These are a few of my favorite things...

These are just a few of my favorite things about the boys right now!

Judah
1. Still loves Mickey Mouse (can name all of the characters on the show) but now also loves Disney Pixar Movie characters from Cars.
2. Love showing Levi the stuff he can do. For example, he will stack up his large foam blocks into towers and such and then shout at Levi "EEEE-I, Mira!" (Levi - look!)
3. Loves trains. Every time we pass the train cart that sits next to the tracks in Sachse, he says "Mami-choo choo!"
4. Likes to cover up his pee pee in the bathroom with the star water toy and ask me "mami - donde esta pee pee?". Yes I crack up every time!
5. Makes Levi crack up in the car.
6. Insists on politeness-tells us "gracias" for just about everything (I especially love it when I kiss him and he tells me gracias). Also demands politeness back-he will continue to say gracias until you respond with de nada.
7. Thinks he is way beyond sitting in his space saver chair. Eats pretty much every meal at the table in a regular chair. This often drives me crazy.

Levi
1. Cracks up when he is tickled or knows we are about to tickle him. He even closes his eyes in anticipation.
2. Yells loudly to get mainly Judah's attention.
3. Doesn't really care for baby toys-wants to play with whatever Judah is playing with and gets very mad when a toy is taken away from him.
4. Cares nothing at all for baby food-turns his head in disgust and sometimes swipes it away. Wants to chew on whatever we are eating but in the end, just wants to nurse.
5. Sleeps all night in his crib now (thank you!) only waking up once or twice to nurse (YEA!)
6. Loves to stand up, climb up my chest and shoulder, pull up to standing on any of my body parts, rolls to get places sometimes, can rock on all fours, wants to crawl but hasn't put it all together yet.
7. Mama's boy through and through-whines/cries sometimes when I'm not in sight or walk away, gets super excited when I grab him and smiles almost in a "ha ha" kind of way at whomever was just holding him. He also loves to rest his head on my shoulder (I LOVE that)! Not to mention he is very attached to nursing....

Signs of children

It's funny when I try to remember what life was like before Judah and Levi. Stevie and I have talked before about how we could have never imagined just how fulfilling and joyful life would be once our children were brought into this world. We operate on less sleep, don't have as much freedom to be spontaneous, and have less money but our lives are filled with more joy, more fulfillment and more love than ever before. It is amazing!

We take such delight in the "signs of children" - you know, the little things around your house and such that show that little ones are running around somewhere.

Like this picture Stevie took. Judah's little boots are on the rug at the back door.

And that's just it-the picture says it all.

Yes we're stil alive

As if I haven't said it enough before, I hate our internet service. You see there is no such thing as FIOS, DSL or anything else that is part of modern telecommunications where we live. Your options are:

1) Dial up - might as well not have the internet

2) Wireless - which includes putting a big ugly antenna on your roof around here

3) Satellite - doesn't do so great in the wind or rain and still isn't nearly as fast as any of the options mentioned in my first paragraph. Oh yeah, and Satellite is NOT cheap and you can't get a bundled package with your phone and cable :(

We have option #3. So what does that mean for my blogger life? It means I can't post as many pictures (or video for that matter) as I'd like. Well, I could, but it would mean ignoring my spouse, children and all household responsibilities (as well as cut back on sleep) as I would be sitting in the office on the computer for hours to post, let's just say for argument's sake, oh, 7 pictures. Pretty ridiculous I know. It also means that I don't even get on to even simply type a blog entry seeing as how it sometimes take numerous attempts to save it. Oh woe is me!

We will hopefully be moving within the year (hopefully before August), and when that happens, modern technology and civilization will be waiting for us. And I will be the first to welcome her with arms wide open. Who knows, maybe then I will be able to not only keep a nicely updated and fully functioning blog, but I could potentially download music for my Samsa as well!

That is probably one of the most exciting parts of moving in my opinion-well at least at the moment!

Apparently Levi agrees!

Crack me up!

Judah playing peek a boo with Levi


Levi in his almost too small on him 9 month clothes. He is officially 7 months now!


Every day it seems like the boys do something (or lots of things) that just crack me up. And I'm so thankful they do! Here are some examples from TODAY alone!


Levi

1. Grabs my face to plant big fat open mouth slobbery kisses on my mouth.
2. Gets mad when I put a hat on him when we go outside and immediately takes it off.
3. REFUSED to eat baby food today by pursing his lips as tightly as possible and turning his head. A few times he swiped at my hands and tried to push them away. He insisted on eating table food. So at IHOP we gave him a pancake and he was content.
4. Grunts and gets mad in the car seat (now in his big boy car seat - facing backwards of course) when he can see Judah drinking or eating something. He stares at him with ice cold eyes. It makes me laugh!
5. Rode around in the little push car (we followed Judah around the backyard while pushing his "trocas" around ) holding onto the steering wheel as if he were driving it. When I stop for a minute he bounces up and down as if to tell me to keep going. When I still don't move the car he then proceeds to stand up as straight legged as possible as if that will get the car moving again.

Judah


1. Laughs along with a studio audience now if he hears one laughing on TV.
2. Went crazy in the car when a train passed us by and shouted "Mami! Choo Choo!"
3. Applauded and asked for more at the end of each song we listened to on his daddy's "Tejas Brothers" CD...looks like we have a Texas Music fan in the making.
4. Yells "mira levi mira mira" (look Levi look look) when in the car with him to make Levi smile and laugh.
5. Played for about 20 minutes on the kitchen floor with a roll of maskin tape. He thought it was so much fun to make it roll and roll and roll.
6. LOVES to sing and dance (usually with one hand on his head). He warmed my heart in the bathtub last night when for the first time he sang along with me the bathtime song I made up for him when he was a little baby.
7. He loves the movie "Cars" (Disney-Pixar). What is funny is that he saw it ONE time and it made a HUGE impression on him. When we were looking at the dollar section at Target today (isn't that section great?!), he spotted Cars socks. When I showed them to him he grabbed them and put them in the basket, full of excitement and shouting the whole time. Then when we got to the register he quickly placed them on the conveyor belt. When the cashier rang them up and put them in the bag he flashed her a big smile and said "Oh gracias!". Cracked me up! Of course, he is wearing those socks in bed right now. He was disappointed however that his Cars pjs are dirty right now...

I could go on and on about the things they do that makes me laugh. I hope one day it will be fun for them to read this when they are young men and see how much joy they brought me and their dad every day!

Fun Facts

Things happen so quickly with the boys that I am having a hard time keeping up! I need to keep up with the blog so I have a record of all they are doing so here is an update of what I am calling some "fun facts".

Judah - current age - almost 25 months
1. Vocabulary has expanded so much it is a little hard to keep up with. A few "big ones" in this category are that now he actually has a name for Mickey - "tickey". He loves naming people and things. Often he just starts pointing and naming. One cute thing is that he calls both his cousins Carmen and Sofia, "ia". "Troca" is still one of his favorite all-time words, although it comes out sounding like "caca". I promise we don't curse in our house!
2. Has developed the concept of possession. This is demonstrated by his often emphatic and long and drawn out expression of the following phrase (finger-wagging included) "no no no - MY!". Yes he says it in English! Just goes to prove he didn't learn it in our house!
3. Loves making animal sounds-especially for the cow, dog and elephant (which he thinks he sees in a tree in the painting in the dining room/playroom. He got that idea from an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).
4. Loves to dance and sing. He sometimes appears to be singing his own little songs that he makes up. He especially likes "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". When he dances, he often gives us commands involving different moves that he wants us to do as well. This usually includes one hand on a bobbing head or both hands on bouncing knees.
5. Loves to wrestle with Levi and sit on him like he's riding a horse.
6. Informs me in the car when Levi has fallen asleep or woken up. He has been known to tell me to be quiet when Levi is sleeping. He also loves to turn the monitor on for us to hear Levi when he's taking a nap and he is the first to run into Levi's bedroom when he wakes up.

Levi - current age - almost 7 months (I can't believe it!)

1. One of my favorite things Levi does right now has to do with a look he gives me. Sometimes when I am holding him I can all of a sudden feel that he is giving me "that look". I turn and see him right in front of my face with his head tilted back ever so slightly as to see my whole face at once. As soon as I look at him, he stares at me for a moment and then gives me a HUGE smile! I love it! He is definitely a "mama's boy"!
2. Has become quite the wiggle worm. He rocks on all fours. He rolls all over the place when playing. He does this real cute thing where he bounces up and down when he is sitting sometimes, almost as if dancing. He loves to climb up me when I am trying to hold him. This makes holding him a little frustrating-and dangerous at times!
3. LOVES his sippy cup-and Judah's if you let him have it!
4. LOVES going on walks in the wagon. Almost every time he lets out a big belly laugh when he realizes he is sitting across from his big brother.
5. Lately has been giving me really big open mouth kisses-I love it!

Both of the boys are a sweet as ever! This weekend I was out of town Friday through Sunday on a girls' trip with my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws. We had a great time but I did miss Stevie and the boys. When I came back home all three of "my guys" put the biggest smile on my face and joy in my heart! I love you boys!

"¡Oh, gracias!"

Right now I don't think there is anything sweeter than this little phrase "¡Oh gracias!".

That is what Judah says to us just about every time we lend him a helping hand. There are two reasons that make this little phrase so cute.

1. His pronunciation of "gracias" is adorable. It sounds more like "grasha".
2. The way he puts "oh" before it makes the whole thing just perfect. His "oh" is so genuine, as if you really just did the biggest favor for him in the world.

Of course every time he says to me "oh gracias" I respond with the appropriate "de nada". But sometimes the joy that his little phrase of gratitude gives me leaves me wanting to say "oh gracias" right back at him!