first pair of sneakers

Asher's shoe on the left, Benamin's on the right. On Eric's ipad.

Today the boys, my mom, and I went to the mall to buy the boys some new shoes.  I really wanted sandals, since somehow, in the past two weeks, they outgrew the ones I got them in the spring.  They grow so fast! I hadn't even realized how quickly it happened.  The other night, while I was working, Asher ended up in a pair of smaller pajamas, and they were like capris on him!  It turns out I missed the boat on sandals, and so we got sneakers that they can wear the next few months (I guess until they need snow boats, another upcoming purchase!).

Asher's shoe is a size 6.5 and Benjamin's is a 6. Their first steps in their big boy shoes were kind of tentative and wobbly, but then they took off!  It was definitely bittersweet for me; I am both excited that I have such good walkers (runners), and having trouble reconciling the little boys running up and down the hall of the mall with the little babies who used to sleep in my arms.

Here is what else is new with us- Benjamin has a bit of a fascination with cleaning.  He loves vacuums, brooms, and dustpans.  Here are some pictures of him with his favorite not-toys:

"I want YOU to clean this living room!"

"Did you say this spot needed some extra attention?"

The picture of Benjamin wiping the floor happened after the boys knocked my water cup off the table.  There was a big puddle on the floor, and I ran to get towels to mop it up.  When I got back to the living room, Asher was on his hands and knees with his face on the floor slurping up the water.  Benjamin was sitting next to him, laughing hysterically, and then trying to do it himself.  So there the 3 of us were, on our hands and knees, the two of them slurping and laughing, and me mopping madly to try to stop them from drinking floor-water.

The boys are in a phase of imitating everything we do.  Today I made a fish-face at Asher, which he tried to imitate by flapping his mouth open and closed.  I had him do it for my mom tonight, and she turned to look at him while trying to get something out of her teeth, and Asher instantly switched to imitating her by sticking his finger in his mouth.  This morning Eric had them both doing downward dog with him.

They also like sticking out their tongues at us if we stick ours out at them:

Looking at this picture of Asher, I think his torticollis is definitely improving.

Here is a picture of what started as a very sweet, brotherly hug. By the time I got back with the camera, this is what we had:

Asher is hysterical.

We have been lucky, these past few weeks, to get to see lots of old friends and family as they pass through town.  Last night we had dinner with friends of ours who live in Amherst- my friend from high school in Texas and her husband and 4 year-old daughter.  It is amazing to think how much our lives have changed since we met in 1994 in biology class.  Back then we were two nerdy high school girls who had never had boyfriends.  Now we're grown women, with each with a doctorate, husband, and child(ren).  I am sure we could never have imagined ourselves where we are now!