HUUUGHES!!!

Elizabeth and the boys

I like the first one because it looks like they are having some serious conversation over birthday cake :)

Elizabeth is one of the biggest blessings in our lives over the past year.  I'm so excited about the new job I'm starting tomorrow -- but I wouldn't really have even pursued it if Elizabeth wasn't willing to continue being the boys' nanny.  She is just amazing with them and I have never for a second had any worries about how they are doing with her.  Michael had to do his own separate sibling adjustment time with her because he took her attention for granted before Malcolm came along, just like he did for us.  He has a lot of fun with her and Malcolm is already completely comfortable with her too.  Whenever he eventually starts solids, I'm pretty positive he'll like her cooking as much as Michael does :)

Pictures from Michael's birthday party

 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!

Halloween fun

I forgot to post about Halloween, but I wanted to post a few pictures (a few are from Chris's Facebook so not high quality yet, but I'll get them later :).  Michael and Malcolm were Ewoks this year.  The costumes were so cute!  Both boys were stretching the limits of them, though -- they are both kind of big for their ages.

We had a great time over at Chris and Stef's house for their "Boo Brunch."  The food was wonderful and I loved seeing the cute little babies' costumes.  It was also nice to have a place to dress them up for, especially since trick or treating itself was kind of a bust.  I thought Michael might like to knock on people's doors since I usually tell him not to do that on ordinary neighborhood walks.  I also thought the neighbors that we do see a lot might like to see the boys dressed up.  Unfortunately, Michael was only game for about four or five houses before he started flipping out and saying "no! no!".  I have no idea why!  It was all right, though.  I'm sure it will be different next year.  He ended up helping me push Malcolm's stroller back to the house and that made him very happy.

Happy baby

Here is Malcolm at three months old. He is such a happy little guy! Getting better at grabbing things lately.

A few recent photos

 Michael brought Snoopy to the park and made sure he got to eat something too.

Running through the park

At the arboretum - the pumpkins were cool, but snacktime came first

 My little cutie, looking a lot like Grandpa in the one to the right!

Fun at the pumpkin patch

 

 

 

Almost two

On Sunday night we stopped by Theresa's house before picking up Mike at the airport, and she couldn't stop laughing at how much Michael runs around.  He kept running between her couches, slamming into them, climbing up and down, talking the whole time, and then sometimes (at her encouragement -- thanks, T! :) spinning in circles and falling down.  NOT on the coffee table corners this time.  Is he like this all the time?  Oh yes, yes he is.  Except for naptime and nighttime, he pretty much never stops!  This month has been better than the last one, though.  I feel like we are managing the mini-tantrums better and they've gone down in number.  Some of it is setting expectations -- I am constantly telling him when he gets food that when he's finished with what he's got, it will be "all done!"  That seems to help it not be such a surprise when he reaches the end and there isn't any more food.  I've also been in better positions to physically manage any issues at the table -- remove from the setting if he does start playing with it.  I don't want to give the impression we have lots of issues with food, though.  Michael pretty much eats anything you give him, and with gusto.  Meal times are not usually a problem!  We've only had to do a few time-outs in other circumstances.

Michael continues to be very solicitous toward his younger brother.  Yesterday when Malcolm was fussing on the bed, Michael found a pacifier and climbed up to give it to him.  This is always accompanied by getting right up next to his face and saying "Pah-mah!!"  :)  Poor little guy was upset when I wouldn't let him do that in the first few days after croup last week, but while I'm so happy he loves his brother, I didn't need the breathing-right-in-the-face issue :)  Malcolm seems to have escaped catching the virus, thankfully.

Last week I told Amanda that Michael had not been letting me read to him much lately because he is so distractible, but since then he's gotten re-interested in a few books.  We have read the "circle" page in Big Bird's Guessing Game Book About Shapes about three dozen times in the last few days.  (He doesn't seem to want to move on to any other page in that book, but he did point out the triangle and square on the cover when I asked him this morning, so that's cool.)  We have also read the "green" page in Elmo's Guessing Game Book About Colors about the same number of times.  You have to concentrate on one thing at a time, I guess!  I think I'm decent about being patient with the repetition.  I will sing 15 verses of "The Wheels on the Bus" in a row without complaint.  Michael's favorite is when the mamas on the bus say shh, shh, shh.

Lastly, Michael is being every bit the "explorer" he is supposed to be at this age.  At the park lately we've only been spending a little time on the playground equipment.  We spend more time going to see the tennis players and walk alongside the fence, pick up things and take them to various trash cans, climb on various benches, check out numbers and letters on car license plates, and pick up sand by the baseball fields.  Michael can cover a LOT of distance on his own.  Sometimes I let him walk down the street on the way to or from the park in addition to all this, and he tells me the colors of the street signs, the numbers on the mailboxes, and every time he sees a car, an airplane, a truck, or the moon.  He still can't say two words together yet, much less a sentence, so he's either a bit behind or just normal for a boy this age, but then again he knows a lot when it comes to number, letter, object and color recognition, which I think is more advanced.  Everything comes in its own time!  Michael continues to be a very fun, cheerful little boy and I'm grateful to his guardian angel for keeping him safe :)

Number time

Michael has really been concentrating on numbers lately. He loves playing with the digital clocks in the house and seeing numbers on license plates at the park. He told me numbers he saw in the hospital and on price displays at Walmart tonight. Sometimes it takes me a minute to realize what he's saying but he's usually right! He hasn't ever counted before, though - but today Theresa was playing with him and she got him to count to ten. So neat! We practiced a few times at home and then the whole afternoon he kept coming up to me to run through the numbers again. I'm a proud mama :)