"How old are you?" and other silly stuff

 

"How old are you?" I ask Jonathan, age two, at dinner.   He holds up five fingers and confidently answers "I'm ten."  

We're working on teaching him how to hold up just two fingers (as seen above), but it's hard to get the right fingers bent just exactly right!  However, I do have to brag that Jonathan can count to fifteen and has even been able to count backwards from 10 to 1!  This is because David has a passionate love for everything Rocket and they frequently practice the blast-off countdown.  

I know this MUST be a toddler rite-of-passage .....the unrolling of the toilet paper roll.  I found this in my bathroom the other day, at a time when the guilty party was already napping.  The empty toilet paper roll was missing ....and later found in use as a tunnel for a little boy's choo-choo train.  I don't have a picture of that (unfortunately), but I was proud of the innovation!

 

It's fun to see Jonathan improving with his artwork skills.  He can now willfully color the sheep blue and the stars orange, as seen above!  (The candle picture in the background was mommy's artwork.)  

Both of our boys LOVE their baths!  Here's Joshua enjoying his!

Look who's 2 months old!

   Joshua is learning to smile -- big huge wide opened mouthed grins!   They are still a bit hard to catch on camera, but we spent a bit of time today to do just that because it's his 2 month birthday!

Here's another.  As my friend Stacey says "I love it when babies smile with their eyes."  I never thought to put in those words exactly, but she's right.  Here we get both....smiling eyes and smiling lips.

I'm including the above picture of Jonathan at 2 1/2 months old because people keep asking me "How does Joshua compare to Jonathan at this age?"  See for yourself.  I think they look like brothers, but not extremely alike. 

Here's the photographer(s)....Yep, Jonathan is still feeling rather clingy after the arrival of his brother.

So they say a growth spurt happens at 2 months.....a few days ago Joshua slept almost the whole day through and sure enough, the next day none of his size Extra Small diaper covers fit anymore! 

This week Jonathan and I were water painting at the table, and I had to leave him to go change Joshua's diaper.  When I came back I found a tattooed pirate with a full beard and mustache!  This is his reaction when I put him in front of the bathroom mirror and told him to clean himself up!

Dave has been taking Jonathan to our school playground everyday, so we must include a few pictures!  In many ways, it doesn't compare (especially in safety considerations!) to all of the fun playgrounds in Singapore, but it does have some impressive features!

So this day one of Jonathan's friends was in the sandbox with him, eager to smile for the camera.  I was trying to get Jonathan to look at the camera and smile, too ....but I think it was more important for him to demonstrate/document what he can do with his toy digger and dumptruck. 

Home Sweet Home! Sweet boys!

(Hang in there ....the cutest picture is at the bottom!)

We miss some things about Singapore....

.....The fun "cars" found at every mall where Jonathan could happily play and climb without ceasing!  We didn't even put any money in, until the last day Dave couldn't resist.   (Going to malls was a frequent occurrence, since that is where most of the grocery stores are located.)

....Amazing construction sites on every corner.  This site of a future condo complex features massive pile-drivers, tall cranes, and multiple cement trucks!  So exciting!

Our friends the Whittakers -- during our last week in Singapore we had to move out of Gene's place to the Clementi neighborhood, which is where they live!  We got to see them 3 times that last week!  We've "adopted" Aaron as Jonathan's Singapore cousin!

These are our new friends, Andrew and Adrielle, who opened up their guestroom to us during our last week in Singapore!  We think they are some the best people we've ever had the privilege to call friend! 

So here we are about to take off on our Air Asia flight to go home ...ah, Joshua's first plane ride!  It was kind of a blur, but as I recall the flight went fine, once we got in our proper seats.  The 2+ hour car-ride from airport to house also went well, except for the last 15 minutes when BOTH boys were wailing away in a total meltdown. 

When we arrived home, we found this baby swing!  It is our baby shower gift from our school and church community here!  The shower wasn't until the next week, so how nice to have it delivered early!  WE LOVE our baby swing!  We also found the temperatures to be much colder in our town than in the high rise apartments of Singapore!  Joshua finally got to wear his newborn size footed sleeper from Grandma Arlette!  Indeed, he's been wearing warm pajamas every night and even sleeping under Jonathan's fleece blanket made by Grandma Coral.  I can't tell you the exact temperatures, but in Singapore I couldn't even put clothes on Joshua without him sweating into a heat rash.


So, we've been home for just under 3 weeks.   It's SO good to be home and get back into our own routine -- or I should say, get started on our new routine, since we've added a new person to the family.  Dave is happy to be back at work.  Jonathan was very busy for the first 3 days getting re-acquainted with all of his toys .....that was fun!  Since then, he's been struggling with jealousy and  wanting to be the baby again and being fussy.....we're praying for wisdom how to help him adjust.  Tonight I got an idea and looked in his mouth to discover his 2 year molars are starting to make an appearance, so maybe his struggles have not been totally emotional.  I'm ready for him to be over this phase, though!

So now.....the cute picture parade!

First off, Joshua's funny faces!  He's as sweet as can be and seems to be gaining an ounce an hour.....although I haven't weighed him since our return. 

Now a funny face from Jonathan!  He's wearing his "robot" pajamas -- hand-me-downs from Singapore that were too hot to wear there but okay for here!  He was so proud of them, and of his "toy" glasses so he could be like Daddy!

Finally Joshua has grown a little tougher and Jonathan a little gentler for me to trust them to pose for a picture together, just the two of them!  Jonathan is now starting to be aware of his clothes and here is quite enamored with his now "crane shirt" from Grandma Coral!  And thanks also, Aunt Kristin, for Joshua's matching orange shirt!