Growling and Destruction

Gabriella is starting to act like a dog. She has found her tongue and sticks it out of her mouth just about 75% of the time. She also growls unabashedly, and it is quite a shocking sound to come from such a petite little girl. Of course, she wouldn't do it for the camera, so here is a video of her basically doing nothing.



(The growling in the background is Baby C or Graham, I'm not sure which. It must sound like we growl a lot.)

Gabriella had been crying on the couch on Sunday, and Graham went over to make her feel better. He had been tickling her for a minute or so and she seemed to like it. I tried to zoom in, so it's blurry.



He is becoming a very devoted older brother.

Baby C is a master of destruction. We can clean up an entire room, vacuum, leave, and re-enter the room only to find that he has pulled out every single toy he can reach, scattered Cheerios across the floor, and wiped his nose on each couch cushion (makes you want to visit, doesn't it?). Seriously, it's like he is a giant toy-magnet, and as he walks through the room, things fly at him. It's Mary Poppins' "Let's Tidy up the Nursery" game in reverse. Will calls him "Entropy Boy".

In other Baby C news, we may not have to refer to him as Baby C for much longer! We may be able to adopt him within the next few months if things go as planned, although we have been warned that things rarely go as planned. Pretty exciting!

Outside

The title explains it all. We spend every available moment outside these days. Will tilled the garden, and when he asks Graham what he wants he wants to play with, Graham takes off running pell-mell for the shed. He emerges with his garden trowel and a bucket, then spends the rest of the night digging in the garden or the flower beds. He will be sorely disappointed when we put up the fence.



Baby C loves playing in rocks and hates to come back inside. Gabriella is content to sit, as long as she's not in the sun.



They will love all their water-themed birthday toys in a month or so.

Gabriella's Dedication

Gabriella's dedication at church was this weekend, and my parents and Will's sister Kim were able to make it in for the occasion. The kids did really well up front, despite the fact that they were all getting cranky by that time. It was funny to hear the collective 'awwwww' when our pastor held her up. Then they prayed for her and after the 'Amen', everyone started laughing. I looked up to see Gabriella grabbing a handful of his nose. He announced that she had already found his beard during the prayer.





Will's parents had planned to come for it, but Joe & Gwen had their baby and needed some help with their boys. Congratulations Joe & Gwen!! We are so happy to hear that little Isabella is doing well!

In other news, Baby C chewed through two more pacifiers, so we reluctantly took them away and expected a couple of very long nights. It was a non-event, though, and he did fine from the beginning, which was a really nice surprise. He is walking everywhere now and is enjoying his newfound ability to chase his big brother around.

The other day, we let Graham get out of his highchair and he ran over to the couch. He stayed there for several minutes and we finally noticed that he was perched in the window, licking the window and watching the cars go by. Cheap entertainment.

What a week.

It has been a rather strange week. All three of the kids have been sick, so it's been a thrill-a-minute, especially at night. For instance, last night, Graham was up 6 times, Gabriella got up twice to eat, and Baby C screamed for 45 minutes straight. Maybe this lack of sleep is the cause of Graham's random behavior. The other day, I heard him close the trash can lid and discovered that he had just thrown away a $20 bill. Thursday morning, he tried on three different shirts before deciding he'd rather go shirtless and wear a hat instead. Yesterday, I had to cut a bucket off his head because he had pulled it down over his face like a feed bag and couldn't get it off.

I was holding Gabriella last night and we noticed her shadow on the wall. Check out her faux-hawk:





And here's the real thing:

Easter 2010

Although we didn't get to be around family again this Easter, we still had a good time with the kids. We went to church on Saturday night and tried to get pictures of them in their outfits before we left. We have a nice pictorial series of the two boys together, the two boys with a screaming Gabriella, Graham throwing Gabriella off his lap, and the two boys plus my arm (rescuing Gabriella). Who needs a video camera? Here's the one before Gabriella's departure:



The next morning was Easter, and we had the kids go out into the yard and "find" their baskets. Gabriella just sat on my lap and squinted into the sun.



Baby C was excited by his animal crackers and never noticed anything else. Graham discovered his bag of "digadigadees", which is how he pronounces jellybeans, and then busied himself with Baby C's basket.



All in all, it was more successful than last year, when Graham just barked at the neighbor's dog.

That afternoon, we went to a friend's house for dinner and an egg hunt. Again, Gabriella squinted, Baby C was fixated on one thing, and Graham was more interested in everyone else's basket. Here he is a moment before he ran off with his friend Lincoln's bunny:



Hope you all had a happy Easter as well!

Moving on up.

In the last six weeks, we have had two birthday parties with two out-of-state trips, Baby C began getting about 8 teeth all at once, Gabriella has decided to stop sleeping so well, and Graham has begun potty-training. It has been a crazy time.

Baby C's birthday party at my parents' house was a lot of fun. We filled their inflatable swimming pool with balls and had a slide for them to jump off into the pit. I tried another pinata, and again, nothing came out when we pulled the string, so I think we're done with pinatas for now. Baby C's Great Grandma and most of my aunts and uncles were able to make it, which made the day more special. It seems strange to post pictures of his party when he can't be in them, but here are a few (very small) images:





Gabriella is rolling over all the time now, and as a stomach sleeper, this does not make it easier for her to get to sleep. She is still a sweetheart, though, and it's been so much fun watching her grow. She has just begun to grab at things and suck her thumb. Baby C loves to bellyflop on her when she's playing on the floor, so we have to be careful. She has an uncanny ability to sound like a tomcat sometimes. This is a rather uneventful video, but you can hear how loud she is...



Here's how we go on walks. She refuses to keep her hands inside Will's coat.



And here's how we found her one morning after she had been talking for half an hour:



Graham is starting the potty-training adventure, and so far he seems to do okay. We're bribing him with a Skittle each time. Unfortunately, he prefers for me to put it in his mouth using the bucket on a small tractor. This tractor phase is getting ridiculous.

At his two-year appointment, the doctor said he is growing fine, but he is right at the minimum in his ability to speak. SO... At the end of March he'll be starting speech therapy. I think what we learn will be useful for Baby C also, since he seems to be a little behind also.

Here's our ghetto slide, which he and Baby C loved playing with:


Here's Graham at his birthday party. He had so much fun at the farm that weekend, and he did really well at the party, which was a nice surprise.



Here's our house afterward:



He and Baby C got a mudpie maker that they played with for 2 days straight (even without the mudpies).

Here's what the basement looked like after Graham "helped" Will paint his birdhouse last weekend:

Feeders and Toasters

Will took the boys outside to play in the snow this weekend. Here's a shot of Graham after he had just decapitated their snowman:



Here he is eating the stale popcorn that Will had just thrown out for the birds:



Baby C enjoyed his trip outside for a few minutes, and then I think he got cold. He's |this close| to being able to walk more than 4 steps at a time. The problem is that he loves lunging forward and being caught. We haven't figured out how to get him to stop doing that (besides the obvious solution of not catching him anymore).

Gabriella has found her voice and loves to squawk as loud as she can. It almost sounds like she's crying, except for the fact that there's a smile on her face. She's still a good sleeper which makes my job so much easier.

And finally, I got a surprise when I went to make an English muffin today. This turtle magnet was in the bottom of the toaster: