One of my favorite things is to find my laundry in the wrong drawer. It means Ben was helping put laundry away while I folded! Don't peak in my linen closet because Ben put away the spare sheets and they are a wadded up mess, but it makes me smile every time I get in that closet and I just don't want to clean it up just yet.
With my hands full I was trying to holler across the room to get Nate to stop hammering on the entertainment center. Ben said, "I'll get him, mom." "Tell him to hammer on the floor!" I yelled to Ben as he ran off. And he did! He kindly and gently told his brother to hammer on the floor.
One morning we woke up to the sweet sound of Ben singing "Jesus Love Me" as he walked down the hall to our bedroom.
Nate is finding his place in our family and his own little personality. He is quite vocal about his likes and dislikes. He has started the tantrums where he throws himself on his back and just screams, pauses to look up to see if we are watching and screams some more. I call him my turtle because he lays there on his back like he physically can't get up. Eventually, once left alone for a while he rolls over and comes back to playing. It's a lovely cycle (read with much sarcasm).
Ben loves to help set the table, especially putting ice in the glasses! He doesn't love clearing the table after dinner, but he has to do it anyway.
He also helps me cook just about everything. I have to be very careful when we are taking meals places, which we do quite often. Today, I told him he could lick the spatula when I was done mixing a part of our dinner. After sufficiently licking it, I turned around to catch him dipping it make in the bowl to get some more. Ugh. At least it was a meal just for our family.
Nate says "dada" in the sweetest voice. His inflection totally changes when he says it! He says "baba" for brother, bath and ball. He says "mama" but usually only when he is crying and needs me - I can't get him to say it on command. He has said "nini" for night night a few times. He waves hi and bye but hasn't tried to say them. He signs "thank you" without being prompted when something pleases him. He also signs hungry, all done and more. He is an expert grunt and point guy! He definitely knows how to get his point across.
Nate loves bath time. Around 6:30pm every evening we say, "Nate, it's bath time," and he crawls away with great speed to the bathroom. He loves it! If I don't follow close behind, he will come back out, beckon me and then go back into the bathroom.
No, he is not walking yet. We have tried to get him to take some steps and he just plops down and crawls to us. He walks super fast and quite steady when pushing a toy. He just doesn't want to let go yet.
He can point to his nose, eyes, mouth, tongue, tummy and hair and usually points to his eyes when we ask for ears.
Ben easily counts to 10 and understands the amounts of 1, 2, 3 (if that makes sense). If I say "several" but there are only two, he happily corrects me - It's just a couple, mom!
When he counts past 10, he just mixes up all sorts of numbers. I heard him counting yesterday and he said what sounded like "farteen!" Hilarious.
Ben can't say the "th" sound. So he says "Are gay (they) going over ghere (there)?" I think pretty much all his other words are pretty clear.
He picks up on everything I say. His current favorite is, "Oh my gracious!" about everything! It gets good reviews when we are out!
Be recognizes the letter 'B' but that is the only one. He will ask, "Where is the J" or whatever letter, but he can't recognize any others yet.
He has many books that he "reads" to us because he has them memorized. He will drag out the words and want us to read along with him. For example "In the great green roooooooooooom..." then he pauses for us to say "there was a telephone and a reeeeeeeeeeeeeed..." "balloon!"
I am sure there is so much more. I wish I wrote down everything Ben's says or the things that those two boys get into together because they are just hilarious, loving, frustrating, and so much more all at the same time!
Nate makes big messes and is usually willing to help clean up too.
Gorgeous Weather.
Two boys that LOVE the outdoors!
Not long after the above picture was taken.
Some fellow missionary friends just adopted two boys that are three months apart. Ben overheard us discussing their racial background and the mom said that Zachary, the baby in the picture, was black and Emery, not pictured is white. Probably ten minutes later and moments before or after I took this picture (I don't remember), my darling son said, "Yup, he sure is black!" Oh my gracious! He is just figuring out the difference between black and brown! So innocent, but could be so bad if we were anywhere else.
We spend Saturday morning at Morning Star Ranch, a part of World Impact that is an hour north of Wichita. I let Ben ride in the front seat when we went looking for the workers to snap some pictures!
Ah, they are both growing up so fast.
This is what I found this morning. Ben turned away when he saw me sneak in with the camera.
I told them to do this, but isn't it so cute.
With the lovely weather, we have been looking for any chance to get outside. We had an impromptu kite flying time with some of the young missionary kids last week. All three two year olds took a turn flying the kite and we didn't lose it!
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