[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0oP8otQNqw]

I think Lex is officially over his cold,
which has been lingering for weeks now. His appetite has been
minimal for awhile now, but today all I heard all day was “I’m
huuunnggrry.” All day! We were even playing outside for awhile
and he left a crowd of kids to go in and eat. I realized the
other day that he’s only gained about 1lb since his 2yr
checkup. He was 29.5lbs then and weights 30-30.5lbs on our
scale these days. I’m curious to see what the doc has to say at
his 3yr check up in a few months. So when he was hungry all
day, I just kept feeding him. Now if only I could get him to
eat more than 3 different foods. Ya know, something closer to
the 5 different foods I eat ;)

We went
back to the dentist this morning for x-rays. Lex behaved
exactly as I expected, squirmy and screaming. I bear hugged him
and Alan held his head/jaw, while a friendly nurse entertained
Eve in another room. The dentist said that it didn’t look
broken and would probably be ok. He recommended keeping Lex on
soft foods for another day or two (which in his diet means lots
of yogurt!) and just keep an eye on things. Lex seems fine
though and the tooth is less wobbly today. He had some baby
Motrin yesterday, but nothing today and he’s been quite happy.
I’ve also given him some less than soft foods (bagels) in small
pieces that he doesn’t need to bite with the front teeth.

We have one more day with daycare kids
tomorrow and then we’re done. We might celebrate with a trip to
the Montshire. Or we might celebrate with another day home,
alone :) We shall see.

Here is a cute
picture of the kids today. Lex was sitting on the hearth
reading and Eve sat down with him. She’s a girl on the go
though, so it didn’t last long.

Here’s a picture from
this morning. We were eating breakfast and Lex started naming
things in the kitchen. Why not, right? He got to stove, sounded
out the word, then announced that he could spell stove. Over to
the fridge and a few seconds later he was done. No help from
me. He did tell me “the silent E makes the T say t-uh!” and I
said “silent E’s only work on vowels.” He thought for a second
then said, “oh, the silent E makes the O say oh!” I jumped up
and gave him big hugs and told him that he was smart, smart,
smart. He said, “smart, I can spell smart” and did! No help
from me.

And to brag about Eve
for a second, she’s getting really good at baby signs. She
added “bird” to her growing list of signs today and used it
properly several times. She also can do a passable “spider” and
uses it when she wants me to sing “Itsy bitsy spider,” her
favorite song. Not sure she’d recognize a real spider, but
that’s ok! We also graduated her to a booster seat, so she now
sits at the table with us and uses a plate and fork. Well, she
uses them until she’s done eating, then signs “all done” and
tosses them on the floor :)

The scene: Lex is sitting in the living
room in the big blue chair. Alan walks in holding a banana to
his ear.

Alan: “Hello? Yes, he’s here.
Just a moment.” puts the banana down and says to Lex, “It’s for
you. Do you want to talk or should I take a message?”

Lex: stares at Alan for a moment, then says,
“You should eat the banana.”

Imagination
is not his strong suit :)

Apparently Eve is not an outdoorsy sort of
girl. The few times I’ve been able to get her outside this
spring she has been less than pleased. God forbid I put her
feet (shoed feet, not bare) on the ground and she’ll start
SCREAMING! Today was beautiful and warm and we made it out late
this afternoon, Eve scowling the whole time. I put her down
once or twice, put her in the swing, tried to get her to walk,
and made every effort to show her how the yard could be fun —
but she wailed like she was walking on hot coals. She loves
walking and wearing her shoes inside, so it’s not a pain thing.
We’re going to have to work on this though, because I can’t get
much gardening and yard work done with her in my arms. Maybe
she needs a trip to the country :)

We are spending lots of money on medical
expenses this year! This morning we added to that with an
emergency visit to a pediatric dentist. Lex and our 3yr old
were playing happily then somehow his chin collided with her
head, resulting in a lot of blood from his mouth and a loose
tooth. Luckily she’s ok! Alan came home quickly to watch the
girls while I took Lex to a new dentist who was very nice and
said the tooth is probably just “bruised” (he had some fancy
medical term that I don’t remember) but may potentially be
broken. We will be going back tomorrow as a family so I can
hold his body while Alan holds his head and the dentist takes
x-rays. We tried today, but Lex was none too keen to sit still
for me. I hope it heals and doesn’t fall out! The 3yr old was
very excited that Lex has a loose tooth and was telling him
that the tooth fairy will come and give him a coin soon. We’ll
see!

Today feels like a new start on life. It’s
a beautiful, sunny day, and my first day with no extra kids
(though I still have some this T/TH). Lex and Eve are both
happier and more mellow than they have been in a very long
time. Eve is one now and walking everywhere! It just feels like
spring in many different ways. I’m happy.

We had Eve’s 1st Birthday party this
weekend. It was great! There were tons of people in my tiny
house, but more fun is that there were tons of kids. I think
they were 3 months to 7 years all running (or being carried)
around the house. We had so much fun. Here are the pictures (in
a very mixed up order):

Eve's 1st Birthday

Thanks to everyone who made it over to help us celebrate
Eve’s birthday!

Lex has been experimenting with what he
calls us these days. When he was a baby it was “mamma” and
“dadda,” like most babies. For quite awhile it’s been “mommy”
and “daddy.” Then, a few days ago, Alan became “dad.” We joked
about it and yesterday I became “mom.” This morning, for a few
hours, I was “Tessa” as in “Oh, there you are Tessa.” :) It was
funny. I think it’s because we had a full house today and the
little girl calls me by name a lot. Lex decided he wanted to
try it too. Apparently he didn’t like it (or just forgot)
because I was “mommy” again by this afternoon :)

Speaking of full house, I had two small scares
today. At nap time I had the toddlers in bed and I was feeding
the babies when I heard Lex making noise upstairs. Based on the
amount of movement and high pitch to his voice I was guessing
he had a dirty diaper. Both babies were fussing though, so I
decided to finish with them first. After a few minutes he came
to the top of the stairs and started calling me, saying he had
a dirty diaper. I went up to change him and found him
completely naked at the top of the stairs, Huggies Overnight
diaper in hand. Ack!! In his room I found all of his clothes
and his diaper (very fortunately it was just wet!) on the
changing table. He had soaked through his pants and decided to
take matters into his own hands. I was soooo relieved to find
the diaper just wet. I’ve heard about disasters of this sort
before and did not want one of my own!

The other, more important scare of the day was in the
afternoon. I was doing a round of diaper changes (5 kids today,
all in diapers) and I came back into the living room after a
few minutes and had an instant feel that something was wrong.
Quick scan showed no baby gate on the stairs, no Eve to be
found, and then I heard noise upstairs. I ran up and found her
standing in the bathroom throwing toys into the tub!! Guess she
wanted a bath. I was freaked out though and really have to be
more careful about keeping that lower baby gate in place!

I guess it counts as a good day when
you go through three names and two scares and everyone comes
out safe and sound (and clean!).

We went in for Eve’s 1yr well child visit
today. She certainly is a well child, and she decided to show
of her walking skills to the doctor! She weighed in at 19lbs
9oz (and for those of you keeping score, yes that is 3oz less
than last time) and 29″ (.25″ less than last time, but I’m sure
that was just margin of error!) The doc was mildly concerned
that she hadn’t gained weight or height, but said it’s probably
ok since she got very mobile during that period. He did ask us
to come in for a 15mo check up, just to make sure she’s gained
a few pounds by then. Who knew lack of weight gain could ever
be a problem in this family? Guess who’s getting chocolate cake
this weekend!! :)

I also brought Lex along for a quick
check up because he’s had a fever for the past 24hrs and been
pretty miserable when not hepped up on the Tylenol. We were up
last night every 1/2hr for most of the night. It was awful.
Apparently his ears and lungs are ok though, so the doctor said
keep doing what we’re doing and see if it gets better. Fun,
fun. Hopefully he does get better soon!

Here is a little video of Lex using the
computer. He gets so excited :) We ended up moving him to the
floor so he has more room for the mouse. On the couch he was
running it under his legs, up the arm, and all around :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFOQbEgd3MM]