Smiles, everyone, smiles

I captured a few more Luke smiles. He is smiling a lot these days, which is great. Here he's also waving to his adoring fans:

A more mischievous-looking smile, or possibly a little laugh:

He is also learning to suck his thumb, as he steadfastly refuses to take a binky, spitting it back at me every time I offer it:

He's starting to get pretty good at it, and is producing some serious sucking noises, but that little thumb is just too small to give him much satisfaction yet, so he's having to try to use his whole fist. I realize one day I will rue the day he learned to suck his thumb, but right now I will be so happy if he can learn to soothe himself (as I could use a break from all the soothing!).

Compare and contrast

Here is a picture of Josh in the swing, from around the same age. He was definitely smaller. I'll have to compare the photos side by side to determine their other similarities and differences. Discuss amongst yourselves.

A few of his favorite things

Last Friday at school, Josh decided to do some drumming. Not finding a drum set, he industriously went to the "kitchen" and created one with the saucepans and wooden spoons. Several other kids immediately surfaced and wanted to play his "drums" or join his band, but his teachers protected his creation and let him drum away without interruption. I love to see his mind at work like this.

Although it is also fun to see his mind not at work, as he plays Golden Tee golf with Daddy:



He is so funny when he is being a gamer!
Unfortch, his favorite thing is to hit the ball into water, second favorite is to hit it into sand, so he hasn't quite grasped the regular objective of golf, but he enjoys it tremendously which is all that matters.

Mel's visit

My sister Melanie came to visit us this week. The weather did not cooperate, but she still got in some good bonding time with Luke, and got to attend Josh's class party, even though it was moved from the park to the classroom.



We even got Luke into one of his first real outfits (not just a onesie) due to the coldish weather. It fit better than it appears in this picture.

Got It!

Pay no attention to the sullen-looking 3-year-old on the left. I finally captured a big, pure smile from Luke!

These are the results of today's photo shoot as I continue to try to get a good "brothers" pic for Luke's birth announcement. After this session, I gave up and used the one from the hospital. If something else works out before I approve the proof, I can always change it.

This one is captioned "the first hint of big brother hero worship."

This one was almost really cute, and still kinda cute.

I love my boys! So cute together.

Sammy's haircut

To help Sammy beat the heat, we had him sheared. We were inspired by Krista and Nick's success with Hogan, who I thought looked very cute with his short haircut. We were really surprised by how different Sammy looks without his trademark waves of hair. He has long legs under all that hair! And, he looks like Scout a bit in the face, which I never noticed before. He looks half his age with this new youthful 'do, but it's really weird to see him like this, and it doesn't match his laid back personality. But with 100 degree temps, it's worth it! The hair will grow back, after all.

Before:

After:

Josh was napping when Sammy arrived home from the salon, and first encountered him later when Sammy was eating. Josh exclaimed, "Oh! No doggie, that's Sammy's food. Mommy, look what I found, another doggie!"
He so genuinely did not think it was Sammy, it was so cute. And, he was protecting Sammy's food from this new dog. Such a good companion to our dear Sammy.

Slip and Slide

We've just suffered through a mini-heat wave, with temperatures over 100 degrees. For Portland, that's really hot--most houses (including ours) don't have AC here, so we are not built for these high temps. It was 88 degrees inside our house. So we decamped to the shade and breeze of the back yard during the evening and broke out Josh's new slip and slide. He loved it! And it certainly did the trick for cooling everyone down. We boldly ignored the "not for adult use" caveat on the slide.

Dante and Richard

Our friends Dante and Richard just came for a quick visit. Although both went to Lewis & Clark here in Portland, they now live and work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the science department of an international school. They are getting married in Napa, California next weekend. Although we are (very sadly) unable to make it down there for the wedding, they graciously decided to come to Portland and see us, and meet Lucas, while in the States for their wedding, before returning to KL next month.

When they first arrived, straight from the airport, the first thing I noticed was that they were dressed exactly the same: olive shorts or pants and magenta tops. As I suspected, they had no idea and had not noticed. It was pretty funny.

Dante bonding with Luke:



Richard, Dante, and Luke:


We wish them a beautiful wedding next weekend, a happy marriage, a safe return to KL and a great school year, and happy house hunting (here!!)!

Ready for our close-ups

I love this picture of Josh and me in the park, with his green shirt and the green trees behind us. Not to mention his red face from his hard play.

Luke prefers a blue period. I almost got a full smile, but even this half smile is enough for me.

Brothers

Luke and Josh both went to the doctor today. She was checking Luke's feeding and growth. He has put on 7 ounces from last Friday to this Tuesday. We may be overfeeding him. He has been gassy and colicky, and feeding seems to help, so that's what I do. Now he is growing like a champ. He is 9 pounds, 5 ounces.
Josh was having his 3-year check up. He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. Given how skinny he is, and the difficult time we have finding shorts and pants that will stay up on his lean frame when he runs (and runs and runs), I can't believe 3/4 of the 3-year-olds out there weigh less than him! He has large tonsils, and will probably need to have them removed when he is a little older. Otherwise he was in excellent health and spirits. All good news.

Here are several of my attempts to get a good "brothers" picture:

Aunt Pat's visit

My aunt Pat came to visit us and meet Luke while my parents were also here. She lived up to the "Zoo kid" nickname we gave her when we were kids, for always taking us to the zoo, by taking Josh during her visit. Unfortunately, we saw only 4 exhibits, and rode the train ride through the arboretum (Josh's favorite "zoo" activity), before foul weather sent us home.

Here she is cradling Luke, just as she held me when I was a baby:

Enjoying our new back yard swing with Josh:

Saying goodbye to Luke before heading to the airport:

Dad (PaPa) and Luke:

Mom and Dad and the boys:

Nana and PaPa

(and dad)

A few random pictures

John has begun to introduce Luke to his gymini. Now Josh is trying to crawl in there too, and worse, is trying to get me to get under there with them. I'm in no shape for that kind of contortion!


Here is Josh playing with the new construction vehicles he received as birthday gifts. With his toddler's tongue, it sounds like he is calling them his "destruction" vehicles, which we all find pretty funny, as it is such an accurate description of his style of play.


I just love how Luke is putting his little hands up to his face to sleep now.

Birthday party

Josh had his birthday party at an inflatables arena called JJ Jump. He calls it the "jumping playground." We have been a few times, just the two of us, and this was the first time he got to enjoy it with friends. They were so cute. We all loved seeing all these little boys climbing, jumping, and sliding together. Josh also loved it when Daddy climbed in one of the bouncers for some aggressive tackling, much more than Mommy allows on the bed at home! Josh also got PaPa in one bouncer, but Nana and Mommy and Lucas stayed grounded.

Here are the boys making their way up the steps to the big slide:


And here are Josh (his feet, anyway) and Terence tumbling down together:


After an hour and 15 minutes of this, it was up to our party room for pizza and cupcakes. Here is Josh blowing out the candles on his 3rd round of birthday treats (after cupcakes at school and brownies at home on his actual birthday):







A good time was had by all. We had one exhausted 3 year old on our hands when it was all said and done!

Toga! Toga!

Luke has discovered his arms. He still enjoys being swaddled, but now he pulls one or both arms out and even puts them up behind his head at times. That means he is also now giving embraces--wrapping his little arm around us--when we hold him. I love it!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh has a favorite toy at preschool--a green monster truck he races back and forth, back and forth as often as he can during playground time. He also enjoys crashing it into his friend Terence and his truck. For his birthday, his class celebrated with cupcakes and Josh got to wear a birthday crown, which his teachers crafted as a reproduction of his beloved monster truck. So much fun!


Nana made brownies for our celebration at home, which we all enjoyed. Here is Josh blowing out his candle:

I can't believe he is 3!
He is also having a party on Saturday, with still more cupcakes to come!