T and I are regularly taken aback at how
long Eve appears to be compared to what we remember of Lex. In
case any one is keeping track, here is the break down:
according to the blog from Lex’s 4mo checkup, Lex was 16lbs
5oz, which is the 78th percentile, and 24 1/2 long. As said in
the last post, Eve is 15lbs and 25 1/2. So, she’s a bit longer,
but weighs less. So, as Tessa puts it, “she’s not that big of a
baby.”

I think it is the proportions
that get us. She is 4% longer and 6% lighter which implies a
similar amount thinner, so the appearance is probably something
closer to 10% different (very rough math). I always thought Lex
was thicker and she just looked longer because he was thicker.
It is neat to see the numbers say both. She has less meat on
her than I remember Lex having and definitely smaller
bones.

I love our babies!

I have also been taken aback recently by Lex’s
muscle tone. It has always been good, but his recent calmness
that Tessa has mentioned allows for more chances to notice it
again: hard to notice anything when he runs by in a blur all
the time. =) Anyway, this kid is going to be one beastly super
stud.

Lex has started blowing the minds of those
around him again. Just about anytime some one says, “careful,”
he’ll stop, look around, see the danger, and when appropriate,
lookup, and say as clear as a bell while shaking his head, “I
don’t want to fall and get hurt.” It literally sets people back
on their heels. God bless Love and
Logic.

He also shocked our
neighbor with his “applied physics,” as she puts it, when I
asked him to right her wheel borrow he had just tipped on its
side. It was empty, but it is one of those heavy metal ones
(ours is plastic and Lex could probably lift it over his
head).

So, he tugs on the handle he used
to tip it over, found too much resistance there. Immediately,
he walks around to push on the top-side, lifted it up enough
that he could get his other hand under the bottom-side, and put
it right up. He did it as smoothly and as easily as any adult
might have done with a proportionally sized wheel borrow.

She gushed for about 5 minutes strait. She
gushes about everything though. She’s great for the ego. Having
Lex for a son doesn’t hurt either. ;)

That’s right. I said it. My patent. It is
not pending anymore. It is now approved.

Tessa said I should post to the blog more and I confirmed
that it has become a family blog, not just a kid blog, so this
post is allowed. =)

Anyway, now we just
need to find $1000 to pay the USPTO to make it permanent before
July, and $5000 to file some extensions, but we’ll find the
money some where. We always do. DATDEC should be able to cover
most of it.

I’m still hoping to build a
prototype this summer, but getting DATDEC back into a
profitable state takes priority. We are setting up a server
farm but have to keep paying to host our servers else where
until that is ready. As soon as we have our servers in our own
space, I think I am going to put improvements to that business
on hold for a while and bang out this prototype.

Process developed and illustrated by Lex
Johnson (patent pending).

Step 1: fill a truck with
bunnies and fish.
Step 2: eat the fish and bunnies.

In the first couple of days, Lex was so
often encouraged to “come see the baby” that it would seem he
is taking the suggestion as literally as one could. He
regularly walks over to Eve when she is accessible around head
height, leans in so his face is within a few inches of hers, and
with his cute, high-pitched, happy-voice, says “See? …
See?”

He will repeat this three or four
times before moving on to other activities. These other
activities often include sweet little kisses, mildly
over-enthusiastic hugs, and most recently, trying to pick her
up or, “hold the baby,” as he says. Obviously, we are trying to
tame the last two for the short term, but so far, Eve has not
complained beyond a few subtle grunts and squeaks. She appears
to be an easy going soul, which she will need if the peace is
to be kept as they get older. Don’t get me wrong: Lex roles
with the punches as well as any toddler I have ever seen, but
he is a wild man to the core, and I wouldn’t have it any other
way.

When I first saw Eve’s eyes by the
hospital light, they appeared to be a very dark blue, almost
black. Now that we have had a few chances to see them open for
longer times in the daylight, there is a clear ring of brown
around the pupil. They are mostly still dark blue, but could be
turning to hazel. If you never noticed Tessa’s eyes, they are
hazel with brown around the pupil: one has more brown than
hazel, the other more hazel than brown, which causes them to
look like two different colors in bright light. So, there might
be an off chance that this one is Tessa’s. ;p