growing

Things have been growing around here, as should be expected. Namely, flowers and blossoms on every plant, tree, and bush in sight, (granted, that was last month, but we're behind, which should also be expected by now), our little man, and my belly. Here are a few pics from last month to show how beautiful our neighborhood is in the springtime and how big we're all getting (by we I mean myself and Van, Jon definitely doesn't have the kind of body build you'd hope for any sympathy pregnancy weight to be gained).

cherry blossoms


dogwoods


azaleas



some other kind of tree with a fancy name I don't know


tulips


weeds


and now for our own personal weed.

proof that we've got a toddler: he's got his very own toddler scrapes. He's so funny when he falls! Almost every time, no matter how hard the face plant, he jumps up, makes some kind of man grunt, brushes his hands together all sloppy-like, and takes off running. I love my little tough guy!


mastering the slide and beating things with sticks, as every little boy should.


longboarding with the neighbor (oh how he covets big boys old enough to really longboard for real)


he looks like a natural!! even though technically he's not moving or anything...



love this photo of the V-man riding the scooter like a pro with his dad's help on the handlebars. These two are so cute hanging out together.


guy on the left: same as ever! willing to try anything new, go out on a limb, loves to meet people, works hard, plays hard, makes us laugh every day, worries about doing what's right, lives to make people happy. guy on the right: growing and learning SO MUCH every day. But everything else is pretty much the same as described about guy on the left (except for the worrying about doing what's right thing. um...no.)


and because my mom says she hasn't seen a single photo of me pregnant, here are the few I could scrounge up that gave a good belly shot. Only one or two of the photos below were planned "belly shots," so they're not totally awesome. But for documentary purposes, they do the job. Jon just took Van and I to a fun field full of yellow flowers this week to get some photos of me and the 1.5 kiddos, so hopefully I'll have those up next week!

do as we're {always} doing

Just when we're convinced he absolutely ignores us the second either one of us straps a camera around our neck, he goes and proves that not only is he paying attention, he's also taking concise note of each important step of what we're doing to make that big black box operate.

This is HILARIOUS. When we were in Florida a couple months ago for Jon to attend Photoshop World (more photos to come, but in the meantime, check out beach pics from the trip here on our photog blog in case you missed them), one night in the hotel room I was trying to clean up a little before Jon got home really late from his classes. Van was mid clothes-to-pj's change hanging out on the bed, and when I turned back to put his pajamas on, I saw this.



then this,


and then this.


When I first saw him I laughed out loud and told him I wished I had a second camera to take pictures of him doing that, and then it hit me, I DO have a second camera!! What a convenient purchase that was! Granted I had absolutely no time to change my settings for fear I'd miss the moment, so the color is absolutely awful, but I had to post them anyway! It was just too cute!

I LOVE that he put the strap around his neck, attempted to get the lens cap off (he'll get that soon enough, I'm sure) and knew exactly how to lift the camera to his face to take a shot. Even if the whole thing is the same size as his head. He was so proud of himself, and I was beaming. And totally laughing. This kid is a blast, and we can't get over how much he takes into that little brain of his already! Kids are so dang smart.

sunshiney

we heart you, beautiful evening backlighting on sunny days. BIG heart. We're also pretty crazy about this little blonde boy with messy hair, a messy face, and energy that could sail him to the moon and back.





that cute little messy face has never looked happier



he's got this thing about his stomach and exposing it and/or checking it out...it's both hilarious and adorable.

a sunday walk

We love a day out with our little explorer.

spring + van = blossoms + happiness

Totally stoked about all the pink flowers with his dude buddies. Okay, so they've totally got crusty bored-out-of-their-mugs expressions in this photo and they were much more interested in the big truck driving past than anything pink and fluffy. These guys were all born within 20 days of each other, Van right in the middle. They've been tight ever since, and it's so fun to have an excuse to get together with their moms while we let our boys play. For the cherry blossoms we took them to a little used-to-be-secret-but-everyone's-finding-out-about-it neighborhood in MD just outside of the District that is LOADED with cherry trees. Every street is seriously lined with them. It's beautiful.



Later that evening Jon and I headed back to a nearby park to enjoy the weather while we let the maniac go wild and be happy. This kid loves digging and playing in the sandbox, and I love how transparent his joy is.




Here's our kid showing off his social bug skills. Van is so friendly and quick to play with strangers (I know, totally safe, right?). He has no reservations whatsoever with other people's personal space, property, or attitudes, but he's so sweet about it that people can't help but love him. I love how he brought this lady to life. It's so Van.

a recurring theme

Can anyone see something in common with all the photos below?

(some of these are from December when he much smaller and desperately needed a haircut, so you'll have to excuse the frat-boy-in-a-holiday-sweater appearance. You'll also have to excuse that some of these are awful photos with the worst lighting and focus ever, but they were too funny to exclude so they got thrown in the mix.)








Someone's got an obsession. For most of these he's holding old phones of ours that we'll charge for him and let him play with. But our favorite's are the plastic CB radio from the plastic firetruck in the park and the computer mouse that clearly looks more like a phone to a one year old than we would have thought.

This is just a small sampling of the things he'll pick up and hold to his head like a phone, it's hilarious! It's always accompanied by a "e'oh?" (hello), "ummm", and "yes", which must be what we say on the phone most since he's mimicking us. It's the funniest thing ever, especially the "ummm." We laugh at him all the time (and I guess we could work on utilizing the unintelligible "um" a little less often in our educated adult conversations) and can't believe how much that little brain of his takes in and remembers. It's amazing. We love our little parrot, he's our constant entertainer!

like father...

This kids adores his daddy, and I absolutely love it. Stealing photos of them doing things together is one of my favorite things. Van loves to have dance parties with Jon, build blocks, play with cars, get pulled around the house in the laundry basket at top speed, read books, and the cutest thing is how he says "hi" to his dad whenever he sees him, in his cute, high little boy voice. Jon's mom told us that when Jon was a little boy he would always say hi to her whenever she came in the room, even if he'd already said hi seconds before, so I love to see this little friendly habit coming out through his son. I love my boys!!

Storytime. Making the "choo choo" train motion together for The Little Engine That Could book.


Laughing together during The Pigeon Wants A Puppy book. Van is crazy about this book because it's all about a puppy, and Jon totally promotes the book because in the end the pigeon changes his mind and doesn't want a puppy at all (he's hoping this might sway our children from begging for puppies in the future). :)


Enjoying the warm weather outside together. These two are both so much happier when they're outside (and Van's been that way since the day he was born). I love that they both crave it and would rather make a mad dash for the door than do anything inside.




Oh how I love these pictures...a cuddle moment on the couch, and Van taking a walk with his daddy in his daddy's shoes (which he seems to be managing surprisingly well). Life is so good because of little moments like this.