Memories of Us: Hello Again

Long time, no blogging. I won't even try to catch you up on three whole months of my adventures with two under two. And actually, I as I write that, it occurs to me that I don't have two UNDER two. My little big man officially turned terrible more than a month ago. And I mean that literally. TERRIBLE. I spend 50% of the day anymore wondering where my sweet little guy went, because the little monster crying his head off in time-out CANNOT POSSIBLY be him. Not really. Maybe a little. But seriously, he's a very different kid than the one I blogged about when last I blogged. He's grown so much. 80% of what he says nowadays consists of two words. "What's that?" Seriously. ALL DAY LONG. He even points to things I KNOW he knows, just because he wants to hear my answer. It's still in the adorable stage at this point, so I don't mind. While his ability to verbally communicate is on the sparse side, he understands most of what we say and follows directions pretty well (when he wants to, that is). I'm eager for his language skills to grow as I think frustration at not being able to convey what he wants is the source of most of his tantrums at this point. Well, that and the existence of his little brother. He still has many many moments when he's the sweet big brother, but more often than not Will doesn't want Jake anywhere near his personal space or HIS toys (a category that apparently includes ALL toys). And I've tried to be very respectful of Will's right to be left alone and need to have his own things. I don't want to feel like I'm INFLICTING Jake on him. But often times I feel like Jake gets the shaft. I feel guilty about that. He is so laid back that it's just easier to give in to Will at Jake's expense. Plus, while Will is at the age where he cares DEEPLY about EVERYTHING, Jake is still so little that he doesn't really care about anything. As long as there's A toy in his hand, he's cool. I'm worried that exploiting that fact is going to catch up to me in a bad way. Anyway, so the sibling thing is starting to get harder. Not that having two kids was easier before, it's just becoming harder in a different way. Less running around trying to meet everyone's needs, more running around trying to keep the peace. Sheesh, I didn't mean to rejoin the blogging world by griping about my two year old. Anyway, I figure a good way to bring you up to speed is just a list. And then a bunch of recent pictures. So, here goes.

Jake is 9 months old, almost 24 lbs (90th percentile) , 28.5 inches (60th percentile)
Jake is crawling and pulling up and climbing on things already (God help me)
Jake has two teeth and can feed himself puffs and Mum-mums
Will is 28 lbs and I can't remember how tall, but he was in the 60th percentil for both
Will's newest skilss are jumping with both feet at once and scaling the stairs by himself
Will is in LOVE with trains. For serious. LOVE.
Jamie is deploying in the very near future for what is actually a pretty short length of time by militray standards, but still, longer than he's ever been away from the boys.

So, that's the broad strokes. And now, the pictures.

Daddy and his boys at the zoo.

Jamie loves this picture.

He loves trains. Even the crappy fake train at the zoo.

Because Will LOVES trains, we took a trip to Strasburg, PA where we got to RIDE a full size train pulled by a steam engine! It was really nice actually, even if you aren't IN LOVE with trains. Will was SUPER excited. Like, he Couldn't! Even! BELIEVE IT! A real train! Like RIGHT THERE!

We sat in what we thought was the last car. Until right before we left, when the engine pulled up right behind us and hooked on. That's when things went south. And then, they blew the whistle. The loudest freaking whistle you ever heard in your life. From that point on, this is how he looked.

He insisted that I keep his ear covered. Poor kid. I thought maybe we had ruined trains for him forever.

At least Jake was happy.

Fortunately the engine only pulled from our end of the train on the trip down. It uncoupled and was all the way at the other end for the trip back. We could hardly hear it. He came out of his shell after that, but only a little. Things where totally fine later though, after we went in the store and discovered a train table and Thomas the Tank Engine galore. We're going to go ride it again when Jamie gets back and Thomas the Engine will actually be there. It is going to blow his mind! I'm so excited! Also, we will sit in the middle of the train next time.