These memories were captured from Gabriel and Zeke’s 1st birthday celebration on 10/17. And already, these strong, smart boys seem so much bigger and more advanced in their physical and mental feats that it boggles the mind.

Zeke is confidently taking 3-4 steps at a time, while Gabriel is still a bit more laid back about walking without assistance. But both boys are doing great with their walker toys. Zeke enjoys walking with the racer, whereas Gabriel digs pushing Houston’s big 4-wheeler, and both dudes especially thrive tweaking their skills in the great expanse of the backyard. Gabriel and Zeke can both stand confidently for solid periods of time, as well.

On 11/3, Zeke and Gabriel both climbed the stairs to our front porch. This — along with the close proximity of the stacking-stone wall to our foundation beds and the gravel driveway — helped inspire me to move our afternoon outdoor activities to the back yard, where there are fewer dangerous distractions.

Gabriel resists the mandatory party-hat attire, while Zeke yells in celebration of the festive dress code.

Watching the twins play is quite humorous. Sometimes there’s much giggling between the two of them, while other times the atmosphere is competitive. They often like thieving toys from one another, pushing each other down, pulling the hair of the other, etc. Unless it’s a major to do, I usually try to let them work it out amongst themselves.

Same goes when Houston is in the mix. Unless big brother is trying to mount and ride them like a horse (a new favorite of his) or doing something else really hurtful, I try to stay out of it as much as possible, simply encouraging the twins to defend themselves against Houston’s hyper onslaught, and reminding him that “bruv-uhrs” will soon be able to fight back a lot better than they are able to now.

The twins’ puking has improved, although Zeke still spews 2-3 times a day. Much of this, however, has to do with his “drinking problem”: he will chug any amount of any liquid I put in front of him, so I have to be careful about his portioning. Thus, many of his vomits are just recently ingested water making its way back up out of his bloated belly.

Zeke does still puke up milk on occasion, which is one rancid-smelling, cottage-cheese-looking event. (Q: What wreaks worse than partially digested breast milk or formula? A: Cow’s milk … yuck!) And thankfully, Gabriel’s puking has pretty much ceased.

Like all good 1-year olds, Gabriel demolishes his chocolate birthday cake w/ gusto.

We’re working diligently on getting Gabriel and Zeke to make the leap from baby to toddler mode. The big advancements we’re tackling at the moment are:

• Getting the twins to stop throwing food on the floor when eating in their high chairs. This is proving to be more of a challenge for our more mischievous-leaning Ezekiel;
• Getting them to keep their sippy cups on their high-chair trays, as opposed to hurling them onto the floor. This is proving to be more of a challenge for our I-like-throwing-stuff son, Gabriel;
• Getting them to stop biting Mommy with their razor-sharp teeth when they’re loving on her. This is proving to be more of a challenge for Gabriel, who is in major teething mode;
• Getting them to stop messing with the electronics on our media center, books on bookshelves and electrical cords when playing in the living room;
• And getting them to learn the meaning of the word “NO!”

We’ve made progress on all fronts, but still have much work to do.

Like all zany 2-year olds, Houston must feast upon his ice cream like a dog.

As far as verbal skills go, Zeke said “Mama” for the first time yesterday. It was clear as a bell, so much more distinct than his occasional repetitive “ma ma ma mas” and “mmmmmmmms” and other similar sounds. Stephen agrees that “Mama” was definitely his first word.

And to Stephen’s delight, Gabriel is trying hard to say “Daddy.” We’ve also started signing with the twins, just like we did with Houston, so that should be a fun, but useful undertaking.

Over Halloween weekend, Houston took to climbing onto his changing table. Considering that we don’t have a jungle gym for the boys, this is fine by me. I assume he is able to climb out of his crib, if he so chose, but that boy loves the comfort and security of his crib. I guess we’ll start pushing a toddler daybed when he gets closer to age 3.

Houston also loves playing with anything that has a screw-on top. Some of his current faves while up on his changing table are Chapstick, lotion or ointment; and being that I have to virtually slather him with moisturizer and sometimes medicine to treat his eczema, this compulsion is a great way to distract him from the task at hand.

We give the boys a post-feast bath to cleanse them of their cake and ice cream residue.

On 10/30, a bizarre thing occurred. Houston woke up crying and needy: not his usual M.O. Daddy held him for about a 1/2 hour, as he whined and held on tight. Determining that he was obviously under the weather, we laid him on the couch and let him veg out to the tube. I spoon-fed him some yogurt for breakfast and then fell asleep on the sofa with him while the twins took their first nap.

By about 11:30, I knew he needed a diaper change, but he steadfastly refused to get up and walk to his room. Houston cried when I picked him up and fought the diaper change tooth and nail. Still thinking he might be over-dramatizing the situation a bit, I put him down for a nap and told him that we’d eat lunch when he got up.

When Houston awoke, he wouldn’t sit up. He kept saying that his back hurt, but he could move his arms and legs. Brothers even played in his room for a while, and Houston never sat up to play or interact with them. I needed to change his diaper and tried to pick him up from the crib, which was not a good idea ’cause he let out a high-pitch yelp. Still unsure what the deal was, I kept trying to motivate him to sit up with bribes of candy or playing outside, to which he would simply reply, “Can’t, Mommy.”

I was talking to Stephen about the situation around 3 when it dawned on me that my extremely active boy hadn’t taken one step all day long. Panicked, I called the pediatrician and he advised not pushing Houston to do anything he didn’t want to do, adding that kids read their bodies much better than do adults. He told me to give him Motrin and just monitor to him closely, saying that the source of his pain was either a muscle spasm caused by a virus (even though he never had a fever) or just a crick from sleeping weird the night before.

“Forget about the awesome gifts,” says Zeke. “Tissue paper is the coolest!”

By the time Stephen got home, Houston was still in bed, but he finally let Daddy pick him up after about an hour or so. He cautiously took steps and walked very slowly at first, but was his normal, outgoing self after a few hours. We never figured out what was the real root cause for Houston’s discomfort that day, but we are just thankful that he’s better.

A few funny Houston sayings:

•  “No tard (tired) … no nap”: What he says before being put to bed, whether before naps or to bed for the night;
• “Wook (look), Mommy … wook, Daddy”: What he says when showing off his skills, from “numping” (jumping) to making art to anything he sees or does of interest;
• “Ghent (again)”: What he says whenever he wants us to repeat doing something fun, like when he and Daddy wrestle;
• “Squeaky bwakes (brakes)”: What he calls all school buses, since the one that heads down our street twice a day indeed has very squeaky brakes.

Click the very top party-hat photo to check out all Part 1 pics of the birthday party, the shot of Gabriel eating cake to view all Part 2 pics, and the photo of Zeke opening gifts to see all Part 3 pics.