Random thoughts this morning

It is cold today.  I finally switched us over to our green down comforter rather than our brick red lightweight blanket.  And it's cozy.  The double bonus is that our room suddenly feels like its been redesigned which is fun.

So this morning I'm sitting in my bed with a cup of coffee and just decided to write down a few thoughts  Benjamin is awake.  He came to my room at 7:31.  Which is good because we got him one of those "Ok to wake" alarm clocks where the lights turns green at a specified time where he is allowed to get up.  And since that time was set for 7:30, he obeyed.  Which means no early morning consequence for him, and now he is happily playing in his room until Jonah wakes up.  He did have to show me the surprise outside (frost) which he told me is snow (its not).  But it is cold today.

It is amazing to me how Benjamin wakes up early most every morning despite what time he goes to bed.  Last night it was nearly 10 before his head hit the pillow because we were at our home group, this particular time meeting at our friends house up the mountain.  The boys loved the drive 'with the huge trees and potential bears and cougars' and we loved the fellowship.  Talking about God's trustworthiness, our doubts and suspicions and imperfections.  Yet always coming back to God's trustworthiness because He is truth.  The odd balance of convicting yet encouraging which is one of the key blessings of a small group community digesting God's Word, I think.

Jonah on the other hand is still sleeping.  Jonah has my distaste for mornings.  Despite Benjamin's best efforts, I still sleep deepest in the early morning and would love to keep the covers to my head until the early hours had passed us by.  But, the coffee with peppermint mocha creamer ease the sting a bit and having a moment to write this morning is sort of refreshing.

Last night my Mom woke us up at nearly 1 in the morning.  She did this because a police officer had woke her up by knocking on the door.  He told her we needed to come look at our van.  Gulp, those words sound great.  She had to come wake us up and then the officer told us our van door was open and we needed to see if it had been riffled through.  Thankfully, it hadn't.  The doors are automatic and more than likely in Peter's effort to take the recycles out to the curb late last night, the button on his keys was pushed to open the door.  It's happened before and I'm sure it won't be the last.  The added bonus from our middle of the night awakening was not being able to fall back asleep for an hour, because that's just how I am.  But still grateful this morning for an untouched van.  And sorry that Mom had to be woken up as well.

Benjamin is now beside me in bed because he needs milk.  Shocker.  His blood is probably white from the amount of milk he drinks.  But I love my 3 year old, soon to be 4 year old, munchkin and taking care of his needs first is worth it every time I have to reheat my lukewarm coffee.

Happy Thursday!

Haircuts

At the end of September, Peter took Benjamin with him so they could both get haircuts while they were on sale.  Ben is really good while he gets his haircut, and looks so handsome.

Then, once Peter came back he said that he should go get Jonah's haircut.  I said "sure!" since he'd already had his hair trimmed there a few months prior.

But when Peter came back, I saw that he had told the lady to use the clippers on his hair.  WHAT?!?!  His hair was gone.  The sweet, white blond hair of my baby was gone.  Okay, not gone, but much much shorter.  And yes, he looked adorable and grown up.  With the emphasis on the grown up.  Mommy wasn't ready for that.  And Mommy cried.  And cried some more.  It was a bit sad, but honestly, after a few days, it really grew on me and I saw how cute he was.

The hair before...

And after...

Goodness, do I have good looking boys or what????

15/18 Months!! - Jonah

I sincerely hope Jonah can forgive me for my horrible lack of monthly posts for him.  It is certainly not because I don't love every detail about him.....it's just busy and so easy to forget to blog.  He is now inching closer to 22 months, but I wanted to go back and recap a bit of the past few months with him.

Height - I'll have to go back and confirm but I think at 15 months he was 31 inches, and 31 1/2 at 18 months.

Weight - I believe he was 20lbs 4 ounces at 15 months, and about 22lbs at 18 months

Likes - pushing your toy lawnmower, the swings and slide on our playset, reading "We're going on a bear hunt", fire trucks, Thomas the train (choo choos), spinning and dancing, being tickled, airplanes, watching Little Einsteins

Dislikes - getting your diaper changed, getting your face washed, when Benjamin steals your toys, being told no :-)

Eating - You don't drink as much milk as Ben but you are definitely drinking more.  Unlike Ben, you love to eat breakfast right away.  You love pasta, fruit, cheeseburgers, cheese, burritos, eggs, applesauce, pancakes, pretzels, and candy :-)  You went through a phase right about 18 months of 'storing food' in your mouth, but a bit of discipline stopped that pretty quickly since it was a risk of choking for you!  You don't drink much except for milk and water.

Sleeping - You are a good sleeper.  You're still only on one nap a day, going down about 1pm and waking up sometime between 2:30pm and 4pm, with an average of 2 hours.  You go to bed sometime between 8pm and 9pm depending on whether we're out that night or not, and you wake up between 7am and 8am.  You sleep with your Floppy, 2 blankets, and pillow with Thomas the Train pillowcase.  We took your paci away right around 15 months.....same technique as Ben.  You only used it while sleeping, but we just took it away, and you adjusted with no fits within 1 day.  We love our adaptable boys!

Personality - Oh goodness, you are stubborn and ornery and hilarious and soooo stinkin adorable.  You are fearless, yet shy at times.  You love, love your brother and do whatever he does.  You are sneaky and playful with an infectious laugh.  You won't repeat words on command, but you learn new things every day.  You love cows, and trucks, and will play really well independently.  Oh, and have I mentioned you are stubborn?  :-)

Highlights - Oh Jonah, you have grown so much in so many ways.  From 15 to 18 months, you have grown close to Nana and Auntie Amanda while they are living with us.  You no longer need your paci, you visited Poppy & GongGong in the summer, you're now going to Sunday School class.  We visited the ocean, the zoo, children's museums and countless parks this summer and fall.


Jonah, Jo Jo, Jon Jon, Jonah Caleb......you are such a bright spot in our lives.  Your giggles, your stubbornness, your spinning, your ornery twinkle in your eye.  We just love it all and we love you.  You are a precious gift from God and we are so blessed by you!

Brother Bonding

I love having two boys.  And I love that they are only 2 years apart.  Of course, the first few months are quite chaotic and sometimes you find yourself literally running in two different directions, but I LOVE watching them bond.  Benjamin has gone from being completely uninterested in Jonah to wanting his brother to be with him all the time.  Jonah asks for Benny first thing every morning.  Benjamin shares his fruit snacks with Jonah.  They are trouble together.  They are hilarious together.  They are playmates together.  And I love it all.  I wanted to capture sweet brotherly moments on my blog so I will always remember these past few months as a time when they really felt like they became brothers.

Summer visit with Larmores

I never posted pictures from our quick summer visit with the Larmores while they were visiting Pete's folks in Spokane.  We only got to be there for a few days since Peter's work schedule was so busy, but we had a great time.  The cousins play great, we love catching up with Anita and Nate, and it was a wonderful, relaxing time.