Jim is now 19 months old and learning fast.



















He has learned to eat pizza with a fork.

Although fingers work just as well.

He also likes to walk around the house in his parents' shoes. He's pretty good at it.






















He'll always be our baby, though.

Michael and Jeff attended the scout day at The Ted. They got to walk around the field; Michael tipped his hat to all the fans.


















They were even on the jumbotron. We didn't quite get a picture of both of them, but you can see Jeff on the jumbotron in this one.

We've been having some fun with our Nintendo Wii.

(The system wouldn't let us enter "Jerry" because we ran out of space, but you know who you are. . .)








We need a way to personalize these even more; like, we should be able to add Eastern Airlines wings to Bob's shirt.


















Take a look at the background of these pictures and see if you can spot: Michael, Cindy, Uncle Steve, Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Weyman and a Star Wars Stormtrooper.

Finally, Michael's birthday pictures. . .












His birthday had a Star Wars theme. That seemed appropriate, since he's seen Star Wars so many times that he can hum all of the soundtrack orchestration, beginning to end.



















He got his first real model train for his birthday. It is an N-scale steam engine. All the cousins were fascinated. Well, the boys were fascinated anyway.

It was Michael's first surprise party, and I wish I had a picture of his face when he first walked in the door. He was so surprised that he literally fell to the floor.

This picture of Jim was taken the same week as Michael's party. It has nothing to do with the party, I'm just including it because I like the picture. :)

Michael has been drawing a lot lately. He draws comics in which he is the hero. Here are a couple that I thought were interesting.

In Michael's comic world, he is often Doc Oc, but good instead of evil. At any rate, that's why he's drawn himself below with long robotic arms.

The guy Doc Oc Michael is holding up is a criminal.
Michael says that, "He's a criminal because he stole a top hat."
Of course.





















Michael completed an entire notepad of drawings recently, and here's his "The End" page, containing his comic book family. Click on the image to enlarge it. The spider on top of the "T" is named Snookums (I think he got that from a Franny K. Stein book) and the two spiders at the bottom of the page are Snookums' parents. I wish I knew who the girl is that Doc Oc Michael is sharing "loving" thoughts with, but he won't tell me.

Jim had his first haircut on Wednesday. His hair is really thin, but it was sticking out over his ears and getting tangled at his collar. Here's the before picture.

He was very good for the haircut. He just kept turning his head to see what Amanda, his hair stylist, was doing.

And here's the after shot. He still has a few wispy curls.

The cousins had their pictures taken in their Easter outfits this week.

Jim was ok until the group shot, when he wanted his mommy to hold him. I love the look on everyone's faces. There's a lot of personality in this family. :)

Michael and his dad had a campout this weekend with cub scouts. They made rockets and shot them off at the campsite. Here's Michael sitting with the other scouts (and one or two of the scouts's sisters), wating to shoot off their rockets.

Michael and his rocket.

That's a twenty ounce bottle and a two liter bottle with cardboard fins all duct-taped together and spray-painted.

Shooting off the rocket had something to do with this rope that Michael is about to pull. I wasn't there and Jeff, exhausted, is already asleep tonight. So, I don't know how it works, but trust me that it shoots the rockets really, really high.

We have a friend with the most amazing green thumb. Check out those tulips! They are taller than Jim. Yes, landscape architecture is our friend's profession.

My favorite element of the garden is this pond and stream. The stream continues down the hill, cascading down several little waterfalls before reaching the bottom, where a pump brings the water back up to the top.

Jim ran around and around the pond at the top for his dad to lift him over the stream gap at the far end. This was probably his favorite garden element, too. :)

Here's Michael, looking like a little man. Except he's not so little anymore. 52" tall at his 8 year check-up this month.

If you click on this picture and take a close look at the path at Michael's feet, you can see how bad the pollen's been down here. See his footprints on the stone?

Jim looks so small in these pictures, but I swear he's starting to catch up to other kids his age. The gentleman who made this garden is well over six feet tall, so things are a little out of proportion for a toddler.

Jim loves Michael's old kiddie recliner.

He also loves to have his picture taken. Funny, isn't it, how early they figure out what cameras are.

Jim's a happy little guy. He'll be fifteen months old on March 10th. Michael will be eight years old on March 6th, if you can believe that. Where do the years go?

Jim looks a little like mommy. At least, he looks like mommy's one-year-old pictures.

Jim the ham.

We attended Michael's Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet this weekend. It had a pirate theme this year. That's a parrot sitting on Michael's shoulder that his Wolf Den made at the previous den meeting.

Michael received his Wolf Badge to add to his uniform. His dad,the Wolf Den leader, and Mr. Steve, the Scoutmaster, are standing behind the boys.

We baked a cake (mom's first ever - Betty Crocker helped a little). It tastes better than it looks.

We had a nice Christmas this year. It was over before we knew it, as usual.

Yes, the Christmas tree is on a table. Jim didn't show much interest in it, anyway, for some reason. I think it may be because he started seeing Christmas trees in stores back in October.