Sometimes I feel like I'm talking about the family dog or cat instead of our boys. For instance, yesterday I was changing Ephraim's diaper when I realized that I was out of diapers and I needed to open a new box. So while I was trying to get the box open with our keys and tearing the tape away, "His Nakedness" made an escape into the kitchen crawling past Nathan who had his hands tied up with something. Then I heard Nathan yelling "He's peeing on our shoes!" I hurried over to find Ephraim smiling with those big eyes and sitting in a puddle next to our shoes with his very own signature mark soaking in. It took me back to another time when I heard Nathan yell "He peed on our rug!" referring to Benny while we were preparing him for a shower. Other times it will be "He's chewing on Benny's shoes!" or "He's gotten into the garbage again." or "He's digging up the garden." Maybe someday when we say these phrases, we'll actually be referring to our dog but for now, we're talking about our boys. Gotta love em!!!

This morning, I lay pleasantly in bed when I became aware of a small voice. It said "mom, it's time to wake up". I cracked my eye open to see Benny standing by our bed casually chewing on a folded up pancake. Sometimes he'll skip coming to me in the morning and just go straight to Oma and get some breakfast before he comes over and gets breakfast from me. So in a way, he's like a hobbit having first breakfast and then second breakfast. I moaned and shut my eyes again. Then he repeated a little more sternly but still patiently, "Mom, it's time to wake up". Talk about role reversal. Who's ordering who here. He had to repeat himself one more time before I got up.
Of course Ephraim is already awake and waiting to be lifted out of his pen and Benny promptly reminds me that I must do this by pointing to Ephraim and saying "Baby awake". After changing the boys and dressing them, I head over to the kitchen to make them a smoothie. Ephraim loves them and so does Benny and its the only way to make Ephraim eat his veggies. I let Benny help me by lifting him on the counter and letting him drop in certain fruits into the blender. Meanwhile Ephraim is getting very impatient and I hear gagging noises. I look down to see him rummaging through our garbage with an orange peel in his hand and multiple orange peel chunks in his mouth. And there it is, the start to another beautiful day.

mowing away






































sipping a smoothie




















"Look what we found rustling around in the cucumber bed ma"

It's late and I know I should be going to bed but its been nagging me to record some of these times in our lives right now. Especially with our boys who are growing so fast. Benny can say so many things right now that every once in a while the reality of it sinks in and I'm surprised. Like a couple of days ago while I was cleaning, he walked up to me and asked me what I was doing, all casual like. For some reason that took me back. He's asking me questions now! He also has quite an imagination too. Lately he likes to pretend he's a shark or a dinosaur and then cuddle with me. Then he likes to go through family members and establish who is a big shark and who is a little shark. He'll say "Mommy big shark" and I'll agree with him and then he'll say "Ephraim little shark" and I'll agree and then he'll go down the list from Oma, Opa, Grammy, Grandpa, Daddy, Cody, Joseph, Jillian, and all his cousins who live next door and more. The funny thing about this little ritual is that he only likes to do it in the morning when I'm changing his night diaper and he's either all naked except a diaper or half naked with his diaper. Then he gets all cuddly and just wants me to hold him and rock him and he'll even tell me to sing to him "rock-a-bye-baby". If he's a shark that morning I'll sing him "rock-a-bye-shark" which is weird because I don't really like that song and I didn't sing that to him a lot when he was little because I don't get the words with the baby falling from a tree and such. I think its a depressing song. I always sang him the "when I was just a little girl" song when he was little because the words are so cute but now when I try and sing it he tells me to stop. figures, right. Anyways, when I get his clothes on, the magic stops and he doesn't want to cuddle, he just wants to go. He's a funny little guy. He's way into mowing these days. He has a toy that isn't a mower but it resembles one so he takes that out every day and mows the grass while his brother eats grass and dirt.
Speaking of Ephraim eating grass, it reminds me of a little Easter gathering we went to a couple of weeks ago. This family in the ward invited members of the ward to come to their house for an Easter egg hunt for the kids. While we were there, Ephraim was having a grand old time crawling in their nice big lawn. He was sitting under a picnic table chewing on some grass and I was thinking "good, he's not crying or trying to pull things off the table and he's even in the shade under there" (because he has really sensitive skin, gets sun burnt easily) Then a woman nearby said "who's kid is that?" and I said "mine" and she said "He's chewing on grass" like it was a bad thing and I needed to move him. So I got up and picked him up and took the grass out of his hand but in my head I was like "Are you kidding!!Grass is a good thing, I'm just glad its not rocks or mushrooms or slugs (yes, i found a small slug in his mouth)". I'm not telling this because I was mad or anything at the woman, I just thought it was funny because sometimes I wonder if mothers of grown kids forget what little kids do like eat grass, or bugs, play in the mud, get really dirty, do some weird and gross things sometimes, etc. Or maybe other moms don't come across those types of things. I don't know. Just makes you wonder. I probably will forget how crazy kids can be when I'm old too. Who knows, but I know for sure that I'm crazy about my two crazy boys and I won't forget that.