18 Months & 3 Years

I wanted to take pictures of the boys at their latest age milestones, but decided studio pictures were only worth it for babies (or at least less active kids). After daylight savings it was still light after dinner, so I quickly dressed the boys and we walked over to the park for some "professional pictures."

 I couldn't narrow down the pictures.

 Here we have one of Scott smiling, then one of Jonah. It wouldn't really be fair to pick only one.

 I asked Scott to give Jonah a kiss, since that helps him hold still, but Jonah went right for the mouth.

 Scott wiped his mouth (sorry, bud!) and Jonah laughed.

 John was dressed nicely from work still, so I threw him in the picture, too. The boys were too distracted to look at me anymore, though.

 Here's my little Scott. He is such an obedient boy, he's curious and clever, hesitant around anything new, gentle and sweet. He helps me with everything I ask most of the time and can be reasoned with. When he wants something we don't have, if I explain it he's patient and understanding (If I say his caterpillar jammies are dirty, he asks if we can wash them or if I tell him we're out of berries, he asks if we can go to the store for some more, if he wants to color, I say we can do that later when Jonah is napping). He always looks out for Jonah, much to his dismay. Scott likes order and routine, which I use to my advantage whenever possible. He usually breaks these general habits when he's overly tired, so we try to put him to bed when he gets cranky. He goes to bed without any trouble around 7:30 and sleeps for about 12 hours. When he gets less sleep, he'll take a nap if we drive somewhere in the afternoon. He is pickier about foods than he used to be, but can still be convinced to eat everything on his plate. We re-introduce foods every time we have them and some have grown on him (seaweed and tomatos, which he used to hate, cheerios and bananas, which he hasn't loved since he was a baby, he'll now have a little.) He's too active to be snuggly very often and although he's pretty social, he plays well by himself. He loves being outside and still runs pretty much nonstop from the minute he wakes up and sprints to our room until he hops into bed at night, panting and thirsty. When I finally embraced his "active" personality rather than trying to fight it as being too hyper, it became much easier to take care of him.

Scott is 3! I tried to "interview" him on his birthday.

Name: Scott Dean Bean Crapo

Age: free

Likes to wear: sweatpants, always wants socks on, still loves ties and hats. Anything that matches Jonah or Daddy or came from Ricky.

Friends: he likes playing with older kids and is very into babies, but likes his friends Lincoln, Anna, Cash, etc. But mostly, Jonah. They love each other and Scott especially will act lost without Jonah, like he doesn't know what to do without his partner in crime. At the beach he was disinterested in the little pond of water until Jonah woke up, then they splashed and dug and played and played until Scott cried when we had to leave.

Wants to be when he grows up: no clue. He repeated every suggestion I made.

Favorite things to do: ride his motorcycle, read, do puzzles, play with Jonah

Foods: green beans, cheese, berries, yogurt, banana bread, peppernoni pizza, hot dods.

Movie: he said Peter Pan, but he asks to watch Cars whenever given a choice, but insisted Peter Pan over 2 days of being asked.

Book: search-and-find books, specifically the Cars 2 one, and Mo Willem's Pigeon books. He has the Star Wars and Sandra Boynton books memorized and "reads" them to Jonah when I ask. (Honestly, he really likes our Dr. Seuss books, but they drive me crazy. I have a once per day rule.)

Songs: Snowman, Spider, and recently has been asking for Child of God. Loves Taylor Swift and frequently asks to listen to her cd.

Character: Dusty. He likes to fly in his Dusty pajamas.

Color: he said yeyow.

Animal: Scott's still pretty afraid of animals. He likes Oma's fish and turtles as long as they're contained.

At his 3 year check-up, Scott weighed 35 lbs/81st percentile (although that's about 2-3 pounds heavier than at home, so I don't think it's very accurate) and 3'2"/59th percentile.

 Mr. Jonah Bear was 27 lbs/84th percentile weight, 2'8"/36th percentile and 19.5"/95th percentile head circumference at his 18-month check-up.

 I was waiting to get the boys outfits before taking their pictures, but pulled down the summer clothes in Jonah's size and found Scott's old overalls. I squeezed Jonah's chubby/wide feet into his old sandals and went with it.

 Jonah is usually the instigator. He started picking dandelions and Scott joined in.

 Cute bum. Jonah has started hitting like it's a joke and I realized I "pat" his big, padded bottom all the time and he might be picking up on it. I need to work on that, but it's not going to be easy.

 It's like squeezing those cheeks

or kissing that head.

 How can I resist?

 I realize these look similar, but I love all of them.

 Found a flower,

 had a taste,

 threw it instead.

 The boys were pulled like magnets to the baseball practice.

I put Jonah on the bleachers next to Scott and he was nervous up there, so he grabbed Scott's hand

John joined them and Jonah relaxed. I tried to get their attention, but Jonah couldn't tear his eyes away from the action and Scott gave me this face.

I took one of them watching the boys play instead.

John is excited for all of the little league in our future.

Jonah went to go play at the park, but Scott wanted to stay and watch more.

He climbed to the top bleacher. Scott is afraid of a lot of things (dogs, amusement park characters, being separated from me, new people, loud noises, crowds, etc.) but is physically very brave. Jonah seems to be the opposite--he's more hesitant with heights or jumping off of things, but doesn't mind any of Scott's big fears.

Scott tried his new scooter outside for the first time earlier this day and after about 2 minutes took off like he'd been doing it for years. He chose the bowtie ("blue choo-choo bowtie from Ricky") and is quite the hipster on his scooter.

Park time!

Scott scraped his knee and was sporting the best frown face. It looks just like my sister's fake frown as a little girl.

This is what Jonah does when he sees Daddy. Every time.

Holding hands for the slide. 

Every day John and I talk about how much joy these boys bring to our lives and how grateful we are that they're ours.