Big steps forward

It's amazing how quickly kids change. How fast they grow up. In so many different ways... I love watching both boys grow and become such amazing little people. Every day, I think about how lucky I am that I have them. Even when I'm exhausted from being kept up all night (they take turns at that), or I'm doing the millionth load of laundry, or whatever... it is all so worth it to get to be with these two boys. They make me laugh every day and their hugs make me feel like my heart is going to explode. I love being their mom.

Anyway... here's what the boys have been up to!

Big news on both: Noah is walking! Finally. He took his first steps (leaving the coffee table to walk to me) on Sunday, October 5th (15 1/2 months old). Now he is pushing his toy walker-push-toy-things all over the place, walking like... well, you'll see. Josh says it looks like a penguin. It is the cutest thing... he hasn't quite figured out how to bend his knees yet. But he's getting there. He laughs and laughs while he wobbles around.

Also in Noah news - he is saying a lot now. His favorite thing to say these days is "Uh Oh" (usually preceded by him throwing something off of the high chair, etc.). But he also says "ap" for apple (which he points at in his book), "puhdibak" (put it back), "dock" (sock), "igoddit" (I got it), "maw" (more) and of course, 'hi dada'. I think there are one or two others... but he mostly still grunts and points. Tonight I gave him a bath, and he grabbed the washcloth (he loves to play with it). I said, "Noah, clean your feet! Where are your feet?" and he looked at me and then grabbed his feet! I was so surprised... that was something new! We played this game for a little while until he got confused. But he knew his back, his arm and his toes. Wow! So my saying those body parts every night at every bath is finally paying off. :)

In Evan news, he is finally all better. He was sick for almost two weeks, poor kid! He had a bad cold, an ear infection, swollen glands, his 12 year molars are coming in, he had allergies... in the doc's words, he was "a mess". But we still made the trip down to NJ to Jack's Golf Tournament at the end of September. Evan really didn't want to miss it ("I feel fine, Mom!") and it was SO nice of the family to invite us. It was really wonderful. Evan and I got to meet all of Jack's family (the baby boy who had inspired Evan to hold the toy drive for the hospital earlier this year) and they honored Evan at the dinner as a special guest! They asked him to pick out the winning tickets for a few of the raffle drawings - and Evan was so nervous. He kept asking me over and over what he had to do, if he had to say anything, what if it went wrong, etc. I promised him it would be easy. He ended up having a great time, although by the end of the evening he was ready for bed (that cold was getting the best of him - and he was trying really hard not to spread his germs). Back at the hotel we changed into jammies, rented The Hulk on PayPerView and snuggled into bed. It was a great Mom-and-Evan trip, but it would have been perfect if he were feeling better.

Here's Evan at the podium, picking out raffle winners:

Here he is trying not to get his cold germs on baby Jack's adorable sisters (p.s. they're playing with the maracas Evan gave them :) :