Oh the things they say...

 So we were all dressed coordinatingly on Sunday so we decided to take some family pictures... 

 

Connor was our little focus tester...

And the only picture we could get with everyone looking at the camera and not blinking or scowling... 

Vale wanted to give baby Schafer a kiss :) 

 The baby, and mommy will take all the love we can get!! :)
 

My three little men and me.

 

I come out into the living room and the boys are cuddled together on the couch under a blanket with both their arms up... :)  They are so sweet!

 

The boys have been wanting to sleep in the same bed lately... they are too cute... :)

Connor

So Connor was misbehaving and being mean to Vale... doing blatantly unkind things in front of us.  Jimmy took him back to his room and sat him on the changing table and looked at him and said, "Connor I don't understand why you are doing this?  You are a very smart boy but you are doing some very foolish things!"  Connor looks right at him and says, "It's because we are sinners dad."... oh well now that you've cleared that up for me I'll just move on... ha oh me oh my... this kids too smart for his own good.

I asked Connor during dinner one night, just out of the blue.  'Hey Connor, how does somebody go to heaven?'  His response: "You die." ... yup... good call... next questions... :)

I'm not sure where he picked it up but Connor has started making up names for things, putting a whole bunch of random words together and then adding the term 'incorporated' on the end.  Such as a 'panther police python incorporated' or 'blue footed seagulls incorporated'... this kid... I'm tellin' ya...

So Connor says to me, out of the blue while he's playing, "If we die, we should go to hell because of our sin but if God looks at us and sees Jesus we can go to heaven!"... yes, yes that's very true buddy... :)  Then about two days later he says... "Brennan (his cousin who just came to visit) is a sinner so that means he needs a savior and the only savior is Jesus Christ"... yup... another truism bud... keep it up! :)

Connor LOVES to pretend he's an animal.  There isn't a day that goes by that he isn't pretending to be something, either a lion, a mountain lion, a leopard, a cheetah, a bear and most recently a dog.  Not just any dog though, he's a ferocious guard/attack dog.  He always wants to be my pet _____ . So I often have a pet lion protecting me as I do the dishes... he's on the lookout for bad lions... just in case... :)

Connor finally gave in a sang the ABC song to grandma on the phone!  YEAH!  He's been able to identify the letters and tell me their phonetic sound for a while but refused to say them in order or sing the song... break through!! :)

Vale

Vale is doing great with the whole potty training thing!  We put him in big boy underwear the day after his second birthday and he peed on the potty twice and wet through about 6 pair of underwear... ugh... I was not encouraged... but the second day, I started taking him about every 45 minutes or so and he got it... he understood the urge to pee and was controlling it!  He even peed on the potty at church when the nursery workers took him!  I've been taking him frequently and he has only had a few accidents since that first day!!  I'm still putting him in a diaper for nap time and night sleep but during the day, he's doing great!!!  He's not always telling me yet when he has to pee but he's controlling it and will occasionally let me know... which is awesome and a step in the right direction!

The taking away of the paci on the other hand... not so smooth.  We decided to just go cold turkey with him, one, since he's so stubborn and a fighter, if we tried to do it gradually it was gonna be 6 weeks of knock down drag out fights... secondly, we really want him done and used to not having it by the time Schafer gets here.  I really don't want him stealing his paci if we can help it.  It takes him a lot longer to settle down for sleep time now and today I put him down for a nap and 45 min later he was still awake and playing. I tucked him in again and 45 minutes later, he was still awake and playing... I tucked him in again and came back about 30 minutes later, he'd obviously been out of bed but he was passed out, face tucking into his blanket.  Pheww!  Well when he woke up... he came in with a paci in hand that he had found under the bed while playing and had used it to go to sleep that third time!!!  Little stinker!  Sigh... we'll get it... it's just gonna be rough for a bit...

Vale has started saying 'Oh Man!' correctly and it's hilarious.  I gave him a cup when he went to bed and he looked at me and said 'Juice?' and I replied 'No water buddy' and he goes 'Oh Man!' :)

Vale hurt himself somewhere on his head (not uncommon with Vale) and he came to me crying while I was reclining on the couch.  I picked him up and put him on my lap (well what lap I have left, basically the space under my belly and above my legs) and he laid down with his head on my chest, we were belly to belly.  He was crying and Schafer started kicking wildly.  Vale sat up and scowled, looked down at my belly and yelled 'Stop that Schafer!!!'... I really think he thought that was going to be effective.  Poor kid... 

Vale LOVES the nursery at church... to the point of he's trying to bail out to get in before it's my turn to check him in and when I come to get him, sometimes he doesn't want to leave.  Sigh... that's a great change from about 7 months ago when he was screaming bloody murder when I'd try to drop him off. :)