A Tale of Two Cuties

I have been forgetting to record the story of the boys' youth, which was the whole purpose of this darn blog, so here is the blog equivalent of a dissertation to make up for that.

Carter is now a little over two and he is currently into flower picking. Luckily, he picks the tiny weed flowers that have popped up all over our lawn so everybody wins. He spends his days playing with his garbage trucks, dump trucks and riding around in his car, which he now calls a pickup truck. He always asks Gabriel to ride in the backseat so they can go "grocery shopping." I pick Gabe up and put him on the back drink holders of the car, and Carter and he ride off. He loves it when he gets out of that car, and I say, "Oh shucks! I wanted to ride some more." If I forget to say it, he stands there and commands me, "Say Oh shucks!" He goes and usually buys grapes and ice cream and then brings them back to us to sample. He's pretty much into anything that goes. He and daddy go to the airport to watch the planes take off and land. Along the way, they stop and look for all types of trucks, trains and railroad tracks. He always likes to tell us whether a plane is taking off or landing when he sees them in the sky.

Carter also plays a lot with his kitchen. He plays restaurant and serves us all his plastic food. He enjoys slicing his velcro fruit with his "sharp knife." Lately, he has been serving his racoon, and Tigger Tiger "milk" by lifting up his shirt, putting two of his Lovey Dog blankets across his chest and sticking the racoon and Tigger Tiger under the blankets. Sometimes he puts them on his belly button and gives them milk from there too. He also likes to stuff racoon into his shirt and say he has a baby in his tummy like mommy. Everyone in our family has been accused of having a baby in their tummy at one point.

He has really taken to singing, and is remembering more and more details/lines of songs. He has a galloping-like dance move that he does whenever music is playing. He has wonderful ears and always likes to ask, "Was dat noise?" whenever he hears a sound. He used to do a quick look to the right and then to the left every time he asked that question which was so cute, but that has sadly disappeared. He's growing up so quickly :(

He is becoming easier to feed because now he requests certain food favorites and I can say, "eat your ______first and then you can have _____." He's still very finicky and we still have to use our thinking skills to figure out how to get him to consume the most nutritious food before he demands his old standby, milk. Last night he only ate his meat pie with cherry jelly on top of it. Today, he didn't want his oatmeal, so I cut a grape in half to make two green eyes, made a nose with a banana, and a mouth with a nectarine slice and presented the oatmeal to him calling it, "Oatmeal Carter." He seemed to appreciate the gesture, and he did eat most of it.

He is getting much better at sharing with Gabriel. He still says things are "his" but if you tell him that it's Gabriel's turn, he usually assents. He is very fascinated with his brother and always likes to have him around. Now, whenever I do something fun to Carter, such as giving him a ride, he promptly tells me, "Now it's Gabwiel's turn." He loves watching Gabriel's reactions.

Gabriel is doing great as well. He is almost six months. He doesn't wake as often in the night. He still spits up, which is annoying because you just have to expect that when he goes down on his tummy, you will have to clean something up. A bib is obligatory, and I go to work with a puke stained shirt every morning. But he is definitely more rotund than Carter, so I am not at all worried about it affecting his weight gain.

His current goal is to become mobile and talk like his big brother. He has started scooting himself backwards, and today I noticed him lifting himself up in the plank position which is what Carter did right before he started crawling, so maybe he'll crawl soon. He, like Carter, loves to go after the little fish that rattles from the Lamaze fishbowl sea creature set. I don't know what it is about that fish, but he's some kind of wizard. Both my boys were very drawn to him. He is getting better at sitting up on his own. I just make sure his periphery is clear and padded so when he inevitably tips over, he is not hurt.

Gabe is babbling and spitting a lot. He is a little more tempermental than Carter was. Carter was pretty even-keeled and serious in front of strangers. He almost never got scared of them. He would stare at them seriously and it would take a little doing to get him to crack a smile. Gabe is either a complete charmer and smiles easily front of strangers, or he bursts into shrieks of terror depending on his mood.

He loves to hear pattycake, Peek-a-boo, Georgie Porgie, Ba Ba Black Sheep and Row Row Row your boat. He, like Carter, is mesmerized by his father and the other day just burst into tears when Daddy left the room. Carter didn't have a lot of separation anxiety so this was a complete surprise for us to experience.

I could keep on writing since everything they do is interesting to me, but I feel like my fingers have had enough, and I have an opportunity for a nap, so I will end it with that. More to come though, so stay tuned :)