Nathan the cutie

So Nathan has finally (but I don't know for how long!) calmed down enough to start learning to talk. He actually will stop running sometimes to sit with us and read a book or talk with us! He's starting to stop and learn about something before moving onto the next activity as quickly as possible - imagine that! So one day a couple of weeks ago, we had his fisher price Noah's Ark out and were learning about animals. He loves that set and loves animals. He also loves that Noah and his wife look a lot like Grandma and Grandpa Heinbuch - it's so funny. I say, "Nathan, who's this?" and he says "PaPa and Grandma!!" But anyway, back to the animals... So I paired them up (being the organized person I am) with their mates and told him that these are the mommies and daddies of their species. He processed that for a while, and a few days later he woke up one morning and I came to get him, and he showed me his two stuffed puppies that he sleeps with. He held them each in different hands, and raised them one at a time and said "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" and then he made them kiss. It was so sweet. I'm so glad that Nathan can actually stop for a few seconds out of his day to cuddle - I've been missing it for so long now!

Nathan won't talk a whole lot yet, but he's really starting to try now, making it a whole lot easier to know what he wants. He only says 2 words in a row for a few things, but we're taking whatever we can get! He says "Juu Box" and "Haaaa Meeee!" (help me) and "Come Play". His favorite word is still "Car" and of course "McQueeeeeeeen" (from the movie "Cars").

Has it really been that long??

Wow! It's really been more than 3 weeks since I've written. Yikes, am I ever bad at this... No wonder - every time I've gotten a journal or a diary, I write for a few months and then all of a sudden there are just a bunch of empty pages at the end!

My boys have been such a delight to me over the last few weeks too - I don't know why I didn't write about them!!

Zack and I were sitting on the couch yesterday after his nap, just being quiet. He was looking at me, and then out of nowhere said, "Mommy, you have such beautiful eyes." Then he smiled and rubbed his nose on mine. It was so cute I almost cried. Just like when Zack and I were talking about some of our friends after praying for them. It's Nathan's idea to pray for everyone we know every time we pray. Our food is practically cold by the time we eat it because we say "amen" and he pipes up with another name that we forgot to thank God for! I'd eat cold food for a century to hear that every day!! So one day we were praying for some friends of ours that don't go to church. Zack had asked me if they knew Jesus and I said no. After thinking for a moment Zack said, "Mommy, we should take Kyle and Kendra to meet Jesus!" and after clasping his hands together and grinning dreamily said, "They would be SO happy!!!"

Happy Halloween?

So we decided that we wouldn't take the boys out for Halloween this year. Instead we went out for supper and to a friend's place for the evening. Our friend/neighbor Kyle asked if we would bring the boys by to get some candy before bed, so when we went to their door, Pete told Zack to say Happy Halloween. Zack got to the door and said, "Hi Kyle! Happy.... Birthday!"

Zack the reader

Zack has decided that he wants to read. He knows how to read every individual upper case letter by itself, spelling everything he can see in books and on signs, and he knows how to spell his and Nathan's names without seeing the letters. He's getting close! Zack loves to guess what things spell, and it's easy for him to read things like stop signs because the symbols are easy to guess. I love that he has his own name for certain places. We have a Lafrentz memo cube, and he knows the big orange "L" on it is the symbol for daddy's company. He calls the company "Daddy's Big Truck" and fully believing that it's the name of Pete's work. Pete was trying to get him to spell the name of it and say "Lafrentz" but instead he said, "L-a-f-r-e-n-t-z spells Daddy's Big Truck!" Zack relates the names or symbols of places we go to what he sees or does there. Whenever we pass a Wendy's, he sees the symbol and relates it to what he eats there. So we hear from the back seat, "Look! Cheeseburgerandfriesandketchup!"

A Family Moment

On Monday, we were all at my parents' place for my birthday. Pete and I and the boys were there with Josh and Jenny and Forest and my parents. It was so fun to see all three boys hang out and play. My favorite part was when Forest and Zack sang the ABC song together, and then Nathan joined in with the very last word "Meeee!!" I just loved it!

Friends

Zack is learning that the people we love are our friends, so now every time he's pretending to talk on the phone or if he's talking to a real person they are his friend. I'll ask Zack,
"Who are you on the phone with?"
"My friend Great Grandma!"
He loves to pretend to talk to his friend Great Grandma (Doell) or his friend Auntie 'Manda or his friend Grandma. It's so very cute!

Zack is also learning about the bible from Beulah on Saturday nights when he goes to sunday school. If you ask him,
"Zack, what did you learn about the bible?"
"The bible is TRUE. The bible tells us about God! The bible says Jesus loves us."

Cars and Trucks and Things that Go!

One of Zack and Nathan's favorite books right now is Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go". It's all about different vehicles and they both love it. The first page is one of their favorites because it has a mail van on it. Zack opens the book and says, "Look, Mommy! It's a JoshandJennyandForest van! Wow!" Zack knows that uncle Josh is a mailman, and he also knows that Josh and Jenny and Forest all go together. I just love it. So every time he sees a mail truck, he says the same thing. Nathan's favorite part of the book is the road building and earth moving equipment. He points at every thing and says "Sheeeeeeen" (for "machine") and gets so excited. Nathan was thrilled when our friend Kyle brought home a mini track-hoe and let him sit in it. I couldn't have bribed him out of the cab!

It was so cute - the boys were at their friend Emma's house yesterday, and she did the cutest thing. Some might think of it as a little strange, but I thought it was very sincere. She was taking a few of her animals on a picnic, and one of them was a dinosaur. As she was packing the fake food up for the rest of the animals, she added an animal to the picnic basket. I asked why she had that one in the basket, and she said that it was lunch for the dinosaur. Apparently they went to a dinosaur exhibit and Emma saw a video where one of them ate an animal.

So so sad

Just as predicted, Pete got called out of town last weekend for a job in BC. I wasn't sure how well the boys would deal with it, but they started to act up on Thursday. Pete had been gone for 5 days, and I had to stop by his work to drop stuff off (I work there too, just from home). We drove into the parking lot, and there was Pete's truck. The boys were so excited - until we left without seeing daddy... I explained that daddy's truck was there but he was gone on a long trip and would be back soon. It was a sad drive. Amanda, aka "Auntie 'Manda", came over on Friday and Zack was sad. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes and said, "I lost my daddy". I cried. I told Pete on the phone and he cried. :( It was so so sad.