Long over-due update :)

The past few months have been filled with many challenges, but they have also held many joys for our growing family! Between sickness for me and the boys, general third-trimester discomfort, and two very busy toddlers, blogging has been the last thing on my mind :) Here is a run-down of the most exciting developments of the last 3 months:

Benjamin: Today, Benjamin is 28-months-old! He has had a language explosion and talks in complete sentences non-stop! It has been so much fun to communicate with him on this new level. His conversations center around trucks or trains, bugs and animals, or playing at the park with his friends. He never meets a stranger these days. He greets just about anyone who walks within 10-feet of him, whether they acknowledge him or not :) One of my favorite phrases he uses is, "Hi! How you doin'? I good!" (Good is pronounced "dood"...just so you know!) There is never a pause for you to answer the question :) He is still our little daddy's boy. His favorite part of the day is when Bram gets home from work. He loves to play with and talk to Bram about his day. He loves to "dress up" in Bram's shoes, tie, belt and badges and say he is going to work with Daddy (pronounced "Dah-ee!") He is a joy to be around and brings laughter into our day at just the right moment! We love our little Bubba!

Christopher: Gus-Gus (as I call him) has made the most outwardly noticeable changes over the last few months. He started walking about a month ago (that is, at 11-months-old!) He is now almost able to keep up with his big brother. He loves Benjamin and follows him around and pesters him to no end :) He has started saying a few "words" over the last few weeks. He now says "Bah" for ball and "MMM" for more. He barks like a dog whenever he hears our neighbors dog and makes the sound of a car when he plays with any kind of vehicle! Of course he says "mama" and "dada" a lot, though I'm not sure he totally understands that those sounds represent our names :) His current favorites are books (which he will sit and look at by himself for long periods), going outside, music, and anything Benjamin is playing with...haha! His first birthday is less than a week away (July 6!) He will make a very good big brother come August!

Baby #3: We found out at the end of April that we will be welcoming our daughter sometime in the first few weeks of August! We had a hard time coming up with her name, but Benjamin helped us out. I guess he heard us discussing names because at one point Bram jokingly asked him "Benjamin, what is "Sissy's" name?" To which Benjamin replied "Bethany!" Well, we couldn't go back on that! So, our little girl will have the name:

Bethany Lyneve

Lyneve was Bram's mother's name, so we are continuing the tradition of giving our children middle names that honor members of our family. We are getting anxious for her to come. Both the boys were born at around 38 weeks, so I'm anticipating that I have a month left to get everything ready before she arrives!

We will be busy until she comes and even more busy after she makes her way into our home! Here's a little picture of what life is like for us these days:

Dinnertime conversation

Let me know if you need further translation :)

What Benjamin thinks the baby will look like

We were reading a book that had a picture of an eye on one page. Benjamin pointed to it and said, "Mama's eye!" I told him that it couldn't be my eye since the eye was blue and my eyes are green. We started talking about different eye colors; how Christopher's and Daddy's eyes are blue and how Benjamin's and Mama's eyes are green. I then asked him, "What color eyes will the new baby have?" He shrugged, then said, "Baby have elephant ears!" Oh, how I love this age!

The joys of being mobile

Now all we have to do is keep an eye on him 24 hours of the day.

Benjamin's 2-year stats

Weight: 26 lbs. - 25th percentile

Height: 36.25 inches - 90-95th percentile

Head: 20 inches - 90-95th percentile

(In other words, he is a living bobble-head doll! I think he is the cutest!)

His current favorites are bugs, trucks or trains or cars, his dog costume, Elmo, books, football and basketball, bathtime, balloons, and anything he does with Daddy :)

Right now, he is eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, yelling, "Sawah! Sawah!" to get me to turn around and say "What?" He figured out my name a few weeks ago and when he is very insistent that I listen he will use my first name. The funniest instance of this was when he was supposed to be sleeping one night (even after I had gone to bed) Bram heard him yelling, "Sawah! Sawah!" Bram went in and found him standing in his crib, completely naked, smiling and laughing. Oh, this is truly my child :)

He is a joy to be around. I can't believe he is already 2-years-old!

As he would say, "Oh Happy Day, Benanin!" (That is, "Happy Birthday, Benjamin!")

Life as we knew it...

...has changed forever!

Snapshots of life around here...

The last few weeks around here have been interesting. Between first trimester sickness for me and snifflies for all of my guys, we have been fighting cabin fever! I have felt a little more like a human being today than I have in the last 6 weeks, so I guess that's why I felt like blogging :)

Christopher is 7 months old today. He is making a lot of developmental changes of late. I wager he is about 2 weeks away from crawling. He gets up on all fours whenever he's on the floor and now lifts one hand to reach for things without falling to the floor. He is realizing he can communicate with us. The last few days he has mastered the art of laughing to get attention. He also exerts his will in eating. If he doesn't like what I'm feeding him, he will say "rah, rah" with a very disdainful look on his face, then refuse to open his mouth. I shouldn't laugh, but I do :) He also continues to grow in his love for Benjamin. Whenever B comes around, Christopher lights up with a smile and has a ready laugh for the simplest effort on Benjamin's part.

Benjamin also continues to grow in kindness towards his little brother. He now tries to make Christopher laugh and if Christopher drops something, B will run over to give it back to him. I am encouraged by even the smallest form of affection that Benjamin shows to Christopher...this is an answer to prayer! Benjamin has been making many developmental changes, as well. He talks up a storm, though only about 50% is intelligible to anyone other than Bram or I :) His first 3-syllable word was "upside-down" which comes out more like "ut-side-doon." He is still working on saying the "k" sound, so words like come and cup are pronounced pum and pup, respectively :) He is able to identify about half the alphabet by saying the sounds of the letters thanks to the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics toy. But if you ask him to find any given letter he almost always can pick it out. He is learning how to jump and one of his favorite activities is to run around the house and announce "I fast!"

I have to pass on one funny story. The other day Bram came home early from work to help me with the boys and make dinner. He arrived before Benjamin woke from his nap. We usually have to wake him up - he is a prolific sleeper! - at 4:30. Bram went up and called to me, saying, "Sarah, you have to come and see this. Bring the camera!" I went up and this is what I found:

Yes, that is Benjamin in his crib stripped down to his diaper with his PJs on the floor. 

At least he kept his diaper on...Thank God!