Before I Forget

At this moment, my babies are 18 months old and 7 weeks old. So far, they are totally different to me!

John Burke makes pretty funny faces. They usually look like he is irritated or not amused by what I am doing around him. (Like Heath sometimes :)). Turner never really has had looks like that. Derek asked the other day if it was possible that John Burke was already more mature than Turner. Just more serious, I think.

Turner and Uncle D - both very mature

John Burke has some stomach issues. Nothing major, just some pretty rough gas! Like a grown man. He loves to lay on his stomach, and is very cuddly. I love him - he just likes to snuggle! And he is obsessed with being hot - outside is his favorite place. Thank God he loves being at the pool! He gives me at least one 5-6 hour stretch a night, and has gone 9-4 and 8-3 straight a couple nights this week. Come on, keep stretching it out! I am not complaining, he is a pretty good sleeper. He has a very strong neck and looked up at me at the hospital after he was born (unlike his brother, who did not hold his head up until 7 months! Glad he was my first, I might have been a little alarmed!)

He tries to crawl up my chest, I swear. He is just much stronger than Turner was. And he flips from one side to the other when he is laying on the bed. Not flipping from front to back, but almost. I am not writing this out of pride or anything ridiculous like that, more amazement! How can 2 kids be so totally different from the start?? I know John Burke will do things faster because he has an older sibling, but he is lapping him!!

Trying to "help" while I was trying to get a pic in their coordinating outfits

Now for Turner. He looks so old now. He went to school this week for a couple of hours, and they all commented on how big he looks. He went to the "bigger" classroom - because he has grown out of the baby room - and had so much fun. They told me I need to work with him on coloring with crayons and with scavenging for other people's food. I had to remind him that he is just 18 months old, and particularly CRAZY!!

Ever since we have been at the beach (the last 3 weeks), he is saying so much more! The most common thing he says is "Dant Du" for thank you. And last week he mastered saying "peas" - particularly when he wants peanut butter M&Ms, thanks to Heath's dad! He introduced him to the love affair with M&Ms last time we were with him.

Last week, Turner woke up from his nap. He was chirping around in his room (most of the time he wakes up talking, I just can't understand what he is saying). I called his name -

Me: Turner!

Him: Huh?

Me: I am coming to get you in a second!
Him: Okay!
I looked at Heath - did we just have a conversation?? Weird. He still loves (bordering obsession) the telephone - house or cell phone - and tends to pick it up, say hello, continue with jibberish, say okay! and then bye and close the phone (he has my old flip phone). I noticed my conversations follow a similar pattern. Hmm.
Also, this week I asked him to retrieve a few things. He listened and then did it! Hallelujah!! I asked him to bring me his shoe. He looked at me and said, "Shoe." Then he walked across the room, picked it up and brought it to me. I almost fell over. Then the next day he did it with the baby's paci. Wow.
The other thing I wanted to remember was that he points to things and says "What's that?" That usually means he wants us to give him something. He doesn't really concern himself with listening to what it is called. In fact, thinking about it, he might be saying "Wants that." Please excuse me, just interesting to watch the tiny baby I feel like I just had (oh wait, that was his brother) turning into a big boy!! His main words are: dog (old favorite), MaMa (not totally consistent yet), Dah (for Dad). please, thank you, bye, ball, hello, hey, huh, what's that, mine (usually pointing while panting insistently for ice!), book, "un, two" for 1-2-3 (but it usually is uhn, two, six!), and Heath swears he says "love you." He must not love me, I haven't heard it!

Starr family picture update - Grandad took us to dinner for Stacy's birthday