One Year Comparisons

I know you've seen two of these pictures very recently, but I thought I should put them all together in one place. Here it is, the last of its kind. This is the last comparison you will have to endure.

Joey, at one year old, my Chubba Bubba.
Nick, at one year old, my biggest ham.

Ethan, at one year old, my happy angel.

Weird

I keep track of the weather in three different; in Selah, WA where I live, in Forest Grove, OR where my parents live, and in Austin, TX where my brother and sister-in-law live.
Just now, it shows that all three locations have a temperature of 97 degrees!
How often does that happen?

I know, weird and pointless. But that is all that I feel capable of right now. Another weird and pointless thing; the death of a young, godly man.

Pastor Lucas Matejka was the youth pastor at Anchorage First Assembly of God where I went to church in Alaska. He was incredibly fun and passionate about the youth and worship. He felt God leading him to Australia where he moved while we were down in Oregon in March. I didn't even get to say good-bye.

Through Facebook, I found out that just today, he was in some kind of accident and passed away. I'm still in shock. I know that God is sovereign, and even in this, He is God.

Cake, Cake, Cake

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, mostly.

He wishes he had a bigger mouth.
Just enjoying, clearly.

So sweet to share!

Awww, kisses!

And the results of said kisses.

Party, Party, Party

It was going to be a short trip. I didn't think to bring jackets for the boys. So when Grandma Mary took them to the park, they wore a couple of her sweater-coats! They sure look cute!

What a cute, precious angel he is! I can't get enough of him.

Or him! Nick can test my patience as nobody else, but he has such a sweet spirit, and can make me laugh so hard. What a jewel he is to me.

They are already sharing....sort of. All the kids play well together, for the most part.

Cake! Give me cake! I can just hear Nick's thoughts screaming out.

It's Happened

I can't believe it. It's true, Ethan is officially (since we celebrated early) one year old. I know I've said it before, but time just seems to speed up exponentially. My baby is one. I thought I would reminisce with you a bit.
Ethan was born on Monday morning, 8/18/08 at 5:46am, after just four and a half hours of labor. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces, and was 21 inches long. The first comment the nurse made was, "Look at those cheeks!" And when he was being washed up, he was already trying to roll over, out of her hands.

Ethan has always been a happy, mellow baby. The only time he would really get upset would be when he was hungry. And you can tell by how tiny and frail he was that I hardly ever fed him. No, he is well fed. He just seems to think that the food should be instantaneously in his mouth the second he feels hungry. He is so cute to watch when he sees the food close by. His whole body shakes with anticipation.

He spent so many hours in his bouncer. He loved that thing, until he was a bit more mobile. Before he started crawling, he was scooting, kind of a half army crawl. He would pull himself around with his left arm outstretched, and his right arm bent at the elbow. Always the same. He was very proficient at scooting; but once he was freed from the bouncer, he quickly developed the skills necessary for crawling, pulling himself up on furniture, and cruising around it. He still hasn't started walking, which I'm thankful for, but he looks like he wants to let go and step out on his own. I don't think that he will wait much longer before he finally does.

Ethan loves being like his big brothers. He is not often entertained with his own age-appropriate toys. He would much rather be a "big boy" too. Even now, a I'm typing, he is playing with Nick's new tool set rather than all the wonderful toys he got himself. He does enjoy those as well, don't get me wrong, but when his big brothers are playing with the tools, so is he.

And now, we have made it a whole year. One year ago today I was sitting in a hospital room, mostly all by myself, as Nick had to be home with the kids. I spent a lonely night, not being able to sleep, even though Ethan slept most of the time. He would wake up to eat every few hours, but would go back to sleep right afterwards. In the morning, I packed my stuff back up, got my own ice water from the break room while Ethan was getting his hearing test done, and waited for my doctor to okay me going home. I wish I hadn't had to stay so long; I was ready to be home by noon the day before. But they have to keep the baby for a full 24 hours before they release him, so I had to wait.

I can't imagine my life without all three of my precious treasures. They each bring their own special light to my life. They have also been asking for a sister. I will try to accommodate them sometime.

Also, I want to wish a very happy birthday to Grandpa Chuck. It is his birthday today, too.

Have a great week. The boys have their first appointment with a new doctor next week, and then we will be getting ready for school to start. The next phase of my life is just about to start, and I must say, I am more scared of it, than any other phase I have been through.

Belly Diving

Ethan has started a new, very interesting, activity. I don't think I have seen this from either of my other kids, not to mention from any other baby I have ever known. He cracks me up.

Also, when giving Joey loves, listen for Ethan saying "ahh". He does this every time, because he hears me say it every time. It makes my heart smile when I see my boys loving on each other.

Looking forward to coming down to Portland tomorrow. I love saying that. This is the first time that we will go 'home' since moving to WA, and it has only been about three weeks! Much better than three years between visits.

Ethan is done with breakfast and begging to get out of his booster. Gotta go.

First Cupcake

Although we are having a party for Nick this weekend, we didn't want his birthday to go by without a little memento marking the occasion. So Daddy picked up some cupcakes on the way home from work. (Nick was also allowed to pick what dinner he wanted, out of the three menu choices we had left!)

What an adorable kid he is! He's getting so big. (Tear)
Joey was excited that there were a couple chocolate cupcakes in the pack. Nick doesn't like chocolate at all, so Joey was able to enjoy something not often available to him.

Even though it is a few days before his first birthday, I thought he would enjoy some practice with the whole "cake" thing. Ethan was so funny. He picked up the cupcake like a bottle (much like Nick did on his first birthday) and tried to "drink" it. He went cross-eyed at one point, trying to look at his "bottle" and figure out why he wasn't getting anything out. It didn't take long for him to figure out this was way better than a bottle.

As you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed his cupcake.

I can't wait until he can show off his mad eating skills on Sunday.

Celebrating Three Years

It hardly seems possible, but Nick is three years old today. I remember the day he was born. I was ecstatic, knowing that I was finally going to be able to hold him in my arms. He was the brightest spot in a grey period for me. Here is Nick the day he was born; such a sweet, tiny (to me) baby.

Here is Nick the day he turned one year old. He was such a joyful, goofy baby (after he got over his colic.)

Here he is at two years old, apparently very serious about the business of opening presents.

And here is my ham-bone at three years old. He is such a big boy now.

Speaking of big, Joey has just learned how to hop on one foot! It is so exciting watching his face as he learns something new. I suppose that is one thing I can look forward to about him going to school; he will be learning new things all the time.

We will be headed to Portland on Saturday for the weekend. We will have a birthday party for both Nick and Ethan (whose birthday is in six days.) It will be nice to be able to celebrate with the extended family. This is the first time in three years! I'm very excited about that.

Well, I will go check on the boys. Ethan is still sleeping, but the big boys are ready for snack. Have a great week.

Smart Alec

This afternoon, I put the two little ones down for a nap and set Joey up on the computer for "quiet time." I told Joey that I would be in my bedroom doing my Bible study if he needed anything. Not five minutes later, before I had even begun the study, Joey joined me in my room.

I reminded him what I was trying to do, asking him very nicely if he could play quietly so I could concentrate. A few minutes later, he decided to play with Daddy's set of screwdrivers. The entire time, he was commentating his every action, and asking questions.

Finally, he came up on the bed with me. Through all his jabbering, I hadn't made a sound. Not one peep, not one reminder for him to play quietly. Out of the blue, Joey says, "Mom, you need to be quiet so I can build with the screwdrivers."

I had to laugh. He wasn't telling me to be quiet in a rude way, he was just parroting my instructions to him. I wasn't offended. But I found it funny that he had the audacity to ask me to be quiet when it was he who hadn't stopped talking. So I said, "I'm not the one making the noise!"

He looks at me and said, "Well, now you are." I couldn't stop laughing. What a little stinker. He can be such a joy, such a kick in the pants.

Just wanted to give you something to smile about. Have a great week.

Aunt Bonnie's

With each additional child, I tend to put things off longer....you know, with the developmental things. For example, Ethan will be one year old in twelve days, and yet tonight was the first time I let him feed himself dinner. We had Aunt Bonnie's, a childhood favorite of mine, and a good dish for a baby to be able to feed himself.
Ethan gobbled it up! He loved squishing the noodles through both fists at the same time. And although he had a fork, which he would occasionally put in his mouth with nothing on it, he preferred the time honored tradition of stuffing his face with his fist.

Here are some pictures of the results. This one shows his hair styling technique using casserole.
Here is an adorable "cheeky" grin, greatly improved by the four inch thick layer of sauce, reaching all the way above his right eye. Impressive!

Here you can see that he has the fork, posed and ready, yet chooses his hand instead. If you look close enough, you can see the noodles squishing between his fingers.

Taking a cautious bite in the beginning, he soon learned that he could down it so much faster by smashing his hand against his open mouth.

The clean up from this one meal that lasted no more than ten minutes to at least twice that long. Oh, the joys, of allowing your babies to grow up and learn new skills.

Eleven Month Comparison

I can't believe how fast time has flown. Since Ethan is only a couple weeks away from turning 1 year old, I thought I best get the eleven month comparisons done right away.

Here's Joey at eleven months, giving loves to Daddy.
Here is Nick at eleven months, loving being with Nanny.

And here is Ethan at eleven months, loving splashing in the pool.

I have so many other pictures to share, but since I have the boys watching a movie downstairs, I don't have a lot of time to myself. So I will make an attempt to come up at bedtime sometime this week and post some more pictures.