Minor Update and Videos

OK, wow! Gabriel started preschool the beginning of September. He obviously had outgrown his 3T clothes, so I rushed out and bought several 4T shirts and pants. This morning, we put on one of the new long-sleeve shirts (that he's worn before) and it barely covered his belly and didn't reach his wrists!! Do clothes shrink that much in the laundry or is my kid growing that much?! I got out the hand-me-down box of 5/6 clothes. Lots of pants, but they are still too big for him. Only a few 5T shirts, so.... I guess I'm going shopping again! My goodness my boys are tall!

On another note, I think Ephraim hurt his ankle this morning. He was practicing jumping/hopping off a small curb at the park and fell down. I felt for broken bones and nothing is swollen. He's not crying, just limping, and grabs his ankle and moans sometimes. If it isn't better by Monday, I'll call the pediatrician. I think it's cute how he was practicing doing what he sees his big brother do all the time.

Have I mentioned how much Ephraim LOVES hats?! He likes blankets and towels over his head. One day he insisted on two hats at once (a ski cap and a fish visor). Can you see it in the video below?

It's hard to hear, but Ephraim is pretending to be Darth Vader and saying, "paaaaah  paaaah."

Paul's Birthday Month

The weather has been changing, some days cooler, some days hot again. When it was raining, we stayed inside and got creative with the furniture:

Ephraim is very patient and loves playing with small toys, especially figures and animals. Can you see the tiny stormtrooper he balanced on top of the helicopter? He's about to lift the helicopter to make the trooper fly.

Fall means we can use the oven again. We decided to make sugar cookies--the first batch Ephraim has ever helped with. Gabriel is teaching him to eat the leftover cut-out dough.

Gabriel only has preschool three days a week for now (I think we'll do every day after Christmas). So sometimes we need something equally exciting to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I took the boys to the Children's Discovery Museum again. It never gets old. They still love the real fire truck!

They like the play house and tree corner with animal puppets. Here they are sitting on mushrooms. (Tried to get them to pose, but...this is what I got.)

This weekend we decided to buy a real fish tank. Even with no fish on Saturday night, the boys found the filtering water and lighting fascinating to watch! We have one white/yellow and orange Guppie now. We plan to get Tetra fish soon.

Mom watered the berries and trees, so we got mud monsters! I just let them get as muddy as they wanted (I feel like I restrict them too much) and I hosed them down and gave them baths afterward.

For Paul's birthday, he wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Instead of paying $80 plus parking for all of us to go, we went on their Free Third Wednesday and had an adventure. The rainforest was hot and humid, but beautiful with butterflies going everywhere. We saw frogs and toads and snakes and the albino alligator. We walked through the aquarium and saw jelly fish and HUGE fish and colorful fish. Gabriel is looking at the anaconda snake in the corner here. (bleh!! Let me just say, I've seen my fill of snakes to last several years, thank you.)

The museum had a playroom for 5 years and under. It was just what we needed since we couldn't interact with anything else in the museum. Gabriel liked the pretend food and the bed aboard the ship, and the dinosaur blocks. Ephraim liked the chicken puppet. Once I showed him that it was a puppet, he practically wouldn't put it down. Can you see him steering the ship with a "brock-brock" here?

Ephraim is able to communicate surprisingly well with us. He has lots of "words," for example, his word for tail is "swish swish." He says "wa-wa" for water. He still shows so much comprehension by nodding his head and letting out a short cry for no.  He still follows and copies his brother. So when Gabriel gets into trouble, so does Ephraim. I can't help but laugh when he puts himself on time-out too, right next to Gabriel. I started counting for a hide-and-seek game the other day, and Ephraim hid right next to me whispering, "hide, hide."

Ephraim Grows More

Gabriel is quite the good climber and can get up to the top bunk without the ladder (which we take down so Ephraim doesn't fall off of it while I'm not looking). The other day, Ephraim decided he wanted to climb up like brother. I found him screaming in frustration and stuck in this pose. It's a little blurry because I wanted to capture it quickly and help him down. It was too funny not to take a picture of. He is quite the little follower.

"Smile for the camera!" ... "No one wants to smile nicely? OK, make a funny face for the camera."

After we drop Gabriel at preschool, Ephraim and I usually go for a walk at the park. One day when it was raining, we came home and I was checking my work email (finishing up a book project). I turned around and found him curling up on the floor. We pretend to sleep all the time, so I didn't think much of it, until I checked on him the next minute and found him completely asleep. Poor thing! I love how he buried himself in objects.

Ephraim went to his 18 month check up last week. The nurse measured him twice and the pediatrician came in and re-measured him because they couldn't believe he was so tall! Off the charts! I tried to tell them that's normal for my kids. :) We measured him against the doorjam at home again--Gabriel grew almost an inch since June. Ephraim grew about two inches!

Ephraim likes to do everything with both hands. He will eat with food in one hand and his fork in the other. If I give him a cracker, he wants one for each hand. He uses a crayon in each hand to color on the page at the same time. If I kiss his left hand, he'll hold out his right hand for a kiss too (same goes for feet, knees, etc.).

Gabriel likes to play the Nevermind Game: he goes to dad, "Dad? Nevermind" then he goes to mom, "Mom? Nevermind" and back and forth. The other day Ephraim tried to play it too. He said something like, "Ma? Na-ma-ma." It was so cute that he got the sounds and syllables right.

Gabriel has made up a friend named Yon. He tells me often of what Yon has or does. This last week Gabriel was thirsty while driving home from preschool and he told me about Yon's van. In Yon's van, you press a button and a secret compartment opens with a drink.

Boys and Pears

Just adorable, as usual:

We bought a big box of pears through church for quite a deal. Even eating 5 pears a day (ouff!) we had plenty left over. So we went to my parents' house and mom taught me how to can. Paul peeled the pears, I cut the pears, and mom stuffed the jars and handled the hot part. Only half the batch is shown here. Now we have plenty of yummy pears when it's not pear season.

Gabriel found my sewing cutting mat this morning and decided it made a good dance floor. Even Ephraim grooved while Gabriel sang his song.

Then Gabriel started narrating and I thought it captured his language and mannerisms well. (And I like Ephraim's hop at the very end.)

Pizza and Broccoli

So glad we have a toy box! It's good for all kinds of uses. Ephraim was in here singing to himself.

I got back from Girl Scout Alumnae Women's Weekend on Sunday and Paul was awesome and made dinner. We've been having homemade pizza once a week, so Paul made it this time. It was really saucy! I don't think Ephraim minded.

Gabriel was proud of his drawing. He says it is a picture of him swimming in the water with his dad in the background. The dots are the sandy beach. I love the curvy legs to show that he is swimming.

Gabriel has been going to preschool half days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Ephraim and I play in the playground with him for the first 20-30 minutes. Ephraim loves playing with the big kids.

Ephraim has never been a meat eater. He has never eaten chicken or beef or fish or egg. Sometimes he'll eat the breaded fish sticks that I bake. When he's in the mood, he'll eat refried beans and rice. I was starting to worry about his nutrition because he isn't even a big milk drinker (unlike his brother who could live on milk). Then one week I made pizza and put leftover bits of beef on it. He loves pizza and ate it, meat and all. I was relieved he got some protein down. Then he seemed to hit a milestone. This last week he's been eating the chicken I offer him! I am so excited! He kept asking for more last night. Wow!

Yesterday, I was checking email and came back to find Gabriel in the kitchen with a guilty look on his face. Wondering what he got into, I found the container of leftover broccoli open and him with a bunch in his hand and mouth. (I had pulled out leftovers for a lasagna I was making.) I laughed out loud! I love my kids! I love that they love healthy food.

I caught Gabriel "reading" out of his Transformer's book to Ephraim. He was telling a great story (There are almost no pictures.) Then I got the camera out and I think he got self-conscious. I love that Ephraim was totally captivated. I hope this is a hint for the future.

Big Weekends

(I can't believe I've let so much time go by since the last blog update.)
Last weekend, I took the kids to my friend Julia's son's 3rd birthday party. It was at the park and she had made chocolate cupcakes--Gabriel thought it was the best birthday party ever! He also made a new friend at the park and was practically in tears to leave him. "Pierce" had a Superman shirt while Gabriel wore his Captain America shirt, and they both ran around swinging imaginary swords. They were perfect for each other and played really well together. Sadly we were all the way up in Alameda and I never saw his parent, so we couldn't make future plans.

Both the incident at the park and my friend Kim inspired me to get going on preschools. I have been looking for a while, but decided it was time to just pick one for now. I did and Gabriel started on Friday, September 2. It is only for 3 hours 3 times a week, but we can increase it to 5 days when he's ready.

When I asked what he did his first day of preschool, Gabriel said, "I made new friends." When asked what else he did, he said, "Played on the playground." Perfect! I hope his excitement and happiness last the rest of the year.

The big event this weekend was our third wedding of the year. Our other friend Julia got married on Sunday and she had asked me to be one of her bridesmaids! It was a great honor and a beautiful wedding!

We were so glad we had Monday as a holiday to relax! And we did. We had a lazy morning, then went to the bounce house at the mall (with everyone else, wow crowded!). Gabriel is a pro at climbing and jumping around. Ephraim wasn't so sure until daddy went in with him. He preferred sitting on the horse as we were leaving (it didn't move).

We went out to dinner to Sweet Tomatoes and ran around at the park afterwards, watching the airplanes come in for a landing at San Jose Airport.