Can I brag a little?

I think I just have the best, smartest boys ever. Logan has turned into a little angel--he's been sleeping through the night since he was seven weeks old, he goes to sleep in his pack and play with no screaming (most of the time), and he will now just lie on the couch for quite awhile when he's awake. He's like a completely different baby from the one who screamed every time I set him down and had to be rocked until he was deeply asleep before I could lay him down. Yay! Here's my adorable chunky monkey:




Gehrig is somewhat of a stinker, but he's amazingly smart. We've been working on his alphabet, and he's doing very well for a two-year-old. He can now identify nearly half of the letters, and can almost completely sing the alphabet song. Of course, his rendition goes like this: "A, B, C, D, E, ET, G, Q, R, S, T, U, B, W, X, Y, N, Z." He also loves to sing "Twinkle Wittle Tar" and "Jesus" (Jesus Loves Me). He's rather shy about singing--he does not get that from my side of the family! I'm trying to get him to sing more often so he'll be able to sing in the children's choir at church next year.

He's still watching more TV than I would like, but we've managed to cut it down now that Logan's not so needy. His two favorite shows are Dora the Explorer ("Dora Splora") and Ni Hao Kai Lan (I highly approve of this one, of course--nothing like hearing your two-year-old say, "Ai-ya!"). He loves to act out Dora, and will frequently assign Mike and I different roles. His favorite scene to act out is the Swiper the Fox scene (since it's basically the same in every episode). He's gotten in trouble for taking things he knows he's not supposed to touch, and when I tell him to put them down, he throws them, yelling, "You're too late! You'll never find it now!" To which I'm supposed to reply, "Aw, man!" like Boots.
So, all of that to lead up to this story: I've been trying to work on obeying right away with him. He tends to take his time when I tell him to do something, and if I'm in a hurry, I'll usually just do it for him. Of course he will then freak out, "I wanted to do it!" So I tell him, "If you want to do it, you need to obey right away." Last night Logan was screaming as I was trying to get Gehrig out of the bath. I kept telling him to pull the stopper out, but he kept dawdling so finally I just pulled it out. Of course he cried the whole time I was getting him dressed, and he kept saying over and over, "I wanted to pull the thingy out!" And I kept trying to explain in different words why he didn't get to--in case he just wasn't understanding. Finally I said, "You were too late, Gehrig." Suddenly the tears were gone and a grin spread across his face as he exclaimed, "Aw, man!"

Here's my handsome stinker:



These wonderful pictures were taken by my friend Meredith at Black Oak Photography.