A New Cousin!

The first two pictures were taken at the hospital. Thomas and Nathan very happily welcomed their new cousin, Benjamin into the world. Benjamin is a beautiful baby with incredibly kissable cheeks. Picture 3 and 4 are after Benjamin went home. I love the picture of him in his basket as it reminded me of Nathan sleeping in his basket the first several weeks of his life at home!

Here is a few cute tidbits from the last several weeks that I've kept a note of.

In January, Thomas found the baby monitor speaker downstairs in our hutch drawer. He took it out and showed to me telling me that it was for Lillian sleeping. I couldn't believe he remembered this as we had used it for that very reason when baby Lillian was visiting at the beginning of December. I guess it surprised me as I didn't know he was listening or paying any attention when Sara and I set it up over a month ago!

One afternoon I was laying down with Thomas who was not going to sleep. Finally I said, why aren't you sleeping? He told me "my eyes still working"! Too cute.

We were in the kitchen and I was putting dishes away. I knocked down a bunch of plastic cups and Nathan said "oh, dear" and Thomas said "you scared me!" It cracks me up when they use my phrases. When something bad happens like they spill something, I find myself saying, "this is not good" I guess I say this in place of saying you're bad or this is bad. Thomas now says "this is not good" whenever things aren't going as he expected. I have to smile when I hear him say this. Thomas' Dad was setting them up on top of our cabinets and Thomas clearly told him he didn't want to go up there because it was "dangerous". A big word for such a little kid and no one else was saying that then so he came up with that on his own.

We were driving over to Albany and saw a bunch of diggers lined up by the road. I said to Thomas, "cool!" and I heard him in the back going "cold!". I guess he took my slang literally.

Thomas asked my Mom if her coffee was hot and she said no. So he asked "is it warm?" He is getting the concepts!

When we were driving home from Albany, Thomas said, "Mommy, my bugger all gone." I said, "where is it?" (thinking he had wiped it on something". He said, "In my belly". I said "that's gross!" and he said "I want it!" We definitely need to curtail the bugger eating!!!

Grandma and Grandpa come to visit

Christmas 2007 in Rochester at the Riders

Pictures at Thomas and Nathan's grandparent's house. The third little boy is their cousin Noah who you can tell they are very impressed with.

A couple of cute tidbits on Nathan:
Several weeks ago now, he started to cover his ears if anyone did anything really loud exclaiming all the while "my ears! my ears!" At first I was a little concerned as I thought it really was bothering his ears then I realized it was his little joke because he has no problem being the loudest of all. Of course, we all do it when he is being noisy. From there it went to other aspects like my eyes! my eyes! The boys senses of humor are starting to bloom.

Nathan is incredibly helpful. When I'm sewing, he gets down under the machine and stands on the pedal to get it moving. He gets right off when I tell him enough. So it really is helpful. The other day we emptied the basket of winter gear to find some mittens. I came back into the room to find Nathan busily putting everything back into the basket without being told. Actually as I type this I can hear him emptying the dishwasher. He has everything almost out with all the like things stacked together. I love it! The help around here, though short, is incredibly cute!

A quick video of Thomas helping John launch his rocket.

A few cute sayings:

I usually ask the boys if they slept well when they get up in the morning and now Thomas is beating me to it by announcing "I slept well". He does this pretty near every morning now.

I also tell the boys when they get hurt, you're okay! In other words stop crying, you are going to live. Last week, Thomas was taking me to show me something and he tripped. He came up crying and looked at me. He said before I could "I'm okay!" then he got up blinking away his tears. Generally speaking, they are pretty sturdy little boys.

Thomas' new expression is "sure!". Instead of yup or yes, he agrees to things with a cute little "sure". Little copy cats. I know I say sure. I also say "nice!" when they get something to work which I just noticed Thomas saying last night when he was helping me with dinner.

Nathan is not as far along in his speech or maybe his speech is a little slurred so I have problems understanding him. He repeats what has been said like I'll say the dog is outside and he'll look at me and say the dog is outside, right mommy?

Another new thing this fall and winter is that with colds I get Mommy, my nose is running! I'm trying to at least get them to get a tissue but so far all I get is a runny little nose under my elbow! It definitely annoys them to have runny noses.

We've started another session of ice skating now through March. They definitely seem to enjoy it although the coach they've had from the start is moving on to nursing school so we hope the new coach will be as good.

Today's fun!

Nathan-on-the-trumpet - Get Video Code

Jenny-sledding - Get Video Code

Though I try to only post interesting details about my sons, I couldn't resist uploading the sledding video. No, I don't usually sled in a skirt....I was ready to go shopping with the girls.

New-Bunk-Beds -

The boys received a wooden train each from their great Grandma in Colorado--here is Nathan playing with his. The next picture is Thomas with his grandpa sledding in a new tube today. The next three pictures are Thomas drawing. This creation was all his own. He first drew a house-like structure with a pointy roof and told us it was Mommy's house. Then he added a front door, chimney and a tree in the yard---all in the right spots. I was very impressed that a child so young could make a drawing that actually resembled what he was telling us. I wish you could see better the drawing. The last picture shows the boys on the top of their new bunkbeds. The same day that it was assembled, they figured out how to climb up at least two other ways beside the ladder to the top bunk. I'm not sure if I have monkeys or kids! The shirt up was their idea.

A cute story from a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to post...
the boys were on the counter playing with a couple of little curious George stamps. Nathan dropped the smallest of the stamps and I couldn't find it on the floor. He asked to get down and immediately got a flashlight, laid down on his belly on the kitchen floor and peered around the edge of the floor with his flashlight. He did find it, it had bounced into a little crevice between two of the base cabinets. I was so impressed he thought to get a light and then found it.