Stephen's been busy too!

Stephen has turned into a ham for the camera!  If he sees that I have one, he will stop everything and say cheese!! While tilting his head to the side, displaying a huge cheeky smile.  :)
Stephen is still a mamma's boy, he is a calm little guy that loves to play.
His speech is beginning to take off! He will say almost any word that you ask him to say, however, many of them are hard to understand still.  Almost all animals are still "puppies" and he sure loves animals!
He is a cuddle bug that puts stuffed animals and blankets to shame.  SJ loves to snuggle, give hugs and (long awkward) kisses (HA HA).  SJ has found a couple of Lauren and Alana's "loveys" from then they were small, But I am not going to let him get too attached... Mom Bunny and the little (tiny) puppy that was in their doll house.  He adores them both. :) (AND, Alana and Lauren: I am NOT letting him take them out of the house, they will be here safe and sound (and very loved) when you return!) ;)
 Lately, he has been missing his brother...  When we bring John to school, the whole car ride when we leave is, "John??" "Bro-der John??" "kool?" (school)  "JOHN!??" "BRO-DER?!"  They have both picked up on the "brother" term, and I love it.  I want their brother bond to be extra strong and to know that they are brothers for life.  :)  They have been loving the love hugs. It is so sweet, the other night we were at Lifetime, and the boys were showering after swimming. Ryan and I were getting their clothes ready for when they were done and when we turned to see what they were doing, they were standing in the shower, hugging, saying "bro-ders" It was pretty sweet, except when we noticed one of SJ's hands fell a little low and was holding JRs bum! LOL  Ryan and I got a pretty good laugh out of it! ;)
Stephen has been a rocky sleeper lately, the whole blog about him getting up in the night is still happening, I would say less though.  He has become a very early riser too.  (as early as 4:15-6am) I really am not one that will ever "get used to" seeing 4:15am on the clock! ;)
He is a drink-a-holic!!  He loves to be drinking, all the time!  I took the boys for their well-child exams a couple weeks ago, and they asked me, "how many ounces of milk are they drinking/day?"  I was kind of caught off guard, I "guessed" and said 25 ounces.  The other day, Ryan and I were talking about ways to save money on our groceries, and right away, we realized that the Naked juice consumption was out of control! We were buying 5 of the big jugs a week!! WOOF. That's when I started to think about how much SJ is drinking?  When I started to add up the (take and toss 8 oz sippys) ounces, I was quickly getting over 80ounces/day! I called his doctor and they wanted to see him right away.  We went in the next day and first they wanted to rule out diabetes- ruled out! his blood sugars were well with in range! (relief) However, they are looking into it further... we are waiting on some more blood work to come back and I have to drop off a urine sample on Monday. (fun, huh!?) I hope it is just that he is a "big drinker" : / Boy, do I hope that is all!

We took the boys to the MN zoo today, SJ was a speedy little thing! He was darting in and out of the families, between strollers and never looked at an animal the entire time! HA.  By the time we were almost back to our truck, he started to slow down, quickly all of the sudden, I realized I was almost dragging him. The craziness caught up with him! :)  We had a fun little lunch in the bed of the truck after the zoo.

**Ear Tubes! When I had SJ at the DR this week, his Dr. noticed his left ear tube is gone. :(  I am super bummed, I have no doubt that we are not out of ear infection land.  And, every time we go on a plane, he gets one... I have all of my fingers crossed for when we go to AZ in 3 weeks. His tubes lasted 13 months.  I was hoping to get use of them through the summer....