What you see here are the peels of 6 bananas. On Thursday, I stopped by Albertson's on my way home to grab a few things, including stocking up on fresh fruit for the boys. I set the bunch of bananas that I bought on the counter top, gave Peter a big hug, then, went in to chat with Natalie for about 5 minutes. That's all the time Peter needed. Natalie took this pictureas proof, because she was in disbelief. I don't think I could pound 6 bananas in 5 minutes even if I tried, and I'm known as a pretty good eater.

So, then today, we decided it would be our first time going to church all together since Eric was born. We were pretty excited- we even got there a little early and found our normal bench right behind the Deckers. I've been spoiled the last month and a half, only having Clay with me in sacrament meeting. He usually sits there, quitely coloring, or doodling on the etch-a-sketch. Peter's not quite to that stage yet. About halfway through the meeting, he filled the back end of his diaper up, and I took him out to take care of things before people started passing out. I didn't realize it yet, but that's when he got the taste of freedom. When I brought him back in, Natalie and I switched, and I held Eric, so Natalie could do a dinosaur puzzle with Peter (all of you reading this who don't have little kids- don't judge us for all of our non-church related toys that we use to get through sacrament meeting- at our stage, you do what you've got to do to hear at least 10 minutes worth of the meeting).

Where was I? I yeah, Peter got a little restless, and somehow, I look up, and there's Peter streaking up one isle, and back down the other one. He made his was back to our bench, but not for long. I only had one arm, since I was holding the newborn, so off he went again, luckily, towards Natalie, who was standing (red faced) at the back door to the meeting room. Within seconds, he was off again, streaking up the isle, with Natalie in persuit, this time yelling out, "You can't catch me!" That's when I was looking for the lever of the trap door that was supposed to be right beneath me.

Luckily, we have many other families with young kids in the ward, and we were able to comiserate a little after the meeting. I mentioned the incident to one couple, and they hadn't even noticed, then the wife asked, "had he stripped off his clothes yet?" I said no, and she said, "well, we've still got you beat, then."

It's a good thing Jesus loves little children...

Our little buddy is growing up, hitting the big 0-6. We started off the festivities Sunday with a combined birthday dinner for Clay and his cousin Abby, who's birthday is a day after his. On Wednesday we had a special breakfast - Natalie's dutch babies. Later that evening, we had cake and ice cream with both sets of grandparents. I think the highlight of the evening for everyone was watching me put together the complicated racetrack that my parents gave him, while my dad heckled me about being the transportation engineer who shouldn't have any troubles assembling the thing. We rounded out the week's events with a little party with some of his neighborhood friends.

Natalie took this picture last week. I think that she had heard someone rummaging around in the kitchen one morning while she was in the nursery with Eric. Later in the day, she opened the fridge and found that someone had taken all of the cubes of butter out of their packages, and, well you can see the 2-year-old sized finger and teeth marks...

I think that Peter is still in a little bit of denial about being a big brother. However, he does like being described with the adjective "big", so it's a good step in the right direction. Clay, on the other hand, is a very loving and doting big brother (if only he could be that way all the time to Peter, too...). I think that this picture says it all. He is very proud of little Eric, and is always looking for ways to help out. He likes to hold him and rock him and talk to him. We're proud of our little boy!