'm using a lot of hyphens.)

Of course I won't go super old-school with the double exposure portraits like in the living room of Napoleon Dynamite:

Although, we did make a few jokes about posing with something billowy...

Ok, here are our faves.  I fully expect to get a call from Baby Gap and Gap Kids in search of their next models.  hehe.

My fam

David's family