Happy First Birthday, Jonathan!

We love our baby boy!!!! He brings us so much happiness.

He certainly enjoyed his birthday cake. Happy first birthday, little one! :)

First Steps! Kind of... ;)

Jonathan has hit most of his infant milestones "later" than Benjamin did. He started hands&knees crawling at 10 months, Benjamin was everywhere by 7 months, and by 10 months Benjamin had taken his first steps and was on his feet and on his way on his first birthday-- very by-the-book kind of baby. Jonathan has his own timetable, which I actually really appreciate. With Benjamin I found myself watchfully anticipating every new developmental milestone, anxious that he was "on time". Naturally enough, I think, I've been more relaxed with Jonathan, enjoying his babyhood in a different way... just really soaking in every phase rather than awaiting the next one. So, I wasn't too anxious for him to crawl (it was rather nice that he couldn't get too far), until he started getting very frustrated as he developed a desire to keep up with his big brother... and I tired of him army crawling all over the carpet, which you can only keep so clean. So, we were happy when he discovered hands&knees crawling (Jonathan seems to "discover" his new abilities, rather than work on them and develop them). Now he's busybusybusy and getting into everything, but he's been quite a bit happier... till recently. He's become interested in standing up on his own and cruising the furniture and is SO proud, especially when he shakily balances on his feet. He does get very frustrated, though, as he tends to topple quite a bit. So, we showed him how to stand and walk with our little walker toy (which was one of Benjamin's favorites). He's "discovered" he can make the walker move and that just thrills our little guy. He is so excited and happy about his new skill of "almost walking". Sooner than later he'll be running around, really "into everything" and, heaven forbid, teaming up with Benjamin on missions of destruction. Wish me luck. Till then, here's our baby thinking he's the coolest strolling with his push toy. :)

Since last Sunday...

I want to be a better blogger, so I'm going to try to post weekly updates. I like this format, so, yay, let's give it a whirl :). Here's what we've been up to...

HAPPY: Happy Mother's Day! I hope all you awesome moms were totally spoiled on Sunday. I sure was, Dustin made sure of that! He woke up with the boys so I could sleep in and then took care of everything that afternoon (including dinner-- BBQ ribs! MMMMM!!) while I took a two-hour nap! Ah, isn't that what every mother wants on her day? ;) Dustin also treated me with two beautiful Mother's Day gifts (an elegant jewelry set and a gorgeous jewelry box). What a wonderful husband I have! As for the kids, Jonathan took a nap during Church, so thanks for that "gift", baby boy! Benjamin decorated my card and made a candy flower for me in nursery (which he had a hard time giving up, so I shared the chocolate). Besides feeling exceedingly loved and appreciated, I also found myself feeling so... grateful. Grateful for the precious opportunity to be a mother, especially a "stay-at-home" mommy with my amazing, fun little boys. It's very challenging, but, y'know, it's a great blessing, too. I wouldn't have it any other way.

ROUGH: On Monday I took Benjamin to get his blood drawn (he has a peanut allergy and we check in with the allergist each year and he orders a blood test to see if the allergy is technically "better" or "worse" than the year before). We had Benjamin's allergist appointment that morning and I thought it'd work best to just get the blood work over with right away. (To get Benjamin prepped, I told him he was getting a shot in his arm and it would hurt, but it would get better fast. He wasn't too phased, and when we got to the lab, he asked brightly, "Are we at the shot store?" Store? Oh, "getting" a shot... oh dear... how do you prep your little kids for these things?) Well, sparing details, the lab wasn't too kid-friendly and, if you've ever gotten your blood drawn, you know it's not just a pin-prick, but a huge needle stuck in your arm for about 1-2 full minutes-- it was pretty traumatic for my poor little boy (therefore his mommy, too). He flipped when he saw the needle (who can blame him?) and I held down my little terrified son for what seemed like forever while the receptionist held my other screaming son (Benjamin's wailing scared Jonathan, too). Anyways, since McD's makes everything better, I got Benjamin a well-deserved Happy Meal and ice cream cone. Since then, he's been rather proud of his "owie". If this whole trauma wasn't enough, we had our TB test appointment the next day. Benjamin was very nervous about going to the doctor, especially since I wouldn't give him a staight answer about whether he'd get a shot ("No shot, Mommy? I don't want to go to the shot store. Please, no shot." "Ok, we won't go to the shot store........") Jonathan didn't flinch with his TB prick, but it was a minor version of the day before with Benjamin and him flipping out and me holding him down again... thank goodness it didn't last more than a few seconds this time and thank goodness for kid-friendly nurses, fun bandaids, stickers, and tootsie pops.

MUSICAL: Both the boys love to play the piano. Jonathan does his almost-1-year-old "banging" tunes, but Benjamin really seems to actually play. He has pretty good technique, too. We may have a budding Mozart on our hands. ;)



FINISHED: or almost! (with the second year of med school) The last of Dustin's finals are this week. His very LAST CLASS EVER was on Friday!! Hurray!! We're so close to moving on to the next med school milestone. I'm so proud of my hubby!

Well, that's a few highlights of the week, sparing much of the day-to-day typical (some atypical) craziness. We look forward to another week of fulfilling busyness. Hope you have a great week yourself. :)

Visitors!

We've had lots of family visitors the past couple weeks. YEA! I miss my family SO much, it's wonderful when we get to see them.

My sister, Mari, and her husband Josh spent the weekend with us a couple weeks ago. We had a GREAT time together! On Saturday, we went to the Zoo. It was a cloudy, breezy day-- perfect for the zoo! We took a *bunch of pictures and had a fabulous time. Later, my sister, who has a great sense of style and talent for putting together cute outfits and matching accessories (a gift I do not have) took me on a really fun (and very SUCCESSFUL) shopping trip. My wardrobe definitely got its much-needed lift, so now I can dress cute more often than not. ;) Now to do something with my hair... Anyways, we also had a good time hanging out, going out to eat, playing DDR, and playing Settlers. Good times. I was sad to take them to the airport early Monday morning, but I'm so grateful they were able to come, for at least a little while. I'm glad Mari & Josh could see my little family in their element and visit our home. We miss them already.

The blow of departing with Mar & Josh was softened knowing I'd see my mom the following Thursday. HURRAY! I LOVED having her with us! Of course, she totally spoiled my kids (that's what Grammys are for!). My favorite part about her visit was just having her around, hanging out, talking, soaking in my very own mom-time (I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful mom!). We also went on some fun outings. Mom took us out to eat at Chevy's and then to see "Horton Hears a Who" (which was actually really funny! I was skeptical, but it turned out to be very clever and quite amusing). Another day, we went to the Museum for Youth which has a little kids' town area called Artville. Benjamin loved playing around in all the little houses and buildings, everything kid-sized. Jonathan loved the infant play area, especially the *mirrors. He seemed to think his several reflections were other nice babies there to play with him. He was just thrilled by their presence-- it was pretty funny. That night, after kids were in bed we watched Cloverfield (unique and interesting... worth a watch if you can edit out the swearing. ;) ). Another day, Mom bought her and I Mimi's and then we took the boys to McDonalds, which they both enjoyed. Benjamin loves the Playplace, but he climbed up too high and got scared (don't ask me why), so I had to climb up and rescue him... twice. Sheesh. That night, Mom and I went to Coldstone's-- YUM! Luckily, the next day Mom had an evening flight, so we could squeeze in one more day of fun. We went to the park (very pleasant weather!), and then got free ice cream at Ben & Jerry's for their free cone day. More *good times and memories. Mom flew out Tuesday evening. We miss her already, too. It was a great visit. Now it's back to "normal" life. Sigh. I really enjoyed being spoiled with family, but I guess it's good to get back into our routine again (what little I can maintain, anyways).

Quick shout-out: Thanks SO much, Mar, Josh, and Mom, for coming all that way to come see us! We know it wasn't convenient (or cheap, for that matter), but it means so much to us!!! We sure love you!!!!!

PS: The "*" marks a link to more pictures or video clips. You can browse around the albums and check out other pics and movies, too. Enjoy! :)