Cousin Fun

We just got back from a really fun trip to London, Ontario, about 2 hours outside of Toronto. Edwin's cousins, Pablo and Ceci both live there for the time being with their families and we flew out to spend a week with them. We all had a great time, but Liam was in heaven! The whole week before we left he talked about his "cousins" non-stop. I don't know if he knew exactly what he was in for, but he enjoyed every minute. The traveling there and back was a real bear with Jonah, but it was well worth it!

We stayed with Pablo, his wife, Mady, their son Alek (who is three days older than Liam) and daughter, Mia (5 months older than Jonah). It was a packed house, but full of fun. Ceci and her husband, Julio, also have 2 boys, Sebastian, 5 and Julian 2. The boys played really well together which left a surprising amount of time for us to enjoy the adults. We REALLY miss them and are hoping they might find themselves in Vancouver, BC soon (Edwin and I have been working on importing as many family members to this area as possible over the last several years and our efforts have not gone void!). Liam and Alek really have fun together and Sebastian was incredibly loving and sweet to all the younger kids as well. They are all so different and it was really fun to see their unique personalities. We didn't get a ton of must see video, so I put together a quick on of Liam and Alek having fun and also a slide show of our time down there. (Don't forget that you have the option to watch them full screen)

In other news, the boys continue to change at the speed of light. Liam's communication capabilities are off the charts! He never stops talking and what he has to say is so adult sometimes. I think Edwin's cousins got a kick out of Mr. Chatty. You have to spend more than a few hours with Liam for him to warm up, but once you do you cannot get him to be quiet, so most people don't believe me when I tell them he talks...A LOT. Here are a few of his recently acquired sayings:

In answer to anyone asking him to do something he doesn't want to do, "Not today," or "I don't think so."

When really wanting someone to listen to him, "Do you understand?"

"Mommy turn the music down, I'm talking to you!"

When talking about things he knows he'll finish his sentence with, "Did you know?"

Jonah is on the move and he never stops moving! He will try anything and has NO sense of risk! He has gotten to be quite the trouble maker, but he is so stinking cute! He has started to stand up on his own in the middle of the floor and has pretty good control when walking with any kind assistance. I am pretty sure he is on the verge of walking and that TERRIFIES me! I have no doubt that he will run just moments after he figures out how to walk and our lives will be high energy ALL the time! I can't take my eyes off of him for even a second as it is. Below is video of proof!

The Monthly

I think I may rename my blog to something like "The Monthly". It seems like every time I write a post I am apologizing for the time that has passed since the last post! I guess thats what having two kids means for me, less time to post. So I'll just continue to cram tons of random stuff into one and maybe someday I'll get more consistent!

June FLEW by! I cannot believe it. And I think the rest of the summer is going to fly as well, since we have a lot of fun stuff coming up. The best thing about this last month is how much time we got outside despite the weather. I suppose it's all relative. I mean, I know the weather this last month was disappointing, but it was A LOT better then the month before it. So, that's something to be thankful for, right?

Here are a slideshow and a video of some of what we've been up to. I'll let them speak for themselves! And just as a reminder (for those of you who don't spend a lot of time on the internet) You have to click the title of the blog post in your email to see the media and if you want to see either of these full screen just look for the button on the bottom right that looks like four arrows all pointing outward ;)

How are you doing last night?

Welcome, June. Please don't rain all month. We really need some sunshine! It felt like a really long May. The few days that the kids and I were able to get outside were so blessed. But the rain always came back and it starting to get a little oppressive! So I don't have a whole lot of fun pictures and video, I think we just hunkered down and tried to survive the last few weeks. But here is a little glimpse of what we've been up to.

We headed out to Edwin's family's place in Birch Bay a couple weeks ago and got to do some kayaking. I think Liam had more fun thinking about it and getting ready to go do it than he actually had in the kayak. But we had a good time none the less.

Jonah is still very adventurous. He is ALWAYS finding something to get into, or some way to get in trouble. He's creative, fast and won't take "no" for an answer! Here I was cleaning out his little drawers and he had some ideas of his own...

And he's always super happy after bath time.

Liam continues to change at the speed of light as well. His vocabulary has sky rocketed. My favorite is when he uses new phrases that he has learned but doesn't quite get them right. Like "how are you doing last night?" and when he is heading upstairs from the shop he says, "I'll be right back down stairs!" He still loves letters and counting and isn't very into things like his bike or motorized tractor. He's also in a phase where he doesn't entertain himself very well. He spends most of his time following me around and if I'm not paying attention to him he gets naughty! But he is sweet and very helpful and funny and so very cute!

Aww... brothers. If only they acted like this all the time! Jonah loves to be anywhere that Liam is and follows him around the house. But he is also very bad about trying to get into whatever Liam is doing. Liam doesn't show a ton of love to Jonah, but we're working on it and praying about it. He is just recently starting to get that Jonah can be fun, especially when there's nothing else to do. But the toy thieving and aggressiveness is a little frustrating.

This is Liam and his buddy Merritt at the Ski to Sea Parade. They loved it!

Forced to pose for a picture, but Liam was really patient and did his best to hold Jonah up!

With Grandma and Grandpa

And Mommy and Daddy

Jonah Jokes

Jonah has the funniest little laugh and the one person who can make him laugh the hardest is his big brother, Liam.

(reminder - the videos don't show up in the email you get so you have to click on the title of the blog to watch it on the blog itself.)

Semana Santa

We just got back from a trip to Guatemala for Easter week. It was a long trip down and back but our time there was wonderful! Liam hasn't been to Guate since he was 5 months old and this was Jonah's first time there and meeting a lot of the family. Usually when we go down we spend a lot of time working and driving, so it was really fun for me to get to stay in the city and spend the whole time with family. We had some kind of family fiesta every day and I think I ate enough food to hibernate the rest of the year! Oh well, back to the gym tomorrow.

Liam and Jonah had a great time. Liam got to play every day with his cousins and there were a ton of things planned for them to do. The communication was definitely somewhat of a barrier, as was the fact that he's so tall! None of his older cousins could figure out why he seemed so behind since he's the same size as them. But they all have a least a couple of years on him! And Jonah was just...well, Jonah. He's everyone's friend. He'll go to anyone and he smiles all of the time. You can't help but want to have him around!

We didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked with Edwin's parents due to some unfortunate circumstances, but hopefully we'll get to see them again soon. We did get to spend quite a bit of time with Edwin's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids, so all in all it was a very precious time.

Here is a slide show followed by a video of our time down there. Remember, if you want to see it full screen you can just click the box in the lower right had corner that has arrows pointing outward. Enjoy!

The Toy Bin Trend

Jonah is getting more and more active by the day! And as is true with ALL kids the toy bin continues to be a huge hit. It didn't take long for us to get some video showing Jonah's enthusiasm similar to Liam's when he was that age.

And here is a picture of my little cutie playing in the clean laundry.

Keeping up!

Well, February and into March was a wild ride! We started to potty train Liam on the 11th of Feb. We did the 3 day potty training method and I am happy to tell you it only took Liam 3 1/2 weeks! Oh, it was awful. Edwin left for Guatemala just a few days after we started, so it was just me and there were many times when I would have liked to throw in the towel. But the day after Edwin got back it finally just clicked and we haven't had an accident for a week!

This trip for Edwin to Guatemala was my hardest yet. It seemed like everything that could go bad went bad. Colds, stomach flu, broken appliances, migraines, teething, weather, potty training rebellion, terrible twos, no sleep...I could go on. I was physically and emotionally spent most of the time that he was gone, but we are all doing a ton better now that he's back. And we did have some fun times while he was gone.

Liam now likes to do EVERYTHING himself. Commence instant meltdown if you try to do something for him that he wants to do. But it has its good sides too. He now likes to do things like "help" with the dishes.

For half the time Edwin was gone I went to my parent's house in Spokane for some help. I am so grateful for all the energy the put into the three of us! It was really a relief. And they had a lot of snow, which Liam loved. He doesn't really need to play in it, he just wants to eat it. But he humored Grandpa long enough to help build a snowman.

I love it when I go check on him and he is sleeping in some strange position. He is using the giant Tweety bird at my parents house as a pillow.

Jonah decided to do all of his growing up while daddy was gone. He is now just 7 months old and he cut two new teeth, went from rolling to swimming to crawling across the room, started sitting in a high chair and eating some foods on his own, started sitting up and saying Mama. Now he is starting to pull up to standing a little bit. He's a little daredevil too. He's getting into and trying everything which makes for several bumps and bruises. And he's still the life of the party. He is always smiling, and chatting and giggling. I catch him laughing at himself a lot! I love that about him. And the best part about him is that he is still a fabulous snuggler. Poor little guy, though, gets left on the floor to fend for himself a lot in this busy house. I fight the guilt that I'm not doing as much with him as I did with Liam. I need to read books with him more, sing songs and play games with him more. Liam tends to suck up a lot of the time I have to do those things!

Here is the little guy crawling through the exersaucer.

And here is a little video of my funny baby...