Thanks for your patience! What has been happening in the Shope home since July? Quite a bit- rest assured I've composed thousands of blog posts in my head since then - maybe my New Year's resolution should be to keep this updated! The funny thing is we never have time to update it - unless I use my lunch time at work. Oh well!
Elias is now 6 and 1/2 months old (these pics are from 4 mos)! I'm really not sure how this happened, as he was born two weeks ago. The boy does not stop moving- even when sleeping, which he abhorrs and I have the dark circles under my eyes to prove it! He is always on the move running after big brother. He started crawling the Monday before Thanksgiving and pulled himself up two days later. I often find myself telling him, "Elias! Mama said sit down, son! You're supposed to be the little one!!" We recently started solid foods and it's going ok- he much prefers mama milk, but we're working on it.
Owen is now 22 mos. and doing great- he's so busy and talking more and more. His favorite words are currently, "bussssh" this is his word for "bus", which we see drive by our house multiple times a day. He says, "it's ssslllouud" for "it's loud" and "swatch" for "watch me". He is also climbing everywhere and loves to build a tower of blocks and then knock them down while laughing with glee. He is Mr. curious and wants everything that Mama and Dada have- including coffee, which is a constant battle, "this is a mama and dada drink, O." :) He wants to do everything himself and loves trucks and his new nativity set from Nanny and Grandpa. He's still a huge dancer and drummer and he actually has quite a bit of skill. A lot of his time is now taken up hoarding toys in his lap so his now mobile little brother can't get to them. Hmm. Progress, not perfection, right?? :)
Brian is doing well- just finished this quarter at Fuller after a grueling week of papers and group projects. He wears the Daddy hat so well and loves playing with the boys. He's been with them M-Th 8-1 since Sept. and they have a good time walking Maggie and going to the park.
I am back to work part-time until March when it will be full-time. :( I love my afternoons with the boys and have been making a lot of new vegetarian recipes, which has been tons of fun. Work is pretty good - I love teaching our classes. I've been busy preparing for our families to come for Christmas- my parents, Brian's parents, and his brother and their family will all be here, so it should be fun.
I've been telling everyone that it can't be Christmas, I feel like it was just Halloween, so in that vein, here are the boys in their Halloween costumes! Maybe by April I'll have the current pics downloaded and posted. :)
Enjoy!
