Easter pictures

JB: "Smile! But keep your eyes open!"
Baby Andrew: Eyes open. Got it. What about a chubby fist in my mouth?

Me: (noticing Benny is clenching his teeth) "Benny, please don't squeeze the baby with your arm."

JB and Mary: "Kiss his cheeks at the same time -- perfect!"

"Smile like you love each other!"

These boys.

Max's big week

My first baby lost his first tooth! That thing has been hanging by a thread for days, but he was worried about it hurting if we pulled on it. Tonight JB said, "Here, let me give it another wiggle," and pluck! Out it came.

This was his prayer tonight at bedtime after tucking that tooth in the special place for the tooth fairy: "Please bless that tomorrow I can go to school and show everyone my lost tooth including my teacher and they can say 'Wow Max, that's so exciting!'"

Also in the past week, he learned to ride a bike without training wheels. We are so proud of how quickly he caught on. He just zips around now and even stands up while peddling.

Now a note about Benny: He wants to be just like Max but doesn't realize he's 2 1/2 years younger. First he wanted us to take his training wheels off too (he's so not ready!). Then he sobbed and sobbed tonight, asking us to pull his tooth out too.

I wish....

(iphone photo from Amy, who is the next-door neighbor)

Max's favorite new thing to say is "I wish...." For example, "I wish I had some goldfish snacks right now," or "I wish I had a drink of water," or "I wish I could play outside," or "I wish we had a new house."

Yes, remember when Max prayed for another baby so we could get a minivan (and we got a Honda Pilot instead?) Well, I've accidentally said something else along the same lines and he's now running with it. One day as we watched the progress on the house our friends are building on the next street, he said, "I wish we could have a bigger house too." I absent-mindedly said, "They have more children than us and need the space."

So now he says, "I wish we had more kids so we could have a new house."

No comment.

Entertainment

Our friends are building a new house. Every day we walk by to check on the progress. The demo a month ago of the existing house came with lots of big trucks. It has been lots of fun for 3-year-old little boys named Benjamin: We are also redoing our downstairs bathroom. It's the one room left that we didn't touch when we bought the house 7 years ago this summer. It also needed some major help after we had plumbing problems in the upstairs bathroom. Every day Max and Ben discover something new related to the remodel that they can play with. Boxes, tiles, plastic, sheetrock pieces, more boxes, etc. And our friend Phil is helping so he's fun to bug -- I mean watch -- for them as well.

A new baby

Meet the new Andrew Rockwell. He's sleeps, he smiles, he coos, he giggles -- he's happy! No more hurting ears.

A trooper

Andrew did such a good job today. Here he is at the hospital before the procedure in his wee little scrubs.

He smiled at all the nurses, and they were just eating up him up. The whole thing was over pretty fast. Here he is with me in the recovery room after the tubes were put in. Look at that tiny blood pressure cuff on his right arm:

We were able to go home within an hour afterwards. He has had some sad moments today but we are giving him lots of cuddles. He's also startling at loud noises but they say he should start feeling much better very soon.

Pwease bwess Andrew's ears

5-year-old Max and 3-year-old Benny have been saying the sweetest prayers at night, for Aunt Sarah's heart, and for Andrew's ears. Then they go on and on about the things they ate for dinner, the new baseball bat, a favorite shirt, etc. It's sweet and sincere and sometimes quite funny.

Anyway, think of our sweet baby tomorrow morning if you would. We are taking him in for the surgery to have tubes put in.