Another "Catch-Up" Pic - Our Christmas Card Photo

In the interest of catching up on our pictures, here is one I never posted, although it was the title picture on the blog for a while.

And an "out take." Don't you love how Blake just sits there with the same stoic stare as Mom and Dad are smooching in the background? He was more than ready for a nap!

An old pic, finally making it to the blog...

This is how we told our family that we were having another baby way back in November. We waited a while to post anything on the blog or Facebook about the second pregnancy (to tell our friends in family personally as much as possible) and I just realized I never posted these pictures. Since I use the blog to archive all our pics, I thought I should finally go ahead and put it up here.

We wanted to put a ball in Blake's shirt to resemble a baby belly, but the only ball we had that was the right size has little spikes on it, so Blake is having a bumpy baby!

Despite my lack of belly photos, the pregnancy is still going very well. I am so grateful to God that I have almost no back pain to speak of, which is such a difference from my pregnancy with Blake. God knew what I needed - I have no idea how I would chase Blake around all day if I was in pain like that! 

Blake's First Trip to the Zoo

This weekend we took Blake to the zoo for the first time. The metro ride down was DEFINITELY a highlight!

(I was giving a play-by-play to "Mom Mom" on the phone.)

We weren't sure how he would do, but it seems Blake is still a little young to appreciate the zoo... he showed the more excitement over a big red door near the elephant cage, and for helicopters flying overhead, than for any of the animals he saw. That's okay. He continues to "talk" about the metro. ("Choo choo!") 

For only the second time ever in his short life the little boy fell asleep in his stroller! He fell slept as we were walking out of the zoo, stayed asleep for the long walk back to the metro, and then even slept for most of the metro ride home, only to wake up to the happy realization that he was back on the "choo choo!"

Making Friends at Playgroup!

We hosted playgroup at our house the other day. It was very interesting to see how timid Blake became when 5 other toddler boys took over our house and his toys! He stuck to my leg, and generally just watched the other kids play, rather than join them and play along with them. (Far cry from the busy, energetic, talkative toddler that usually roams our house!)

Towards the end of our time together Blake was on the floor playing happily with his truck and along came Evan...And to my surprise (and Blake's) Evan decided to snuggle up in Blake's lap! At first Blake didn't quite know what to do about the fact that his boy was laying on him and gazing up into his eyes. But, after a bunch of reassurance and encouragement from me and the other on-looking moms, Blake finally relaxed and even bent down to give Evan a few kisses on the head. Very sweet! 

We hope these two will be buds for a long time!

Blake-Speak

Blake is adding new words to his repertoire every day! It is so exciting to have him be able to more effectively communicate what he is thinking, what he wants, what he is afraid of, etc. It is amazing to see how quickly he repeats things he has heard only a few times!

His newest words:

• "ON" - this is especially for the vacuum cleaner, which he now wants ON (previously he lived in reverent fear of the vacuum, dreading any time it was turned "on.") This change of heart comes well-timed, as I finally feels like I have the energy to clean, and now I have the nesting urge to clean/organize most of my house.
• "Oh" - Off. Okay, so maybe this is just BARELY a new word, but I usually understand what he is saying. This gets tricky, as you might imagine, since there are more than one uses for "Oh!" I'm dependant on context clues!
• "MAM-bo" - Lawnmower. While we were at an open gym play time I took a picture of Blake playing with a toy lawnmower he found. Blake somehow managed to change the settings on my phone so this picture is now my phone backdrop (technical genius that he is), so now whenever he plays with my phone he says "mam-bow" because he see the pic on the screen!
• "Dome" (sometimes "Dome-uh") - Phone. This is a change; he used to call the phone "Dada" but has finally caught on that we talk to "Dada" on the phone!
• "YAH-yee" - Allie, who lives in our basement.
• "YAY-neen" - Raining. I told him the other day that it was "raining" outside, and for the rest of the day he was pointing to the window saying "yay-neen."
• "Bane" - Plane.
• "Boon" - Prunes; a new favorite food.
• "PAM-ba" - Peanut butter. Sometimes he calls bread "peanut butter" since we often put peanut butter on his bread. He would eat peanut butter all day every day if we let him.
• "At" - Hat. He found a couple of Mama's hats in her closet and enjoys putting them on and then looking at himself in the mirror! 
• "OT!" - Hot. Usually he makes a motion with his hands to emphasize the point. Mama's hair dryer is "ot" after she uses it (and a "no touch" at that point), and he knows that almost anything that comes off the stove or out of the oven or microwave is "OT!"

Also, he now can make noises for various animals:

• Dog - "Wow wow wow" (his clear favorite)
• Cow - "Merr" (although sometimes he still says "bow wow" for a cow; I guess they kinda look alike!)
• Cat - "Meow"
• Monkey - "Oo oo oo" (with the cutest little lips to go with it)
• Lion - "arg" (all throat; hard to show phonetically!)
• Owl - "who who who"
• Bunny rabbit - "Bop bop"
• Bird - "caw caw" (particularly a parrot in one book; if this is wrong, blame Mama who fed him bad information!)
• Seal - "art art art" (clapping his hands; he loves having Mama and Dada do this one)
• Snake - "thhhhss"
• Fish (or pretty much anything in the water; dolphin, whale, etc) - "thplath thplath thplath!"

This is really fun!