So yet again its weeks beyond when I wanted to be posting but I just never have the time. Amazing how those two little guys eat all my free time. So lets see... Whats new? Ben has discovered the fun in hiding toys and having us find them and vice versa. But the cutest is when he hides things because he usually hides them in the same spot, which is not so well at all. He gets so excited once he's hidden his toy and drags us to the room. Of course Joanna and I play dumb and can't find his hiding spot and typically within a few seconds he gets so overexcited that he shows us where he hid it.
Last night we tried watching a movie with Ben. Normally he's a big fan and he was very excited to watch Chicken Run. So we popped it in, made popcorn and got the fire roaring. Except, Ben was scared of the dogs that kept chasing the chickens so we had to turn the movie off. So we put on Rudolph. Safe enough, right? Nope. Ben was very scared of the snow monster so we had to turn that off too. So we settled on cartoons and all was well.

And all of the latest pictures:
11/24/08
Grandmas visit
Thanksgiving

Other exciting events...Ben has taken up finger painting and was quite talented! He, in fact, made Grandmas birthday card finger painting. And Grandma said it was great and she's not biasedat all, so it must be true!Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Everyone got together at Oma's house, including little cousin Julia. Noah and Julia had a definite affinity for each other! My how family get togethers have changed! Definitely for the better I think.Here is Ben at Monkey Joes. Grandma and Bobe took him here while we did some work around the house. Monkey Joes is a big indoor inflatable park that Grandma may have actually even had more fun than Ben! Joanna and I have been there yet, but we've heard great things!And here is a great video that is incredibly easy to make. I made it at a website called Animoto. Short 30 sec videos are free to make. Full length songs are $3. Just upload all the pictures that you'd like to include. Pick a song and let Animoto do its thing!

And of course how can I forget Noah's first snowfall!

Chatter box

Ben has always spoken very clearly and has had a big vocabulary, but over the last few weeks, Joanna and I have both noticed that he has really started speaking in fuller sentences. I expected it to happen gradually, but something must have clicked for him. He is now blabbing about everything. His favorite topic is of course trucks and cars, but anything goes.
At long last we bought Ben's new bedroom furniture last weekend and it will be delivered tomorrow. Ben has been extremely excited about that. Noah will be inheriting Ben's older bedroom set so finally we should be able to move Noah out of our room! We were concerned that Ben would have a hard time parting with his furniture but he knows
exactly where his old furniture is going and can't wait for his big boy set to arrive. Actually, he is most excited about the delivery van that will be dropping off the set. This will be Ben's first taste of freedom as he'll be able to easily climb in and out of the new bed.
Noah is also making great progress lately. He's really smiling quite a bit now and is great at focusing on people. He absolutely loves bath time, but he still hasn't gotten that whole sleeping through the night thing mastered. He's still waking up just once every night. Any day now...

Here are some recent pics.

Also, a great video about Ben's priorities:

Back!

After well over a month of silence, I am finally back to posting! So sorry for the delay. But I've got lots of pictures of the boys so enjoy! Noah is now approaching 3 months old and has grown very quickly. So much is new. Noah has been fantastic and you can really see in his face how big he has gotten. He can hold himself up really well and has the sweetest smile (when he chooses to share it with us). He is great at rolling over and pretty much does so at will.Often times 2-3 times per tummy time session. Ben on the other hand showed us once early on that he could roll over and then not again until he was MUCH older. If it remember correctly, closer to 8 months. Noah also now keeps his beautiful blue eyes open a good portion of they day. Don't get me wrong, the kid wont ever turn down a nap, especially when he's in his baby bjorn, but he's now enjoying looking around more and more. He has recently taking to staring, cooing and smiling at the sheep hanging over his swing too. Those things amaze him! He's been a pretty good sleeper too, although some nights mommy might strongly disagree.For the most part, he is now waking up only once, sometimes twice per night. As you can see, Noah requested to be a pumpkin for Halloween so we happily obliged since coincidentally, we had Ben's pumpkin costume from a few years ago! Perfect fit. He was adorable!Ben on the other hand has had a rough last week and a half. Poor kid had a fever last week which then turned into some terrible cold sores on his lips and in his mouth. So he ate next to nothing for the duration and was EXTREMELY cranky and moody. We felt terrible for him but sadly there wasn't much we could do for him. At last, he is just about over everything.
We did selfishly drag him out for Halloween though! We all went over to a mommy friend of Joanna's house who had a whole bunch of kids over for dinner and then trick or treating. Ben was pretty cranky until we went out and then he was at best indifferent. But atleast mommy and daddy had fun!

Trick or treating with mommy friends pics

Hmmm... what else. We also took a Halloween train ride up in Kempton with the boys and Joanna's parents. Just a 45 minute out and back ride through some beautiful country

Train ride pics

We also all had a great time carving pumpkins. You'll all no doubt be impressed with my pumpkin handy work. I am available for rent for reasonable rates.

Halloween at home

Other than that, Ben is speaking extremely well and is coming ever closer to speaking in sentences. It always amazes us the things that he pulls out of nowhere, remembering conversations from a long time ago or books that he took out of the library months earlier.

Thats all for now. I promise I'll be better about posting again!

Almost 6 weeks old...

Noah just went in for his 6 week checkup and he's doing great! He's up to 9 lbs 12oz and 22 3/4" long. Thats 2lbs 3oz and over 2" since he was born and puts him in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. He's still a pretty good sleeper, but he sure gave mom a run for her money Saturday night! He continues to push himself up further and further while laying on his belly and even managed to flip himself over once last week.

Most of the pictures in this album, as usual, are of Ben. Sorry Noah, but Ben loves the camera! Grandma came up last weekend to watch Ben while we went furniture shopping and they had a ball. Went to a place called Monkey Joes which is a huge indoor park of assorted inflatable bounce houses and rides. Not sure who had more fun!
Luckily for Ben, they also happened to be fixing a leaking pipe in our yard that day and the utility company guys loved Ben and let him sit in trucks and back hoes and play on all of their equipment. The kid was in heaven.

And the latest pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/daneichenwald/9_15_08#

Ben meets cousin Julia

Last week daddy and Ben took a boys roadtrip up to New Hampshire to visit the new lady in the family and we had a great time. Aside from a very brief breakdown on the way back, Ben was fantastic the entire way and we got caught in many hours of complete down pour. Ben took a little while to warm up to his new cousin, but once he did, he was his usual hammy self. We got some great pictures of him 'driving' Mike's truck, holding and kissing Julia and then once we got home in his Gambian outfit makes faces and showing off his physique.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daneichenwald/9_10_08#

Noah is growing so fast. He's starting to fill out some of those outfits that were huge on him and he's even outgrowing some outfits.

Boy meet stair

Sorry Noah. You haven't done much interesting lately so this post is about Ben. Last night was a big night for Ben. En route to his first hair cut and bubble bath, Ben was about to start climbing the stairs and bit it big time, chin first into the step. Poor kid had blood coming out of his mouth, but he's a trooper and soon forgot about the pain. He was too excited to get his hair cut and test out his new Thomas the Train bubbles! His hair was crazy long and yours truly was the barber and it came out pretty damn good if I don't say so myself! And of course Ben was a champ and didn't complain at all. And he absolutely loved his bubble bath too. Check out the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daneichenwald/9_3_08#

We also went peach/apple picking today and Ben had a great time. Noah, as usual, slept through it. Amazing how big Ben is getting. He's been apple picking a few times already but couldn't even walk last time. Now he's picking apples and eating them completely on his own. Adorable!

2+ weeks old already

Poor kid. Only 2 weeks old and I'm already slacked on posting. Sorry Noah! But after initially bringing him home, he doesn't change too much. He's definitely packing on weight as can be seen in his cheeks. But mostly just sleeping and eating. Ben is definitely warming up to him though. He's always concerned when he hears him cry and runs over to offer him a matchbox car or pacifier. Fortunately, no jealousy and Ben has been great all those times that either Joanna or I need to leave him alone for a few minutes to go change a diaper. Latest pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daneichenwald/8_31_08

Ben is also always willing to give his little brother a hug and kiss too. Adorable as always! (The rest of the video is Ben just ignoring me. Guess I should get used to that.)