Who replaced my babies with big boys??

I'm not sure how it happened, but suddenly there are no more babies in my house! Everyone has gotten so big! Will and Henry actually "discuss" this issue quite frequently. This is how a typical conversation goes:

Will: Oh, Henry. You're such a good little baby.
Henry: Mine not baby. Mine big boy, Will!
Will: You'll always be our baby, Henry.

Henry: Mine not baby. Mine Henry.

Here's a little summary of what our big boys are up to these days.

Henry is almost 27 months old and talks all the time! He has so much to say. He does substitute "mine" for "I" and "I'm" most of the time. It's really adorable. He also still drops the beginning sounds of words sometimes (saying "at" for "cat," for example.) But, he's getting better with that. If you get him alone for a few minutes, the kid will talk your ear off! He especially likes to notice things about people and make comparisons. For example, he likes to notice the "Mommy and Henry have green eyes" and that "Daddy and Will have brown eyes." If something needs to be matched up, he's the kid for you!
Henry also love books. I love reading with him because he has certain parts of his books memorized and he also loves to fill in the story. His favorite books right now are by David Shannon and Sandra Boynton, as well as any counting books. If he doesn't like a book (say, one that we're reading with Will), he'll try to close it and say "The End." We're working on taking turns with books, especially at bedtime! Henry does love it when Will "reads" to him, which fortunately happens quite often! Like his brother, Henry also loves music and sings along with his favorite songs.

Henry is very busy too. He loves to run and climb and play. His favorite game is to "go up Mommy's nigh-night bed," which just means he likes to be in my bed. Both boys use their imaginations to turn our bed into a nest for birds, a rocket ship, a boat, and so on. One day recently they were pretending to be fire ants, and another day they were making "holes" in the bed because they were moles!

And now here's big boy Will, who will turn four in just two months! He recently decided he wanted to eat an apple whole. I wasn't sure how that would go, since he doesn't normally like the peel, but he did really well. You can kind of see the apple, sans peel, in this photo.

Will is really into dinosaurs and cooking lately. He can't decide if he wants to be a chef or a paleontologist when he grows up. This kid knows so much about dinosaurs! He can rattle off so many different kinds and can tell you what they look like and whether or not they're carnivores or herbivores. His current favorites are the velociraptor, spinosaurus, and T-Rex. We took the boys to the Houston Museum of Natural Science two weekends ago to explore the dinosaur fossils, gems, and butterfly center, and Will loved it! We bought a membership, so now we can go back whenever we want. It was the perfect place to be on a hot summer morning.
Last Sunday night, Will helped Gene make pizza. I know I have lots of photos of us cooking, but Will really likes to help us in the kitchen! He actually stirred the pizza sauce. Don't worry, the gas isn't on here!
Will is very serious about his cooking. He asks if I will come to his restaurant when he is big (14 years old, he says) and that he will bring me my dinner. There's a little place nearby that offers cooking classes for kids, starting at age 4. The classes are parent-child ones, so I'm hoping we can coordinate that for the fall. This kid loves being in the kitchen!

And of course, Will still loves books and music and learning. He can be pretty stubborn and likes me to help him with everything, but we are working on getting him to do things (like putting his shoes and writing his letters) all by himself. He can do those things, but he likes me to be around in case he needs extra help.

What happened to my babies? These boys have gotten so BIG!