Bunk Beds

We bought the boys bunk beds on monday after Noah and Nate broke Nate's baby crib. It only took them 10 minutes from having the bunk beds up to figure out how to climb up on the top bunk without using the ladder and how to reach out and put their hands in the ceiling fan!

I love boys! Pacing myself for another immanent trip to the ER!

Pictures of the Boys

Pictures of the Boys

Scroll down towards the later ones to see pics of them at the river.  Really funny...

Family Night 2010

The boys' preschool did their annual Family Night. I knew it was going to be great when on the way over there BabyNate was screaming gibberish out the window and B looks at me and with this dead serious tone says, "Clayton, I serious don't know what to expect from him tonight." I knew it was going to be pure drama! At the Christmas performance Noah spent most of the time trying to get to the mic while his teacher spent most of the time trying to keep him from it. i must say that Noah did really well this time. Nate....well, he is a rock star at heart. Who needs rules!

Nate singing "Praise Ye the Lord"

Noah singing "What a Mighty God We Serve"

Revenge is Sweet

It's tough being the little guy. You are the last one to arrive and get the snack because you have the shortest legs. You're the one that can't get the cookies on the counter. You're the one that never gets to play with the toy you want because the bigger guys either steal it from you or con you into take something lame so they can take it from you and then they can tell your parents that they "traded" you for it.

Being little stinks, which makes those moments of revenge oh so sweet and extremely funny to watch as a parent.

The other day Noah had messed up his clothes and needed to change. Since he is almost 4 I told him that I didn't make the mess and therefore he would have to change his clothes himself if he wanted to get out of the wet clothes. 5 minutes or so pass and then I hear Nate giggling devilishly and Noah screaming. In the midst of all of this I hear a slapping sound before each of Noah's over dramatic screeches.

I rush in there to find Noah hopping around frantically while Nate runs after him. Noah had apparently put both legs in the same leg opening in his jeans and therefore was rendered immobile save for hopping around. Noah had also neglected to put a shirt on before he found himself in such a vulnerable state. Nate maximizing on the situation, pounced on Noah slapping his bare chest and back with squeals of joy. Noah's response, instead of just decking Nate and being done with it, was opting to hop around like mad man, which only heightened Nate's sense of enjoyment as he would run down Noah and smack him. After several moments of this, Nate successfully pinned Noah on the ground and was slapping Noah silly.

By the time I pulled myself together and actually pulled Nate off of Noah, Noah was covered in little red hand prints and Nate was in a much better mood.

Here's to you Nate, you are a tough little scrapper!!

This Week.....

This week....wow...

I think that how the sisters talked about their brother Lazarus would be appropriate: "But Lord, he stinketh"

This week stunketh. That's right. Big stunketh.

Lets kick off the past weeks with a play by play.

Nathanael.
He got circumcised. Yeah. A funny story to go with that though: I walk up to the reception desk and tell the nurse I need to schedule a circumcision for my son (as I am pointing to B holding the small baby). The nurse gets up, gets a paper, shuffles some stuff around, and then hands the file another nurse who comes back to the counter where I am standing reading over the file. "You are here for the circumcision," she says looking up at me. "No, I'm good," I reply, "its for my son." I don't know if red would be the right color, but that was the color of her face as she quickly turned around and walked off very embarrassed.

Noah.
Got pink eye. He has been chased around all week with wet wipes and disinfectant hand wash and is still trying to figure out why we wash our hands everytime we touch him. But he is better now and all is right in the world.

We celebrated Noah's health and Nathanael's 2 weeks with getting Nathanael pictures for his passport (see above) and some Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream. Noah recommends the Green Gummy Bear Apple Sherbet with extra Gummy Bears by the way and Nathanael's only advice for the day is don't get your picture taken where they expect you to wake up from a nap and immediately keep your eyes open. But, with the exception of Nathanael's passport picture, everything ended up pretty good.

Things Have Changed

What can you say? I mean really, what can you say? People said, "oh, having your second will be like such-and-such" or "y'all will be doing such-and-such."

Well, Nathanael is 3 days old and all of us are still here. In some ways nothing has changed. In some ways, everything is different! Nathanael, when he isn't eating, just sits in his chair by the window and looks at.... dirt, yeah, basically just the dirt blowing around (sandstorms the past week, the whole house is caked in dirt). Noah is his normal self just with one more baby to play with.

Noah loves Nathanael. So our role towards Nathanael is really more of a guardian as to a parent. We spend a lot of time protecting him from his loving big brother! However today for breakfast Noah and I went out to catch food for the women and children and Noah discovered powdered donuts!

How things are definitely different:
* Getting 2 boys to sleep at the same time is harder than just 1.
* We have 3 times the diapers as before
* I am taking out the trash more
* Sleep is like that pot at the end of the rainbow: you chase it, but never find it.
* We fill up a car. No more giving people lifts. We are full. Full of kids, toys, car seats, strollers, and diaper bags.
* We spend alot of time changing clothes and doing laundry.

With all that said we are very happy and doing very well.

Nathanael Levi

Nathanael finally made it!

8 lbs 12 oz and 19.6 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing very great. Here is a video and a couple of pics.