November

Benjamin quotes:
After bossing Peter around: "Peter doesn't think I make the rules of him, but I do."


Peter just turned 18 months yesterday. He only wants to feed himself now and he is doing much better about eating a variety of foods. This morning he fed himself oatmeal perfectly with his spoon. He is in a very inquisitive stage where he can figure out so many things. He no longer hits and bites regularly. It's a rare occasion and he is fully aware that he isn't supposed to. At the top of the slide he counts "one, two!" and goes down. He enjoys climbing up the couch in our new house and turning on the lights. He also still tries to stick anything in the electrical sockets and enjoys plugging and unplugging anything he can get to. He uses the sound machine for his naps and runs to get it and turn it on when we get to the top of the stairs. He still goes down for his naps without a fuss. I should say nap, because he is mostly down to 1 nap per day. He is usually ready around 11-12, so he's in that awkward transition stage. I'm excited for his nap to be moved to 1 so it will coincide with Benjamin's nap. He copies a lot of words we say and is starting to say more on his own. He has had a cold the last couple days (I'm not ready for winter sicknesses!) so he has been fussy. This morning I took him out of his high chair and he was covered from head to toe in food, snot was running down to his chin and he had a dirty diaper. I took him to the sink and washed him up and then set him down and directed him to go bring me a diaper. I saw him head up the stairs so I figured he was going to get the diaper from his room instead of the downstairs bathroom. Awhile later I heard a water sound from upstairs so I ran up there and found him standing in his pajamas in the bathtub. He had put the drain in and was filling the bath with water! One of my worst fears! I let him play in there awhile before I stripped him down (soaking wet poopy diaper and all) and officially bathed him. I dried him off and let him run off while I cleaned up the mess in the bathroom. I walked into the hall and heard another water sound. I ran into Benjamin's room and Peter was standing on his bed naked and peeing! The whole day went like this... Last disaster was putting garlic oil drops in his ears. He didn't like it very much so on the second ear he flung his arms out and spilled half the bottle on the couch, floor and rug. While I was cleaning up that mess he got my eye makeup remover and dumped half of that on the wood floor. Both of those were very tricky to clean up.
On a positive note, he is so sweet. He still hugs me all the time and kisses me all over. When Benjamin gets up from his nap Peter runs to him and hugs and kisses him too. His favorite thing ever is to call Lamoni on the phone. He talks on and on to him. If Benjamin or I try to talk to him Peter yells Ehh!!! and runs away with the phone. He loudly says "hi hi hi hi hi hiiiiiiii!!!" to Lamoni til Lamoni says hi back, meaning he is giving just Peter attention and then Peter goes off rambling again. I have to chase Peter around the house trying to tell Lamoni anything and if I take the phone from him Peter ends up stomping off to throw himself on the couch and sob until I give the phone back.


Benjamin wakes up soon after we do and is immediately in his imagination land and doesn't leave it until we force him to go to sleep around 10 p.m. still. He had nightmares the first couple weeks in our new house but is fine now. He is such a sweet boy and no longer has any fits (or at least very rarely). He even practices cello happily every day. A couple days ago he played cello for an hour! We spent about a half hour together practicing and then I put on his CD and he played along with it and then did a dance party for Peter. Each practice session ends with a dance party. It is SO hard for Peter to not touch Benjamin's cello during practice. I should just do it during Peter's nap, but if we don't practice right after breakfast it's hard to get it in. Benjamin has been creating things at the table on and off all day. He makes charts and amazing drawings and tapes them up everywhere. He can occupy himself with coloring material, scissors and tape for hours. It's amazing.

I was helping Benjamin write his Christmas list to Santa. I was expecting a long list of superhero paraphernalia. This is the letter he dictated to me: "Dear Santa, Thank you so much for my presents. The little tree is mine and Peter's. Could you please give Peter a teddy? I'm so grateful for my presents. Thank you." The letter includes a map so Santa can find him. 

It's so sweet how much the boys love each other. Whenever they wake up from naps they run and give a long hug to each other. When Peter nurses Benjamin lies on his lap and Peter strokes his head the whole time. They are so good to each other.

The big event in November was moving! We have been holding out to buy a house in the Vista del Norte area and it finally worked out. We got a beautiful house that is over twice the size of our last one. We were all so sad to leave out old house, though. We loved it. Here are some pictures when we left:

Our new house. I need to take pictures of the inside still. It's in a really nice new-ish subdivision, which is really hard to find in Albuquerque without going to the suburbs. We can still get anywhere in the city in 15 minutes with our location. 

Peter plays on the big kid playground at parks. He goes down slides of any size all on his own. He is so brave.

Dinner at my parents' house every Sunday.

Family movie night with popcorn. Look at the boys cuddling.

 

We turned around to see them holding hands in the car.

Occupying Peter during cello classes on Saturday. His finger is normally in his nose.

Our tree looks so small in the new house with 2 story vaulted ceilings. Lamoni is great at putting up lights!

We gave Benjamin his own tree to decorate. When I told Benjamin we needed to write a letter to Santa, this is what he dictated to me:

Dear Santa, Thank you so much for my presents. The little tree is mine and Peter's. Could you please give Peter a teddy? I'm so grateful for my presents. Thank you." The letter includes a map so Santa can find him. 

We picked Jared up on Wednesday night then drove to Bloomfield for Thanksgiving. 

When we came back we picked up Uriah because Faith and Jason were in the middle of moving.

We fit 4 car seats in our SUV!

By Friday night we had 7 kids at our house!

Benjamin practicing for the boys. He can play all the twinkle variations, French Folk Song and Lightly Row now.

Each practice session ends with a dance party for Peter.

Peter LOVES the play areas at the mall.

Saying family prayer.

Grandma reading books to Benjamin while we were busy. Lamoni was impressed with her cat noise sounds.

Lamoni sent me this picture while he was trying to pick out a purse for me. I thought it was adorable.

October

Peter is 17 months old. He copies us on everything and has been talking nonstop. He jabbers and jabbers in a conversational tone. Everyone who hears him comments on it. Just today the new words he learned are: choo-choo, Papa and Ok. He can mimic so many things we say and do and understands us well. I was changing his diaper the other day and told him that after we move to our new house we will take out a special red toilet for him and he can sit on it like a big boy. He listened to everything I said and nodded understandingly. As I went to put his diaper on he fought it, which was unusual. I put it on him anyway, because I was in a hurry. After I put him down he ran to the toilet and pointed to it! I stuck him on it with his clothes on and he was satisfied enough.
Peter had his first dentist appointment. Luckily he loves brushing his teeth so he was fine with the hygienist looking in his mouth (mostly he just sucked the toothpaste off the tool). However, when the dentist came he didn't have the bribe of brushing his teeth so Peter just hid his head. During my exam he nursed and then got down, emptied out my diaper bag and crushed gold fish over the entire office floor. 

Between Halloween, Benjamin's birthday, and a road trip, there are quite a few pictures from October!

Totally fearless on the tramp at Charity's house. He will jump on it with older kids and squeals with delight when he gets bounced too high that he falls down. Sometimes I wish he had a little more fear to help keep him safe.

These pictures sum up Benjamin and Peter. Peter wants to be down and moving all the time. Benjamin thinks he will die if he has to walk into a store without a stroller or being carried. He goes to any extent possible to not have to walk and Peter will do anything he can *to* walk.

After voting. None of our candidates won. Haha.

Talking to the animals at Petsmart.

Benjamin used to not be a climber but he has been making up for lost time.

Benjamin turned 4 and we threw him a big party at A Park Above. By big party I mean big. I don't know what I was thinking. There were 80 people there (including kids and siblings)!! Wow. You think I would have learned my lesson, but I guarantee you I will make the same mistake again. 

It was a superhero party and we invited the kids to come in costumes.

Opening presents. Bampa happened to be in town and Mariah and Dentin won the award for driving the furthest.

Peter loves Joy. And Bubbles.

 
 
Watch the progression of these pictures...

This is what you do when your parents still won't buy a TV. 

The weekend of Benjamin's actual birthday we made the trek to Michigan for our early Free Enterprise Celebration. We debated taking or leaving the boys and are glad we took them. They both do so incredibly well in the car. It was 24 hours both ways!

On a bus to tour Amway headquarters.

Wrestling pictures:

Loving pictures:

Halloween! 

Charity and Jarrett had a bunch of people over for a chili dinner and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Their new house is in a perfect area for it.

Benjamin was beyond excited for trick-or-treating. When we were actually going door to door, he said, "When are we going to go trick-or-treating?" I told him we were and he replied "No we're not! We're just going door-to-door getting candy."

Look at this cute little monkey! He picked out his own costume. I was at the store and picked this up to see what size it was. He grabbed it from me and hugged it like a stuffed animal (it is very soft). He didn't want to let go, so I figured he might as well be a monkey. When I got home and unpacked our Halloween box, I saw that the only costume that we own is a monkey costume in the same size that someone gave us last year! What a coincidence. I still kept the one Peter chose because it had a hood and was so soft.

Grace tagged along with a bucket to see if she could get away with getting candy. She did. 

The spoils. They had a bunch of candy the night of and the few days following, but I keep the candy buckets up in the pantry where they don't see them and they are still there with candy in them! I was hoping they would forget  about them and they did.

The boys played nicely in the nursery all alone while I did setup for the Fall Festival dinner that the primary was in charge of. I don't have many pictures of the dinner and carnival because I was running around the whole time, but here's one of Benjamin's face painting by Bampa. Mel and Melinda showed up at the end of it to come visit. 

Peter is always so reverent for prayer.

 

Flash - Lamoni is quite the artist.