First, Ephraim had his 12 month appointment yesterday. Here are his numbers:
height: 31 1/4 inches tall (90%)
weight: 22 lbs 14 oz (50%)
We also started drawing height lines on Gabriel's bedroom door jam to keep track of how the kids grow. I loved doing that when I was growing up.
The pediatrician was impressed that he's walking so well, babbling like crazy, and using a fork to eat! He is picking up any baby signs that we give him. He used "help" the other day, waves Hi and Bye at the sound of the word, signs for diaper change, signs milk and says "ba-oo" for bottle, asks and hesitates before he puts things in his mouth using the sign for "eat" and "me," and gestures for "where is it?". He also recognizes lots of words. For example, we were playing with the wooden car slide and I wondered out loud where the cars for it were. Ephraim walked over to the toy shelf and grabbed the box of cars and brought it to me.
Gabriel is growing up so fast. I am sometimes surprised with the ideas and sentences he says. A few moms from church are putting together a preschool co-op. So on Monday (and Wednesdays), Gabriel will start preschool with 3 other kids. The moms are going to take turns having it at our house and teaching the lesson. We'll see how it goes, but I'm excited.
And our big happy news: PAUL GOT A JOB!!! They moved quickly: phone call last Thursday, phone interview on Monday, in-person interview this Wednesday, call of offer Wednesday on the way home from the interview! We expect the offer letter in the mail tomorrow. New hire orientation is on Monday!! The best part is that medical benefits start right away.
Easter was low-key. It was cloudy and had sprinkled Easter morning, so we hid eggs inside. It didn't matter to Gabriel: he LOVED the game, with and without the few Jelly Beans inside the eggs.
After watching his big brother, Ephraim caught on too.
Ephraim read himself a story, snuggled with his Scout dog, and laid down on the futon couch for bed tonight. :) It was so cute! He has really become attached to the dog now. It's nice because he can push the lullaby button and put himself back to sleep in the middle of the night sometimes. Other times, I go in and press it for him.
Ephraim says "dog" (two-syllables). I bought a betta fish a few weeks ago and he now says "fish" and does the hand motion. Gabriel loves helping me feed the fish. He has a good memory though, and sadly remembers our poor cat at times. Gabriel is picking up new songs from Primary and our preschool co-op and sings them around the house all the time. Ephraim is stamping his feet rapidly in a cute dance (I'll try to get it on video). And it seems from our pictures that we never go outside. While it has been raining a lot these last few months, the proof is in the knees. Two of Gabriel's three pairs of pants have holes in the knees from playing outside. He also got a scraped belly from climbing a tree. I'm not looking forward to more of that, but I'm happy he's so active.
