Some recent times...

It's been a while since I've posted and so to catch up I'll just post some pics and hopefully a video, if I can get it to work. We spent a week at the lake, which was glorious and we felt no call to come home. We've been on a bit of a biking kick, so we even managed to squeeze in a few bike rides on the hilly trails out there, which was so fun, if not gruelling at times! Julio is truly a great motivator and is inspiring me to keep at this biking thing, which I surprisingly have been. I've been going to our local wading pool nearly every day with the boys when it's warm, and we always bike which gives me some exercise/quieter time and still gives the boys some fun, so we all win! I haven't brought the camera anywhere, really, however so all you get are the few glimpses when it did come along. What is missing, for example, is the giant hole filled with water that Julio made which Sammy sat in for nearly an hour while Luke and Julio refilled it for him so he could keep talking and splashing. That was way too cute and entertaining. That happened yesterday on a quick trip out to the Stonewall Quarry beach, a lovely little spot if you need a beach close to the city!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our week at the lake...

Everything about this picture screams cute to me. I know you're not supposed to say that kind of thing about your own kids, but any kid in these two positions at these ages would be adorable. Luke is so determined to be "a big man" like daddy and Samuel isn't too far behind. Let me digress from the pictures a moment to tell you about our little Sam. He is now walking, and even more amazing (to me at least) is that he's playing all kinds of sports too. He knows how to hold a hockey stick and hit a ball, while standing, and this morning he was walking and kicking a soccer ball, about 3 times in a row! And then later today, while outside, he managed to climb nearly to the top of our slide, on the slide side. I guess it's true what they say about second children, always needing to catch up to the older sibling! It's true around here anyway. And our Luke is growing up so much. The phrases he comes up with just kill me. His latest is, "Mom, I've been thinking..." followed by any number of random ideas. And today we were both eating ice cream on the couch and he says to me, "Mom, we're in the ice cream section!" How does he even know that word?!? He is also big on imaginative play, which gets confusing as the lines between reality and fantasy are often quite blurred. It's mostly pretty obvious and I think it's good for him to explore his imagination, but the other day he started telling my mom how he milked a cow and she was so impressed until I had to tell her it was all a lie. It's much better when his stories are way out there. Often he says things like, "Me and all my older brothers played soccer" or "Me and Josh went to school and learned things". Or he'll say things like, "I was driving a big truck, and then it was a van, but actually it was a big rock". Hmmm??? I don't always understand the boy, but I'm often very amused. And his two favorite nicknames for others are even more random. We have a little toy that has a button you can press where this little guy says, "Hi, I'm farmer Joe, listen to my banjo!" So nickname number one is simply, Listen to my Banjo. He'll go up to Sammy and say "Hi Listen to my Banjo!" for example. The other one comes from the clean up song. "Clean up clean up everybody everywhere clean up clean up everybody do your share". This one at least gets prefaced with a name, but this nickname is "daddy do your share" or, most often, "Hi "Sammy do your share!" Like I said, I don't always understand him, but...
And here's a picture of Luke and our little buddy Isaac. We love our Isaac and his mommy days, he's our 5 month friend and comes to visit once in a while. Luke does quite well with him too, although Samuel could learn a lesson or two in gentleness. Sammy's so fast and so used to smacking Luke around that poor Isaac didn't have a chance. I don't think Sammy left any scars, however, so there is still a chance of possible future friendship between the two :).
I have to say, even though Luke has his moments of throwing Sammy to the ground, putting blankets over his head, grabbing toys, etc, he also is one amazing older brother. The other day Sammy was smacking Luke on the head and I told Sammy to stop as Luke winced with each blow, and Luke just said, "It's okay mom, he can hit me!" Luke does pretty well with sharing, as well, as the other day Luke had a fruit snack in a wrapper sitting beside him and Samuel grabbed it, and Luke, instead of freaking out on him like I expected just said, "Sammy, you can touch my snack, that's okay Sammy!" Those moments are treasures, no need to dwell on the rest, right?!?
And finally, a video of the walking. Living proof that our Samuel started walking in his 11th month!