Update time.

Holy smokes has it been a busy couple of weeks! There's been a craft show, a baby shower, an engagement, preschool orientation, multiple nieces' birthdays, not to mention the early stages of 1st birthday planning. I'm so exhausted I can hardly focus, so this may all come spilling out in a big ole mess.

Joe...
- has become obsessed with Elmo. We're certain it would have been sooner if his big sister wasn't always dictating what shows we watched. He can even (kinda) say "Elmo" and his face just lights up when he sees him. He enjoys Mickey Mouse a lot, too, but Elmo is his BFF.
- is now an official book lover. And he's really vocal about it when he wants you to read to him. He will grab a book and just start charging towards you going "Ahhhh!" which obviously means "Will you please read me this book?" He also tries to do the sign for book; though it's not quite right, he does the same "sign" consistently. No matter what I'm doing, I make it a point to always stop to read to him. He loves lift-the-flap and touch-&-feel books, but especially likes books with Elmo on them.
- is so much of a Daddy's boy that his very first word every single day is "Dada." During the week, it's more of a question, like "Where is Dada?" On weekends, it's a "Hey! My Dada's home!" kind of exclamation. The relationship between these two absolutely kills me; it's so precious I can hardly stand it.
- spent the ENTIRE day being crabby yesterday. And I'm not being dramatic, it was all day. Except for when he was sleeping. He was even crabby while he ate, and that boy loves to eat. Then he went for a repeat performance this afternoon, going so far as to refuse to eat dinner. Needless to say, I just enjoyed the world's most delish leftover carrot cake cupcake & didn't feel even remotely bad about it.

Brooke...
- is 95% potty trained. Excuse me a minute while I go do a little jig.
- starts preschool next Wednesday. You guys, this girl's like a big kid now. We visited her preschool classroom & teachers yesterday.  She was very excited to go and thought it was so much fun to have Mommy & Daddy there! We are very hopeful that all will go well next week when I drop her off...and then actually leave her.
- can now write all of the letters in her name, though her "K" is almost unrecognizable. Just a reminder, she's only 2 1/2. Mega-impressive, no?
- calls her brother "my buddy" or "little buddy", which is basically the cutest thing to happen since Michelle Tanner said "You got it, dude."

And in case you haven't met your adorableness quota for the day (and in case you don't follow me in any of the social media outlets, i.e Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter), feast your eyes on this little gem...and try hard not to "Awwww!" when you see it.