So I don't forget

Jan 23  - Chauncey became an expert crawler, after months of "almost crawling" and moving around everywhere, he can now officially crawl correctly. 
His top right tooth also broke through today.  A small corner of the top left tooth is pushing through as well.  Soon he will have his four front teeth. In a day his biting me went from a pain level of 0 to a 13, on a scale from 1-10.  But his laugh is so contagious now, it makes up for it.  He laughs so hard, and inhales air with a squeal that seems to get caught inside, that you wonder if he is going to calm down to let it out again.  Obviously, he always does.  But then we can't help but start it all over again.

Mid January - Chauncey started clapping, and can sit himself up from crawling position

After two years of being potty trained, and no accidents, Isabela wet the bed.  Walking out to us in the middle of the night, she was a little disoriented.  Brandon woke up to help.
"Dad, my pants are wet."  She seemed very confused.
"Did you wet the bed?"
"No. Not at alllll, Dad," her tired, whiny reply.
She wasn't fully awake yet.

Xander is as funny as ever. Surely his intelligence is average for his age, but I can never get over how smart he is, and the things he comes up with.  (Not that this story denotes his intelligence, but definitely his ability to humor us.)  He is fascinated by my moles.  We moved to Colorado when he was just shy of 4 months old.  Sometime before that in Logan, I had a mole removed from my collar bone because he had picked half of it off, and it was bleeding.  Yeah, that hurt, in case you were wondering.  At the same time, I had them take a couple off my neck that were much smaller, but he could also reach them.  No more bleeding, but for almost a year now, he finds the one, very small mole I have on each arm almost up to the shoulder and rubs it.  In church (and everywhere else), he slides his hand up my sleeve and rubs it.  At bedtime, he asks to touch my arm.  I lay with him, and he lightly tickles my arm until he falls asleep.  While playing, he runs up, jabs his finger or thumb into one, yells, "I got you!" and runs away.  Fascinated is an understatement.  Today, he kept squeezing both arms right where the moles are, then starting hitting them (obviously trying to play, though, as he did it).  "Xander, why are you hitting me?" I asked.  "Because I love you," was his sweet reply.  It's like my arm is his comfort blanket.  You can't help but love the little guy!

I love being a mom.

1/21/14

At bedtime last night, during personal prayers, Isabela prayed: “Please bless the entire world, and all the countries in it, and all the strangers that live in them… and please bless my friends like Wyatt, Sadie, Beckett, and Cindi (everyone in her primary class and her teacher), and please bless Xander, and Chauncey, and please bless Daddy.  And please bless mommy that she can clean the house better!”  From across the room, she couldn’t see my smirk.  Sitting right next to her, Brandon couldn’t hold all of his laughter in, even though he turned his head away from her, and she asked, “Daddy, why are you laughing?” right in the middle of her prayer!  He said, “Just because I love you so much,” and gave her a big hug.  Then she finished her prayer.  What a punk.  But she is so innocent at heart.

1/17/14

Xander's ability to pronounce more words and syllables is expounding quickly.  This morning he said, "carros" and rolled his R as he did so.  If you recall, Isabela only recently did that for the first time a couple of months ago.  He is saying 3 to 4 words together in Spanish now, a far cry better than the one or two syllables we had been working with.   He also is using everybody's full names sometimes.  If you ask him my name, he says Stephanie Amber Forster.  He is working on adding in the Hawkes.  I tease him that Dad's name is Brandon David Merlin Henry Forster.  He replies matter-of-factly, "No.  That not my daddy's name."  A bit of irony last week.  Isabela was whooping and hollering as she ran around.  Xander screams at her:  "Bella, be quiet.  Chauncey Joel Forster Is SLEEPING!!"

Isabela told her friend this morning her trachea was having a hard time.  She had to cough to get her food back up so it could go down the esophagus. She pointed to her throat on each side as she explained.  Yesterday, Brandon was teasing Isabela and told her we she was going to live in Alaska.  She said, "If you send me to Alaska, I will pick up a big rock, and throw it all the way back to Silt and knock your house down."  She finished with hysterical laughter following her statement, which made us all bust a gut laughing.  What a weirdo.  Wonder where she got that from. :D

I take back what I said before.  Chauncey squeaks as he laughs all the time, but he doesn't talk or coo much anymore.  Overall, he is still a very happy baby.  He is so close to crawling.  I would like to say he crawled a knee or two over Christmas, but it was just pretend.  On all fours all the time, but usually on his hands and tiptoes, rather than on his knees.  A hole even wore in the toe of his pajamas he pushes on it so much.  It is fun to see him working on it all the time.  He laughs, even, when he knows he is perfecting new feats.  The piano also excites him.  He sees it and flails his arms and legs until he is lowered down to play.  Pounding away at the keys always puts a smile on his face.  It is fun to let Chauncey play as an infant since we didn't have the piano when the other two were so small.