Beach Trip for Family Photos

Our friend's mom is a professional photographer, so we met her at a beach in Half Moon Bay a few weekends ago (Nov 12). Here is our family (less pictures of Gabriel than I wanted, though, because he was having fun running around in the sand and climbing the rocks).

20 Months

Ephraim turned 20 months old yesterday!! It's hard to believe he's almost two already. Here he is playing with play-doh. He loves the gingerbread man cut out (still a favorite book in this house) and making them dance around and kiss (with kissy noises).

Ephraim has been talking and constantly asking for new words by pointing to things. He'll try to repeat a word if you say it. Yesterday after I gave Ephraim his bowl of cereal, I heard, "Poon! Poon!" I had forgotten his spoon. He says, "Bye, bye" and "thank you." He is sometimes very "two"! He gets frustrated when he can't get things the way he wants, mostly around sleep time. He wants to hold his stuffed animal a certain way and have his blanket wrapped around him a certain way. My little perfectionist!

Gabriel watched the movie "Iron Giant" all the way through for the first time (it is one of Paul's favorite movies). He liked it a lot and drew a picture of the iron giant afterward. He is getting really good at drawing. He drew the cover of the movie "Totoro" (the current favorite), more than half by memory until I got out the cover for him to copy.

Gabriel's invisible friend, Yon, is still alive and well. While in Target on Monday, the conversation went something like this:
Gabriel: It's Yon's birthday today.
Mom: Yeah? Cool. What should we do for Yon's birthday? (Thinking of leftover decorations we might have, or the required birthday cake.)
Gabriel: We should buy me something.

Mom: Why should we buy you something if it's Yon's birthday? Shouldn't we get something for Yon?
Gabriel: No, we should get something for me. Yon is just made up.

It is so cool hearing Gabriel talk about Yon so much ("Yon has this" or "Yon does it this way") and yet Gabriel is so completely aware that it is all in his imagination.

On a side note, Paul's work is going well. He went to work as lead designer on the new project (still leading the old project but not really working on it). It is great to see him so excited and enjoying his job. Our couple project is going well for me too. A few weeks ago I started a weight loss game between us=put a dollar in a jar for each pound we lose. Whoever loses the most by May gets to spend that money. Because Gabriel is in preschool, I have been going for walks in the park with Ephraim and now that it is cold using the treadmill at home. The best weight loss motivation for me is losing weight! And it's working, 1-2 lbs a week so far!!

Nothing Exciting

Look, mom, I'm brushing my teeth!

We cleaned up our game shelf the other day. Gabriel grabbed this one and wanted to know what it was. Much to his excitement, it contained figures! It kept both boys busy for a while.

While looking for the fondue pot for Paul's birthday last month, I rediscovered the ice cream machine. We made basic vanilla. Big hit. I got wild and tried the chocolate pudding "fudgesicle" ice cream recipe. The pudding was great, but it didn't make good ice cream. Gabriel was quite proud of his face here.

Ephraim built a nest of clean socks the other day and ate his graham crackers on it. It made me laugh so I had to take a picture. Today, Ephraim grabbed a pencil and ran down the hall with it before I noticed. I found him a few seconds later drawing on the wall. I got angry for only a second until I realized what he was doing. He was coloring on a door jam. So I asked him, "Are you measuring how tall you are?" and he nodded! Wow!

Two cute boys playing trains. (By the way, this was the pose Gabriel kept for the photo. Not sure why.)

Hit by a Milestone

While getting ready for preschool this morning, I heard something that made me burst out laughing. Gabriel (not a morning person) was sitting on the couch and Ephraim crawled up to sit next to him. Gabriel said, "Ephraim, stop looking at me! Stop looking at me!" We've reached that age! :-D

Speaking of age, I usually share my bowl of cereal with Ephraim in the morning. He sits on my lap and gets every other spoonful. This morning, that was NOT good enough for him. He wanted to hold the spoon himself. He was making a big mess, so I got him his own bowl of cereal and let him sit by himself. That bowl promptly got flung across the kitchen!! So, summoning all my powers of patience, I let him feed himself from my bowl. Soon he was covered in wet cereal, along with me and the blanket he insisted on wearing to the table. But he had a satisfied smile by the time he was done. Then, while walking Gabriel into preschool, Ephraim pushed out of my arms and wanted to walk NEXT to Gabriel instead of being carried. Wow! My boys grow up fast!

Happy Halloween, from Batman and Superman

Gabriel liked trying on the new hand-me-down clothes that were a size bigger. Here he is in the new shirt, pants (a little too big), and the highlight of the whole event--a belt! He loved that belt. I think he looks so handsome here. Sadly, he played with that belt all day and tugged on it too hard until it broke.

Gabriel's drawings have improved by leaps and bounds! Here is his Jedi Bunny, complete with bunny ears, lightsaber, and big bunny feet (can't see them in the picture here). He is putting more details into his drawings too,  belt buckles and facial expressions, to name a few.

On Saturday, we went to the church's Trunk-or-Treat. My mom came to watch and help, which I really appreciated since I had a cold. Like last year's event, we had carnival games. Here is Ephraim and the ring toss. Gabriel bounced all over the parking lot, from game to game. No patience for waiting his turn in line! Ephraim could have stayed at the ring toss (or one or two other games) all night.

All the kids, big and small, had a blast with the hay push ride. Last year, they piled hay onto a cart for a "hay ride" (see last year's blog post). This year I think was more fun. Paul both pushed and rode on the hay bale. Both kids couldn't get enough! Big success! Oh yeah, and we had a quick dinner and came back outside for the trunk-or-treat part. Gabriel loved that part too, of course. As he would come up to someone to say Trick or Treat, they would say something like "Hey, it's Batman." Gabriel would reply, "No... it's just me Gabriel!" like they were being so silly.

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."