Starting young

Well, he's no lefty, but Gabe needn't yet give up his dream of having a ball player in the family. Jonah loves to watch baseballers pitch, and he's picking up on their form. Head tucked, a twist to the torso. Sox or Tigers, son?

'Round the house

Jonah loves to hug "Baby". I think that he especially likes to hug Manny on the floor because he can do so all by himself; he's really into independence lately. Awwwwww. Sometimes Jonah needs his own time on "Bop-pie". Just chillin'.
"What?! That's Baby's Boppy!"
A favorite friend is Knuffle Bunny, a.k.a. "Hop", a gift from Daddy. There's a book that goes along with Knuffle that includes nonsense words, which Jonah finds appropriately hilarious. This picture shows our determination to sneak tummy time in whichever way possible. Thanks for being a good sport, Manny.

We (heart) James!

I remember numerous play-times (in today's hip parlance, "playdates") that my sister and I had with our cousins as children. Mark and Suzanne lived only 5 minutes down the road (by car, of course, as it is West Michigan I'm talking about), and our mothers made sure to get the four of us kids together with at least some frequency. I guess I'm not sure exactly what that frequency was now, so many years later, but enough that I clearly remember several different playdates and the fact that getting together was an expected, and eagerly anticipated, occurrence. My children, as of the moment, have no blood cousins, and even if they did, said cousins would be hours away. Thus we find ourselves with a need which I imagine many others share in these days of smallish families and often itinerant living: the need to create "families" of sorts with people to whom we are not related by blood. We are very thankful for the friends with whom we've been blessed here in Chicago, and I think it's safe to say that they have indeed become our family away from home.

With my husband teaching a night class once a week at DePaul, the boys and I have had the opportunity to spend some extra time with Katie and James, as Clay sometimes works Thursday nights too. We typically share a meal, let the boys play, and then scrub their dirty buns.

Jonah and Manny look on as James demonstrates the proper way to throw a ball across the room.

Manny doesn't look impressed. In fact, I don't think that he's paying attention at all.
"Manny. Manny. I can teach you." I don't think James got the memo: Jonah likes sports; Manny's the smart one.
The boys pose happily for a picture...
...before going back to ignoring each other and their mothers. Scoops, bowls, balls, and hoops are way more fun.

Poncho Estripe-o

Mexi-Babe and his White Mama

Look who's big!

It struck me today that Baby Manny is almost five months old; maybe he can sit up? Well, he can! He did great. His stomach muscles held him pretty steady as he was leaning forward to play with his toys. Eventually, he fell further forward and started to fuss, but he did great. You can see that I'm not even holding on to him in the picture. What a big boy.

By the way, Manny's rolling front to back, too. I think that he doesn't quite realize that he's able to do so, as sometimes he gets really angry about being on his tummy and he doesn't roll. But he's done it a handful of times, as well as working on getting from back to front when he's "chasing" a toy that's on his side. He's growing up too fast. *Sniff*

Whales and dolphins and sharks, oh my!

One of the reasons that Chicago is such a great place to live is the Shedd Aquarium. Katie, Lynn and I took advantage of the free general admission week in February to take the kids, splurging on admission to the Oceanarium and the Wild Reef exhibits. Despite the risk of extreme crabbiness from the kids (a couple minor outbreaks were suffered), we took in a dolphin show and toured the reef. What a great way to spend a cold February morning. (Really, it was brutal.) Per usual, thanks for the ride, Auntie Katie!

Here's Jonah, getting prepped for the dolphin show. Thank goodness Lynn brought a whole bag of apples. Way to think ahead, Lynn! With an apple in one hand, and Baby Beluga in the other, Jonah's about as happy as he's ever been. Jonah was nice enough to share Beluga with Josie. Yes, yes, he's already a pro at charming the ladies.
James finds Jonah quite charming, as well.
Can you tell how excited Jonah is to see the dolphins? (By the way, he pronounces the Spanish "delfin" quite well.) Excitement in this case was expressed by a trance-like state.He started to go crazy, er, get a little wild. He could barely contain his excitement! Or the fact that he wanted to get moving. Can you see Manny taking shelter on my other side? He enjoyed watching the dolphins, too. At the very least, he stayed awake through the whole show.

Jonah got to push some buttons by the giant polyps in the Wild Reef. Hooray! It took a good amount of coaxing to drag him away from these buttons.
The Wild Reef exhibit is truly amazing. And the aquarium in general is great for kids because the fish (and sharks, and turtles, and dolphins, and whales) are always moving. Here, Jonah pauses long enough to check out the fishies.
After a morning of aquatic life, Jonah was beat. I brought this whale as a joke (I mean, what's cuter than making your son haul a baby beluga around the aquarium, especially when he's wathcing a baby beluga?), but I think that both Jonah and I were glad in the end that he had it. Baby Beluga was almost as comforting as Fuzz.

Disaster

Here's a view of our kitchen after I was alone in it for a little too long on a recent Saturday. Can you believe that my husband cleaned it all up for me? He even volunteered to do so. Know that there was also a whole lot more piled in front of the microwave, which is out of view on the left, as well as on the counter behind the refrigerator. Just one of the reasons why Gabriel is a GREAT HUSBAND.

Yet another reason....

...why it's Better To Be Orthodox. (Kids are so sweet when they're being good Christians. The bend-at-the-waist prostrations are another favorite.)

"I hope this doesn't look braggy"

Our diplomas are finally up on the wall for all to enjoy. Considering the time, money and energy that went into earning these, it seemed a shame not to hang them. Gabriel's is arguably a bigger deal than mine, since his is actually being put to use to keep us fed, clothed and sheltered. I don't know that mine is doing us a whole lot of good right now, but maybe once the home-schooling (?!) starts its use will become more apparent. Small children love nothing more than a little New Testament study, right?