5 Things About (each of) My Little Guys

Julian Reuel

1. This boy loves to pretend to cook! Hmmm. I wonder from where he gets his love of making food? ;) Every day he takes practically all of my pots and pans out and cooks up some amazing delights, including but not limited to: quiche, bread, hot dogs, and -- my all-time favorite -- "eggs and wine" !!! Chairs and makeshift ovens will suffice until a certain Santa Claus comes with a real pretend kitchen set.

2. He is constantly singing now. It's absolutely adorable! He has a pretty good voice, too. Favorite songs are -- It's Raining, It's Pouring, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Row the Roses of Success, Waltzing Matilda, I Love You. Now that it's inching towards Christmas he's attempting to remember all the words to Mele Kalikimaka, a song his mother gets stuck in her head like mad this time of year.

3. Julian is a ritual man. Every element of his bedtime routine must be performed from start-to-finish in the order it has been performed since the beginning of bedtime routines in this household. He gets his vitamin, then his vitamin treats (his daily Omega 3 supplements), exactly 3 books read to him, and prayers. Here is just one example of this particular feature of Julian's.

4. He is scared of the funniest things. For instance, in the book Courage there's a picture of a boy with a zipper over his mouth to represent his not telling a secret to anyone. He's scared of that, even though it really isn't scary. There is a picture of Our Lady in my husband's office that scares him. She's as peaceful-looking as one could imagine in it, but he asks for us to put it away whenever we're there. He's scared of his stuffed husky dog that looks exactly like this.

 Again, not scary. I guess if it isn't looking and smiling just so, it's worthy of being scary to him. Ha!

5. Julian will remember your name if you meet him once. Seriously, it's pretty amazing. He remembers all of my mommy friend's names and their kid's names from the oldest sibling to the baby. This mamma is thoroughly impressed with that little brain of his!

Ignatius James

1. He is one super happy baby. Of course the exceptions are when he's hungry or tired, but Ignatius will smile and laugh if given the opportunity to do so almost at any time of the day. He's always grinning, and this is especially fun because of all the attention he gets from doing so. Everywhere we go he gets so much attention from his outward joyfulness.

2. He loves playing, especially throwing balls around. No joke, he stays focused on this activity for like 10-15 minutes. He will toss the ball (he loves it even more when he has 2 balls to throw around), crawl toward the ball, and do it all over again. Pretty soon he's reached every corner of the apartment! He also enjoys tapping two toys together, especially if they make a really cool sound.

3. Ignatius feels the need to exceed. He crawled at 6 months, had a total of 8 teeth by 7 months, stood on his own at 8 months, and now ladies and gentlemen: he has taken his first real steps at 9! Pretty soon I'll have not 1 but 2 official toddlers in the house! Goooooo Ignatius!

4. He loves to wrestle especially with Daddy. He even growls at him and will keep that up if Daddy growls back. What a boy!

5. Nothing is better to this guy than getting into his big brother's stuff. Much to the pain my eldest feels to have someone usurping his things, Ignatius succeeds in this all-important task of little brotherhood. Here is a picture of Julian stealing back his fire truck book. Note the huge smile on little brother's face!

Have a great rest of your weekend, folks!