the Week in Pictures

It's been one of those weeks - the kind where I've thought a thousand times, "I want to blog that," but I haven't, because ... SLEEPY ... so this post is pretty much a catch-up from the week that was.  I'll do a few bullet points of things that don't have pictures and then caption the rest:

1) Uncle Bill and Aunt Belva came to visit. Jones LOVES them - especially Aunt Belva, who is a MUCH better playmate than his brother.  When he got up on Tuesday, I said, "Aunt Belva's coming today." When she walked in a little while later, he said, "BEL-BA!" He's never said her name before! A little later, they were playing in the den with the pirate ship Nana Boone got Freddie for his birthday. Aunt Belva popped a cannonball out of it, and it landed right on Jones's eye.  You'd have thought she'd cut his finger off for the way he reacted. He cried, "BEL-BA!" dripping with the sub-text of "How could you DO that?!?!"  It was hilarious.

Oh, and today, he was getting in trouble for pitching a fit, and he cried, "BEL-BA," as if he expected her to come and save the day.

2) Also on Tuesday, Freddie was about to commit his besetting sin: now matter how many times I tell him not to, he cannot keep himself from crawling over to the fireplace and smacking the glass doors. If I've moved him from his spot in front of the hearth once, I've done it five thousand times. Well, on this particular day, he crawled over there, as he does, and I said, "No, no, Frederick," as I do, and he looked at me and shook his head, "No, no."

At least, he's picking up on non-verbal communication.

3) On Wednesday morning, we went to Mom's, so I could do my "Wicked" Peace Talk. While we were there, Jones and Bel-ba were playing for awhile, and right after, he was in the pantry playing (pillaging for "cook-ies," more like). He climbed Mom's little step ladder and heard Aunt Belva sneaking up on him. He said, "Uh-oh. Dat Bel-ba!"  It seriously may be the first sentence he's ever said.

4) Friday after their naps, we headed back to Canton.  Freddie was SUPER fussy on the drive, which is VERY unusual for him. I suddenly saw that his juice cup was in the cup holder where he could see it. I figured he was wanting it, thus, the fussiness. "Do you want juice?" I asked. He nodded, "yes."  A few minutes later, I asked again, and again, he nodded, "Yes!"

While we're talking Freddie, he's starting to stand for longer and longer stretches. On Tuesday, he was even able to stand, squat down a little, and then stand back up, so I'm definitely thinking he'll be walking earlier than Jones was.

Thank God for that.

Here are the pictures I promised:

It's been so cold outside that, even with
the heat on, it's been hard to keep the house
warm, so the boys have been spending
a LOT of time in their footie pajamas.

wagon ride through the house

This is Jones's "TADA!" pose.
He does it after he's done some sort of
feat that he's particularly proud of. I have
NO idea where he got it from.

I gave the boys some PlayDough for the first time.
Neither one of them were all that excited by it.
Well, Freddie tried to eat it. Then again,
Freddie tries to eat everything.

screening my calls 

Jones found some glasses at Mom's.
I have NO idea where they came from,
but he sure has loved wearing him this week.

walking in to Bible Study Fellowship

I felt like I had Jeff Gordon in the backseat.

For as long as I can remember,
Freddie has kept something in his mouth like this.
It's usually a block of some kind -
a building block, a Jenga block, or, here,
a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse alphabet block.

love this picture

again with the "TADA!" hands

Freddie's started giving fist bumps!

On Friday, I went to the Switcharoos
Consignment Sale and, afterwards, lunch
with a friend. Lila and Lizzie Gray helped
babysit Jones and Freddie. 

The girl must've worn the boys out. They both slept for 3.5 hours
that afternoon!

cousin Evan's basketball game 

Freddie loves him some maracas. He'd
shake it instead of clapping. 

Peekaboo! 

It was GORGEOUS today,
so we finally got to play outside!

After riding in his tractor, Jones hunted for rocks
and moved mulch around the backyard.
I'm learning that it doesn't take much at all
to make little boys very happy.

Remember when I said it's really hard to read
to Freddie ...