continuing to stay busy here at the king household! the dust has started to settle from the move and the routine is starting to work itself out with both kids. the only sad thing is that i know in another few weeks we will be changing everything again when i go back to work.... never static!
samantha has made a wonderful addition to our family, and despite keeping me very busy (as all new babies do) she is a joy to have around. she and her big brother noah continue to get along beautifully despite some of noah's more violent attempts to play with her -- the other day he threw a small yellow ball directly at her head, which she obviously didn't care for. needless to say, there was some explaining involved for our son followed by said-ball being removed from the toybox for a while. mostly, though, it's smiles and hugs and kisses for his little sis. he frequently tells me when she cries and will attempt to comfort her by patting her on her stomach if she is playing on the floor or in her bouncy chair. i love to hear him call her by name, either "sam-meee" or "man-tha." and he has recently started stringing together longer groups of words into sentences! this has been wonderful for us all, as it has made it much easier to understand what he wants, needs or just finds interesting. his very first sentence was, much to my amazement, "I like to read." !!! matt and i were sitting with both kiddos in the loft and noah was "reading" his books to us, then he stopped and said, very casually and matter-of-fact-ly, "I like to read." it was definitely one of my favorite parenting moments so far :) since then, noah has continued to communicate in sentences, though not all of them are as eloquent as that one. usually it's still just two or three words together, but i am continually amazed at his comprehension and verbal skills. speaking of comprehension, it's pretty cute to hear him make associations. for example, there is an ice cream truck that frequents our neighborhood. now, noah doesn't know what ice cream or an ice cream truck is, so when he hears it he promptly tell us it's a "sigh-nen!" (siren) and then commences a chorus of "whee-ooo, whee-oooo!"
we are still working on colors, numbers, and shapes -- every color is blue until we correct him, most counting only includes the number 2, and every letter is P or T for right now. cars have become a much larger part of his world, he frequently carries around one or two at a time and they stay in his hands at pretty much all times of day unless he is eating, sleeping, or happens to be holding another toy (though this doesn't usually last very long). we've also started identifying construction vehicles while we are driving around (never a shortage of construction in the dallas area, or around our neighborhood, for that matter!). noah seems to be really excited when we see "diggers" around town, "mixers" driving down the highway, and "dozers" working on a construction site :) my son is, most definitely, 100% boy!
speaking of all-boy, we've started taking advantage of the sandbox that the previous owners of the house left to us. we moved it away from the side of the pool -- a horrible location for many reasons -- to the sport court area, and now noah spends long stretches of time playing in the sand and with the various toys left behind. thanks, guys!
i should also mention that we bought noah some season-appropriate shoes (figured the crocs wouldn't be very good through the winter!). and, lucky me, kid-to-kid had a pair of black converse in his size! now he's been rockin' the converse ever since!!!
i'm sure there are dozens more things i could write about, but this over-stimulated mommy brain is glitzing when it comes to short-term memory right now. i'll update this post if i remember anything else! in the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our family and check back next month for more updates on our little ones (and us, too, i guess).
