A boy, his blankies and his bike

It's funny how a kid will do something over and over again for a few weeks and then just stop. That's sort of like Ben and his desire for me to wrap him in blankets.   These are a month old, but just terribly, terribly cute.  Mommy's little urchin.

Really love this one.

Oh, and this boy loves his hog.  So do his big brothers. 

Matt says there are too many pictures here...bah.  Also, I really will blog more about the big boys.  I guess they are just older and require more storytelling, whereas Benjamin gets a 20 picture blitz and it says it all.  Must...be...better...mother.

Who is that guy?

The one at the table wearing the glasses.  Do you see him?  Who is he?

There he is in the entryway!  Seriously, who is that dude?

 

Oh wait, it's Nico!  Phew.

(By the way, I walked into the dining room the other day and found him with the glasses on and coloring his heart out as pictured at the top.  Who knows how long he'd been like that.)

Faces

We got 'em, man.

Sweet ones

Dangerous ones

Sunshiney ones

Worried ones

Really worried ones

Annoyed at brothers for taking away toys ones

Upset ones (about the toy)

Devastated ones (again, the toy)

American Gothic (and more worried) ones

Cuddly ones

Um...other ones

And crizazy ones

(By the way, I love SPF shirts that are featured in this post.  So much less work at the pool!  I love less work!)

"The moon smiled at us"

Tonight the big boys took a while falling asleep. They laughed, talked, planned, and looked out their window. They were stunned to find ONE star and, oh yes, and, the moon. In one night! We are truly city dwellers.

Matt gets anxious when the boys are chatty at bedtime. He goes in and tries to reason with them and quell their evening energy. I kind of like it because they are funny and when they come out of their room to talk to me I can just nod, listen, and shoo them back to bed. And occasionally go in because they need to cuddle. Plus, they are slow to fight because they know that fighting will bring an end to it all.

Tonight that would mean an end to looking out of their window at the "wishing star" and the smiling moon while poring over the new scholastic book catalog and loudly asking, "Is this expensive?" and "How many dollars is this?".

So much of our days are a blur of demands, tantrums, freak outs, and just general crazy, but I really like these nighttime moments (and all moments like them). And I really like these boys.













(This is Nico's newest pose. I think it looks racist, but it's not.)

You're not the only one Dad

Today Nicholas saw this picture and said, "Who's that girl?"

Apparently, it's an easy mistake to make.

Masters of Disguise

Dear Nicholas,

You love to find things. Things that have been lost for a long time. You love to tinker with them. You love to take them apart. You love to break them. All in the name of curiosity.

Then you bring it into our world and invite us to use it. And oddly enough, sometimes it's fun!

Behold the fake-nose-glasses-without-the-nose-anymore!

No Words

OK, maybe one.

Perfection.

(To explain, this is Nico catching water in his mouth from Grandpa's new fancy dance patio mister.)

Hey Mom!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Paints rhyme!













Why, yes son, yes they do.

Mary, Cheese and "Special Smiles"

We got a new camera for Christmas (YAY!) and I am having a fun time working with it. I still have a lot to learn, but the improvement in quality is exciting. Here are some examples of typical "poses" in our household. And now that I've been taking more pictures expect a lot more of these faces...these boys really love to have their picture taken. LOVE IT.

All I said for these pictures was "Be like Mary". Everything about this face I love. The nose, the eyes, the cheeks. Soft and lovely.

























Of course, this is his most common pose, but here's a funny "cheese".













Lastly are Jacob's "special smiles". I substitute in primary for singing time often. Last Sunday I led the music and loved seeing sweet J. Not only was he so reverent and attentive, but he kept on giving me sweet, genuine smiles. I complimented him on the special smiles he gave me and then he proceeded to show me more "special smiles". That boy loves to pose.













But sometimes the special smiles look a little bit funny. Here's a prime example. He's not about to sneeze, he's holding his "special smile".













Nice.

How to Roll Dice

Should I get him in a tap class?

Dice are fun for this analytical 4 year old.

Here are the specs of our exciting dice game:

Roll, look for matches (triples, etc.), pull out matches, repeat until all dice are pulled out as matches, then roll all dice again. Repeat the process until I put my foot down and make him stop. Because he'll never stop. Never!














I've been saying this a lot lately, but the mantle of "the more challenging child" has just about 80% passed from Jacob to Nicholas. I'm not trying to label them (although I just did) but I'm happy that Jacob's chilling and that Nico's, um, throwing a lot more tantrums. It's really Nicholas's turn to be more demanding and difficult. It's so fun to see Jacob reason through things and take things in stride more. It's also nice to be more capable of dealing with Nicholas's crying since this is my second time 'round the toddler bend. Especially when he cries because I can't put his granola bar (or banana, popcicle, etc.) back together again after he breaks it. When will he learn it's impossible? Oh. Man.