What Family Is All About...

We've been having some great times lately! Chet starts class tomorrow, so he's been working diligently to prepare and read ahead. He went on our walk/run tonight, and it was so much fun! I hope he gets to do it regularly. Even though we didn't talk a whole lot, it was fun just to do something productive together. Plus, I could see the muscles in his arms and legs, which was enjoyable in itself. Just so you know, I can say that because WE'RE MARRIED!

The boys and I went to the zoo splash park with some friends last week. I can already tell that Gabe and Ladan are going to be a great team. While we were at the zoo, they wrestled a polar bear to the ground and threatened to pull his ears off if he tried to move. Here's a photo to prove it...

Gabe has figured out how to click his tongue and say "Da-da". He also enjoys laughing just for the fun of it, which causes all of the rest of us to laugh right along with him. He loves to put squishy basketballs and footballs in his mouth and crawl around. He enjoys throwing just about everything he picks up just to see what happens to it... with the exception of his food, which he normally eats promptly. When he sees someone he likes or when he wants attention, he sports a huge smile with all-out dimples, scrunches up his nose and breathes in and out really fast... which sounds strange but is super-cute. And he gives some of the best baby hugs ever! He wraps his little arms around our necks and squeezes with his cheek squished right beside ours. AMAZING!

He's a daredevil and doesn't appear to be afraid of anything. Tonight, he crawled into the bottom of his exersaucer and got stuck bent in half. He really enjoys getting up on beds, but he has no reservations about crawling full-speed for the edge (obviously (thankfully), he hasn't found out what happens when you plummet 2.5 feet onto the hardwood floor). And we can't use our kitchen chairs as barricades, because he simply crawls over the spindles at the bottom and gets where he wants to go anyway. He's fast and wants to be everywhere all at the same time... and yet, he learns fairly easily not to touch things like electrical outlets or open cabinet doors.

Ladan is SO MUCH FUN!!!! His imagination is running wild, and he's learning so many new things. He asks all these really great questions. And while some little boys at this age stop wanting to be close to their moms and dads, he seems to enjoy being as close as possible more and more every day. One of his new favorite things to do when we're walking down the sidewalk is to run ahead of me about 10 steps, turn around with a huge smile, shout "HI, MOMMY!" as if he's surprised to see me, and run back to me with his arms wide open so I can pick him up and give him a kiss on the cheek.

The great thing is that, even as he's finding new ways to be closer to us and to demonstrate his affection for us, in the last few weeks he's also wanted to start doing things for himself... like putting the stool in front of the sink and turning on the faucet so he can wash his own hands, getting his own Life cereal out of the cabinet and bringing his bowl to us so we can pour him some more, and opening and closing all the doors when we enter and exit places. If the rest of age 3 goes as well as the first few months, we're going to have A BLAST!

Our boys are so different in so many ways, but they also display many similarities. I'm just grateful that they both get super-excited when they see Chet or me and that they absolutely love one another! Isn't that what family is all about?! I pray that they will grow up to love the Lord so that I can be with them in ETERNITY!