Oh March, Where Did You Go?

I suppose we've been partly distracted and busy with all this entails:

Yep.  The boys and I were in a car accident.  A 16 or 17 year old girl who has only been driving since December, hit us.  She was stopped at a stop sign while I was driving on a street where I had no stop sign or light, clearly the right of way.  She proceeded through her stop sign to take her left turn right into us.  Luckily and thankfully, no one was hurt.  We are now just waiting for our little red Subaru to get fixed.  Man do I miss it.  I'm driving a little 4 door Hyundai.  I don't love it.  Neither does Jacob.  I think Isaac thinks it's pretty cool.  At least until he tries to see out the window.  He can't so much.

This is the passenger door shut.  It doesn't close all the way at the top.  I drove it like this one day in the rain and snow to some visiting teaching appointments.  Not good.

But then we had a visit from Grandma Brunson.  The boys loved all the attention from her.  They especially loved some time outside.  They made up a new game where they were returning the pine cones to where they belonged.  They spent a long time throwing pine cones into the trees.

(I think I need to clean off my lens...)

And this is Isaac "being cranky."  He would move his arms like gears.  I'm not sure exactly how this came to be but now anytime I tell him he needs to rest because he's acting cranky he says "no, this is cranky"  and moves his arms.

He really did LOVE all that time with Grandma.  He was such a happy boy all week long.

Grandma left on St Patrick's day.  The boys wore green, found some leprechaun treasure, and played with green play dough.  It was a good day.  We also had green shamrock pancakes and green grapes for dinner.  Apparently I wanted to go all out for St Patrick's day this year.  Probably won't happen again.  I can't live up to that level of awesome all the time.  :)

This was Ben's first play dough experience.  I think he liked it.  Unfortunately it never lasts too long because they start eating it and that bothers me so I put it away the minute it hits their mouths.  Silly boys.

I'm not sure what else happened in the past few weeks.  I guess we've probably just been our boring, routined selves.  But, I wanted to post the few pictures I have none the less.  I just look at these pictures and can't believe how big these boys of mine are getting.  I was telling Jacob today that I feel like we are in a really good place right now.  The boys typically play well together and I have found myself with a few times in this week where I don't have anything to do.  The chores of the day are done, the boys are content with each other, so I picked up a book to start reading. I get a few 10 minute bursts and then I am pulled away but I haven't even thought of reading during the day in ages.  I hope this trend continues.  I like seeing the boys play well.  Ben is hilarious when he copies Isaac.  And boy does he!  He copies the way Isaac plays and will even sit or roll or lie on the floor exactly the same as his big brother is.  So cute.  And Isaac is being more helpful and kind with Ben.  There is less pushing and fighting, still some, but less.  I'm loving this stage in both of their lives right now.

And now I will stop rambling and call it a night.

Ben at 15 Months

Oh Ben.  I love this little boy so much!  I can't believe he is 15 months old already.  And yet in some ways he is behaving like a typical 2 year old too.  Man can he throw a tantrum to rival Isaac.  Ridiculous.

I have many pictures to catch up on so hang in there!

These were taken a few weeks ago because I just loved his little outfit.  My friend, Kirsten, a former co-worker was coming for a visit and she had bought this shirt for Ben when he was born.  So I put it on him so she could see it.  It's adorable.

I also love the action shots.  He was throwing and chasing that green ball you can see in the corner of the photo.

He is certainly one active toddler.  So busy!

He is really good at playing independently but he also is in heaven when Isaac involves him in his play.  These next photos were taken when Isaac decided he needed to make a salad to go with our pancakes for dinner.  Good combo right?  I gave him the old wilted lettuce from the fridge that I had yet to toss and he decided to rinse it with water and drips of milk from a cup he was drinking from.  Extra delicious.

Ben thought it was all awesome.  

(I don't know why these photos didn't stay properly turned as I had edited them to be...hmm...I'm having photo troubles in blogger lately...)

Jacob and I had popped some popcorn as a snack for out game night.  We didn't eat it all and the boys got hold of it the next morning.  I think Ben would kill for popcorn.  He got all kinds of excited about.  Look at the handful.  He couldn't shovel it into his mouth quick enough.

Later, Daddy was much better about getting them their own little containers for the popcorn.

Isaac was all dressed in his Sunday best so he and I could attend the baptism of one of the boys in our ward and good friends of ours.  He talked about Matthew Van Shaar getting baptized for the next several days and even wrote him a cute little letter to give to him in church.  Well, he dictated a cute letter for me to write.  I did dotted lines of Matthew's name and he traced those like a pro.  He's been more and more interested in writing and reading lately.

We also bought a new set of water colors that had to be tried that same day.  This was Ben's first attempt at painting.  He seems to have a knack for coloring, drawing and now painting.  He mostly holds his pencils correctly (weird) and loved painting.

Maybe he just loved being invited to participate in the fun Isaac was having.

And now onto the actual photos from the day he turned 15 months old.  I also never took good photos of the quilt I made for him so I threw it in the background.  Good enough, right?

Ben has all 4 molars and seems to be much happier now that they are through.  He is sleeping through the night again.  It probably also helps that he is mostly over the colds these boys have had for what feels like forever.  It's probably closer to a month...but that's a long time right?

Ben does love a good game of "peek a boo."  He hides in cabinets in the kitchen and stays there until someone says "where's Ben?" and then he pops out with a huge grin on his face.  So cute.  Really, isn't he the cutest 15 month old you've ever seen?!?

Ben is a boy who likes things in their right place and order . He got really concerned when the blanket fell off the back of the chair.  He tried fixing it himself and then got frustrated and came to me to help him.  For a boy who doesn't say a lot with words he sure can communicate some things quite clearly.

Later that day I tried to get a few more good shots when he was in his favorite place, the organ bench.  Really, he likes all the furniture in the organ room for some reason.  Even the rubbermaid bin of trains is a favorite spot to sit.  He does get a little annoyed that he can't open the organ up.

 I love the tongue out look.  He is often like that.  He only has his middle two teeth and the molars on the top.  I've been wondering if those lateral incisors are finally going to make their way in.  Aren't those supposed to come before molars anyway?  Silly teeth.  I think Isaac grew them in in a weird order too.  Maybe that's just how we make 'em. 

We also make 'em really stinking cute.  Look at that adorable grin.  Love that little smile that he gives out so freely.  He is also a big fan of giving five or knuckles to people.  And he especially loves waving hello and good bye.

This is also pretty typical.  He likes to climb up and then play around laying down on the bench or whatever.  It used to scare me.  But I've gotten over it.  Ben is pretty good at climbing on and off things and pretty good about knowing the boundaries of whatever object he's on.  I don't worry so much anymore.  If I did I would spend ALL day removing him from things.  He is such a climber and runner.  Have I mentioned before how busy he is.  He's probably just trying to keep up with Isaac.

Oh that face!  I love this stage of early toddler hood.  I love to watch all they are learning.  I know Ben doesn't talk nearly as much as Isaac did but I'll tell you what, this kid understands and responds to every word I say.  He can carry out directions and actually is obedient when I tell him to stop.  At least most of the time.  In truth, Ben can say quite a few words he just doesn't say any of them with real regularity.  Except "Dada."  We hear that many times a day.  Every time the door that leads to the garage opens Ben thinks it's his dad returning from work.  It's pretty cute how excited he gets to see Jacob.  He is mostly a mama's boy but loves getting some attention from Jacob when he gets home.  I don't get nearly the reception when I return home after being away.  But I do leave a boy in the saddest tears you've ever seen.  His face just falls and he cries the biggest crocodile tears whenever I leave him with Jacob or a sitter.  

We sure love our Ben boy!