April 30

Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted. I got a pretty nasty cold and then was very busy finishing the stole and then with trying to catch up on the housework that had been neglected during the illness and the completion of the stole.
Brendan and Luke are both doing great. We recently discovered that they both have wide feet. So we've spent a little extra money to buy them each a pair of Stride Rite shoes in wide-width. Brendan's look a lot like Daddy's, which he thinks is really, really neat! Luke's arrived today and he was so excited, he was trying to put them on over the pair of shoes he was wearing! He's recently decided that he really likes to wear shoes. He likes to stomp around the kitchen in them.
Brendan decided that he needs glasses like Mama and Daddy. On Saturday, we went to Cape Girardeau and stopped at LensCrafters to have Michael's glasses adjusted. I let Brendan try on a pair of kid's frames. He was thrilled and was quite upset when I took them off and put them away. So today at WalMart, we bought him a pair of sunglasses. They were even on clearance, yay! He was so excited to have his own pair of glasses! Oh, and Papa Tupper, he even figured out how to hang them from his shirt, like you sometimes do!
Luke has begun to talk a little. He said something sounding alot like Hello today. Yesterday, he said Austin, well, "Ah-tin", as in the kangaroo from the Backyardigans. He also has a word for peek-a-boo, but I'm not sure I can accurately write it down, so I'm not even going to try right now.
Yesterday, I was folding laundry and Brendan came in and started putting things away without even being asked! I was so proud of him for being such a good helper.
We've moved Luke into Brendan's room. So far, they're thrilled, but it's making for a very difficult bedtime. It's getting better, just very slowly. Brendan's being pretty good, but Luke keeps getting up, singing, bouncing, rattling the doorknob, etc.
This morning, Brendan drew a picture of church. He had been sitting at the table with a piece of paper and pen and called me over to show me the picture. There was actually part of the picture that vaguely resembled a steeple. He asked me to draw a cross there for him.

Family Photos

We had our photos taken by Olan Mills yesterday at the Parish Hall. It was the first time that the boys have had professional portraits done. They refused to smile. The photographer did get some good ones, though. I hope that at least one of the family photos turned out well. There's one of just Michael and I that I think was really nice. I know there's a really cute one of Brendan giving Luke a kiss. There's a really nice one of just Brendan. I'm not sure if any of the ones of just Luke turned out well. Either way, I know we're going to be spending way too much money!
During the family pictures, Brendan started to get a little upset - he wanted Teddy. Luke picked up on the fact that Brendan was upset and had a meltdown. It reminded me of a couple days ago when Luke woke up from his nap in a terrible mood. Brendan tried giving him a pacifier to calm him down, but Luke refused to take it. Brendan was just devastated that Luke was upset and he couldn't make Luke happy again. It's so sweet to see how much they care about each other.
Oh, and I did eventually get Brendan to smile at the pictures by saying hamburger and french fries.

April 1 - Update

Tonight as I was saying prayers with the boys before putting them to bed, I said the Invocation, then the Apostles' Creed, then the Kyrie. As I was saying the Kyrie, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy", I realized that Brendan was whispering it right along with me, "Ohd ah essy, Eist ah essy, Ohd ah essy." He looked so proud of himself too!

April 1

Not too much exciting happened this week.
One morning, I think it was Tuesday, I opened a jar of goat's milk to pour glasses for breakfast and set the lid on the table. Brendan saw the cream that had collected on the lid, said "MILK!", grabbed the lid and licked it. He had cream on his nose, lips, and chin and was quite happy!
Luke has discovered dancing. He spins around in circles until he falls down. Then he tries to get back up and keep spinning, but he's usually so dizzy that he falls back down before he gets all the way up!
He absolutely loves the Ergo Baby Carrier I bought with some of our tax return money. The Maya ring sling worked wonderfully when he was little, but now he's just a bit too heavy for me to comfortably carry him in it. So, I got an Ergo. It is wonderfully comfortable and fairly easy for me to get him in it on my back. I clip the waist buckle, set him on a chair, sit down in front of him, and he climbs right onto my back! He knows what needs to be done and he loves being in it, so he's quite willing to co-operate. Sometimes, he'll even bring it to me if wants to be carried. It's so cute when he does that! I do quite a lot of my housework with him happily on my back now.

March 25

We're almost over our colds here. Just some runny noses to deal with yet.
I learned yesterday to make sure that the stickers are put away where Brendan cannot get to them. I went downstairs to change the laundry, came back up, and Brendan was covered with stickers! And Luke had a pair of cows on his bottom and a pair of zebras on his wrist. They were both quite pleased with themselves...


Potty-training is going fairly well. He still has plenty of accidents, but it's getting better and better. On Thursday, for the first time, he asked to go to the potty and actually went when he sat down. That was very exciting!
Our other exciting news is that goat's milk seems to be okay for the boys! We get it fresh from a friend of our neighbor. It's a little bit more expensive than rice milk, but it's so yummy! I never could drink rice milk myself, but I really like this goat's milk. Michael says I can't have a goat though. Oh well, maybe someday!

Happy Birthday to Luke!

It was a good day, if you ignore the fact that Luke and I both have nasty sinus colds...
My parents arrived last night after the boys were in bed. Everyone woke up a little too early today. We had banana muffins for breakfast, played for awhile. Brendan found and opened one of Luke's birthday presents before anyone could stop him. While Luke took a morning nap, my mom and I made a chocolate cake. I made popcorn with dinner - Luke's favorite treat. And then we had cake! Luke didn't want to blow out his candle. He was fascinated by the candle and wanted to touch it, but he wouldn't blow it out. The cake was delicious, Brendan kept asking for more and more. Luke ate the frosting. First he used his fingers to eat the frosting and then he picked up his bowl and licked the frosting off of the cake. He only ate a couple small pieces of cake. Then we opened presents. He loved them all, thank you to everyone! After that both boys got a bath and put to bed.

March 18

Bath time is so much fun! The other night, Luke decided to go bobbing for rubber ducks during their bath. I couldn't see what he was doing at first, but he kept ducking down and popping back up, laughing, and with his face dripping wet. And then he came back up with a duck in his mouth. He took it out and quacked. They have quite a few rubber ducks and Luke loves to play with them and quack. He doesn't just quack at the neighbor's dogs... Later on, after I had gotten them cleaned up, Brendan apparently decided that I hadn't done a good enough job on Luke's hair. He took the wash mitt, dipped it in the water, and wiped off Luke's head. Then he did it again several times more.
Brendan is becoming a wonderful helper to me. Today, while I was folding towels, he came over and asked for the pile of napkins. I knew that he knew where the napkins belonged, so I gave them to him and asked him to put them away. When he came back, I handed him a pile of dish cloths. He said "thank you" and happily walked off. After he was done with the dish cloths, I gave him the bibs. He said "thank you" again as he walked off. Thanking me for letting him help me, wow! When I got downstairs, I checked the drawers and he had gotten everything into the correct drawers! Not exactly neatly, but everything was where it belonged.
My parents came to visit for Luke's birthday and "Gamma" helped by starting to potty-train Brendan. He did it twice the first day and several more times the second day! I'm very proud of my boy.
Brendan has a new "Spiderman" trick. Our front window is very close to the floor. He gets his toes up on the sill and holds on to the top of the sash and sidles back and forth along the length of the window - probably about 9 ft.

Two recent pictures

Brendan got a cut on his hand last night. Kira put some ointment on it before bedtime and also put a Backyardigans band aid on it. Once he realized what was on the band aid he was thrilled! He even tried scratching himself and asking for more band aids. We didn't give in. But it's good to know that if he gets hurt again, we can give him another band aid and at least distract him from the boo-boo.


Mama also helped Luke draw his very first picture. This was the first time that it was his own piece of paper (and not his scratches on his brother's picture). Mama helped him get crayons and to make sure that they didn't go in his mouth. He had fun and so did Mama.