10 Months

Our budding engineer with the train he made all by himself out of blocks.

Eli's new-found love of finger food is showing.

Will looking at himself in the mirror after having his face painted at the LUNGevity Walk in November.

I apologize that I never got around to doing a 9-month update for Eli. November was extremely hectic in our household! So far December has been much calmer...go figure. Eli's newest trick is eating finger food. He loves it so much, that he hardly will eat anything else anymore. I guess he just wants to be like his big brother. He is also becoming much more mobile. He isn't quite crawling, but he is definitely a very proficient creeper. Once he figures out how to get up on all fours, we are done for!

Our Thanksgiving was very nice. Grandpa and Grandma Kramer came from SD to stay for a week. They were very helpful while Spencer & I were so busy getting things ready at church. Auntie Zena, Brett and Ciara also joined us for Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2009

Here are some pictures from Halloween. As you can see, Eli was a monkey, and Will was (what else?) Thomas.

Update

I apologize we haven't had an update for a couple of months. For the second time in a year, little fingerprints on the lense have ruined a Homan family camera. :) Luckily, this one was still under warranty and we only had to endure being without a camera for a month while it was being fixed.

Eli is now 8 months old and is finally rolling over. He's gotten very good at rolling around to get what he wants or where he wants to be. He has also gotten his first tooth and is sitting by himself. He loves his jumperoo, and would spend hours in it if we'd let him. He's mostly a happy little guy, except at bed time! I just think he doesn't want to miss anything. He loves watching his big brother and I can just see it in his eyes that he's itching to get into some mischief with him.

Will is still pretty much the same. Still obsessed with trains! He has started Sunday School and is learning a lot, but I think he's tiring his teacher out! I am glad I decided to teach a different class. :) He is fully potty trained now (though he still can't be trusted to wash his hands by himself, mostly because of the mess he makes).

Here are some pictures from our trip to NY at the beginning of September and some others taken at home since then.

Vacation Pictures

(Will covered in calomine lotion from the mosquio bites in Minnesota).

We've just gotten back from our two week summer vacation. We traveled home to North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to visit our families. It was great to see everyone! We had a wonderful time!

Eli just had his 6 month check up. He weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 28 1/2 inches long--that's 25th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for length.

First Solids and Potty Training

I had been hoping that this month we would get Will potty trained and Eli sleeping through the night.

Will potty trained...check.

Eli sleeping through the night...not so much.

He is finally starting to take solids now, so maybe that will help.

As a reward for completing his potty training, we took Will on the train down to Bloomington to the Children's Discovery Museum. A wonderful time was had by all!

Baptism and Birthday

Excuse my punctuation, I am typing with a baby in my lap! He is cooing at his picture on the computer. We are in the process of recovering from a big weekend! On June 14th, Eli was baptized and we celebrated Will's 3rd birthday. Grandma & Grandpa Brink, Cousin Taelynn, Uncle Brett, Lauren, Grandpa Wade, Uncle Josh, Uncle Mike, Auntie Zena, Cousin Brett and "Uncle" Craig came from all over to celebrate. Thank you all for coming!

The boys were just to the doctor and both are doing well. Eli is 26.25 inches long and weighs 16 lbs 4 oz. Will is 36 inches tall and weighs 36 lbs. Eli is trying to roll over. He has been sleeping through the night (more or less) for a month or so. He has the sweetest little smile, loves to babble and coo--especially at his big brother. Will is quite the talker. He cracks me up with the things that come out of his mouth. I overhear the funniest conversations, like: "'Hello James!' Thomas puffed as he chugged across the spension bridge." He is very strong-willed and stubborn too! He's been very resistant to potty training, so if anyone has some tips, I'd love to hear them! Hopefully our next update will find Will completely potty trained and Eli sleeping through the night EVERY night!

Profession Pictures

Here are some of the professional pictures we had taken recently. We got a lot of good shots, so it was hard to pick! You can see them all at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022486&id=1006614602&l=b7bc4b391c