I love that Mother's Day is a time to reflect on what I do all day every day.

I'm incredibly grateful for the wonderful children with which I have been blessed. I'm grateful to make fun memories with them, like go to the zoo, where the most interesting thing they found, after 2 hours of driving, was this wishing well. (Which Gabe peed in while I wasn't looking. But the zoo employee sure was looking.)

And I absolutely love their little (sometimes really BIG) personalities. Josh loves to put this fire person hat on and walk around the house with the "choo choo". My favorite thing about Josh right now is the way he sings Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. "Winkle, Winkle, da da STAR!"

And Gabe tells funny jokes like:

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Apple"

"Apple who?"

"Eat Apple!" 

(Said with a look on his face that clearly expresses his opinion that he is just about the funniest person in the world.)

Then there's the little one. Everyone just loves Marguerite. Whenever she's awake (and happy), the whole family gathers around and tries to make her smile. It's not difficult to do, but you pretty much feel like the king of the world when you achieve your goal.

When my parents were in town at the end of April, they helped us plant a garden, so these pictures are mostly so they can see the fruit of their labors...

Zucchini

Watermelon

Tomato. This is Gabe's surprised face. It goes perfectly with his new favorite phrase when I tell him something he likes to hear, "Oh! I didn't know that!" Gabe is also trying to figure out how measurements work, and I absolutely love to hear him talk about anything with numbers. An example: The other day, I put a CD in that we hadn't listened to in awhile, and Gabe said, "Oh! This is my favorite from like... 100 years ago." He'll also say things like, "That bike is 82 45 96 pounds away from us." It doesn't make any sense, but it's delightful.

Josh loves cars. He almost always has one in his hand. He is mostly laid back, but when he's not, he's REALLY not. He already loves to attempt to buckle himself into his car seat, get dressed, go to the bathroom (really anything that Gabe does.) He insists on going pee in the toilet after almost every diaper change, but gets really frustrated when he stands there, just like Gabe does, and nothing comes out. I think he thinks he just hasn't found the right button yet, or something. He's also in the stage where he can't make up his mind about anything and get's really mad when I don't keep up with the ever changing decisions. Mostly, he's delightful and fun and a joy. His laugh is one to bring joy to the heart.

Both boys adore Marguerite. Gabe loves to hold her and make her laugh. Whenever she starts crying, Josh runs right over to me yelling, "Mom! Sis! Cay (cry)!" over and over until I get to her.

And just look at that smile. Even though she doesn't sleep at all (almost literally) during the day, we still can get this smile out of her, as long as someone is paying close attention to her, and/or holding her.