Luke's First Sign!

Today Luke signed for the very first time! I was holding him in the kitchen while Michael and Brendan were eating lunch when he reached his arm out and started to open and close his fist. At first I thought he was trying to reach for something on the counter, but if that had been the case he would have been leaning out of my arms and he wasn't. He was just sitting upright in my arms and signing milk! So I nursed him right away. He was thrilled! He kept signing milk while he ate and was just so happy. I'm so proud of my little boy!

Brendan's Baptismal Birthday

Two years ago, Brendan was baptized. The day of his birth was wonderful, but the day he was baptized was glorious! What a blessed reassurance to know that our beloved little son was a child of God.
This is the hymn we sung at his baptism at Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne on December 23, 2004

"Salvation Unto Us Has Come"
by Paul Speratus, 1484-1551

1. Salvation unto us has come        
 By God's free grace and favor;       
 Good works cannot avert our doom,        
 They help and save us never.        
 Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,        
 Who did for all the world atone;        
 He is our one Redeemer.         

 2. What God did in His Law demand        
 And none to Him could render        
 Caused wrath and woe on every hand        
 For man, the vile offender.        
 Our flesh has not those pure desires        
 The spirit of the Law requires,        
 And lost is our condition.         

 3. It was a false, misleading dream        
 That God His Law had given       
 That sinners should themselves redeem      
 And by their works gain heaven.       
 The Law is but a mirror bright       
 To bring the inbred sin to light        
 That lurks within our nature.         

 4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,        
 Sin held its sway unceasing;        
 The task was useless and in vain,        
 Our guilt was e'er increasing.        
 None can remove sin's poisoned dart        
 Or purify our guileful heart,-       
 So deep is our corruption.         

 5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled        
 Or we must die despairing,        
 Christ came and hath God's anger stilled,        
 Our human nature sharing.        
 He hath for us the Law obeyed        
 And thus the Father's vengeance stayed        
 Which over us impended.        

 6. Since Christ hath full atonement made        
 And brought to us salvation,        
 Each Christian therefore may be glad        
 And build on this foundation.        
 Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,        
 Thy death is now my life indeed,        
 For Thou hast paid my ransom.         

 7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,       
 Thy Word cannot be broken;        
 Thy call rings out, "Come unto Me!"        
 No falsehood hast Thou spoken.        
 Baptized into Thy precious name,        
 My faith cannot be put to shame,        
 And I shall never perish.         

 8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin        
 And makes men conscience-stricken;       
 The Gospel then doth enter in        
 The sinful soul to quicken.        
 Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;       
 The Law no peace can ever give,        
 No comfort and no blessing.         

 9. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone       
 And rests in Him unceasing;        
 And by its fruits true faith is known,        
 With love and hope increasing.        
 Yet faith alone doth justify,        
 Works serve thy neighbor and supply        
 The proof that faith is living.         

 10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise        
 To Father, Son, and Spirit,        
 The God that saved us by His grace,-        
 All glory to His merit!       
 O Triune God in heaven above,        
 Who hast revealed Thy saving love,        
 Thy blessed name be hallowed.

Brendan's Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Brendan!
The past two years have been the most wonderful ones of my life. I thank God daily for the wonderful blessing he has given me in you, Brendan. You have cheered me up with your silly smiles and sweet kisses more times than I could count. Your hugs have melted my heart time and time again. Your innocent, exuberant giggles make me laugh, too. I have loved watching you grow from the not-so-tiny baby who needed me to do everything for him to the big, strong two-year-old who can get himself into his own chair, feed himself, scrape his plate in the garbage, and help his mama in many ways. I rejoice when I hear your little voice try to follow along with prayers and hymns and when I hear you proudly say "Amen!" at the end. I look forward to watching you continue to grow and follow whatever course God has set before you. I pray that your life will be blessed and happy, that you will one day find a loving wife and raise up wonderful children like yourself - ones that can melt your heart with their happy grins. But I'll miss the two-year-old you when that time comes. I'll miss the little boy who climbs up in my lap and wraps his chubby arms around my neck and says "Uv yu, Mama!". I love you too, my precious boy!

A Shameless Brag

Brendan continues to amaze me with how fast he picks up sign language. Today he learned the sign for car. He heard a group of grackles chattering in the yard and started signing bird. He heard an airplane fly by and signed plane - complete with sound effects! Today I began to teach him fingerspelling along with the spoken alphabet. (I've been singing the alphabet song to him for a very long time, but I've just begun asking him to repeat the letters after me.) He tried to repeat every letter, sign and spoken. He got the pronunciation of almost half the letters right. His fingerspelling wasn't so great, but I've just begun to teach him that and it's rather difficult for such a young child to form those signs perfectly. He did make very good attempts at it. He signs many words while he says them.
He's also becoming a very polite, helpful child. He usually says please when he asks for something. And when he forgets, he's quite happy to say when we remind him. He almost always remembers to say thank you. I very seldom have to remind him of that. He hands me wipes when I'm changing Luke's diaper, takes things to the garbage when asked, helps me scrape plates after meals and today he "helped" me wash dishes.
Luke is walking fairly well now. He can even stand himself up now without holding onto anything! He hasn't started signing yet, but he does watch very intently when he sees people signing.

Brendan has decided that the star on the Hardee's sign is sleeping. Every time we drive past Hardee's he points at it and shushes us. Sometimes he also signs "sleep".
Other than that, there's not too much going on here. I'm starting to look for a place for us to live in Fort Wayne next year. So if anyone wants to say a few prayers that something wonderful, cheap and really close to the Seminary will appear for me, that would be awesome!

Update

We're all recovering from our colds now. Just a little bit of residual coughing and drippy noses left. Luke is getting much better at walking - last night he took 12 steps in a row! He's so excited about it. And he's such a tiny little guy still so it's funny to see him walking around!
Brendan is becoming quite the two-year-old. He's discovered the word "No" and uses it all the time, even when it's something he wants! As in, "Brendan, would you like to go outside?" "No! (Pause) Hat! Shoes!" Yesterday, he let me know that he wanted to know the sign for dog. He signed and said Daddy and then Mama and then he looked at me with a quizzical expression and said "Woof?" So when Daddy got home we asked him what the sign for dog was. Brendan learned it instantly. This morning, he came up to me holding a cow puzzle piece, barking and signing dog. I told him that was a cow and showed him the sign for cow and he learned that one immediately as well! His ability to pick up signs is amazing sometimes. I really need to work harder at learning more myself so that I can keep up with the pace at which he's able to learn them.

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze

That's the current soundtrack here in the Standfest house. All four of us are sick. Brendan started with it late on Friday and yesterday morning the rest of us were sick too. Brendan's almost over it, though. Hopefully, the rest of us will be feeling better soon. My parents are coming to visit for Thanksgiving and it wouldn't be too much fun to be sick for their visit!

Update

Okay, the website is now at www.standfest.org.
There's still a lot of pictures left to be added, but I'm working on that as fast as I reasonably can.
We went to a wedding reception this evening at St. John's. I'd never met the bride or groom, but it was fun to get all dressed up. The boys had a pretty good time as well. I'll post a picture of us later.

Two Posts In One Day!!!

I'm doing pretty good here, huh?
Luke tried walking again this afternoon. He'd pull up, let go, stand for a moment, step forward with his left foot... and then freeze. And then he'd get this panicked look on his face like he couldn't remember what to do next. Poor baby! Eventually, he'd fall down because he can only stand for so long.
He did climb onto the hearth and one of the living room chairs today. Those were both quite exciting to him.

After the boys both woke from their afternoon naps, I took them outside to play. It was so lovely outside! Brendan had a wonderful time playing in the leaves. I taught him to throw armfuls of them up in the air. He was so cute saying "un, do, dee, dush!" translation: one, two, three, whoosh! And throwing his little handfuls of leaves in the air. Poor Luke though wasn't so sure about being outside. He insisted on being in my arms the whole time.

Drumroll, Please...

www.standfest.biz/beta

That's not its permanent home, eventually it will be moved to www.standfest.org. But for now, it's where it is, it's all set up and ready for people to see. Let me know what you think! Also, let me know if you find any typos or broken links and I'll fix them as soon as I can.

In other news, Luke took his first steps on the evening of November 7! Took us completely by surprise - by the time we realized what had happened, he was sitting on the floor, looking as though everything was completely normal. He hasn't walked anymore since, but wow! 7 1/2 months old and he's taken his first steps...
He's also very good at playing peekaboo. I showed him how to put a light blanket over his head and pull it off a couple weeks ago and now whenever he finds a light blanket (or the living room curtain) he starts to play peekaboo. Even if no one else is playing with him!

Brendan's getting to be more and more of a two-year-old. He's learned the word "no" and uses it a lot. It rarely gets him anywhere, but he keeps trying. He's getting more and more verbal as well and is picking up new words and signs very easily. Yesterday, we were playing with his alphabet blocks and he was pointing at the pictures and telling me what they were. I was quite impressed with how many he knew. The ones he didn't know, he would point at and look at me, I would tell him and he'd repeat it. He remembered many of those by the next time we came across that picture again.

Coming Soon

Announcing...



Our new website! It's not quite done yet, but it should be ready by sometime next week. For now, our blog will remain right here but it may be switched over to the new site at sometime in the future. I just haven't decided yet if I like the blog program there or not.
I'll let you all know when the new site is ready and what url is.

New Words

Brendan's new words:
"Dah Doh" = "Thanks be to God"
Not quite sure how that works out, but every time I say "Thanks be to God" during our family prayers, he says "Dah Doh". He's also getting very good at bowing for the Gloria Patri and is getting better at crossing himself.
"Jump"
Well, it's not actually that clear, but I can't figure out how to spell his actual pronunciation. He's learning to jump right now and says "jump" every time he tries it. Mostly, he just crouches down and stands up fast, but once in a while his feet do actually leave the ground.

Goofy Kids

Brendan's ears are bugging him a little today, so I put some Hyland's ear drops in his ears. He wanted me to put them in his mouth. So I offered him a teething tab (they're tiny). He tried to put it in his ear.
This morning I let Luke try Gerber wagon wheels. I gave one to Luke and one to Brendan (if I hadn't given Brendan one, he might have tried to take Luke's). Brendan tasted it and gave his to Luke. So Luke was sitting there, one in each hand, taking a taste of one, then the other, then back to the first...

Christmas Wishlist

For grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the like:
I've been asked a few times now for ideas for the holidays and have just created a new wishlist for Brendan and Luke for Christmas and Brendan's Birthday. It's in the right sidebar as "Brendan and Luke's Wishlist". A few more things will be added in the next week or so, but this is a start.

A Visit to the Park

This past weekend, we took the kids to the park.


Our little dare devil Brendan loved the slide.


He also enjoyed pretending that he was a turtle.


Our family got to play on the teeter totter together. The boys really seemed to enjoy it. Here is a picture of Daddy and Brendan enjoying the teeter totter together.


Here is Brendan zooming past on his swing.










Here is a picture Mama and baby Luke's first time on the swing together. Luke enjoyed it, especially since he had Mama.





We had a great time at the park and will have to do it again sometime. Hopefully we can make it over there again before it gets too cold for the boys.

Luke has a new favorite teething toy, a target gift card.

Bumps, Milk and Block Stew...

Oh, wow, it's been way too long since I've last posted! Sorry.
Luke's cruising and stood unassisted for two seconds today. I'm still in shock here over that. That boy is still a week away from being seven months old! He's also got a knack for gruesome self-inflicted injuries. He has more bumps and bruises... Just yesterday, he standing at the end of the hearth when he fell, bumping his head hard on the stone on his way down. We have a foam cushion on the edge of the hearth, but of course he missed that. He had one huge bump from that. The swelling's gone down now, but he's still got a colorful bruise.
Brendan is doing well. He's getting pretty good at drinking out of an open cup. At least until he decides that he's done and pours it out on the table without any warning. And then, "Oh wait! Maybe I wasn't done with that after all..." "Milk? Milk? Peesh?" (spoken and signed)
He's learned a few more signs and words lately and has finally begun to call me Mama. before this, I was simply known as "AhhhhhEEEEEEE!!!"
Yesterday, I was tidying up the kitchen and looked over to the dining room where the boys were playing. They were both sitting next to my Dutch oven, which was filled with blocks. While I watched Brendan folded his hands and prayed, Luke watched him very intently. As soon as Brendan said Amen they dug in, Mmmmm!!! What a tasty pot of Block Stew! So cute.

Luke Standing and Brendan's Ketchup

A week or two ago, I wondered why it took Brendan so long to settle down for his nap. We put him in his room like usual, but he just seemed to take forever to settle down. Since he got to sleep late, we had to wake him up so he would eventually sleep at night. When we woke him up...


I found out why he had trouble sleeping. His room was clean when we put him down for his nap.


Brendan has taken up a new hobby, knitting. He pretends to knit whatever mama's latest project is. It's really cute.


Luke has been continuing to climb up on everything including our fireplace.


Here is a video of him caught in the act.


At least Luke has a huge smile on his face when he does it.


Here is proof he has conquered the stairs, without anyone's help.



Brendan has finally learned how to sign his favorite word, ketchup. it's not perfect, but it's pretty good considering he's only 21 months. He does know how to say ketchup, but signs it more often.


Here is Brendan signing ketchup both right and left handed. The only thing cuter than this was his big smile when he got some ketchup.

More Signing

Brendan has now learned to sign thank you and ketchup. He's very excited about signing ketchup since it is his favorite food. We got a video clip of it tonight at dinner. Michael will add it later, I'm sure. He is also signing sentences! He has asked me for "more milk please" and "eat please" in the past two days. I'm very impressed with his signing development lately. I need to hurry up and learn more myself so I can keep teaching him more! And for those who worry - he does speak plenty too. He has a spoken vocabulary of about 50 words. He doesn't use them as often as he uses signs but he's still doing very well for his age.
Luke finally cut his first tooth! It only took about two months of screaming and sleepless nights... He is happily pulling himself up on everything and unhappily falling down from everything. I took him to the grocery store with me today and he rode happily in the carrier, sticking out his tongue at everyone we passed.

Cute!!!

A couple cute moments:

Brendan has learned to say please. He says it and signs it at the same time. It usually comes out as "peesh", but it counts!
This afternoon, after nap, I read a few books to Brendan and then let him "read" to himself for a little bit while I played with Luke across the room. After a couple minutes, I looked over to see that he was reading Snuggle Wuggle. It's a cute little book with animals giving their babies hugs. How does a bunny hug? Snuggle wuggle, snuggle wuggle. Etc. When I read the book to him, I give each hug differently. He was paging through the book mimicking the hug I give for each animal! How does a monkey hug? Swing-a-ling, swing-a-ling. He was swaying back and forth. How does an otter hug? Tumble bumble, tumble bumble. He was bouncing up and down. It was so adorable!

An Update from Our Little Corner of Chaos

That's what it feels like right now, at least!
Oh well.

The boys are doing great. Luke still hasn't cut a tooth, but he hasn't been quite as cranky about it the past few days. He's also learned to sit himself up and to pull himself to standing on the stairs! And this kid isn't yet 6 months old!!! I wouldn't be surprised one bit if he's walking in a couple more months. I was a very early walker and it looks like he's gonna take after me.

Brendan is still picking up new words and signs. His latest sign is "sleep". He's so funny with it - he'll sign it on one side of his head and then the other. And then he'll go back to the first side - back and forth... Usually saying "shhhh" while doing it. And his latest word is "ketchup". I was unloading groceries this morning and he pulled the bottle out of the bag and said it, very excitedly. It's one of his very favorite foods. We can get him to eat almost anything if we put ketchup on it.

More Family Videos

Brendan and the Teddy family going down stairs.


Here is a shy Brendan on Daddy's lap.


Brendan blowing kisses!


Brendan patiently eating his apple chips.


Luke's tasty toes


Of course, we still have the 16 second or nothing problem with the videos. If anyone would like to donate an iSight, I would be more than happy to create and post longer videos. I could also use it to work on improving my signing, do some video conferencing, etc, etc...

Luke Videos

I had some free time today and decided to take a few videos of Luke moving around. Then I tested out uploading them to Google to share them. Unfortunately, our camera only records 16 seconds and then stops, otherwise they would be longer.

Let me know what you think.


Luke is awake!



Luke is trying very hard to escape!




Luke escaped and is attacking Daddy!



Luke's Marathon

A Tricycle for Brendan

Brendan got a tricycle today! We ordered it Sunday evening and amazingly it arrived this afternoon! I wasn't expecting it to arrive until sometime next week. Unfortunately, the helmet we ordered hasn't arrived yet...


But we let him ride it anyway. He was ecstatically happy! He hasn't figured out how to use the pedals yet. I'm pretty certain that he understands that they make the trike go, he just doesn't get how to use them yet. He had lots of fun anyway. Michael couldn't get him off the trike to come inside for dinner - he had to carry Brendan in still on the trike!




Oh, and Brendan's new sign is "music". He signs it whenever he wants me to turn on the radio or, if the radio is already on, it means he wants me to dance with him. I was very impressed that he learned this one as I had only shown it to him a few times and hadn't been very consistent in teaching it to him at all.

---

Here is a picture of Luke enjoying some [drool and] computer time.

Just like Daddy

So does this mean that Brendan wants to be a pastor too?!


... or does he just want to be like Daddy?

Luke seems to like my goofus ball almost as much as I do, except I don't try to eat them (although the sprongies (tentacles) are quite tasty).

Chester update

It's been a while, so here are some pictures of the family.

Here is Luke, enjoying eating his hat.


Since I've been busy at church a lot, Mama has had her hands [and back] full with the boys.


Luke enjoys playing on the floor and his new doggy is pretty cool too.


The boys have been getting along pretty well. Sometimes, Brendan really wants to curl up with his brother in bed.


I'm not sure if Luke is yawning or smiling. Either way, we've all been pretty tired.


Brendan still has his cute smile [and a few cuts, scrapes, and bruises].


Luke has discovered that toes are the best thing in the world to gnaw on. They don't necessarily have to be his own, nor does the person need to know he's about to gnaw on their toes. He likes to surprise them.

Graham Crackers

I think Luke has a little radar in his head that lets him know exactly where every crumb of graham cracker Brendan has dropped is.
On Saturday, Brendan decided to share part of a graham cracker with Luke, who has not yet been fed any solid foods. I walked into the living room to see Brendan sitting next to Luke, both with a piece of graham cracker in their hands. Luke was thrilled! Happily sucking away at that cracker. It was taken away and Brendan was told not to give Luke pieces of his food.
Ever since, Luke gets really excited every time he sees a graham cracker and really upset when he can't get to it.
He's also three times now found good-sized chunks on the floor and twice has gotten them into his mouth before I grabbed them away from him. I swear I look araound for them before I lay him on the floor! But he keeps finding ones I didn't see...
Poor sad baby, once he's done cutting this tooth I'll probably start him on a little bit of solids. I'd like to wait until he's six months old, but he's definitely showing signs of being ready.

Sorry!

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get around to posting! We've been quite busy, obviously, with getting settled here. Now, things are more orderly, the boys are mostly adjusted, and we've found most of our stuff. There's still some boxes way back in the laundry room I haven't gotten to.
The house the church provided for us is very nice. I'll admit, the bluff across the street and the woods in the back do make me a little nervous with a very fast toddler. But the yard is huge and so far Brendan's been very good about stopping when I tell him to. Brendan loves the four stairs up to the bedrooms. We didn't have any stairs in our last house so these are pretty exciting for him. He's also learning more and more words and signs every day it seems. He's just learned the sign for "I love you" and uses it every night when we sign it as we leave his bedroom after bedtime prayers.
Luke has learned to crawl! He started on Saturday. We're all in a state of surprise over that. He's only 5mo. & 1wk. today and he's been crawling for several days now! It's still rather clumsy, but he can get himself pretty much wherever he wants to be. He's also not too far from being able to sit up unassisted. Oh, and he speaks in full sentences, too. Ok, maybe not, but I'm not sure it would surprise me coming from him right now! He is working on cutting his first tooth, though. Which has made for a number of VERY long nights here.
Today I found a children's show that I'm alright with Brendan watching. So far, the only TV he's really seen is the evening news, some Baby Einstein DVDs, and an occasional episode of the Simpson's (good, quality entertainment :P). Anyway, I was trying to fold laundry this morning and he was unfolding as fast as could fold so, out of desperation, I turned on the TV and started flipping through the guide channel to find something to distract him. Well, I found The Backyardigans on Nickelodian. I love it! It entertained him, it wasn't about a bunch of kids being direspectful and disobedient, it was a group of animal children having imaginary adventures in their backyards! They were polite, smart, and cool! It reminded me alot of when I was a kid having backyard adventures with my brother and our friend Julie. Oh, and there was music and dancing. Brendan was dancing along with the animals and having an absolute blast! So cool!
Anyway, Brendan just woke up early from his nap. At least he took one today...

Hello, Chester

Just a quick post to let everyone know we've made it safely to Chester. We're pretty busy right now with unpacking and all but we'll post more when we can.

Bye-Bye Fort Wayne!

For those of you who asked, we are feeling better. We still have sniffles, but we are doing much better than last week.

The packing is coming along pretty good. We'll be ready to go tomorrow without much of a problem.

Both of us have really enjoyed Fort Wayne. We've had a great two years here, but it is time to move on. It's sad, but we didn't move to Fort Wayne so I could just be a student all my life. I'm really looking forward to the vicarage, it should be a great learning experience.

It looks like I won't have time to post for a while, but here are some more pictures.




Brendan discovered an air conditioning vent and had a fun time squatting over it. Afterward, he had to travel around the room and find all of them.




Here is a picture of Luke doing the 'happy dance', waving his arms, in place while kicking his feet.




Luke enjoys giving out his cute little smiles.




Brendan loves Teddy soooo much...




He takes such good care of him that he even makes sure to clip Teddy's nails.




The boys love their mommy, and Mommy loves them too.




Apparently, Brendan had twins (Freddy is on the left, and Teddy is on the right).



Now that Brendan is done teething, Luke has picked up the slack. Just like this brother, Luke has fallen in love with Norbert's cherry flavored foot.


So long Fort Wayne, and thanks for all the memmories! (Don't worry, I won't pull a Connie Chung!) We look forward to seeing you again in another year. Good-bye Fort Wayne!




and Hello to our new home in Chester!

Sick...

Ugh, everyone's sick today. I'm not sure if it's allergies or a cold, but we've all got it. Just what we need while trying to pack the house for our move...
Brendan learned to say "toe" today. But his favorite word today was "oh, no."
Luke is fussy and won't sleep. Michael is taking his turn trying to get him to sleep. I'm not sure what I ate that upset him so much, but he's had an upset tummy for a couple days now. Poor baby.
My mosquito bites are getting better though. The ones on the bottom of my feet are almost healed. The ones on my ankles are still driving me nuts off and on, but it's not as bad as it was.

Today's Update

We're busy packing like mad here. The house is an absolute mess from all the packing and we've been going to bed way too late each night. The combination of these two things is making for one very stressed mama. Add to that the fact that Saturday night I got several mosquito bites on my feet - two on the bottom of one foot - and I'm not doing too great. I've been limping around the house because it hurts to step on the bites.
The boys are doing well. Brendan has learned two more signs in the past couple days - blanket and ball. He may also have said please and yes today, but we're not completely sure. Luke is rolling more and more. I don't think it will be too much longer before he learns to roll across the room.
Well, that's my update for now, I've got to get back to packing.

What A Morning!!!

We got to sleep in a little this morning. I got up at 7am and Luke and Michael were still asleep in bed and Brendan was asleep in his room. Got a few things done before Brendan woke up. Then he woke up. I think he hit the terrible twos this morning. I got him up and started to make his breakfast. When his oatmeal was ready I called for him to come eat. He was playing down the hall and ignored me. I went to go get him and saw what he was playing with. Petroleum jelly!!! He had found the jar in a half-packed box in the hall, gotten it open, and was rubbing it into the carpeting! Yuck, yuck, yuck! Then, as I grabbed his arm to get him away from there and clean him up, he grabbed teddy with his petroleum jelly-covered hand. Eeeew! So we got him cleaned up, blocked off the hall, took teddy away to hopefully be cleaned, and gave him his breakfast. He decided to drink his oatmeal. Fortunately, most of it landed on the table and got scraped back into his bowl. And his favorite word today seems to be "Nooooooo!" Then Luke woke up and needed to be changed and fed. And then changed again. Eventually I got my breakfast and shower. Then we had to run around like mad to get everything ready to go to the doctor's. Both boys had well-baby checks today. We left running a couple minutes late, got up to Dupont road, were halfway to the office and saw a road construction sign. Annoying, that'll slow us down. Oh wait, it's not just construction, it's closed! Michael called the doctor's office and got directions to get around the construction. We were 15 minutes late. Not a crisis though, Dr. Tallon's office was running late anyway. The boys are both doing great. Luke is already 15 lbs. 2 oz. and 24 3/4 inches long. Brendan is 31 lbs. and almost 37 inches. And they're both doing quite well developmentally, too. We counted and Brendan has 27 words! Plus, he uses 8 signs and recognizes a couple others.
Something cute/funny:
Last night was Luke's first time sitting in his high chair at dinner with us. Brendan and Luke both thought this was wonderful! Luke blew a raspberry and Brendan laughed hysterically and blew one back. They went back and forth like this all through dinner - laughing and blowing raspberries at each other.

More Daddy Practice [for Brendan]

Brendan has been a good Daddy for his Teddy.

This morning Brendan was in our bedroom by Luke's swing with Teddy. I turned it on and put Teddy in the swing. Brendan turned on the music and walked out the door slowly and told me to "shhh!" He came back right away shaking his head "No" and picked up Teddy and walked in a couple circles with Teddy and put him back down and turned the swing back on.

He must have been watching Mommy with Baby Luke.

After Teddy was back down in the swing, Brendan walked out the door and screamed.

He's gonna be a great Daddy...

So yesterday afternoon I was holding Luke and walking around trying to calm him down. I wandered into our bedroom and what did I see?

Brendan standing next to the swing with it on and playing music. Nothing too unusual there, he loves the swing. Teddy was in the swing. Brendan looked up at me, put his finger to his mouth and said, "Shhhhh!" He was putting Teddy to sleep in Luke's swing!


Later on, I was carrying Luke in the sling and made a little sling for Brendan with one of his playsilks and tucked Teddy into it. He was thrilled! I don't think we got any really good pictures though. We tried, but he wasn't gonna hold still.

He loves helping me out, or at least trying to.
I was folding a pile of towels and had them all lined up at the foot of our bed and went to put the kitchen ones away. When I turned around, Brendan was pulling the pile of bathroom towels off the bed. I almost yelled at him to stop, but then I realized he was trying to help. He picked up one still-folded bath towel from the floor - quite an arm-full for him - and carried it all the way across the house to the cupboard where they go, opened it and shoved the towel inside! It wasn't quite on top of the pile, but he sure tried. I fixed it and handed him a bath mat to put away. That was much easier for him to do and he was so proud of himself for doing it.

He's also getting much better at feeding himself with a spoon. This morning he only spilled about a teaspoon of oatmeal on his bib!



Luke is rolling from back to front now. He's been able to roll front to back since he was 1 month old. He hated being on his belly though. So he rolls onto his belly and gets really mad, then I have to roll him onto his back because he doesn't seem to remember how. And then we repeat the whole thing. Again and again...

Lydia's Birthday Party

This is a week late, but better late then never, right?


Here is a lovely picture of Lydia riding her cow.


Joan was sweet and got Brendan a really cool color changing straw cup, but apparently the straw isn't dishwasher safe. :( Brendan loved his cup.


Luke had a good time with Mommy...

... and Aunt Penny, and everyone else who would hold him.


Lydia was sweet and kissed Luke.


We tried getting a picture with Lydia and Brendan and their babies that Kira made for Christmas. Brendan wasn't in the greatest mood for that. He only slept about half an hour that day on the way to Lake Mills from Milwaukee, and that was it. The idea was to have him take his nap there, but he never calmed down enough.


Brendan did get a quick smooch in with Lydia, but it was under protest since he was cranky.


Brendan did better when he was put in the pack and play with Lydia.


Lydia also loves hanging upside down. Here's a picture of her just hanging out.


Here's a cute picture of Lydia and Julie (her mommy).


Lydia was so cute. I had to get a little bit of snuggle time with her too. She loved giving hugs.

Beyond that, I can't believe how big she is getting. It's been so long since I saw her last. She's such an adorable little girl. I hope that something works out where we can see her more often, but that may have to wait a couple years.