Whistling and clapping!

This morning Grant surprised us by crawling up to Cole on the couch...pulling himself up...and clapping!  It was so cute.   Another trick he's been doing for awhile now is whistling.  (He is whistling right now as I type.)  One funny thing he does is whistle when he goes out in the cold.  The moment we step outside...he starts.  Totally random...but it makes the boys crazy as they are still trying to whistle!

Grant's new moves!

Grant's best buddy at playgroup is a little boy named Thomas.  Grant is still doing the army crawl thing, but his buddy has mastered actual crawling.  Well yesterday, the two of them were thick as thieves.  :)  They were chasing each other around and exploring together -- Grant army crawling and Thomas crawling -- just so cute.

So don't you know that tonight during story time in the boys room -- Grant just plopped off the bean bag and started crawling around the room like a big guy.  :)  He was so proud of himself!  Tommy, Cole and I sang him congratulations songs and cheered for him.  Clearly his buddy was giving him some good pointers yesterday!  Thank you Thomas!!

OUR SUPERSTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My heart could burst with pride!  Tommy is our superstar.  :)  This year, the boys were asked to sing with their Spanish School at our towns annual Christmas celebration.  They practiced during classes for two weeks (they go twice a week) and Friday night was the big night.

I had NO idea how large a crowd there would be.  (This was our first time attending our town's Christmas celebration as the boys were always too young...or I was pregnant, etc.)  There had to be 1500 plus people there...it was insane!  And they were all tuned in to the stage.  With bright lights...set high above the crowds...microphones...I would have been intimidated!!  Cole decided he didn't want to sing after all - but Tommy?  He didn't miss a beat.  Up he went...without his brother (a first) and sang his heart out.

The kids actually sang several songs in Spanish.  I have some video that I'll upload.  I was SO proud.  You can't imagine how it felt to see his sweet face up there singing.  And the best part?  At the end...when I saw him...he leaped into my arms and was so proud of HIMSELF.

Pre-concert -- Cole has decided not to sing and you can see the relief...and Tommy has decided to go for it.  You can see his excitement!  Cole was very proud of Tommy.

Close up of his sweet face on stage.

Here they are between songs.

The group on stage.

Grant was wearing his Christmas outfit!

This is just a taste of HOW many people were downtown.  It was crazy!  These crowds went on for blocks.

My best pals...

A warm November afternoon gave me an opportunity to work on a "concept shoot" with a local photographer.  She wanted to capture a mother just interacting with her kids.  This is the result.

Happenings....

All three boys are at the PERFECT age right now.  I love Grant's newfound independence and the excitement he shares over every new discovery.  He squeals with delight watching his brothers, stares at me adoringly when I'm working around the house and smiles and laughs EVERY time he sees Kevin.  He is the most loving, happy little baby.

At the moment, he is obsessed with Tommy.  And the feeling is mutual!  Tommy runs to Grant's crib every morning and makes sure Grant has his blanket and bear before coming downstairs.  Tommy tells him he is "his best buddy" and shows him how to build rocket ships with legos.  It's so beautiful.  Yesterday he drew Grant a picture and showed it to him.  "I made this because I love you Grant!"  So sweet.

Cole loves to sing to Grant.  Our jokester, Cole sings songs like "ta-ra-ra BOOM de-ay!" and "pop goes the weasel" in an attempt to make him laugh.  Cole is ALWAYS joking.  In fact, after he pulls a fast one on you...he yells out "JOKING!!!"  It's awesome.  The other day he pulled the band-aid off his finger and said "look!  my cut is all better!"  Shocked - because he had just gotten the cut earlier that day - I stared at it with wonder when he yelled out "JOKING!!  This is my other hand!!  I tricked you!"  :)  He put a band-aid on by himself for the prank.  Can you imagine?

The boys are loving school and really picking up more and more Spanish, too.  In the morning they ask for "jugo de naranja" (orange juice) and yesterday Tommy and I were doing his homework and I was surprised to learn how many food items he could name in Spanish.  I need to beef up my own learning to keep up with them.  Otherwise, they'll start plotting their shenanigans in Spanish and Kevin and I will be left scratching our heads.  :)

Now that Grant is crawling, things have definitely changed.  The gates are back up and we are still learning to navigate with them.  The hardest part is staying on top of the boys as they are always running from one thing to the next and forgetting to shut gates.  The other day, Cole literally saved Grant's life.  Tommy had come up from the basement and forgot to shut the door and no one knew that the baby gate to the TV room was left open.  When Cole yelled for me...I found him holding on to Grant's ankles...Grant's two hands were on the top step of the basement steps.  He was about to go down.  My stomach still turns just thinking about it.

But it actually opened up a good window for us all to sit down and talk about safety.  I've shown the boys what to do if they ever saw him choking.  And the boys have become more vigilant with gates and doors.  Sometimes all it takes is one scare.  Thank God Cole spotted him.

In other news, Tommy was evaluated at school for speech and looks like he may be seeing a Speech Therapist to work on his pronunciation.  We work on it at home, but he definitely needs some more help.  I just am so thrilled to have such interventions at such a young age.  He'll be right on track for Kindergarten in two years.