Weekend Without Mommy

I escaped the house Friday afternoon to head north to a scrapbooking event with two good friends. Meanwhile, Paul and Luke spent the afternoon with Grandma awaiting Daddy's return from a business trip. When the Daddy-Man arrived the hug from Luke lasted for quite a few minutes. Pretty sweet from the toddler who cannot slow down enough to complete a sentence. Friday night went well and the boys awoke to play with Taryn and Mary, the best neighbors ever. Having joined forces, they walked over at 6:25 AM to watch the boys while Erik went to his BSF leaders meeting. Did I mention that they are the best neighbors ever? After BSF, Daddy arrived home and spent the day with his dudes. They took a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house to watch college football. The picture below shows the boys wearing their matching t-shirts for the event. Adorable. There are also pictures from this past week that I just thought I would share because they are cute. :-)"I'm the Big Brother" and "I'm the Little Brother" matching football t-shirts! Aunt Nikki finds good presents.

Luke loves his sunglasses...even on cold, rainy fall days.

More Paul Smiles

The look on Paul's face totally cracks me up. He looks like he is thinking, "You can't make me smile just because these other guys are doing it."

P.S. Erik just picked up Paul, sniffed his head and stated, "He smells like some sort of philo dough based breakfast dish." I sniffed and thought he smelled more like something fruity. At least they are all good smells!

Smiling Paul

Three cheers for Grandma! While Luke and I were at BSF this morning, she caught Paul in the act of smiling. Your secret is out, big guy. No more hiding behind that tough guy facade.

Busy Day

Today was a very full day for all the Bangsunds. Luke headed out early with Grandma for adventure at the Children's Museum. Meanwhile Paul drove north (rode north safely in his car seat while Daddy drove) to hang out with good friends Marilyn and Ember for the morning. This even included a field trip to Ember's gymnastics class and a new nickname. Ember kept calling him Baby Bear, to which Marilyn would respond that this was Baby Paul. This resulted in Ember calling him Baby Pear. hee hee :-) During all this I enjoyed BSF Leadership and our first Leader's Fellowship of the year. Good strong coffee and talking about what God is doing in our lives. I LOVE IT!!!

After picking up Paul and meeting up with Luke and Grandma at home, we settled in for afternoon naps. Time well spent. After naps it was time for Paul's Two Month Well Baby Check Up with the best pediatrician in the world, Dr. Knapp. I love this woman. She raves about my boys and tells me I'm a good mom. These are things that I know already, but hearing them from a doctor is nice. Paul's check up went great. He measures 24 and one half inches, putting him in the 90th percentile for height. He weighs in at 14.6 pounds putting him in the 90th percentile for weight as well! Big boy. I laughed when she told me about his weight percentile. She smiled and said that he's perfectly proportioned. Did I mention that I adore this woman?

Paul was a fabulous patient and survived all four of his shots. Poor little man. I brought him home and gave him some chocolate. Just kidding! He was more interested in his formula and I thought that was probably best. So I ate the chocolate for him. I'm such a good mom.

Here are the pics of His Cuteness at the check up today.

Simply Adorable Dudes

I like these guys. Even on their worst days, they always manage to make me smile. Below we see Paul prepared for travel. I'm thinking that is the cutest thing ever. The cheeks! So cute!

God's Provision

It's been a busy week so far. Monday evening our childcare for Tuesday morning canceled and we started to pray. Tuesdays are my meeting for Bible Study leadership. Not only is it one of my favorite weekly activities, it is required that I attend if I'm going to lead my group on Wednesday. I knew that if God wanted me there, He would provide someone to hang out with Baby Paul. Six answering machines later, I began to feel a little desperate and depressed. Watch out for those D's folks. Erik was at his Monday evening BSF group and Luke was already asleep. It was just me, Paul and those nasty D's. I grabbed my favorite hymnal and started to sing. Be proactive people! Paul appreciated the music and the words were speakin' to my soul. I got to the one that says, "Let me come closer to thee, Lord Jesus. Closer day by day. Let me lean harder on Thee, Lord Jesus. Yes, harder all the way." It struck me that this was a perfect opportunity to put these lyrics into practice. Good stuff. And how does the story end? With six different folks wanting to watch Paul. I got to pick. God provides childcare. Abundantly more than we ask or imagine.
And now, for the pictures!

Luke received this awesome set of cars and blocks from Aunt Krista this week. They can be used with his Brio train stuff. Huge hit! I'm not sure why he is wearing one yellow boot on the wrong foot.
Sorry about the flash and the red eye! He was smiling and I didn't want to miss it. This isn't the big smile, but it's pretty cute.

Excuses and Cuteness

Sheesh! It's been a few days. I can explain. The Daddy-Man left town Thursday morning for business. His absence not only made the heart grow fonder, it also completely eliminated all spare time. No blogging possible. When he arrived home Friday afternoon I wasn't much interested in blogging. ;-) The arrival of good friends Mary Jo and Oma also completely obliterated all desire to sit at a computer screen. I'm so happy to say that I enjoy the company of the living over that of the digital. I hope the same is true for you.

I do, however, feel the need to post today as it is Paul's two-month birthday. I seriously cannot believe that. One part of me very much feels that Paul has always been a part of our family. I suppose in the eyes of God he has. Another part of me feels like we just brought him home from the hospital last week. How could he possibly be two months old? He is definitely growing. He loves to flirt with anybody who has a face. Do you have a face? Come get a smile from Paul. He is non-discriminatory in his generosity with the smile. He does not, unfortunately, smile for the camera. It's not a face and Mommy's face is too hidden behind it to count. Maybe next month.

One more thing to add. If you haven't checked out the blogs that we link to, click on John Willsea's blog. I love his latest entry. Cheers, John.

And now...the dudes.

"Hey Big Bro, whatcha readin'?"

Paul expounding on how he feels about the rising cost of gas and the downturn in the real estate market. Luke is pretty impressed.

About halfway through the photo shoot, Luke played the "He's touching me" card. It all starts here.

Paul and Sprout, the Bear

First Day of BSF

What an adventure we had today! Luke and I headed for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) this morning at about 8:25 am. Luke "helped" me set up the chairs for my discussion group. "I'm going to sit right here. No...here." Then he got to play with all the other leaders' kids while we prayed. At that point, Luke was headed to his class and I was headed to mine! It was so exciting to be with other women to study God's Word knowing that Luke was somewhere in the building learning the same stuff (on the two-year-old level of course!)

At the end of the morning, Luke was pretty tuckered out. He made it to the car and upon arriving home ate an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. That's quite a feat for the toddler tummy! He then passed out for two solid hours. When he woke up, we got a chance to talk about what he had done all morning. There was marching and quiet time on mats. There was also singing. This is about all I was able to drag out of him. I can tell he is still totally processing what he experienced. It really was his first classroom experience. When I picked him up, all the two year olds (about ten of them) were sitting around a round table in little chairs. Including Luke! It was a seriously wild moment for me. How did they get them to do that?!?

BSF provides a song packet for each family that includes all the songs they will sing this year. They also tell me each week what songs they did that day. Luke and I spent some time at the piano this afternoon singing the two songs he heard today. They are great songs full of scripture. Any song that prompts my son to ask me more about Jesus thrills me! Questions I heard today included: Where is Jesus? and When is Jesus coming back? The best part is that the song gives the answers! "Jesus is living in heaven today" is the first line of the song and "Jesus promises He will come back someday" is in the last verse. My dude was totally satisfied with the answers "in heaven" and "someday." I'm so thankful to have a program that prompts my son to start asking these questions and gives me the answers! As we sang that same song at bedtime Luke announced that he wants Jesus to come back. (In three minutes) That would be cool.

And now, for the pictures. :-)

Paul likes his puffer fish. Just don't eat it, Baby Paul.

I really wanted Paul to smile for the camera, but this is all he would do. Turkey.

Luke and friend at the piano. Pretty cute!

On the potty, but not really practicing. Just sitting there. Wearing Mommy's slippers.

You're cracking me up

At bedtime we read to Luke a story of his choosing. Lately it's been a book titled, "Catalina Magdelena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name." Seriously. When we finish he usually asks for it to be read again. Daddy or Mommy says, "Okay, one more time." To which Luke responds, "Two more times. You're cracking me up!" This always cracks us up. Where did he learn this phrase? I'm pretty sure it was me.

Ribs and Sleeping Babies

I love Saturdays. Today Erik headed off to BSF Leadership and the boys and I had a very lazy morning. Everyone was still wearing pajamas when Daddy arrived home at 9:30 am. Luke was enjoying his jammies so much that he went back to bed around 10am. He had reached maximum whining level and needed to be rejuvenated. We aren't sure if he just didn't sleep well last night or is going through a growth spurt. Regardless, he slept until 1pm and awoke a much happier boy. :-)

Then Mommy went to sleep for a few hours while Daddy entertained the troupes. From his recliner. Forget the armchair quarterback. This is the armchair Father. He can run the entire household from that chair. I need to develop this skill.

We dined on ribs and corn on the cob, which Luke likes to call corn on the bob. Not sure why. Anyway, this was Luke's first rib experience, so pictures became necessary. He spent way more time playing with the bones than eating the meat. At first we gave him just a pile of the meat that had already been stripped off the bone. No good. He saw us eating ours and said, "I need to eat that," pointing to the ribs in our hands. The camera wasn't available for the actual meat-eating moment, but it was pretty hilarious. I use a crock pot and enough sauce to float a boat. The meat just fell right off onto Luke's plate. "Oh, it fell off." Yep. Sorry about that, buddy. He was all the happier to just chew on the bone.

Paul, meanwhile, is so fun and cute. He smiles at me so often now. I tried getting a picture, but it ended up blurry. Don't worry, Paul Fans. It will happen soon. I did snap some shots of him completely asleep on his changing table. I also wanted to capture the preciousness of what I see while he sleeps in the Moby Wrap. Even though my hands are free, I don't get much done because I spend way too much time just staring at him. Oh well. There's always the next decade of my life to have a clean house. Oh, wait. I'll have two teenage boys. (!!!) I think I'm going to need a bigger crock pot.

Ribs are very serious business.

Happy Rib Eater

My name is Paul and I can sleep anywhere. And I'm getting huge.

I can remember a time in my life when it took some sort of event for me to take pictures. Not so anymore. Ribs and sleeping babies will do.

Quiet Day with Pictures

It was a fairly quiet day here. Daddy headed out early for a breakfast gig. The boys and I headed to Rachel's house for hang out time. Luke discovered the backyard over there and I thought he was going to change his address to the Craft Family Backyard. "Oh and look at this," was the phrase he kept using. They have lots of fun stuff. When we left he cried and I thought it was a good time to help him learn to name his emotion. As we headed for the car with Luke screaming loudly, I asked him if he could say, "I feel disappointed." Through big, giant tears he said the phrase and continued to say it for most of the ride home. Poor little man. But at least he's learning to express his feelings. And the repetition of the phrase decreased the screaming from the backseat. Still think I'm psycho?

Paul has been enjoying time in his new-to-us baby gym. He's definitely cooing and gooing more this week than last. I put the "gym" in the port-a-crib to prevent older brother from "working out" with it while Baby Paul is using it. The port-a-crib is in the eat-in area of the kitchen. I can actually manage to accomplish tasks in there while Paul is stationed here and Luke is in the playroom. Miracles happen. I haven't figured out a way to sit down and not be bothered yet. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen until they move out.

Luke heard me turn on the camera from the other room to take the previous picture of Paul. He immediately requested that I take a picture of him. "I would like a picture of me. Please." Covered in cereal. Hard to resist.

Odds and Ends

I had my Bible Study Fellowship Leadership Workshop today from 9am-2pm. It was so awesome. I am in a new class this year because I switched from the evening group to the day group. I made the change in order to allow Luke to start attending the two year old preschool class. It might seem nuts to teach the Bible to two year olds, but I cannot wait to see what he learns this year. The kid is a sponge and I'm pretty sure he will manage to memorize more scripture than me.

In order for me to attend the workshop, I needed to find childcare for both of my boys. I prayed about it, knowing that it is a big job caring for a newborn and a toddler. The first folks who came to my mind are a family I met through the evening BSF class. The two teenage daughters were in my Senior Level class and I thought it might be fun for all three of them to come. They were such a huge blessing to our family today. They came early to get the lay of the land and stayed after to chat with me. They not only took care of my boys, they enjoyed their company. They had Luke stories to share and were all smiles about his many and varied antics.

Speaking of which, the mail today contained a card from Oma. Luke opened it immediately and "read" it for me. "It say, 'Oma loves Luke and Paulywog.' " The kids knows his Oma. :-)

There are no pictures tonight. I'm sorry, Grandmas and Aunties.

There is however a commendation to my friend Rachel for starting her blog with a poignant entry about sending her two eldest children off to kindergarten today. Three cyberspace cheers for Rachel! Read her entry here: http://rachelcraft.blogspot.com

Family Fun and Gifts from God

Just a few shots of our last two days in Sunriver. It was an awesome trip and both boys did really well.


Luke visited the wading pool and really enjoyed splashing Mommy. Pretty fun.



After swimming, Luke visited this statue of a mountain goat. When we got back to the cabin, he was so excited to tell Grandpa all about it that a phone conversation with Lyle had to be cut short. Grandpa and Lyle are both good sports and Luke is going to learn how not to interrupt people...sometime soon. Any ideas?

Meeting Houdini the pony at Sunriver Stables, ostensibly for a ride.

Luke looking up at Houdini. He really liked the pony but was completely unwilling to ride him. I think this was out of a deep respect for Houdini...they had clearly bonded and Houdini obviously shared with Luke that he would like to have a break. Luke kissed Houdini goodbye with a big mwahh and said he would see him tomorrow. Maybe in October, kiddo.

Our family picture with our matching Berlin t-shirts. Have you ever tried to get a two-year old to sit with the family, look at the camera, and smile? Didn't happen, but I like this picture a lot. We also all laughed about how little effort, none at all in fact, we spent trying to get Paul to look at the camera. When Luke was his age, we spent forever trying to get him to acknowledge the small digital device that he couldn't even see. Hilarious.

On a completely separate note: We are teaching Luke how to pray by asking him what he would like to thank God for. Tonight at dinner he included warm milk, scrambled eggs, his fork, his plate, Mommy's fork and plate, as well as Daddy's fork and plate. Everything on the table. Well said, Luke. It all comes from Him. And at bedtime he thanked God for Paul. Every good and perfect gift is from God. Thank you, God for my sons who are learning to love each other.

Sunriver Adventures

One of Luke's adventures yesterday involved "biking" with Grandma and Grandpa. We were a little worried listening to him talk about it ahead of time. He kept saying, "And I will ride the bike." Oh dear. As it turns out he loved riding along behind. Whew! Meanwhile Paul filled the day with his usual pursuits. See pictures below.

What is going on up there?

I'm ready to go!

I'm busy here, people. This spot underneath the kitchen counter needs to be tested for sleeping suitability. Seems fine so far.

Traveling

We spent yesterday in travel mode, arriving in Sunriver around 4:30 pm. Luke rode over with Grandma and Grandpa and made a much quicker trip than Paul, who needed to stop and eat in Government Camp. He loves to eat, but is so slow sometimes. We just sat in the Jeep outside a Chevron watching the chipmunks and teenagers, both entertaining in their own ways.

Our arrival was heralded by an outpouring of excitement from Luke who greeted us at the door. "We are in Sunriver!" Pretty excited little man. Paul was awake for the occasion, but only because he wanted to eat again. Go figure.

Here are a few pics. I'm sure there will be more today. :-)

Paul enjoyed staring at the blanket pictured behind him here. He also likes the ceiling fan in the living room.

Luke and Grandpa playing cards before dinner. Luke is quite equitable when dealing. You get this one, no this one. I get all these. Grandpa thinks that's fair.

Happy boy.