The ART of Becoming a Family: Outside

I've got outdoors-men! Well, boys that love the outdoors. Watch out, I may end up with a wicked awesome ~~farmers~~ tan by the end of the summer!
I've remained sane with two wild boys thanks to a huge yard and not-so-cold, yet not not entirely warm, weather.
We've been filling our days with walks in the stroller and wagon, trips to the park, bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and trips down the toddler sized slide in the yard.
Thank goodness we've managed to FINALLY convert our 2 naps down into 1. It took a good month and a half to two months of transitioning, and we eventually got there. Now, if only Nat would learn to sleep as long as his brother. Gabe takes after his mama. I love naps and have been informed that my mother had to work very hard to wean me from my long afternoon siestas so that I could make it to Kindergarten. Joel, as we have been told, was never a good napper and was quite content with a quick 20 minute cat nap. We'll see what Nat winds up doing, but for right now an hour seems to suit him. Gabe is most happy with three, yet his brother tends to wake him up after one, which makes him a crabby, little man.

I am amazed at how these two seem more and more grown up everyday.
Gabe is our "talker." He always has been. He was the first one to babble, the first to utter a word. He repeats everything we say to him and learns at least one to two new words a day. I would have to guess that his vocabulary is somewhere near 100 words. This evening at dinner he attempted to tell Daddy about his day. It went something like this... "Mama, Nat, Gabey- bye bye", "Slide", "Night Night", "Park". Then there was a whole bunch of gibberish that I couldn't quite translate, but I know he was letting us in on some of his deep, dark secrets.
Nat is such a daddy's and grandpa's boy. If one of his "guys" is in the room, mama doesn't stand a chance at any attention. We are working hard on his words. He has quite a few, between 20 or 30. Right now he is much more interested in looking at books, riding on his toy trucks, and playing on his slide. His comprehension is there, he would just much rather his brother do all the talking for him.

I'll leave you now with a whole bunch of pictures. We've got more playing to do. Today looks like it's going to be a nice one and I've got two little boys due to wake from their naps soon.