Impromptu 20 month photos

I was attempting to get a couple of 1 month photos of Aislinn and I had a little photobomber helper.  Since he was willing, I snapped a few photos. Let's call them his "20 month" photos. :)

At 20 months, Ronan's personality continues to shine. He is the funniest little guy and brings so much joy and laughter to our lives. At random times, he will go into storyteller mode, regaling us with all of the details of some grand story in his mind. I'm thinking they usually involve motorcycles, lawn mowers or doors slamming shut. But since he is speaking his own language, seemingly a combination of Japanese, German and baby, we will never know.  He also likes to give us play-by-play details of his latest injury or injustice caused to him by someone else (I think he is already tattling!).  We cannot wait to understand all of these stories, but we will also miss the crazy jibberish.  He has added a lot of actual words and phrases to his vocabulary over the last couple of months like "I hunry" (hungry), "done", "down", "peeze" or "deeze" (please), "daydoo" (thank you)...my mind is drawing blanks though I know there are many more. And he will copy pretty much anything we say (better be careful!). And how can I forget that he is finally saying "mama"!  Actually, he usually says "my mommy."  Any guesses when this started??? Yep, pretty much the day we brought home Aislinn. After waiting over a year for him to say it, these words are music to my ears. :)

Oh, he is so much fun.  He likes to snuggle and read books next to me while I am feeding Aislinn and he definitely wants lots of extra snuggles these days.  Which we don't mind of course! He loves to share his blanket and Bob (have you met Bob? I'll have to introduce him on the blog...he's a big part of our lives) with Aislinn, along with whatever toy he is playing with. It really is so sweet and I want him to share well with her so I'm careful to encourage it while reminding him that she's not quite old enough to play yet. He really can't wait for a playmate. And as you can see he still loves Monkey. And his thumb. :)

This photo cracks me up. See how Monkey's legs are crossed? He was trying to do the same with Little Monkey. He was trying to get all appendages crossed. I'd love to know what he was thinking...

He's much more interested in the camera these days. Which is nice in a lot of ways. But he thinks he needs to be right in front of the lens. :)

Ummm? Not sure what's going on here, except that his eyes are crossing and he looks crazy!

Daddy got home early this day! Ro ran to the window as soon as he heard the car door slam. So excited

We love this little guy. Such a blessing in our lives. 20 months. i can hardly believe it. 2 is just around the corner...

Gotcha

I was working on some decorations for a friend's baby shower when I heard the sweetest cooing from a certain baby girl. They really grabbed my attention because its the first time I've really heard her coo. When I looked down at her on the play mat I found that she was playing a cat and mouse game with the giraffe. I was shocked to see that she was going after the giraffe and actually getting it in her mouth! Great hand-eye-mouth coordination already. :) 

I imagine her having a dialogue with her new giraffe friend.

"I really want to suck on those tags. Come here little giraffe."

"I'm going to get you. You're within my reach now."

"Almost there."

"Gotcha!"

And a couple more just because she's cute.

Man It's HOT!!!

GREAT NEWS! Patrick has officially completed his first week of his last rotation!!!  Last. Rotation. Three weeks to go and he's done with rotations! We're excited, can you tell?  The last rotation is in Lewiston so we're spending the month with my parents.  I'm SO thankful we have family to stay with so that we can all be together. But let me tell ya, it's HOT down here.  It's great, it finally feels like summer!

To beat the heat, we like to spend time in a little kiddie pool on my parents' (newly poured!) patio. And as a special treat, we were given a month pass to the local aquatic center.  It's a pretty cool place and a great place to cool off.

melts my heart

love those swim trunks. and the way he's watching the big kids

Ronan loves the "boat". He will make as many trips around the lazy river as we allow him too. He nearly fell asleep when I took him! It's my favorite too :)

We usually don't stay very long at the Aquatic Center. It's just too hot to keep Aislinn outside for too long. She sleeps in her car seat in the shade, but I couldn't resist putting her in her swimsuit and when we got home I had to snap a few extra photos. She's starting to be very alert!

crazy eyes. she reminds me of Ronan in this photo

4th of July

These pics are coming a little late, but they are so cute so I had to post them anyway. We had a great time celebrating Independence Day with both of my brothers, sister in law and nephew. It was a perfectly American day: an antique car show, campfire, hot dogs and hamburgers, lake time, boating and topped off with fireworks (we got to watch them from the boat!).  Ronan started a boat phase earlier that week and his latest word was "boat" so he was pretty ecstatic to see all of the boats and actually get to go on one. We both love experiencing life from his point of view. It is so fun to get excited with him and find joy in pretty much everything. Aislinn's take on the day was probably a little different - she had a tough time getting enough to eat and enough rest so she got pretty cranky by the end of the night. She'll get used to our busy lives though :)

"dall!" (ball)

getting a little cheesy for the camera these days

Sleeping Buddies

Someone(s) fell asleep while I was getting ready...

"Let sleeping babies lie." I should know better by now. She wasn't very happy to be disturbed, but it was time to go anyway :)