Growing Growing Growing

Our little boys are getting bigger and bigger by the day. Isaiah is now on the move... he crawls and walks behind anything he can push. And yes he can push many things as he is still bigger than over 95 % of the kids his age.

Kristin and I are loving our two energetic boys. They wake us up early and keep us on our toes all day long. They are so sweet and so much fun and every once in a while they get into trouble. :)

Finally!

So...Isaiah is almost 7 months and we haven't posted anything since his birth. That means that probably no one is going to see this with the exception for a few that still check babycrouch out of habit. For our own pleasure and delight, we're going to actually try to update you few faithful a bit with some recent pictures. Hope you enjoy! Isaiah is a SMILEY baby. And so much fun. He has one tooth on the bottom and has started sitting up and rolling around everywhere. He can move! He loves watching his big bro.

And speaking of Silas... he is a fun fun active 2 year old with a thousand words. He loves his mommy and daddy to watch him do everything. And he is a passionate soul of popcorn. He still loves cars. We gave him a shovel for Christmas. That's right...just a shovel. He's used it to dig in our backyard but it's also doubled as a pretend chainsaw, fishing pole and who knows what else. He's great.

Isaiah Daniel Crouch

On July 3rd, 2010 Isaiah Daniel Crouch joined our family. He weighed in at 8 pounds 15 ounces and 21.5 inches long.

Crazy Bucket Head

The other evening we were hanging out in our kitchen/dining room and apperently Silas thought things were a little boring. So his solution was to put a bucket on his head and walk around until he ran into something. He did this for quite a while and somewhere along the way decided to use the bucket (on his head) as a drum. I only got the very last of this strange episode on film.

Hope you enjoy.

Silas at 1 1/2

Silas will be 19 months tomorrow! and I am 33 weeks in this pregnancy. I am feeling well, just very pregnant. We're excited to welcome this new little guy into our family. However, we don't think Silas has any idea what's coming our way. He has been extremely love-y toward his stuffed animals lately. He hugs and kisses his giraffe, puppy and froggy. He also wants to feed them and he puts them down to take naps. It's really sweet and gives me hope for his future-relating to his baby brother. I'll write again soon (promise) but have to go to bed now...

Family Outing

We took a family trip to Long Beach this week and went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Silas didn't know so much fun could be had in one short day. It was a lot of fun and a day of many funny Silas faces. After the aquarium, we went to an Italian restaurant and got delicious lunch and finished off the day with a short visit to the beach. I told Brandon that taking me to an aquarium with Silas makes me a much better companion because I'm more entertained by Silas than fish. But I have to say that I was impressed with the fish, too. I also had a really good laugh when a lorikeet bird pooped on Brandon's shoulder. I've got the best family.

21 weeks - baby boy!

Life has been very busy for us lately which is why it took a little while for us to get around to a blog update. I would imagine that the reason that most of you are here is to find out if we are having a boy or girl. Well, the title kinda spoiled it didn't it?

We are excited to have another little boy in our house and for Silas to have a little brother. I am sure Silas will love him, care for him, bother him, and get him into trouble. That is what big brothers do, right?

As you can see from the pictures, Silas is definitely a little California boy. He LOVES going to pick lemons and oranges. Kristin and I stepped outside for a minute and before we knew it, he was off for the tree with his basket. It is pretty fun having a little guy around who watches so closely and "helps" in so many ways. He likes to try to water the plants, pull weeds, juice oranges, and most other things he sees us doing. We look forward to what life will be like with 2 boys running around. It will be fun for us to see how they are alike and how they are diferent.

15 months

It's been a little while since I've posted... first steps and first 4 teeth have happened since the last post. He started walking at 13 months but now in the last 2 weeks has he started preferring to walk. And he wants to walk everywhere! We've had a lot of fun the last few days in our yard and neighborhood. The pictures below were taken in Kansas (where it was pretty cold). We've been hanging out in 70+ degrees in our balmy CA winter. He loves to wander and explore, inspect plants and pick up random leaves, rocks and sticks. He also loves to pick lemons off our meyer lemon tree. I wish I could spell out how he says lemon... but I'd have to type a key that means: "stick our your tongue while saying it." It's awesome.

Brandon's such a good daddy

silas is a little cheeseball sometimes...

mmm... good cake.

Silas's known love of phones scored him 3 play phones for his birthday!

just silas & his dad hanging out & looking cool.

First birthday!

Wow! Silas turned 1 year old last week and we celebrated in big style. First off, all his grandparents flew in for the weekend! We had a GOOD time together. We visited a goat farm and the farmer's market. And we got ready for his party! A pound cake made into the shape of a car; homemade ice cream & fresh CA strawberries. Friends and a pinata in the shape of "1" taller than him. Gifts and finally, a visit to a pumpkin patch. whew. It was a full and fun weekend. We showered him with attention and love and hugs. He enjoyed it all. He's so much fun. He enjoys giving "zerberts" (is that what you call them?) on bellies, arms & necks. And he's obsessed with cars. He could just hang out in a car for quite a while. He also is extremely talkative and seems quite motivated to communicate. I wish I could understand more but there are quite a few things I do get. Enjoy the pictures!

11 1/2 months

Silas is a crazy little almost 1 yr old! We can't believe that his birthday is less than 2 weeks away. We think he is the best little guy in the whole world but I have to admit that he also has quite a large fan club. Here's a bit more about his recent "doings."

He is OBSESSED with cars. It's "ckaa" this and that. and sometimes, it's just plain "ckaa, ckaa, ckaa" (kind of like we say "blah blah blah"). When a car drives by our house, he points to the window and tells us that he noticed with a big fat "CKAA".

He loves dogs and birds and any other animal (we had a lot of fun at the LA County Fair when the sheep liked licking his toes).

He signs "all done" when he's finished eating and applies the principle to other situations. His "all done" sign also looks a lot like his wave good-bye and his waving at the fireplace or stereo (things he's not supposed to touch).

He is learning the art of entertaining guests. When he notices that people are laughing at him, he smiles and also starts laughing loudly.

He isn't walking yet but madly, fastly crawling everywhere. We try to get him to free-stand but he's a little cautious about that, too. This surprises us since he seemed so interested and intent on walking a couple months ago. We'll see what happens.

He gives us the best hugs! Brandon started a long time ago giving him big bear hugs and making a squeezing noise when he's doing it. Silas has started squeezing us and his stuffed animals the same way. It's really cute. He also still tackles his stuffed animals.

Next pictures - birthday cake!

9 1/2 months already?

Time flies! Our little man is getting so big and grown up. And he's so much fun. We laugh at him many times each day. One of our favorite activities of his is when he tackles his stuffed animals. He gets a crawling "run" and just levels them or gently hugs them. It's really cute. He's recently been practicing waving and clapping. And he's been working on his sounds - specifically "aduh" and "ufaah" and "abob." He looks so intently sometimes while he's telling us very serious things. He's been eating all sorts of things but enjoying blueberries and cherries and watermelon the most. He still likes avocadoes and also thinks my cooked egg yolk in plain yogurt mix is quite delicious (he doesn't know that most people don't eat egg flavored yogurt!) Here are a few pictures from the last month.

Addie's second birthday

Yesterday, Addie would have turned 2 years old. I don't really feel up to writing much right now but I wanted to acknowledge her birthday on our blog. Two years ago tonight we were home in our apartment in Riverside without her. Our friends had left after bringing and eating dinner with us. And my parents were on their way to CA.

Our hope was and is in Jesus. He walked with us through each step. Our pain was deep, real, intense, relentless and at an enormous size. But there was and is hope and joy even inside of that pain. Yesterday and today, we are sad. We've cried and probably had much less capacity for the normal stresses of living. We feel heavy.

Last night, we went out on a date (sushi) and then got a piece of cake at a Mexican bakery. We went to Starbucks and split the cake and talked. Today, we went to the beach with Silas and had fun. We took pictures, talked, prayed and walked Silas into the waves. We had taken Addie's ashes and scattered them in the ocean 2 years ago so the beach felt like a good place to be today.

We miss our baby girl.

Our little farmer @ 7 1/2 months

Here's some pics of Silas in our backyard last week. Brandon's extensive garden is busy growing and doing well! We have already eaten some tomatoes, zucchini, ground cherries, onions and 2 green beans. Silas has to go outside with us daily to check everything out. He is SO much fun and ready to go. Last night when I was getting him ready for bed, he started crawling. He headed out of his room, down the hall, through the dining room and entrance-way and to the front door. Then, I picked him up to his feet and he walked out the front door and down the driveway. He was ready to go somewhere! He loved his aunt & uncle and cousins that visited this past weekend. I think maybe last night he was going to go find them (they had gone back home to WI).