CUTE = Carpenter boys...Ladies Look Out!!

This is our sweet Josiah boy with his Lego fair entry again. We went back to the fair with my mom one day so she could see his reaction to his creation too. She wanted to take a picture with her camera, but she discovered her battery was dead when she tried to get the shot. She changed her battery, but the moment was gone and he wouldn't pose again, so I thankfully I had my camera ready and took another image for her.

Josiah really enjoys this ride. He went on it last year too and I think it may have been on the same color airplane too, but I would have to check back on last year's post to be sure. He looks so handsome and confident as a pilot, don't you think? We went again to the fair today with just our family as David hadn't been yet. I mistakenly (my fault as David thought it wasn't the best idea) took Josiah in to the "Al's Brain" exhibit. This was an interactive 3D movie deal that talked about the human brain as narrated by Al Yankovich. I was told that it "wasn't scary," by someone who doesn't have children and I should made that connection before taking him in (lesson learned). The intro movie was like one of those old black and white 50's science reels that had a very matter of fact narrator and said things like, "Don't eat ice cream because it gives you brain freeze, and the only way to fix it is to set your head on fire," and it showed a picture of a woman screaming with her hair on fire (totally fake looking, but scary apparently to Josiah). There was more to it than that which I found somewhat inapparopriate for kids as well and afterwards Josiah was begging to leave. David took him out and I went on to the actual 3D movie part with the babies. That was much worse as far as the gross factor was concerned and surely would have given our poor pumpkinhead some horrid nightmares for days to come. As it was, he has now resolved never to eat ice cream for fear of brain freeze. We have explained to him over and over about what is "real" and what is "not real," but I think that developmentally it is really hard for him to discern the difference. He has had other problems with this too, not just with this brain exhibit. He is a very sensitive soul we have found and so have to screen various things more carefully for him in the future!

Our sweet little Caleb boy puts his fingers in his mouth like this from time to time, usually when he is telling us he is hungry. He loves to mimic anyone he sees with large motor skills we have found. Daddy was dancing with his hands waving above his head and Caleb followed suit. He has been trying to say more words too. He hasn't clearly said his name yet, but he said "K, K" for Caleb and then pointed to himself and said, "Baby." He has said "Echo" also and very regulary says, "Daddy" whenever Daddy comes in the room.

When you click on this and get a larger image, you can see Caleb's gorgeous hazel/brown eyes. He is our first non-blue-eyed child...very unique! I call him my cuddly bug too because he loves to sit with me in the mornings with the blanket on our laps. The other day he got onto Josiah's bed and laid down with his head on the pillow and all Josiah's teddy bears around him and stayed there awake for about a half an hour while I was teaching lessons. It was too cute!

Daniel is showing his sheer joy as he plays on the swing here, and if you enlarge this photo you can see his gorgeous blue eyes. He is able to say his name now as well as "Echo" our dog's name and he has been using sign language and can say the words "please" and "thank you" now. He says "BO" for book and brings books to me to read quite frequently.

Here again is our sweet little Daniel boy. His answer to almost every question we ask him is, "NO," with a rapid shake of his head, but every once in a while I get a nod for yes or some other answer when I ask things of him. He seems to be our wordsmith at the moment, but as we have found the development of the twins seems to flip flop off and on, so I expect Caleb to say some more words here soon also. A while back we took the twins to the developmental specialists at Mary Bridge (a free program for babies who were in the NICU for a time) and they had recommended a full speech evaluation for the boys because at the time of the visit (20 months, adjusted age 18 months) they determined that they were understanding language, but not showing much expressive language. We debated whether or not to go through with the hour eval for both boys, and they would have also needed hearing tests again (to establish a baseline that they do not have hearing problems), but due to the fact that typically boys speak later anyway and twins more so, we decided we would wait a little longer and not go through all that testing this early on. If after a year they are still having some expressive language delay, then I think we will proceed with the evaluation for them.