Date with Ephraim!

Paul took Gabriel camping today (his friend from AZ is in town and Paul took Wednesday through Friday off work to do fun stuff). I am excited for Gabriel and wish I was there, but I thought it would be too much to handle both kids. So Ephraim and I stayed home. He's been having a very tough three days, so when our new membership to the Children's Discovery Museum arrived today, I jumped at the chance to get out of the house. It turned out to be the best afternoon I've had in a while!

I loved seeing his reactions to all the awesome exhibits! I remember taking Gabriel to the CDM when he was about this age and it was fun seeing Ephraim's own personality come out (different reactions than Gabriel had and no big brother to overshadow the experience). He enjoyed seeing the real fire truck and ambulance:

Here he is still warming up to the place (he was a little clingy and overwhelmed the first half hour). He loved the climbing dragon and the sound room where he could press the frog, dinosaur, duck, and hammer to hear sounds.

The lights and carousel and colored shadows are naturally a hit with kids. He was pointing and talking up a storm!

He couldn't get enough of the tunnel (Gabriel's favorite at that age too.) We spent a lot of time in the tree with the animal puppets too. At one point a mother came up to me briefly and said: "I love the way you play with your son, I can tell that you must really be in love with him." I was touched! She walked away before I could say anything except, thank you. But the more I thought about her kind words which she took the time to say, the more I treasured my time with Ephraim because they were so true. I got to spend quality time seeing his interest in the world around him come out. He is adorable and so sweet! I can't wait until our next date! :)

Happy Place

Happy Hollow is the name of a kiddie amusement park and mini zoo very close to us. They were having a discount this week if you bring in a "zookeeper supply," so we were extra motivated to go (of course, I forgot our donation at home!). We had a lot of fun and will go back soon.
Ephraim loves elephants and we found a statue of a baby elephant. Ephraim got a little scared once he was up close though. (This was after petting the goats at the farm area, so perhaps he wasn't sure if the elephant was alive or not.) Gabriel had no problems climbing up, naturally.

The carousel was a huge hit! Ephraim pointed at all the animals. There was only one horse, the rest were fun animals--Ephraim rode a hummingbird and later a sea dragon.

Gabriel rode a seal and was VERY excited to be able to ride the tiger. We could have ridden the carousel all day. If dad had been with us, we might have, but mom kept getting motion sick.

The zoo area was disappointing, but next to it they had a sandpit where the kids could "dig" up dinosaur bones. Gabriel thought this was so cool and Ephraim was quite excited too.

Ephraim is good at stacking--he has so much patience! I missed the first stack of blocks on camera, but here he is almost done with the second stack.

4 Years Old

Gabriel turned 4 years old last Tuesday!
I took some pictures of him. The angles make him look funny, but that's my cutie pie! (He fell on his face a few weeks ago and his front tooth turned gray. The dentist said to just keep an eye on it.)

 We had some family over on Saturday. The new train tracks were a big hit with all the boys (Paul in Han Solo outfit, Everett, John, Ephraim, Gabriel).

Gabriel got cards, gift cards, and presents in the mail. Here he is putting "frosting" stickers on his birthday cake card from Grandma and Grandpa Gunn.

Grandpa McMillan made a Darth Vadar cake for our Star Wars-themed party. So awesome!

Dry ice kept the cake cold on the drive to our house, so we had fun with it in our drinks. Uncle Mike, Grandpa McMillan, and Uncle John all made foggy drinks. (That's Dagobah swamp streamers coming down behind his head.)

I took this picture of the boys early last week. They have been playing better together. Both doing puzzles here. Naturally, Ephraim "helped" Gabriel with the pieces, but Gabriel is trying to be patient. I feel behind on posting pictures and videos and stories, but I'll get there.

We had so much fun this weekend. On Thursday, Paul got free tickets through his work to go see the newest and last Harry Potter movie at 5:30pm (4 hours before it opened to the public). It was an awesome movie and we appreciated Grandma McMillan coming to watch the kids. On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa Cook came. We went out to Red Lobster (yum) and then they babysat while Paul and I went to see the Star Wars One-Man Show at the Rep Theater in downtown San Jose. We were laughing the entire hour. On Saturday we prepared for the party. Grandpa Cook pruned all the roses in the yard (wow! thank you) and Grandma Cook sewed an impromtu Jedi robe for Gabriel in just two hours! During the party, Gabriel's new Iron Man toy wasn't working, so Uncle John grabbed a screwdriver and it was fixed before dinner was served! We have amazing relatives!!

Sunday we relaxed and really enjoyed our family time!

What We've Been Up To

Who knew our own front yard would be the best spot for fireworks this 4th of July?! Last year we didn't go anywhere with newborn Ephraim, so this year we weren't sure what to do. At about 9:15pm I heard lots of booms, so I headed outside our house with Ephraim. We could see 3 or 4 city firework displays going off. It was awesome and seemed so close! There were plenty of fountain fireworks going off in our neighbors' front yards too. Ephraim loved it! We tried to wake up Gabriel, but he was too sleepy (from two trips to Great America this weekend, no doubt, and it being way past his bedtime). We certainly know what to do for next year. Now on to pictures:


 Ephraim was very proud that he could balance on top of this plastic cup.

Where's Ephraim? ...

Peek-a-boo!!!

Gabriel's pose whenever asked to pose for the camera... or any time really. (There's a lightsaber in his top hand and he's using his force powers with the other hand.)

The top bunk is a great battleground -- badguys fall quite a ways to their doom.

Gabriel saw a cartoon character on tv who chewed on a weed stem and went into the backyard to do the same.

New Phone Means New Camera

Paul and I got new cell phones, which come with cameras built in. I've been trying to use that as an excuse to take more pictures. Of course, I still have to find the time to download them all onto the computer and upload them here.

We had some beautiful, perfect weather days there for a while. The kids love digging in the dirt (much better than that sandbox filled with toys in the shade).

Mom experimenting with her new camera:

Last weekend we went to Great America for the first time this season. We had so much fun! Mom and Ephraim wait for Gabriel and dad.

Ephraim's first roller coaster! Just the two brothers rode this ride.

The next day was Father's Day. I made sushi (and rice paper "sushi" for those of us who don't like the seaweed). We spent the afternoon with my parents and had a great time.

As a side note, Gabriel calls himself "Yon" when he is a pirate. Yon has been around for a while. Yesterday he made up a new character: "Boon" has no shirt. It's been hot, so when he takes his shirt off, he is Boon.

And mental note: buying the bigger rolls of toilet paper just mean Ephraim can run farther around the house with a trail of paper behind him. :)

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.