E!ias

Here is Elias' smile on command. "Smile Elias." and then he busts this out:


Above, Elias is warming up the banana... to then jam as much of it in his mouth as he can:

something to think about

I've been reading a book this last week called "Dangerous Surrender", in the book the author, Kay Warren talks about how every interaction we have with other people is an opportunity to make an invisible God visible. We are His Hands and Feet. How different would our lives look if we could remember this on a continual basis? Not quite sure why but for some reason this just really struck me and challenges me.

And they were complaining about the cold

Offshore wind, 70 degree air, and in a spring suit.

Here, Shelley demonstrates how to set up for a speed section at K91 on the Pacific Side of Cabo. I was hanging out with the boys at home, so I only heard the stories.

Looks fun doesn't it?

growing up...

I know it's so cliche to say how fast your kids grow up but man, Owen and Elias are changing so fast, I can hardly keep up:

Elias demands to feed himself and asks for his own fork, water, more, bite...
granted they are only one word requests but it seems like his vocabulary is expanding every hour. Tonight he added "gecko" and "owl" and earlier it was "shorts on" This kid is only 15 months, I wonder what he's going to be asking for in another year. Owen didn't start talking until he was close to 2.

Today for the first time Elias climbed down the stairs from the trailer all by himself. He runs with agility and is intent on trying to escape the yard and either go out in the street or down behind our house that is being built. I can not take my eyes off him for fear he will take off.

He is an amazing sleeper, unlike Owen he goes down really easy... read him a book and sing him a song and he's good to go. Last night he slept from 6:30pm until 7:15am. After battling through the whole bedtime thing with Owen I must say it is a welcome reprieve and definitely gives credence to the saying that babies come with their own unique personalities. We really didn't do much different between Elias and Owen with respect to the whole bed time thing. Elias goes to sleep on his own and Owen, well I can remember trying to let him "cry it out" one time for over an hour. He still has a longer bed time routine than Elias.

Owen is a fantastic big brother... he is amazingly patient with Elias wanting to play with almost everything that he has. He gives him loves, hugs and kisses and seems genuinely concerned with Elias's whereabouts. Sure he has his moments but don't we all. Owen's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds also, he even has a few spanish words in the mix.

Lately he has been really into letters and numbers and pretending that he is reading. He also spent a lot of time with my mom while she was here over the Christmas holiday. Well, the other day when my mom was with him he said that he couldn't read something because "he needed his glasses". Wonder where he learned that? My mom just happens to wear magnifiers to read with. He's also picked up an exasperated sigh that he uses in all too appropriate moments. Crazy how our kids can be mirrors we don't want to look into. I never even realized I made this obnoxious noise until Jeremiah pointed it out to me.

I am amazed by how much he picks up on, their little minds are truly like sponges. Scary and at the same time hopeful. I feel a sense of urgency to try and fill Owen's sponge with as much truth and wisdom as possible.

I almost forgot to mention... I think we might be finally on the road to potty training Owen. Until now he's had virtually no interest in the toilet whatsoever. At the suggestion of my mom we decided to offer m&m's after every successful use of the toilet. Owen LOVES chocolate. It worked for the first couple of pee's and then there were about 5 days where he very clearly decided he didn't want to use the toilet, even if it meant forfeiting the m&m's. We're back on the toilet today and he's happy about the m&m thing... I'm truly hoping we're on our way to ditching diapers.

Sick with a cold, but still happy to eat

Poor little guy has a fever and is fading between whimpering this miserable little cry to wrenching and screaming. (I have no idea where he gets this behavior from... I would never act like that if I were sick... yea right!) Then we dish out breakfast, and he makes a bee line to the chair. Once in, he is focused, happy, and well... I wonder... Elias is a little bit like me, isn't he.

Excavators or "Ecuagers"

I know I am totaly biased when I think that my boys are the cutest kids in the world. But the excitement that Owen has when it comes to tractors, cement mixers, and trucks just makes me smile so big.

Like most kids as they are learning how to talk have their own language for a while. One of Owen's favorite things to see around Los Cabos are excavators, and tractors. He'll almost go into a panic to make sure you see it to. It might take a while for us to get him to say it correctly, but he sure likes excavators.

Check out his attempt:

travel time

My Friend Anna had this on her blog and I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I needed to go make one for myself. I love to travel, though I haven't done too much of it lately with a one year old and a two and half year old. I look forward to the day when they can share in the excitement of traveling to new places.

If you haven't checked it out before we put together a website of our year long trip around the world http://journal360.com... every so often I take a trip down memory lane and relive our adventure. Hopefully someday we'll do it again with our kids.