Elias is 2!

Whee!

July is almost over...so much has been happening, and yet, a bunch of nothing has gone on, too. The hilights of this month are:

Elias' 2nd birthday - so much fun! He even blew out his own birthday candle, then promptly burst into tears. Now he's obsessed with watching the video & blowing out candles.

Jacob is still scootering around, and now pulling up on everything. Every so often he will take a tentative step, so it won't be long before he's fully mobile.

We've had to move Elias into another carseat, because Jacob has pretty much outgrown his pumpkin seat. So, new carseats for both boys, and the backseat of the Accordian is getting smaller and smaller...I see a 3 row SUV in my future.

We're in the process of replacing the fascia on our house, in hopes of getting gutters installed before it rains too much. This means lots of Saturdays & evenings with Zach outside, banging away.

Still trying to hop on board the potty train...Elias has discovered how the play the song on his potty (which should only sound when he uses said potty) by just pushing the button. No peepee in the potty yet.

Jacob has really started being more vocal - I think he's even said 'mama' & 'dada', though I don't know if he realizes yet what he's saying.

Faith & I have set up sprinklers & the baby pool in the backyard. Elias loves it. Jacob screams when we put him in the pool. I think sometimes Elias is a little bit too much for him!

But, Jacob & Elias can totally crack each other up. They get to staring at each other until one of them laughs, and that makes the other one laugh. Too funny.

And speaking of funny - Elias was in his new carseat, and started speaking gibberish. I turned around to ask him 'what', and he repeated himself. I asked him if he was speaking alien, and he matter-of-factly told me 'Yes.' Who knows!

Life keeps passing me by!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted something! I guess that's what raising 2 babies will get you, especially if you spend half the month travelling all over the south. We had a great time at the beach. Faith came down, too, to hang out, which was good - we had to put some of our stuff in her car to get home!!! Jacob started crawling while we were there, a cute little inchworm crawl. By the time we got home, he was fully mobile. Too bad for Elsie - she wasn't prepared for him grabbing her all the time! The trip home was pretty horrendous - Elias was having trouble going to the bathroom, so we had to stop at almost every exit on the way home. What should have been a 4-5 hour trip turned into 8-9 hours! Thankfully, by Birmingham he fell asleep, and we managed to get home rather uneventfully from there.

We were home about 2 weeks, then off to Atlanta with our youth for Jesus Culture. What an awesome experience! And thank God for Gran-Gran, who went with us and took care of Eli & Jacob. We never would have made it without her! It was so cool to watch Elias dancing with hundreds of other people during worship, and even Jacob got into it, singing along. It definitely kicked Elias up a notch - he'd been praising and praying and blessing people ever since we came home!

Jacob has moved to sitting up on his own. The first few times he did, we figured Elias must have helped him, but one day I went to get him up from nap, and he was sitting up, looking at me! Time to drop the mattress down a level! No teeth yet, but we are so close!

Elias learned a new stunt, too - crawling out of his crib. The first time he tried, he got his knee stuck in the crib slats. At 2 a.m. Nothing like the wailing that occurs and rips you from deep slumber! The next time he climbed out during naptime, and he made it about halfway up the stairs before I realized he was out. I think I finally made him understand that it was too dangerous to climb out, because he hasn't tried again. I know it's not long before we're swapping to a toddler bed.

Elias turns 2 this weekend - I can't believe how grown up he has gotten! He's all conversational now, and will pretty much tell you anything. He also repeats everything you say, word by word, which is pretty funny when you're trying to have a conversation. He also loves singing and dancing, and will sing along to the cds in the car. It's amazing that he knows most of the words to a bunch of worship songs. He'll also start singing and dancing in the most random places, like in the buggy at Lowe's! I guess it's better than what Jacob did - he was chewing on Eli's juice cup, and managed to soak his entire shirt while we were there. Nothing like a wardrobe change in the parking lot of Lowe's!

We're almost ready for Elias' birthday party - Imagination Movers. That seems to be his favorite show, and even Jacob will get up on his hands & knees to "dance". It is so funny! I'm sure next week I'll have a ton of pictures up from the party!