Blue Day

Eating blue monster ice cream at the Blue Bell factory on Blue Bell Boulevard with two boys in blue!

Fifteen Months!

As in three months from nursery!

Baby D is still loving his communication skills. New words include: shoes, Baba, Baga (pronounced Gaga), Coco, cheese, car, ball, mama, hot, and go. Really he just loves to hear himself make any noise, though, so there's lots of babbling and spitting and squeaking and banging. He has also perfected his shriek/scream so it is really quite ear-splitting and guttural-sounding. It is so loud and grating, in fact, that for a while Luke would jump and scream himself when he heard it. Two for one!



Baby D has become very helpful in the past month! He loves to put things away, throw things in the trash, put his clothes in the hamper, go find his shoes, take out the trash, and find Lukey. He also likes to clean things with rags, pretend vacuum, sweep, and wash himself in the tub.



Derek still loves his dada and is always so excited when he comes home, when we call him on the phone, and when he gets to wave goodbye to him from the front door in the morning. He also loves trying to talk to him on the stand during sacrament meeting and has started yelling "Dada" over and over to get his attention.



He loves to be dirty, loves to be naked, loves water, shoes, being outside, balls, cars, food, noise, music, and Luke.

Board Game Island

Check it out, Bryan. We finally made it to Galveston.

And look! Kenny's outside!

And hey! Luke still got to play games on a Saturday!

Everybody wins.

Also: I realized that I have finally become accustomed to Houston summers! I overheard some cruise-goers on the strand complaining about how hot it was. I kept thinking, "What are they complaining about? This isn't that bad..."

So...Hooray?

Birds of a Feather...

Dress together

and scheme together

and end up in a museum exhibit together (when they're not wrestling one another in the halls).

Seriously though. How lucky can you be to find your soulmate at age four?

And a shout-out to Magnus' mom, a woman after my own heart. Who else would tackle the zoo, the Museum of Natural Science, two splashpads, and a park all in one 102 degree day?

Team Wendy

The boys had a grand time cooling off with the Young clan in the Pacific northwest last week!

Highlights include: first trip to the beach! (no, we have not been to Galveston yet)

Cape Flattery! (most northwestern point in the contiguous US)

wherein Luke threw up twice, Danton once, and Derek screamed for a solid hour on the way home

Hiking! In actual mountains!

And all the games a boy could hope for!

Foosball! Air hockey! Dragonwood! Three little Pigs! Laser tag! and all the rest we will never know about.

'Til next adventure, Young clan.

Mouth of Babes

Best way to document our trip to Idaho: with Luke quotes heard during our fantastic two weeks.

Luke: "The game is called thurgastat."

Baba: "How do you play?"

Luke: "You hit the ball in the place of the score."

After getting hit in the stomach with a ping pong ball: "I blocked it with my nipple!"

After watching Derek fill his drawers: "He pooped for joy!"

While discussing Nephi and his brothers returning to Jerusalem to get the plates:

Luke: "Why didn't Nephi's brothers have enough faith?"

Baba: "I don't know."

Luke: "Well how much faith did they have? This much?" (holds his fingers apart)

Luke's favorite thing about being at Baba and Baga's house: "Everything."

14 Months

This post is making it just in time.

Baby D's vocabulary is growing bigger everyday! He can now say 'dada, book, bye, uh-oh, num-nums (for nursing), hat, and wa-wa (water) and understands a whole lot more.

More than anything, he now understands just how irritating he can be and takes advantage of any opportunity to make Luke squawk. If there's a tower built, he's off to destroy it. If Luke is playing with something, Derek will come over, grab hold, and shriek until he lets go. He loves to pull Luke's hair and clonk Luke on the head and gets a big kick out of grabbing dada's glasses and smacking him in the face. Luckily he makes up for it with his giant hugs and kisses and overall loving little self.

Derek loves to imitate and makes all sorts of funny noises; he oohs when a package is opened and laughs maniacally when he gets ahold of Luke's legos. He has also taught himself how to fold his hands during prayers and flops on the floor when we say our family prayers at night.

Luke says: "My favorite thing about Derek is sleeping. Because then I can play a game."

(As in, he prefers him to be asleep. Someday they will appreciate each other's company more.)