Brothers

Tickles

Uncles

Gabe loves his uncles. He talks about all of them quite frequently. Today he told me he wanted to play with Uncle Lance (and Cole), and he wanted me to say hi to Uncle Steve for him. He loves putting on hats and saying "I'm like Uncle Landrew". And not for any uncles to feel left out - he really does talk about all of you --- frequently.

Every Tuesday and Thursday we get together with 4 other kids Gabe's age and play. The kids call it "Friend's School" because we do singing time, a "lesson", craft, and snack, in addition to playing. Joshua is a big hit with the ladies of the group. They love taking care of him.

And who wouldn't? Look at that face. His cheeks get mauled by everyone in our family (including Gabriel, who loves to give him "lollipops" (raspberries as most people call them).


And here is a picture of Gabriel and his friend, Kiera, chasing each other at the local Botanical Gardens. This is one of Gabe's favorite games and he coaxed Kiera into playing by saying in quite the pathetic voice, "Kiera, chase me. Chase me!" while pulling her out of her mom's lap.

Smiles

Family Home Evening

During our Family Home Evening lesson last night, we learned that Heavenly Father created all animals, as well as everyone in our Family. This morning the first words out of Gabe's mouth were...

"Want Heavenly Father to make cats. And cows. Heavenly Father makes lambs. Heavenly Father makes cheese. I want a frog."

I love little minds.

The Two's

Joshua is now two months old.
He weighed in at 13 lbs 13 oz and 24 inches. That's almost 7 lbs and 5 inches of growth in the last 2 months.

He's a very happy baby. He smiles and laughs pretty much any time anyone says, "hi Josh!".

Gabe is two years old (and some change). The two's are a bipolar experience. Sometimes I wonder what on earth Gabe is thinking. Today, I tried to figure it out. Here are some hypothesis':

"If I put a bell pepper down my shirt - will I still be able to eat it through the shirt? Let's see. Well - no. But I still get that nice crunching in my mouth, so I'll go ahead and chomp on it anyway."

"How far will the milk go if I first stick my head down my shirt and spit it through my shirt?"

"If I take my dirty diaper off during nap time, can I make cool things with the contents on the carpet?"

"I bet if I pour cup-fulls of water onto the bathroom floor it will make a REALLY BIG bathtub to swim in." (I actually remember thinking this myself when I was little. I remember attempting with my friend, Susan. I foiled the plan when I got out of the tub to inform her mother not to worry, we were not overflowing the bathtub. Kids are so much smarter these days.)

"Maybe I'll scare mom if I put this blanket over my head and walk around. OUCH! Darn bookshelf."

After an hour (yes, only an hour) I tired of translating Gabe's actions into words mainly because Josh wailed half the afternoon from a little body full of vaccinations.

While these two's are full of exploratory mischief, they're also littered with moments of sweet tenderness. For example:

• Last week Gabe played with some friends of his (and their saintly mother) while I ran an errand. As we drove home, I asked Gabe my normal questions --- "did you have fun?" "what did you do?", etc. When I asked what he did, he responded with, "I missed you."
• Today he crawled up on the bed to kiss a sleeping Josh (this is not unusual in and of itself) and he said. "I love Josh." After a moment or two, he looked at me and said, "And I love you, mom".
• A few days ago, I wanted to take Gabe and Josh to the store and was feeling frazzled b/c Josh was upset and Gabe and I did not have the same agenda (meaning, he was dawdling and I was in a hurry). I finally picked Gabe up so I could just put him in the car myself, and he looked at me calmly with a hint of confusion and more than a hint of concern and said, "It's all right mom." Then he patted me on the back and said "It's all right" a few more times.
• We've been running most mornings for the last week and Josh and Gabe sit side by side in my new running stroller (thank you Hector and Marguerite). One day, Josh was having a hard time with this arrangement, but calmed down pretty quickly. When I glanced down to see why he had calmed down, Gabe had his finger in Josh's mouth and was letting him suck on it (a trick I showed him a few days prior).

At the end of the day, I'd say the sweet moments are worth the exploration-of-boundaries moments.