I Love This Picture...

and I am totally in love with these kids.

Of Course!

This is Benjamin, pulling up on the ottoman to be rewarded by playtime with the remote control. Courtesy of Jonathan.

Quick Note, More Pics Later...

Benjamin has been working on his physical milestones for these past few days, and it's so fun to see!  He's been babbling a lot less and moving around a lot more.  He made it all the way up the stairs without help, he is lifting his tummy off of the floor a lot (although not when he's scooting...maybe soon?) and he's pulling up on furniture!  It's so fun to see how hard he works to stand up, and then how proud he his when he makes it.  I suppose it's hard to haul himself up off of the floor!  He's my youngest puller-upper.  He's not pulling up in the crib or the taller couches yet.  Now I have hope that he'll walk at a younger age than Grace did!  (19 mos...only a year ago.)  Each of the kiddos has done things so differently, and I'm enjoying each of them so much.

Cousins

We haven't gotten many (any) pictures of Benjamin and Charlotte together over the past few months because it's been tricky to have them both awake and happy at the same time.  But last weekend, it happened!  Todd and Corinne had our side of the family over for pizza, and Benjamin and Charlotte got to hang out for a bit.  She has been so alert like this since the day she was born...always taking everything in.  I predict she'll be walking before Benjamin!  It was fun to see all the little cousins together.  There are six of them, four of whom are 15 mos. old and younger.  Christmas is going to be wild and so fun!

Helping Daddy

Berries

Benjamin decided that he needed to push every single bite into his mouth with his left hand, even though each bite was already in his mouth. I didn't fight it since it was right before bath time anyway. I can't remember whether he got mad about the mess or about the food being gone.

Yogurt Skills

Just a Snapshot of Life

Jonathan is making an initial poster for Grace. Grace is making a mess. And Benjamin is looking for a mess to make.

Looking at the Ladybug

How to Love on Your Daddy

These were taken on October 9.

Ten Months Old

Is he really ten months old?!  My baby is growing up!

So excited to conquer the stairs!


Watch me go!


Eyelashes.


Toes.


Bashful.

Benjamin weighs 23 lbs., 7 oz.  That's only 4 oz. more than last month.  (Jonathan was 20 lbs., 8 oz. at 10 mos., FYI.)  I thought his little thighs were looking less chunky!  Apparently, I need to do a better job of getting some fat into his diet.  I'll be making the effort to do that daily now.  He is still nursing at each meal and then eating solids...amazing amounts of solids.  He will easily eat an entire, large, steamed, sweet potato in one sitting.  When we are on the go and I occasionally have to use the Gerber baby food, he will eat four containers of it.  Yes, that's 16 oz., which is a lot...and expensive.  However, all that solid food is just fruits and veggies, which don't have a lot of calories, and when he nurses, I don't think he's drinking much at all.  He has tried cheese and yogurt, so I'll be making sure he eats some more of that, and avocado, and maybe some goat's milk...we'll see.  He's obviously not starving, and he dirties amazing numbers of diapers each day, but he needs to gain more than four ounces in a month.

He is still smiley and giggly.  He's very loud now, whether he's babbling, yelling for fun, or yelling because he's mad.  He still doesn't have any teeth.  He "crawls" by dragging his belly on the ground, and he pulls himself along with his left forearm and right hand, and pushes with his right foot.  He's pulling up to kneeling a lot, but not up to standing yet.  Since Grace was such a late walker, we're encouraging him to stand as much as possible.  He's very happy to put weight on his legs, which makes us very happy, too.

Benjamin is a wonderful joy to all of us.  I can't believe his first birthday is just around the corner and I'll be figuring out how to celebrate my two boys' birthdays just a week apart from each other!

And, just for fun, here's Grace at 10 mos. and Jonathan at 10 mos.  (Scroll down to the October 10 pictures.  Blogger only allowed one picture per post at that point, and I couldn't limit myself to just one picture!)

All Three Guys

Being the Big Sister

Gracie is growing up, little by little. She has been very sweet with Benjamin lately, offering to help him with his drink, sharing toys, talking to him, etc. Here she is giving him his water.

But sometimes she still forgets that it's not all about her.

Melting Crayons for Christmas

When I stumbled upon this project, it struck me as something Jonathan might enjoy. He and I decided to make a melted crayon canvas for each of his siblings for Christmas. I had hoped that we would make small square ones, but when I went to the hobby store, they only had rectangular canvases. He knew that I was supposed to come home ready to do our secret project, and he was super excited, so I decided to let go of my preconceived ideas of how this craft would turn out and just buy the rectangular canvases. At least they were a good deal!

Here's Jonathan with our crayons glued onto Benjamin's canvas. He's sporting his lost-teeth smile, as you can see.

Here are the colors close up. We're probably going to do some room shuffling around Christmas, so Benjamin's canvas will likely hang in Jonathan's room, too, once they share a room. He wanted the "Crayola" sign to show on Benjamin's, but not Grace's.

Here are Grace's colors all lined up. She'll probably move out of Jonathan's room and into a room of her own, so we made hers pretty girly. Jonathan and I had fun sorting the colors. We saved the earthy colors to make one of these for Jeff, who really liked this project, too. Shhh, don't tell Jeff, it's going to be his Christmas present from Jonathan.

And, after some work from the blow dryer, here are the finished projects. I think I held the blow dryer at the wrong angle, because our melted wax splattered a lot. I had hoped that it would just drip straight down. But, Jonathan was thrilled with the results, so I didn't worry about it. He loved making these and is super excited to give them as Christmas gifts, so I figure my mission is accomplished! (By the way, I thought that new crayons would be best for this project, but used ones with the paper intact would have worked just fine.)

Merry Christmas to Grace and Benjamin from Jonathan!

Gracie Quote

Grace:  Daddy, want to see sumpin' really funny?  This is how you say goodbye in Sanish.
Jeff:  How do you say goodbye in Spanish?
Grace:  I don't know.

(Hope you're not tiring of the Gracie quotes.  I'm writing them down here so I don't forget them.  I could probably fill a blog solely with the goofy things she says.  This stage will be over all too soon!)

More Gracie Quotes

As we walked into Target today, she said, "It's a naughty child screaming!"  Oh, dear.

At snack time...
G:  Are we out of Ritz?
Me:  No, we're not out of Ritz.
G:  Are we in Ritz?

And, my favorite, at the dinner table...
"I'm almost a teenager!!!"

Awful to Awesome

Yesterday afternoon with Jonathan was particularly awful. I had had it up to here with some behavior issues. Nothing worth writing home about, but I was done. Finally, his homework was done and he was folding his white laundry. He came across a sock with a huge hole in the heel and wondered what to do with it. I told him he should throw it away.

"OR," he said excitedly, "we could make it into a unicorn puppet and use a Sharpie to give it a face!"

Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard I about fell off of my chair. He is so funny. I love that kid. His awesome unicorn puppet idea made my whole day. He brought it to school this morning to show it off!

A Quick One From Gracie

Grace:  Remember my birthday is coming up.
Jeff:  What would you like for your birthday?
(A question I never ask my kids, by the way.  ;)  )
Grace:  Um, cake.
Jeff:  I think we can do that.
(And yes, her birthday is not until March.)

Keeping Mommy's Life Interesting

So. The next time I sit down and feed a baby a couple of bites of pureed blackberries, and then realize the toddler needs a drink of water, I won't underestimate the baby's reach. A motivated baby can reach a faraway bowl of blackberries, apparently. At least, he can when his mom is trying to get everyone fed and in the car to go get groceries.

Isn't She Lovely...

"I'm going shopping for clothes, " she says. Oh, dear. Note the purse hanging over her left arm.

And here she is, going to get Jonathan from school.

Just how many pairs of glasses does this kid have, anyway?

One Year Ago...

When we went to the apple farms. Ah, how life has changed!

So I Don't Forget

Some more gems from the past day or two...

Gracie:  I saw a bird!
Me:  I saw it, too.  It was blue!
Gracie:  No Mommy, it was purple.  I realized it was purple.
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Gracie, listening to a dog:  Mommy, I heard the dog howl-oweening!

For Anna

This one's for Aunt Anna. After a chat with her on the phone, Grace was pretending to send her some mail, and I asked her to repeat on the movie what she had just told me. I thought it was pretty cute. I'll take this movie down in a few days because it takes up so much storage space on the blog!

By the way, Grace is standing next to a "new" toy I got at a yard sale. I have always thought the Fisher Price Learning Home was a neat toy. I think Jonathan may have even played with it at Emma Claire's house when he was little. I had never sprung for it until yesterday when a friend of mine was selling it for $5 at a yard sale. Unfortunately, the lights and sounds don't work, but the kids still love opening and closing its parts and crawling through the doorway. And when we're done with it, I can donate it and feel good about that!

Get Your Fill

It had been awhile since I tortured the sweet kiddos and made them wear the matching shirts that I love so much, so I decided I needed to do it again today! None of the pictures were standouts, so I'm posting a lot of them...be prepared to get your fill!

"Um, Mom, he is eating grass."

"Are you aware that he is eating grass?!"

I should note that Benjamin's nose is red because Grace was plugging it and laughing. To be fair, I should tell you that Ben was laughing, too.

That's just how it goes, sometimes.

They are trying, at least!

I squeezed as much out of them as I could.

More Stuff She Says

This post has been brewing for a month, and is starting to get outdated, so I need to publish it now!  The top part is about Grace, but I'll talk about the boys down at the bottom...

Gracie, yelling:  My owie wants a Band-Aid!

Me:  Well, how should it ask?

Gracie:  It doesn't have a mouth to ask!

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In the restaurant, sitting in a booth with a booster seat, and her feet up on the seat.

Gracie:  My feet aren't down.

Me:  That's OK.

Gracie:  Could you please tell me to put my feet down.

Me:  OK, Gracie, please put your feet down.

Gracie:  That was very polite.  (Puts feet up again.)  Could you tell me again?

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Gracie:  I'm buckling the cup to give it some privacy.

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Gracie:  Where's Grandpa __________?  (My dad)
Me:  In heaven with Jesus.
Gracie:  He died.
Me:  Yes.
Gracie:  Out of his house.
Me:  Yes.
Gracie:  Oh, I'm sorry, Mommy.

---------------------------------------------------------

Me:  We're going to go in to Grandpa's house.

Gracie:  Can I get checked?

Me:  No, Grace, remember, Grandpa's in heaven.

Gracie:  Singing?

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OK,  deep breath, on to Benjamin.  You might not remember, but I worried about Grace a bit when she didn't babble with consonants when "the books" said she should.  She was pretty late but finally did it around seven months old.  Benjamin has been much later.  He hasn't babbled with consonants (bababa, dadada, etc.) until today at nine months.  He started doing it out of the blue, and I love it.  For one thing, it's adorable, and for another thing, it's the promise of words down the road, and I just love the learning-to-talk stage.

And now Jonathan.  He is just devouring books, and I've done a little reading along with him.  One of his daily homework requirements is to spend at least ten minutes reading aloud.  Then he has to record the name of the book he read and has the option to write down any special thoughts and feelings about his reading time.  Needless to say, he doesn't share any thoughts or feelings, but when he's done reading to me for ten minutes, he usually wants to spend most of the rest of the afternoon reading to himself if we've chosen a good book.  I had forgotten how much I loved my old friends, Ramona Quimby and Laura Ingalls.  I was happy to meet each of them for the first time nearly 30 years ago, and I think I might be even happier now, meeting them once again.  Jonathan is totally hooked on the Ramona stories and I think he'll delve into Laura's world soon.  I'm hoping to find some books that are just as good as these but have main characters who are boys.

Because Glasses Are Cool

Grace loves glasses. She wants to be just like Jonathan, so who can blame her? She has some play glasses, and she often wants to wear them to bed. And when she gets to try on mine, well...that's frosting on the cake!

Brothers

Cute and Clean

Just after a bath...