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