Weekend Trips

Ephraim has been a hungry little monster lately. He also is learning to take bites out of food (instead of mom providing it in small pieces). Here he is with a chunk of bread in each hand! Last night he threw such a fuss when I tried putting him to bed. Instead, he wanted to eat and eat (at 9pm!).

Last Saturday we went to UC Davis for the Whole Earth Festival. It was so nice to be back on campus. We saw lots of neat craft booths, ate veggie burgers, and updated our tie-dye. We even met Paul's mom and stepdad there so we did a little Mother's Day celebrating too. Here are the kids playing by one of the eggheads, taking a break from the crowds before we headed home.

 We have a beach trip planned so I wanted to see how Ephraim would do in the sand (how much he would want to eat). I love his expression in this photo! He wasn't sure about the sand at all! It was right after his nap, so maybe he needed extra snuggles first. But he enjoyed watching his brother show him how to play in the sand from mom's lap first.

Shakes Head and Waves

Quick post: Ephraim nods his head yes and shakes his head no in answer to questions. It's exciting to be able to communicate and know that he understands so much more than it seems. He can also spin 180 when he wants to keep something you're trying to take away. Not just clutching the item to himself, but he spins. It made me laugh. Ephraim knows our bedtime routine and gets very excited to brush his teeth with his brother. Sometimes when I ask if he needs a new diaper, he runs off to the changing table. Once he even opened the cupboard and reached for a clean diaper. He's getting so big. He is also learning to put himself to sleep. He whimpers and cries a little and then hugs his blankie until he falls asleep.

And tonight seems like a first for Gabriel: he asked for seconds of meatloaf. He's such a veggie boy, he finished off the huge helping of cooked carrots and I begged him to try the meatloaf. He saw Ephraim eat a piece and tried it himself. He is also embracing the idea of trying something once. I am so proud of him. This of course led to him eating all his meatloaf and asking for more.

Laughing Boys

Ephraim has learned to climb onto the kid chairs. He's not sure how to get down yet, so I took the opportunity to take his picture.
"Oooooo" means "Look, mom, there's my fire truck!"
Gabriel gave me his strong-man pose.
Gabriel is being a scarecrow (made scarier by the sword, no doubt!). We ate up the last of our lettuce last week. Our broccoli is almost all gone too. So yummy!
Ephraim has discovered the joy of slides. But he likes the view from the top as well.
I was working in the office when I heard both boys laughing over and over. Gabriel would do something and Ephraim would laugh and laugh, which would make Gabriel laugh. By the time I quietly grabbed the camera and came in, this is what I got:

Easter

This is how we sometimes wake up Gabriel: Ephraim snuggles with Gabriel.
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.

Good-Night Finger-Kiss

The other day we built a castle in Gabriel's room, futon as one wall, rocking chair as the other, with a sheet on top (with a cool secret passageway between the other side of the rocking chair and the bookcase). Here are the boys playing swords inside it. Ephraim was actually having a great time and Gabriel enjoyed playing with him.
Ephraim is pretending to be defeated. :)
Ephraim just looked photogenic at lunch today because he was making all kinds of funny faces at me. Here are two.

Last night Ephraim made Gabriel and I laugh so much I had trouble getting them to calm down for bed. Now that Paul is working again, I have to put Gabriel to sleep while Ephraim hangs out with us. Obviously, Ephraim has learned our routine because last night while I was reading stories to Gabriel, he came up to us and waved good-night and walked over to the closed door like he was leaving. He came back to do it again and added a good night kiss. But what made us laugh so hard was that instead of kissing his hand and blowing, he sticks his finger in his mouth and pulls it out with a sucking sound. With our laughter encouraging him, he continued to "blow" us a kiss, wave good-night, walk to the door to wave and kiss again... only to run back to the bed and do it again.

And we had a few hot days two weeks ago (but I haven't had a chance to post this video until now). Paul played outside with the kids while I worked (the day after Paul's interview and job offer). More videos of the boys running in the sprinklers to come this summer, I'm sure.

First Day of Preschool

Three moms and I have formed a preschool co-op for our kids. We each take a turn hosting and teaching every Monday and Wednesday for three hours. Today was the first day, so I took a picture of Gabriel outside our house before we left. (I have lots of good memories of my dad taking "first day of school" pictures.)
I dug out Gabriel's old shoes. Yes, the smallest pair now fits on Ephraim's feet!! I can't believe my little baby is wearing real shoes. Paul lined up their shoes for this picture--love it!

One Year Stats and GOOD News!

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.