Long Past Due

I have been having blogger's block, if there is such a thing. Every single day I think to myself, "I really need to blog because I'm getting so far behind on pictures and videos" and then just don't do it and then wish I would have. I've been saving up a bunch of updates on both kids that I just haven't been motivated to actually put them into a blog. Well, tonight's the night.

Life has just felt so busy lately and both kids have reached some huge milestones and also have done a ton of little things that I really don't want to forget so, here we go.

Emerson turns one year old in two days (I'll blog more about her with pics and videos then) and I can't believe it. Seriously CAN NOT believe it. This has been the fastest year of my life, by far. I guess time flies when you are taking care of two monkeys day in and day out. Emerson has made our life crazy and joyful, exhausting and fun, loud and hilarious, busy and packed full of love. She and Zane have an interesting relationship. She adores him, copies him, and thinks he's the funniest. They also have gotten a little better (slowly but surely) at playing together and sharing.

Lately, Emerson:
*walks everywhere...within a few days of starting, she's already a walking maniac basically running
*loves reading...she grabs books and brings them to us and then crawls in our lap
*uses sign language all the time to tell us what she's thinking and can add two together to make a "sentence."
*says, "mooo" when she sees most animals
*tackles us (including Zane) and wrestles with us


The big news on Zane is that he got rid of his pacifier a couple of weeks ago. He found out his friend had traded hers for a toy and he thought that sounded like a good idea, so the minute he mentioned that he wanted to throw his away and get a new toy instead, we jumped on the chance. He was happy and excited about it and gathered them all up (or so we thought) and threw them straight in the trash while talking about how he was a big boy. Meanwhile, Zack and I were both crying like babies....literally. I couldn't believe how it hit me so hard that my sweet boy was growing out of his comfort item that he has had since he was born. At least he still has his "boppies." So, we got him Hungry Hungry Hippos to replace his pacifiers and he seriously didn't have any trouble falling asleep without it or didn't complain.

But the next day, he said, "Mommy, I wish it were Christmas because maybe Santa would bring me a new bababa (his pacifier)." Then, 3 times during the next two or three days after that, when I got him up in the morning or from a nap, he had a pacifier in his mouth! He had them hidden in his room and had remembered where they were and gotten them out during his naps! One time he even said, "Look, I found a bababa. It's my lucky day!" So, I think we finally found all of them. Basically, it all happened without a hitch. :)

Also lately, Zane:
*loves playing games. When we play "Hi Ho Cherry-o," he sings "The Farmer in the Dell" and says, "The cow takes the wipes."
*asks Emmy questions all the time and answers for her in a high voice. The other day he told us he loves Jesus. We asked him if he thought Emmy loved Jesus too and he said, "Hmmm, let me check. Emmy, do you like Jesus?" and then in his silly high voice said, "Yes!," and then he said to us, "Yes, she said she does."
*Knows and recognizes titles of books. When he gets his book orders from school, he can name tons of books by name. He also constantly makes connections between different stories, even if he's only heard them once, or acts like characters from books.
*reads "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and other books all by himself.
*asked us the other day, "Is Shrek gonna be at church on Sunday? Just the picture I mean," because our church has a huge painting of him for our sermons right now.
*tells us what Emmy dreamed about
*argues with me a lot on things...when did he all of a sudden become a mini adult? He swears that Ronald Mcdonald is Old McDonald and he argues grammar with me, like past tense verbs...he'll be saying flied instead of flew and won't believe me when I correct him. :)
*finishes sentences sometimes with "my friend" and starts sentences with "Well..." or "So..." and says, "OOOOHHHHH" in a high pitched voice all the time.
*sings songs in different genres by changing the tune or tempo of his favorites.
*has a little Cabbage Patch kid that he calls and treats like his baby brother.
*has started telling white lies...he told me that his dad let chew gum when I wasn't with him (totally not true), tells us he has to go poop in potty to get out of bed, etc.
*gets shy when people talk to him sometimes and when Zack's holding him and someone tries to ask him a question, he kisses Zack's cheek instead of answering in response to every question.
*is pushing limits with us, wants to do EVERYTHING by himself, and has been ignoring us sometimes when we ask him to do things...I have a feeling 3's are going to be more challenging than twos.

Sorry, I know this is a lot at once...I need to be better about writing small updates every now and then instead of huge ones so spread out.

The bottom line is I love my two sweet babies and don't want to forget all these priceless things about them!