picture stories

I'm so behind with writing that I feel like I should stop forever. You know how that is? There's just too much to catch up on. I feel terrible about this. My kids have made such leaps in the past few weeks and I have left those events undocumented. So I guess I'll give this a jump start. Gotta get going again somewhere, right? So let's start here:

This one's freaking cute. He is finally slipping into a readable pattern, mostly. I mean, there's always days that he's thrown off, but I'm starting to understand him, and create nap times, and figure out how to do bedtimes without him losing his mind and screaming his head off. He's a pretty happy guy when he gets good sleep.

His eyes are still blue, with one lone streak of brown in his right eye, going down diagonally to the right. Will he keep the blue with this one tiny bit of brown? It would be a phenomenon.

Here he is, sleeping in his carseat, hugging his bib. I have to strap him in to everything or else he'll throw himself on the floor: carseat, swing, he's even tried to pop out of the Bumboseat and I haven't figured out if that is entirely possible. This is so not what I'm used to. I don't want to always compare my kids to eachother, but I will say that this is pretty different than how I had to deal with Kindred. He was happy to stay put where he was, strapped in or not.

When I pull out the camera anymore, Kindred runs up to me and demands that I take a picture of him. He cheeses or sets up some ridiculous pose and waits for the flash.

He is unbelievable these days. He seems to make cognitive jumps a few times a day. (No wonder he takes 3 hour naps! This has got to be exhausting.) He puts things together in his head that he has not been taught. He just figures them out. I should carry a notebook around to write them all down, because there's so many of them I forget them. I'll tell you about a few instances.

He knows the difference between too big and too small. Like when he's taken a bite that is too much for his mouth, and why Elias's socks don't fit his feet. When I'd left my cereal bowl on the bench the other day, he walked over to me and said, "Sink," and took my bowl and spoon to the sink. The spoon went in easily, but he had trouble with the heavy bowl. I heard a few grunts from the kitchen, then a little voice. "Too much," he reasoned aloud, and called, "Mama, hep!" (help).

*An aside. Both of my boys are sleeping. (A minor miracle.) My landlord is here to clean up the yard. (Very sweet.) But in his attempt to retrieve a broom and dustpan, he's just SLAMMED THE BASEMENT DOOR RIGHT OUTSIDE KINDRED'S WINDOW, and he's POUNDING AND POUNDING something down there. ARG!!*

Anyway, moving on. So here's Elias trying to launch from the Bumbo. Actually, no, he seems pretty comfy in there at the moment, but if you click on the picture and look close, there's a river of drool down the side of the seat, collecting in a puddle on the hardwood. (and Lisa, yes, the upside-down smile has appeared on his knees! What a chunker.)

Remember that train Kindred got from Papap and Grammie and Uncle Mike? Well, he really really likes it. The engine was "lost" for a few weeks-- it had lodged under the dresser and the batteries had run out. Mama, to the rescue, found it, replaced the batteries, and Kindred's favorite thing to do these days it just run the engine with a few cars on the back all around the apartment. Forget the track. He doesn't need it. It's too limiting. (I'll show you a picture perhaps next time of the small track running around our little Christmas Rosemary tree. (That's all we could fit. If we got a big tree, could you imagine? We'd have to sleep in the garage.) Michael thought it would be cute to have Kindred's train run around it. It was. For one night. That's about all Kindred could handle. He had to free his poor train for world exploration.)

Another cheeseball shot:

Kindred understands that Elias doesn't eat the same things that he does. Well, most times. I have tried to explain that Elias doesn't have teeth, so he can't eat the apple that Kindred has kindly offered to him (but thanks so much for offering, honey). When Elias is nursing, Kindred announces, "Baby Ayiyas eet boobie."

Kindred is also pretty intrigued with my breast pump. He knows what it is, and he knows how to use it. Well, sorta.

And finally, the "Sunday series." When we left church last week, Michael asked Kindred where we were going. Kindred exclaimed, "Home! Fooball!" Someone has taught their son well. Depending on the time, Kindred's shout is either "Go Giants!" or "Eayayayales!" after Michael spells out E-A-G-L-E-S. (What are we going to do next week?)

What could all these boys be so interested in?

Oh, right. The TV across the room. Yeah, football season.

So I hope that's a sufficient catching up post. I'm going to try to be better. I really am. I make no promises. I have Christmas presents to work on.