The Talkative Twos

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EPHRAIM! Today he is two years old! (I love his smile!)

I asked him to sit on the couch so I could take his picture and he posed very nicely for me. We are having a family birthday party for him tomorrow (Saturday), so we blew up green balloons and put up streamers.

He is a talkative little boy, if we let him. Thanks to his brother, he is learning to say all the names of the Star Wars characters. Paul and I wish his vocabulary was slightly different, but it is undeniably cute to hear him say "ra-ra-doh" for Roger-roger-droid (Gabriel's term) or Boba Fett. He still does the "koo-pah" sound effect for Darth Vader, but he is learning to imitate lightsaber noises and such. Such boys! He loves doing what his brother does. Ephraim still loves playing with cars, sometimes as a vehicle for some other toy and sometimes as their own personalities. He likes talking to puppets, namely our hands (as either a naked puppet or a spider). He likes having a mommy and a baby of something. The big dinosaur and matching "baby" dinosaurs are often sought. Today he insisted I blow up a balloon only halfway so we could have mommy balloons and a baby balloon. He is getting to be such a big boy and I'm sad when he wipes my kisses off his cheek (which is often because he is so kissably cute -- sorry, kid, tough it out).

Last Friday I decided we needed to do something fun and explore our area. The Sacramento Zoo is close by (we'll go with daddy soon) and across the street is Fairytale Town. It is cheap and it was a beautiful sunny day.

My two princes! Gabriel liked the castle and the knights' round table.

To Ephraim's joy, they had The Little Engine That Could. Yay trains!

Driving Cinderella to the ball.

We finally decided on a preschool for Gabriel. I'm not crazy about it, but he needs something. Today they wore green and ate green food.

A rare moment of love: Jengo Fett brushes a jedi's hair.

My friends Skot and Amy gave me a sewing machine (long story, they got an extra by mistake). I was more than thrilled since I needed and wanted a new one. I don't have a lot of experience sewing, but I do have a strong desire to learn. Paul generously gave me some time to myself last weekend and I drove to the closest Jo-Ann's (20+ minutes away). I was originally just going for thread (since I couldn't find my craft box), but I found a great idea book for felt. Gabriel asked for the hooking monkeys (more to come, I'm sure) and I made two bean-filled frogs for Ephraim's frog-themed birthday party.

Gabriel struggles with finding things he likes to do, but once he finds something, he has so much fun. He sat down at the blocks one day and a little later he was very excited to show me his creation. He made Mr Incredible from the Incredibles Pixar movie. He pointed out the details of the yellow and white on his chest for the crest. Cool.