wright brothers lately

a few things i want to remember about our boys at six months and two and a quarter years old:

moses:

• loves to watch our wedding video (he asks for it every few days by saying "watch mama and daddy in the red car" referring to the very end when we leave our reception in a red car :) ).
• adores his brother and gives him the biggest, longest hugs while saying "awwwwww."
• says "one minute" pretty much 100% of the time he is asked to do something ... always looking for one more minute to play! 
• is obsessed with a story book his grandma gave him for christmas last year, and references the stories in it multiple times a day.
• loves animals more than anything. his favourite animals are elephants and giraffes and he will often randomly say, "i love elephants" or "i love giraffes." if he sees a picture of an animal when we are out and about he hollers "annnnnimal!!!" with so much glee. he spends hours every day playing with his animal stickers (those things are amazing and i love them almost as much as mo!). he gets so excited about sorting them into their different habitats (all the farm animals on one window, all the jungle animals on another, etc.). 
• says new clever and adorable things every day. i need to start writing them all down, because i think i will remember them and then i forget! the other day ian and i were hugging and moses ran right over, hugged us around our legs and said, "i in this family too!" 
• has a very definitive and unchanging favourite colour: blue.
• talks about "miranda" at least ten times a day. back in august we went to a "dinosaur live" show at the regents park open air theatre and the host of the show was a girl named miranda. moses is randomly obsessed with her. when we ask him who he loves, she comes right after mama/daddy/gabey/jesus (and sometimes comes first!). he loves it when i tell him stories (that i make up on the fly) about miranda and the dinosaurs that she hangs out with. 
• is a singer. he loves music and sings both actual, known songs and his own off-the-cuff compositions. 
• has a fantastic imagination that is growing every day. he has started making really clever connections between books and stories and experiences and weaving them into his imaginative play. 
• is not very good at playing independently. if i leave our pile of legos or playdough or puzzles, he often lasts only about 30 seconds before saying, "mama play with you!" i love that he wants me interacting with him but sometimes i gotta get some stuff done or talk to other people! :) 
• continues to have killer dance moves and to love our nightly dance parties before bed. he dances for a while and then asks to be chased around the room by mom or dad. he just runs lap after lap around the couches, squealing with joy. 
• is getting better at better at riding his scooter around the city.
• is working daily on perfecting a classic two-year-old meltdown tantrum :) and is working on being more gentle with his body and his voice. just so much energy and enthusiasm inside of that little soul! 
• is loving joy school!

gabriel:

• is such a giggly baby! he laughs way more than moses did at this age. he is ticklish and otherwise easily amused. the best is when he randomly lets out a hearty chuckle out of the blue while watching moses doing something. when he starts laughing, it's so fun to try to keep him on a roll, which usually happens around bedtime. it's hard to stop - his sweet giggle is just so addictive!
• has the most impossibly cute dimples and big blue eyes.
• looooves eating! he just started trying some vegetable purees on his six month birthday and he is so into it, literally gasping for more pretty much the whole time. 
• cut his first tooth at 5.5 months old and has complained about it almost zero. 
• is very social. he just likes to have people around him and haaaates being a room alone, even just for a few minutes. 
• is fascinated by anything crinkly and will grab and carefully examine anything presented to him. 
• loves the swing and being tossed up a tiny bit in the air and spun around gently during our bedtime dance parties. i think we have a bit of an adrenaline junkie on our hands. 
• is a tiny baby! he was born on the 50th percentile but now is on the 2nd! he's just a little dude. we're hoping that with solids he'll fill out a little, but we also love his perfect petiteness for now. 
• is sooo smiley - and his smiles delight people all over london every day. when my sister and niece were taking care of him one day during their recent visit, they were given their cafe lunch for free because the woman helping them was so enamored with baby boy's smile! 
• has been waking very excruciatingly early lately, ready to play and enjoy the day. we're working on learning that it's not morning until at leeeeast 6am! 
• adores his brother back and lights up whenever he sees moses. 
• may legitimately be the sweetest baby on planet earth. i seriously sometimes am so completely consumed by love for him and his cuteness.

i'll never get over how lucky i am to watch these boys grow, to witness them becoming themselves. it's incredible.