Just to make you think that my kids love each other, and play happily all day long together, here are some pics.
I guess I'm just sort of teasing myself because these pictures are so dang cute, but they are an unfair representation of the day to day for us. We have had some serious issues lately with "sharing" and "being soft". Deep down, I know they do love each other very much. But the combination of these two ages right now. . . I really can't turn my back on them.
Jane is 9 months now, crawling all over the place, getting into everything, pulling herself up on everything, and making a mad dash for the stairs (going up or down) anytime we leave the door open. If she gets outside, she has 4 little mini pine cones in her mouth before I even get out the door. She is a little firecracker. . . anytime she gets a toy ripped from her hands (many many times during the day) she sure lets Crew have it, screaming right back in his face. Though this is not an enjoyable experience for any of us, its kind of funny to see her react because it seems so beyond her age. I didn't see Crew react that way until he was much much older, so I'm guessing it has to do with being 1st child/2nd child. She does some really cute grunts and raspberry blowing, and she has been waving to us the last couple of days. She had been doing it for a little while randomly, and I sort of blew it off that it was just a coincidence. But in the last 2 days I realized she really knows what she is doing. Ryan got a cute video I'll try to post another day.
At her 9 mo. apt she was 17 lbs 2 oz., 26.5 inches long, and 17.5 around her head. Baby center tells me that her weight is 10-25th percentile, height is 10th percentile, and head is 50th %.
Crew is a little chatterbox all day. He has named each of us in the family as a member of sesame street, and he never fails to call us our "correct name". Crew is Elmo, Jane is Zoe, Ryan is Big Bird, and I am (so appropriately) Cookie Monster. Anytime Jane is waking up from her nap and we can hear her on the monitor, he says, "Zoe's waking up! Should we go get her?" This morning we went for a run. After we got home and I had put Jane down for her nap, I told Crew I was going to take a quick shower. He said, "Are you sweaty and yucky, Cookie Monster?" Yes, my dear Elmo, I am.
I can't believe I ever thought my son knew how to make a mess before. He has turned into a tornado around here. I used to try to have the place picked up when Ryan came home - but man oh man he is making that really difficult these days. I have really been trying to help him learn to clean up his toys when he is done playing with them. Of course, I am always right there helping him. He knows what to do, but he really struggles to help some days. He repeatedly sings, "Clean up, Clean up, everybody do my share." Quite appropriately.
When cute Ella came to play. She loves Jane and Crew, and they love her.
It was a warm summer evening, we were getting the kids ready for a bath. Somehow we opened the back door and they both were outside running/crawling all over the patio. It was cute, so I snapped some shots. Had to get the tongue. . .
