Ephelant

No, that's not a typo. It's what my dyslexic toddlers call Elephants. Ben is especially fond of his stuffed "Ephelant" who we call Mr. Peanuts. A couple weeks before his 2nd birthday, Ben had a vocab explosion. The first full sentence I remember him saying was "I see a plane" while looking out the window. The other night before bed, Dave and I were asking him about his day and we couldn't believe it when he said, "I watch monsters on TV." He was telling us about watching the Monsters Inc. movie. :) I think Luke's vocabulary is probably just as good as Ben's, but you notice it more with Ben because he is such a chatterbox. He's always commentating! The best is when you catch a conversation the two boys are having between themselves. Half of the time I don't understand what they're saying but they don't seem to have any trouble understanding what the other one is saying.

Today Ben was running around on the wood floor and tripped a little. He turned around and pointed to the floor saying, "Sippery." It always makes me laugh when the boys try to reverse our roles and reprimand me. If I start talking loudly (sounds better than "yelling"), they put their fingers over their mouths and shush me. "Mom, SHHH!" Or they'll say, "Mom, Me seepin" (i.e. Mom, be quiet because Mary is sleeping) The one that cracks me up the most is when I'm pounding chicken or just hitting a spoon on the edge of a bowl or yogurt container or something and they say, "Mom, gentle!"

We are most certainly in the "I do" stage. I hear that phrase a hundred times a day. Not only are they independent all of the sudden, they're also in charge. Another common phrase is "Mommy get." In other words, "Mom I'm too lazy to go pick up my water bottle, so you can do it for me." Don't worry... I don't usually give in!

We had a "Ben the Builder" construction party for Ben's 2nd birthday while my family was in town. I loved celebrating that little boy. Our house was loud and crazy but I had a lot of fun. Hopefully everyone else did too!

The boys got to celebrate two Christmases this year. One with my family on 16th and then again on the 25th. They were spoiled rotten by so many family and friends. Lots of cars and sports and tools...all things boy!

On the 19th we're planning a birthday party for Luke. Since he loves movies so much we're having a dinner + movie night. I can't count the number of times I hoped and prayed we would have him here by his 3rd birthday. Once again, we have lots to celebrate!!