I love you mama

Meant to post this a few weeks ago (beginning of August).

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This week David started spontaneously saying to me "I love you mama".  It makes me melt inside!  He is still such a snuggly little boy who loves to be in his parents arms, sucking his fingers and twirling our hair.  He is a wonderful helper and interested in learning almost anything.

Gabriel also loves to learn.  Right now they are learning how to count and the names of letters.  They love bringing books home from the library and force us to read them too many times.  I am beginning to think it very wise to screen the books we pick out before we get home.  Or else i end up reading something i hate over and over.  Most recently we checked out an educational book about water (and the beach) since we are getting ready for our beach trip.  Gabriel especially enjoyed it.  They ask me semi-frequently now "whats dat mama?"

On a walk we took on Monday we happened upon a trash truck collecting all the garbage for this retirement home.  The garbage was inside and so the men had to make many trips back and forth, loading the truck and then squishing all the garbage with the big mechanical machine.  I felt so weird with my stroller parked like 50 feet away from the back of this truck in this parking lot but the boys were SO into it.  The garbage men were nice and didn't seem to mind that we were gawking at them.

Today Gabriel climbed out of his crib.  After he did it once, he immediately set himself upon the task of climbing back in.  (In part, this was because he was supposed to be in time-out in his crib and so knew he would get in trouble... but i bet mostly he just enjoys the challenge of a good climb.)

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Fast forward a few weeks to now...

Gabriel has mastered his crib.  We have decided that instead of turning the cribs into toddler beds and then buying bed rails to attach to the sides, we are just going to put the drop side down so that they can climb out more easily.  (Yep, that is right, we use drop side cribs!!  They were on clearance and they are awesome.  As far as i am concerned... drop side is still a great feature on a crib!)  Anyway, the only feat that he has not mastered (but has scarily attempted a few times) is standing on the edge of the crib and jumping off.  Heights don't seem to be a worry to him.

David can climb out of his crib but sometimes he prefers to just hang out until i come get him.  A lot of the time, if they do climb out, they wait until they are both awake and then climb out together.  Then they go open the door and stand at the gate calling for me.  If i don't put the gate up, they will come on down or into my room looking for me.  It is kind of nice actually.  Not as scary as i thought it would be since they are quite capable on the steps now.

So for the moment... there is no big transition to "big boy beds" to worry about.  That makes me happy because i think our hands will be full with potty training.  We haven't started yet but David has shown much interest.  I am not sure he is ready though... i need to read up.  I welcome suggestions for products and books related to potty training!  Prayers are also appreciated!