A Few Favorite Moments

My little panda bear.

My big panda bear. Both of them are totally cute. 

 Luke is working on perfecting his hand stand.

 He brought me these and wanted me to put them on him.

 These two ADORE one another.

 I was grateful to get him to stop long enough for a photo.  Even if it did involve a tongue. 

 It was a rare moment, so I snapped quite a few.

 Strangely, nothing makes Eli happier than having someone wallow on him or having someone to wallow on.

 And Judah continues to find ways to get into trouble.

 Can you see the huge goose egg?

 It had actually gone down a bit by the time I snapped this picture.  We might need to get him a helmet.



Eli Rides a Bike

Kris "taught" Eli to ride his bike last night.  I say "taught" because he held on to his shirt for about two seconds and then Eli took off.  He was definitely ready.

I love the hands swinging and then on the hips at the end.  That's my, "I'm so proud of myself, but I'm trying to be cool about it" move.

They were literally racing three minutes after Eli learned to ride. A little brotherly competition.

One of My Favorite Things

Cooking dinner with some Jack Johnson playing on Pandora while Judah's napping and the big boys are outside riding bikes (Yes, it's 100 degrees here, but they have to burn their energy!).  Love it!

Incident Reports

I'm not sure if I should just be amazed that I have never had to sign an incident report for Luke or concerned that I have had to sign so many for the other two.  I had to fill out two incident reports for Eli at school, both because he had cut his thumb on safety scissors.  Not even sure how that is possible, but the first time it was bad enough he almost cut the pad of his thumb off.  It stopped him from sucking his thumb, so it was really a good thing in the long run.

Today when I picked up Judah from the nursery at the YMCA I had to sign an incident report because another child pinched his face and made him bleed and he also fell and hit his head and had to have an ice pack.  Right after that we went to the library where the first thing he did was dive head first into a movie display.  When I got to the checkout counter the lady behind the desk said, "Wow, if he had done that here I would have had to fill out an incident report."  I just smiled and said nothing.  She obviously didn't connect the earlier screams with us.

So, along with the rather large bruise on his back where he fell off the top of the ladder to the fort and the busted chin from swimming Saturday he has two more nasty marks on his face.  I'm going to have to start explaining things when I go in public if we keep this up!

Judah, Judah!

Look at this sweetness.  I know you won't believe me when I tell you that this child is a pistol!

Most of the time when he has his tongue out, it's directed at me and is blowing out a portion of his dinner.

And then he'll smile sweetly so I won't be mad.

Or he'll snuggle up next to his brother so the cuteness will overwhelm me.

Or pose in a sleepy way so I blame it on, "He's just tired."

Right before he goes back to this.

"What??  My brothers do it. Why can't I?"

"I can do whatever my brothers do because I'm just as big as them.  See?"

Today alone he has eaten two crayons and a couple of markers, climbed on the middle of the kitchen table numerous times, dumped out half of a 32 oz. carton of chicken broth on the kitchen floor, and flooded the bathroom floor (after he chewed on a bar of soap).  All this was squeezed in between spending over half the morning at the YMCA and napping most of the afternoon.  That really isn't so bad compared to the day he jerked his diaper out from under himself and ended up with poop on his nose, eyebrows and forehead (not to mention all over his and my hands).  At any given moment, if not being carefully watched, he will snatch a knife from the dishwasher, a full drink from the table or pull open the hot oven door.  When this child reaches his second birthday, it won't be because he hasn't lived adventurously.  But if he does not learn very quickly that telling Mama "NO!!" is his riskiest behavior and extremely hazardous to his health, whether or not he'll make it to his second birthday might be in question. 

It truly is God's plan to make one year olds terribly cute. Sigh.....I think I need to go kiss his cheeks.  He's just so cute!

A Butterfly Experience

For Christmas, Raeanna gave the boys a butterfly garden.  It came with a coupon for caterpillars that we "grew" in our garden.  The boys (and I) loved it!  I'm finally getting around to posting this, even though we did this in February.

Our baby caterpillars.  Every single day you could see them getting fatter.

 Once they got fat enough they went into their chrysalises.

 They grew for about ten days...

 And then became beautiful butterflies!

 Once it warmed up a bit, we released them in our yard.

A (bit long) video of us watching one of the butterflies coming out of its cocoon.  It's been since February, so it's crazy to see how much Luke has grown up in four months!

Luke, Eli and Judah just watched Barney and then Calliou.  I think we all just lost about a billion brain cells apiece.