I’m pretty sure Lex is reading these days.
Not whole books, obviously (he just has them memorized), but
random words here and there. He points them out on signs, in
books, etc. Tonight he was looking at his Sparkly Animals book
and I heard him sounding out the words on the back. He is very
good. I grabbed the camera, but this is all I got:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLAqsc52I8w]

I started cracking up and stopped the camera a
second too soon, just before he said “Oh, I fell
down!”

This isn’t really a great picture, but it
makes me laugh. I was taking pictures of Eve and Lex wanted to
take pictures too. I was about to give him my camera, but he
got so excited and ran and got his own camera. Then took some
pictures. :)

Lex is so adorable these days. I
went to a physical therapy appointment this morning for my
sciatica and he was excited to “go to the doctor and watch a
little bit of TV” (Did I post my hospital experience a few
weeks ago? The had a mini DVD player in the ER and he was
thrilled). He didn’t come with me to the PT though, and this
afternoon when he was laying down for a nap I hear him over the
monitor saying, “Oh, my leg hurts. I have to go to the doctor
today.” So sweet. He’s reading with Alan now and is absolutely
adorable when he says “There’s no such thing as a Gruffallo.”
So lucky to have him!

When the boy naps, the girls bust
out the jewelery!! Actually, I took down our Barrel of Monkeys
game to show our 3yr old and she was pretty excited about
making earrings and necklaces instead of monkey chains. She is
generally not too interested in the actual rules to the games
:) Eve was just happy I let her chew on the monkeys and humored
me and my decorating efforts. When Lex woke up he tried hard to
explain that the monkeys were for making chains, not jewelery,
but he was seriously outnumbered by the ladies so he just sat
back and laughed. Such fun!

Happy 10 months to Eve! She’s such a sweet girl.
We’re so lucky. She has started watching and copying Lex
sometimes. She tries to say what he says and she only wants the
toddler sippy cups that Lex uses and likes to follow him
around. We are celebrating her 10 months by switching to cloth
diapers :) She doesn’t seem to care. Lex wants nothing to do
with them, but Eve is indifferent. We spend so much money on
diapers each month that if nothing else this will be a cost
savings. My friend lent me some and I’ve been using them for 2
days now. Not too hard. They’ve come a long way since I was a
baby!

On another note, ever notice what
good posture babies have? Eve impresses me with her straight
back and pulled back shoulders. I wonder at what age, and why,
people loose that natural position and start
slumping.

I’ve been kind of a wreck lately with a
persistent (chronic, says the doc) sciatica and too much mental
time on my hands to debate every minuscule decision I make.
Since when am I such a worrier?? But when I get too crabby I
try to step back and realize what a wonderful life I have. Food
in the cabinets, gas in the car (cars!), a nice, warm, safe
roof over my head. Life is good.

It’s been really neat watch Lex with our 3yr
old. He is so analytical and precise and she has such an
imagination. We made biscuits today and Lex and I always use
the alphabet cookie cutters. She wanted to use hearts and it
kind of threw Lex for a loop. Then she started insisting the
“V” cutter was a heart and the “D” was a window and he just
stared at her with such a “what the hell are you saying???”
kind of look. It was great. I think this is really good for
him.

Eve is on the go these days, and starting to let
go. I’ve seen her stand, unassisted, for several seconds before
plopping on her padded bum. You can also take her hand (just
one) and she will walk across the room with you. Assuming she
wants to go that way, of course :) Otherwise she plops right
down and keeps at whatever she was doing (like eating a book or
banging on the tv!) Tonight while we were reading bedtime
stories she was on my lap jabbering away, rubbing Lex’s head,
saying “gentle” (in her own way), and chewing on my face and
neck. She was so entertaining that I was having trouble reading
the stories. Fortunately Lex was equally amused and was holding
her hand and being playful.

How is it
possible that I get so down?? (rhetorical question, of course,
I know the answers)

My Green Bistro

Welcome to Joseph Harmon Wunderlich! Born
yesterday morning to Mike & Andrea. He shares Alan’s
birthday, so he’s off to a good start already. They have pics
on their blog. All are well and someday
we may make it down to Florida to visit them!!

Eve has been making great strides in the
talking department. She does a lot of it she’s really starting
to make sounds like words and sentences. She obviously doesn’t
have the pronunciation or clarity, but she’s trying. She often
says something that sounds very much like “hi” when she sees
you and “done” in the highchair, along with the baby sign. The
other day she was playing peek-a-boo with Alan. He was holding
her and she put his hat over his face and made noise that
sounded like “where’s daddy,” then pulled the hat down and said
“there he is” and giggled. She made the two series of sounds
over and over, along with the hat motion. It was pretty cool.
It’s also cool to watch her and baby talk. Baby is only 4mo so
she just coos, but Eve will babble for a bit then stop, baby
will coo, then Eve will babble a bit more. They both grin and
seem to really enjoy the conversation. Pretty cool.

The daycare business is picking up and we
are all adapting to our second child. We’ve had baby for a few
weeks now and I think my two love her. Lex asks about her when
she’s not around and Eve sits next to her in the bouncy seat
and has long conversations :) Girl talk! Now we’re getting used
to our 3yr old. She’s very funny and British. On her first day
here I was having her and Lex clean up the toys before lunch
and she crawled up on the couch and said, “I’m too pretty to
tidy up.” Cracked me up. I said, “You are very pretty, but no
one is too pretty for tidying!” Today she did much better and
helped Lex and I almost the whole time. One problem we have
though is that Lex is maybe too good at cleaning. Can I call
that a problem??? When the little girl takes a task (like
putting all the blocks back in the bucket) Lex always runs over
to help. So she walks away and tells me the job is done :) I
guess as long as the toys get cleaned up and everyone is happy
then who am I to complain, right? If all goes well we’ll have
another little girl starting with us in February. Then I’m done
advertising. Yay! I may still take one or two more (especially
a boy) if they come up, but those three cover the minimum I
wanted to make this worth it. Hope Lex likes the
ladies!