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It’s been a big month here for us Brands.

Lloyd has been especially busy!  He had a tremendous project show at his Preschool where they showcased many of the art projects they’ve been working on since the beginning of the year.   Lloyd created these two magnificent clay creations, which he shaped, glazed, and then had sent off to a kiln.  Sometimes he says one is a whooping crane.

Beyond many wonderful paintings and sketches, Lloyd also worked with the rest of his class on creating a Human Body figure.   Lloyd made a leg out of some pipe cleaners, paper towel tubes, and a juice can.  They spent most of this semester learning all about their bodies, including their taste buds!

Although formal preschool has ended for the school year, Lloyd will attend many of their morning day camps throughout the summer, and in the fall he’ll increase to three days a week rather than two.

Lloyd has really taken to writing his letters, and can even write his whole name without instruction!   He can draw about half of the letters in the alphabet.

And his Uncle Matt worked with him and taught him how to draw people!  I love having our house littered with these little dudes.  They are so precious to me.

Here’s a video of Lloyd singing “Dinosaurs A – Z.”  We hear this about 5 times a day : )

Lloyd is also doing great with his potty training.  We still put him in a Pull-Up for nap time and bed time, but all his awake time (including at school and even on longer trips) is spent in underpants.

He continues to come up with elaborate stories about his future and past, and a new trend is to say, “You know Mom that SOME MOTHERS don’t care if their boys wash their hands…”   Too bad for Lloyd he’s stuck with the mother he’s got ; )

His sense of humor is also changing.  Scatological humor, while never my favorite, has become an essential part of our day-to-day life.  Whenever Lloyd’s in a bad mood, a simple fart or poop joke can usually turn a from upside down.  He also LOVES “Knock, Knock” jokes, so if you’ve got any, throw them our way.

As for Henry – he’s had quite the developments these past couple weeks!  His nap schedule is inconsistent, perhaps marking the change to one nap a day.  He’s popped out four additional teeth – including two molars!  He’s got two more teeth that seem imminent.

Henry at 13 months

Henry is very happy now that he can climb onto the couch.  Unfortunately that means that he spends a lot of time running on the couch, and giving me grey hair.  He can also climb up onto the kitchen table!

Whether he is very happy or very sad, Henry has really gotten into squealing.  Although we are definitely working on teaching Henry to stick to an “inside-voice,” we can appreciate the uncanny ability Henry has for imitating dolphin noises.  As for other forms of communication, we’re still limited to “Mama,” “Dada,” and a variety of animal noises.  He can shake his head “Yes” and “No” purposefully now, so we can get pretty far with a carefully worded line of questioning.

Henry has also shown amazing improvement in his diet and appetite.  He is a lot hungrier for “table food” (rather than baby food) and does a great job eating meats and essentially whatever else we’re all eating for dinner.   He has also, finally, gotten on board with drinking cow milk.  I weaned Henry this past month: when he moved into Lloyd’s room, I night-weaned him and then after that it was easy to convince him he didn’t need to nurse throughout the day either.  We took it very slow and transitioned with relative ease.  It’s a little sad to have the end of the baby era, but it’s also so exciting to see Henry grow into toddler-dom.

It’s been a very challenging month for our loved ones.   Poor Pa has spent the majority of the month in the hospital, but has since moved into a Rehabilitation facility where he can get the Physical Therapy he needs.  Grace has been tremendous – caring for him and keeping him company throughout his long days.  By chance, the most trying part of Pa’s hospital stay coincided with Matt and Erica’s end of the school year.   They were able to spend the days with Pa too, before they moved to Pittsburgh.  And Alison also was able to come and be part of the amazing hospital team for a whole week, and has since returned to help with Pa’s transition to Rehab.  We were able to make it to the hospital most days for visits.  My parents have been really wonderful watching the boys on days when it’s best to leave them at home.  We’re so lucky and honored to be a part of our loving community.