We have had a counting and letters EXPLOSION over here this last month.

Someone can now count unassisted to 40 (pretty good, considering two months ago he couldn’t make it to 15 without getting distracted!), he can spell his name and my name and he wants to name every letter he ever sees EVER (shopping takes me approximately 487 times longer than normal because we spell or count everything).

He came running in with this while I was making my bed. Love my big boy.

And speaking of big boys, this kid… Guys. I waited and waited and waited for Nathan to develop some chunk as a baby and he never did. I adore Parker’s rolls. ADORE. I squeeze those thighs and kiss those cheeks a hundred million times a day. It’s kind of amazing he still has cheeks for how much they get kissed. (And yes!! He is now sitting unassisted for at least a couple of minutes by himself. KILLING ME how quickly he is growing up.)

First time riding together in the cart at Costco. I believe this is some sort of Rite of Sibling Passage here in the USA.

Nathan had his very first soccer game on Saturday.

Oh my. This kid inherited way too much of his mama’s genes. At one point, he had most of his team and a lot of the other team all trying to help him catch a grasshopper. It paused the game for several minutes. At another point, he and a kid on his team just sat down on the grass and started talking and at yet another point, he was curled up in a cannonball position telling the ref that he could just be the ball.

It was entertaining, to say the least. 😉 Ha! Hoping for some focus to develop over the season. He’s the youngest on his team (though definitely not the smallest) so I know he’ll mature over the year.

Love this shot of Jon taking advantage of Nathan’s turn to sit out a quarter to teach him more about the game. 😉 At the end of the day, he had SO much fun and he has been asking all week when we get to go back for his next game. And that’s what is important. 😉

Chewing some gum from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Parker’s new trick. We were dying. And yes – these boys giggle together ALL THE TIME. It might be my most favorite thing ever. 🙂

Finally, we were at the grocery store yesterday and I looked back and saw this while I was unloading the cart and had a MAJOR flashback to this moment approximately three and a half years ago:

Oh these boys. Sweet, smiley, goofy, and super curious. They are definitely brothers.