one year, one day, one hour apart

on october 1st, ransom turned two.
on october 2nd, calvin turned one.

i was planning to write a bit about the day calvin was born, like i did on ransom's first birthday. but, like i said, the being ill and pregnant means that pretty much everything comes to a screeching halt except for, well, surviving. my poor family.

i'll write it. maybe for his second birthday.

also, i had planned to take a picture of the boys in the same two chairs in the dining room in front of the fireplace like last year-- but i didn't, of course.

so you'll have to be satisfied with our low-quality cell-phone pictures that capture most of life around here.

and, i don't read baby updates that people post. you know, those "six-month stats" or "24-month-stats"-- not because they aren't important, but because really, they are so boring. so please, feel free to skim this next part. i just have to write down the stuff that sticks out to me, the things i think are remarkable, for myself, so i don't forget. i suppose that's why anyone posts them: so our fried, sleep-deprived brains won't forget this stuff.

ransom:
at two years old, he is tall for his age, has a huge head, huge feet, and very thin. can't find pants for this boy that are long enough but skinny enough.
he is the pickiest eater EVER.
he is talking up a storm. he repeats everything we say (that is, everything). he is putting together two- and three-word sentences
he says the Lord's Prayer with us, filling in words we purposefully leave out.
he understands possessives-- as in, he knows that if the mug of tea is mine, he refers to it with the appropriate 's: mommy's tea
he understands plurals: one apple, two apples
he helps us count to ten
he knows his colors-- red, green, yellow, purple, pink, orange, brown, blue

calvin:
at one year, he is just 6 lbs lighter than ransom, tall, has a huge head, and is certainly not thin.
he eats everything. and tons.
he is talking like crazy, too-- he says about 15 words on his own, and mostly all very emphatically.
he understands most everything, and when he nods in answer to a question, he nods with his whole body. cutest thing ever.
he does all the motions to "the itsy bitsy spider"--also the cutest thing ever.
he says "bruddah" in reference to ransom.
he's walking on his own now, but only from thing to thing. he doesn't go far before dropping down to crawling.
he is a climber like i have never seen. he climbs to the top of everything he can and, oddly, very rarely falls. he seems to be very coordinated and aware of his own body and weight and balance. unlike his brother.
he catches a ball if you throw it to him--every single time.


they are sweet, cuddly, exhausting, energetic, curious little souls growing into men. i don't know how we have been tasked with raising men who love God, but we have.

and so we will.