15 Months

My baby is 15 months old today! Ephraim loves to jibber-jabber all day, telling us all sorts of things in Ephraim-ese. At times he tries to do what his brother does, but most of the time he is working on his own stuff. He likes to be busy pulling books off shelves to read, collecting toy cars, and generally placing stuff here and there. He wakes up happy, talking to the animals on his crib padding. He has started climbing chairs around the house. The other night at dinner, he was seated in his booster seat. I turned around to get more food prepared and he had climbed into the table and was reaching for something on Gabriel's plate! I think the cutest thing is that he has picked up "snoring." Gabriel likes to pretend to sleep, putting his head down on pillows and snuggling with blankets. Ephraim does this too and pretends to snore! So cute at this age.

Gabriel had a cold last week (and now mom has it). He misses his friends a lot. When I told him we couldn't see anyone because we'd give them our germs, he promised to cover his mouth when he sneezed if we go. Gabriel is a great story teller. At bedtime if I get him started with a story, he goes on and on. He told a great story about jedis and pirates the other night.

Funny Ephraim

Paul finally was able to capture Ephraim's "trying something hard" face. Always makes me laugh.

Ephraim loves playing with water. He purposely spilled water on the kitchen floor. I held his hand so he could walk safely away and I could clean it up. But then he slipped and since I caught him he thought it was funny. Here he is hamming it up for dad.

Ephraim will be 15 months old next month and is growing so fast. He is very communicative. He has lots of signs and gestures for what he wants (both arms raised for "open this," clasped hands lifting for "help," "ma baba" for "my bottle," fingers in mouth for "feed me now"). He knows what it means when I say it's time to put on our shoes and socks (and if I put his on first he talks at me to make sure I don't leave without him), he knows where to go for a diaper and a bath and brushing teeth. He loves practicing climbing the bunk bed ladder. He can climb all the way up very quickly. Lately he has been refusing to let mom get him down so he can practice climbing down himself. He has hit the cars phase and loves playing with the many toy cars we have collected (vroom!).

Gabriel, on the other hand, has just about outgrown the cars. While he occasionally plays with his train set (usually as an elaborate car road), he prefers to play pretend. He is Batman or some such hero, or a character from Star Wars. He runs and jumps around the house punching and kicking badguys (look out for Ephraim!). Gabriel invents names and words all the time. The cute part is when he teaches us how to say it (syllable by syllable) and what it means. "Cha-choo-ser" is the name of the car in "Cars" that sneezes (cha-choo) then goes real fast. Did we ever mention that his nickname for his little brother is "Bombak"? No idea where that came from.

Mud Monsters and Bunk Beds

The other day (a week ago last Friday, I'm a little behind on the blog), I decided just to let the kids get as messy as they wanted in the backyard. While watering the lemon tree, a muddy puddle formed which Ephraim found irresistible. He was muddy up to his knees and up to his elbows. His hat had his mud handprints on it. Gabriel was more interested in the hose and making it "rain" on us. We had fun.

Last weekend we had a great day. We started off by going to a few stores (after doing lots of online research) to look at bunk beds. We found one we really liked and got a great deal on it. On Wednesday afternoon it was delivered. It is the perfect thing for Gabriel, my climber. At last he has furniture he's allowed to climb on in the house. Within 24 hours, Ephraim could slowly make his way all the way up the ladder by himself too.

Arrgh, matey! Ephraim likes hats.

This holiday weekend was Paul's younger brother Josh's wedding. My mom came over to watch the boys and Paul took Friday off work. We went out on a date on our way to Modesto. We helped Paul's mom with the rehearsal dinner (at Lynnessa's house). Then Paul ran an Aspect game as part of the bachelor party while the girls staying at Lynnessa's house went out to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The wedding on Saturday was beautiful. Josh looked so handsome in his marine dress uniform. Paul and I had a lot of fun at the outdoor backyard wedding even though it rained on and off.

Santa Cruz Trip

Ephraim spins!

On Saturday, we went down to Santa Cruz for my cousin's wedding. We got there later than I wanted, so we only had time for one roller coaster ride (too expensive anyway) and some taffy and mint chocolate before we headed to the wedding. We spent the night in a hotel and that made the trip more exciting, especially for Gabriel.

Gabriel boogied down at the wedding. Such a party animal. :)

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: