Our boys-the twinners

I’m a sucker for matching siblings. No, not an all the time kind of thing, but when our boys match, I love it! Put them in matching jammies and I’m melting-too. cute! We were playing in the boys’ rooms this morning, and here’s how it went.

“Momma, do you know where Jack is?” “Oh, here he is.” “Wait, there he goes. Oh, here he is again. I’m gonna get him!”We moved into Jack’s room, and they were back at it!I begged for some sweet faces looking my direction, so they took a break from wrestling. And sweet faces, I got! Look how hard Jack was trying for me! Thank you, buddy! He even posed. “Mommy, I want Sam to sit in my lap, like dis.” There he is, looking at his brother with that proud smile again. Be still my heart. And then he swooped in for that necessary snuggle that looking at Sam for any length of time will evoke from anyone! I can just hear Jack saying, "Dats my brudder!" These boys of ours-oh, how I love them so!

Our little magician

The boys and I made a Target run today, and Jack came out a magician!  It was a close call, though.  He chose between a construction hat and a magic trick.  He’s a quick study-take a look! And don’t miss the bow tie-ha!:)

And what magician doesn’t sleep with his magic wand?  When I checked on him (and kissed those sweet cheeks!), he was holding his wand just perfectly-I had to take a picture!

Ten Months Old

Really? I mean, that’s not even funny. Sam, you’re ten months old, sweet one! If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times-you are such a happy boy! You go with the flow and smile along the way!The only time you fuss is if it’s time to eat and I’m not moving fast enough. If you see your food, you want me to hurry, hurry, hurry! I’ve learned my lesson, though, and give you some cheerios or cheese while I cut up your food (into teeny, tiny pieces because I’m still paranoid), so you don’t fuss much at all.And buddy, do you love your food! Other than some fruit, there really isn’t anything I’ve found that you don’t like. You’ve started doing this really big smile-so-big-so-that-your-cheeks-take-over-your-eyes smile when I put something on your tray as if to say ‘thank you’. It’s the sweetest thing and makes me smile so big right back-every time. So what’s new with you? You have four teeth now-your bottom two middle ones and the one to the left of them and one lonely top tooth. Not either of the center two, though. You crawl on all fours now, and I love it! I love your army crawl, too, and I need to get both on video. You pull up on anything and everything, but you’re not cruising just yet. Your favorite game is peek-a-boo, and you laugh the cutest laugh every time!You say mama all the time now, along with dada, and I love it! The best new word you’ve learned, though-Jack! Yep, your brother’s name was your first real word! I hope you always think he’s a pretty cool guy and I hope he always treats you like the awesome little brother that you are! You say bye-bye, too, and you wave. Love it!

Go Sammy, go Sammy!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hilarious-just hilarious!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Our boys-I just love ‘em. And the big one, he’s hilarious right now! I wish I could video him for a full day to catch all his funny mannerisms, the way he makes sense of things, his new jokes, the big words he uses that I didn’t even know he knew, the way he loves his brother and us-you know, the precious two-and-a-half year old that we think he is. Of course we’d see him disobeying and not always sharing, too, but his good far outweighs his not so good! Just before supper, we headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.Jack’s imagination started going wild! He was telling stories about castles and dragons and then he’d tell me he had a deal for me but he had to get the squirrels away first. He said, “Don’t worry mommy, I’ll protect you. They’re neeeeever gonna get you!” and then he’d describe how the squirrels “raaan away, up in the tree and they’re so high. Mommy, I needa go get the ladder so I can climb up there, too!”Then he called for his daddy and his best buddy Hane,and really got into character, strutting around telling stories about Mortimer the Bear-a daddy bed-time favorite! I guess I caught him being scared of Mortimer and then Mortimer eating something?!?! Ha! Here’s something that happens all the time that melts my heart-Jack will stop what he’s doing, go love on Sam, and then get right back to it. He just checks on his little man and sometimes brings him a fun toy-like a cup. He knows how to make his brother smile!I’ve been writing down some of the funny/sweet things Jack’s been saying over the last few months, and even though I’m sure they’re a thousand times more wonderful to us than anyone else, here are a few.

Super Sweet
+When I growed up, I gonna be daddy!
+I just gonna run to my daddy as fast as I can and hug him!
+Dear God, Thank you for my daddy, and mommy, and Sam, and Jack, and my green beans, and my sausage, and my cheese, and my milk, and my plate, and my…(when he prays before a meal, he thanks God for our family first and then he goes through everything that is in front of him. I love it!)
+Yes/No sir/ma’am. Please. Thank you. Your welcome. May I be excused? (He still has to be reminded a lot of the time to use his manners, but I love catching him doing it on his own!)
+My best buddy Hane. Hane-ers. (He almost never refers to him as just Hane.)
+When Mark says I love you to him, he frequently will hold up the "I love you" hand sign, too. It's the cutest thing watching Jack do that back. It's basically a stiff hand on an out-stretched arm with a couple fingers bent some how.Throughout the Day
+Singing “I like to move it, move it”, “Jesus loves me” and “Rise and Shine” (He calls that one ‘his’ song)
+Sam is just exercising! (When he saw Sam in his exersaucer one morning.)
+Hane is my best buddy. I gonna run up and hug him and we’re both gonna laugh!!
+Mommy, I looked ALL OVER for my yellow golf ball, and I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE! (Love the emphasis and the descriptive complete sentence!)
+I do./I don’t need to. (These are his usual responses instead of yes or no.)
+So mommy, whatcha want for dinner?
+I just gonna relax. I need to take privacy. I finished gonna potty, and my work here is done!
+We’re just havin a great time on our boat trip!
+I got-fer get my piggyback! (He says got-fer instead of forgot and piggyback instead of backpack! He’s not saying piggyback as much now, but he still says got-fer. It’s just too cute to correct right now! Is that bad?!)
At bed time
+I wanna do the one with Mortimer and Salazar in the woods with the computer and the pizza man, I wanna do that one. (First of all, his daddy comes up with super fun characters for super fun stories, and then when Jack picks the ones he wants, he basically tells the whole story and then wants us to tell it back to him.)
+When it’s time for me to leave at bed time, I’ll give him a two minute and then a one minute warning to let him know it’s coming. The other night I told him I had two minutes left and he said, “Yay, I know.” Ha!
+Mommy, don’t go anywhere! You have to watch me get my energy! (When it’s time for me to leave at bed time.)
+Don’t worry, I’ll scoot! (when I told him I had to go to my bed because there wasn’t enough room for me in his.)I could go on and on. This boy is hilarious, I’m tellin ya! And I love him to the moon! Oh, when I tell him that, EVERY TIME he says, “but I’ll fall off the moon.” and I always tell him that I’ll catch him, no matter what. I mean it, buddy. I love you!

Fox Tree Farm

Friday, October 14, 2011

Jack had his first field trip today, which also meant his first bus ride.  What?!  Yeah, there’s no way I was missing that!  We got on the ‘big yellow school bus’, buckled all the kids in, and were on our way.  They were all so excited-I think all 13 of them were squealing!  And their excitement was contagious.  I had the biggest smile on my face as I sat next to my big boy experiencing another first with him.When we got there, they all had a chance to sit on a horse, Jack wasn’t interested but Grace was!, and then we we on a hay ride. They played on the playground,played on the tractor, and then we took some fun pretend-to-be-whatever-is-painted-on the display pictures.  He and Hane didn’t understand that you just need to put your head up to the hole, so we got chest up shots! And then we struggled a bit getting out.But he figured it out! Of course the farm had plenty of animals roaming around, so next, we headed their direction. The donkey, sheep, and llama were mingling with the kids, and it was their lunch time.  Jack wasn’t sure at first, but then he decided to feed the llama.  He loves those books-I wonder if he thought he and the llama were friends?! Our last stop was the big hay pile.  There were pumpkins hidden inside, so the kids got to dig through the hay to find one to take home.We washed 13 little sets of hands and then headed back to the bus for some water and the trip back to school. (random black and white photo, I know.  It’s terribly overexposed-this was the only way I could save it, and I thought it was too cute to delete!)

It was such a great trip for the kids, and I’m so thankful I was able to be with my boy.  I look forward to many more field trips with our sweet babies!

So, does he look like me?

Everyone, even perfect strangers, comments on how much Sam looks like me.  Clearly I’m missing it, because I’m not quite sure who either of the boys looks like.  I compared Jack and me as babies, so I thought I’d do the same with Sam.  Looking at these, he favors my baby pictures more than Jack did.  What do you think? And here we all are in our family baptismal gown.  Love, love this gown.  Made with love by my great-grandma Woudenburg in 1950 (right grandma/mom?) and worn by three generations of Betty and Robert Wiersma children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.