I know it’s hard to guess, based on
toddler behavior, what a person will be like as a grown-up, but
sometimes it seems like you get little glimpses. Lex is usually
pretty easy going, non-confrontational, and helpful. At
playgroups, when other kids take stuff from him, he normally
just walks away. Even at our house he usually doesn’t care. (Is
he going to be a big push-over??) Yesterday, however, we had
Nate over and Lex knocked him over a couple of times! Very
intentionally and meanly. Lex was wearing a new shirt with
buttons and a collar and is a good several inches taller than
Nate (Nate is 19mo) and he just looked like a brute. What’s
worse, after the first push, every time Lex went anywhere near
Nate, Nate coward away from him and cried… which just made
Lex appear even worse. I felt bad for the whole situation. In
the afternoon Lex was trying to share his toys and give Nate
things, but Nate kept cowering away and crying. (Or is he going
to be a bully??) It was a rough day for everyone. (Or just a
toddler?? :) )

Today will be better. I’m
packing (well, typing at the moment, then changing diapers,
then back to packing) and we are headed to Franklin!
Yay!

My dear Joyce, and everyone else, I miss you
too. Are you telling me that a week between updates is too
long? You are, of course, correct. I’ve just been in a pretty
crabby mood lately, and not really motivated to write. I’ve
also been trying to update the photos.datdec.com site. It’s not
ready yet, but someday soon you’re going to get a plethora of
photos for your viewing pleasure :) Now its early and I’m
chilling (its 39 degrees outside, gotta turn on the heat soon!)
so I’m just going to copy and paste from an email I sent to
Grandma yesterday. How’s that for lazy? :)

Things here are going ok. I still have just the one kid
and just a few days a week. He’s 19mo and pretty easy. I have
to be registered to take more than 2 families, so I have that
in the works. I also had a visit from a woman at The Child Care
Project in Hanover. They are
responsible for home
visits and education and stuff like that. A great resource for
both parents and childcare providers. They typically do one
visit before you are registered and one after the
registration is approved. The woman was really nice and
had a ton of info, but also pointed out a few things that I
need to change to be fully up to snuff as a childcare provider
(different sleeping arrangements, fencing, age appropriate
toys, etc).

Meanwhile, I got a call from
King Arthur Flour about a position I applied for many weeks
ago. The position description sounds great, so I went in for an
interview last week. KA would be a sweet place to work, if I
have to go back to work. The HR woman I met with was nice
and things went well, but she said the position may have
morphed a bit since it was advertised. She also said they were
interviewing a few other people and would be in touch towards
the end of this week. Sooo…. my brain is going a million
miles a minute about possibilities and pros and cons and blah,
blah, blah. I give myself a headache :)

So, on that note, I’ve decided to take the kids to
Franklin for a few days. Packing up and running home to mommy
is a legitimate grown-up solution to life’s problems, right???
(Just kidding mom, it’s just a visit, I promise!) Alan has been
working all the time these days, so we’re going to leave him
home and go on a little road trip. I’m excited. I thought maybe
a change of scenery would do me good. At least give me
something else to think about for awhile.

The kids are doing great. He is so smart and funny, and
I’m pretty sure he just had a growth spurt. He looks like such
a little man now. She is growing bigger and starting to get
mobile. She turns herself around on her back and reaches for
her toys. They are so cute when they play together. He makes
her laugh. She is eating solids now (avocado, sweet potatoes,
baby cereal, and bananas). They also both like to talk, so
there’s never a quite moment in my house :) She’s on the floor
now jabbering away.

Ok, gonna find a
few photos to put here and then go get Lex (he’s been awake in
his room for awhile now). Love you all!!

For dinner last night Lex ate a mini bagel
with cream cheese, about 1/3 cup of green beans, Baby Bell
cheese, food cube of sweet potato, 4 pretzel sticks, about 1/3
of a banana, milk and water. Then we went outside and he ate a
grape tomato, green bean, and carrot from the garden. Hungry
boy!

THEN… I mentioned that the leaves
are starting to fall and soon we will have to rake them up. He
got so excited about this idea that he started running to the
garage saying “Wanna get the racks. Want to get mommy’s rake.
Want to get Lex’s rake.” In the garage he started chocking (not
good to run and talk with fresh green beans in your mouth) and
he chocked so hard he threw up all over the garage!!! I had Eve
in the hip carrier and I tried to keep Lex in one place
(contain the mess) while yelling for Alan to come out and help
us! Fun, fun. Alan threw him in the shower and got him all
cleaned up, then he climbed up in the high chair for more food!
He actually got in the high chair and said “Want to watch a
little bit of TV with dinner.” How can you resist that :) So I
gave him more green beans, pretzels and milk, which he ate
while we watched an episode of The Simpsons. :)

He cracks me up because he laughs at the most
random places. In the show a guy was banging on a drum and Lex
was cracking up. He watched Arrested Development with us the
other day and that made him laugh too. It’s not even like he
laughs when we laugh, he just laughs whenever he thinks
something is funny. Sometimes we are laughing, but usually not
:) He has a very toddler sense of humor.

We were playing outside today, Eve in the
stroller while I chased after Lex and Nate (my 1st daycare
charge). Lex put his water cup on the stroller and a few
minutes later I noticed Eve sitting forward reaching for the
cup. I watched as she grabbed the cup, brought it to her mouth
and drank some water! Guess it’s time to introduce the sippy
cup… well, start using anyway, she doesn’t seem to need much
introduction! I didn’t have the camera with me at the time, but
she continued to grab it and suck on it (not always on the
sippy part, sometimes on the side or bottom :) ) every time Lex
put it down. Silly girl. I was able to get pictures a bit later
in the afternoon. I was feeding her avocado for dinner and she
started making sputtering faces, so I got her a cup of water
and she drank up, then ate more avocado. Kids are pretty good
at telling you when they are ready for stuff.

Yesterday I put her down on her belly in the
brown chair (she’s getting a bit big for it these days) and Lex
was walking around, climbing on the chair, stepping over her,
hugging her, saying “hello my babies” and “hi eve” and
generally doing his Lex thing. She was soooooo happy. She was
doing her baby push-ups and trying so hard to see everything he
was doing and she kept laughing. It was great! I kept peeking
at them (to make sure everything was ok), but they just played
together for the longest time. It was the coolest
thing.

This is Lex as we ran errands today. I
picked the clothes and he accessorized :) The little radio
plays short little songs when you push one of the buttons, so
Lex kept stopping every few feet, putting the radio down,
pushing a button (to keep the music playing), picking it back
up and walking some more. We got to one place and he decided he
wanted to bring his water with him. So I got him out and had
Eve in my other arm and we’re in a parking so I’m holding on to
his arm (his hands being full of stuff) and he’s shuffling
along. I said “c’mon Lex, what’s wrong??” and looked back to
find him with a radio in one hand, water cup in the other and
rubix cube (he calls it his block) between his knees!! He’s
shuffling because he’s trying not to drop the block :) He
cracks me up.

We went to a playgroup today that
ended up being very busy. There was another woman there with a
toddler and baby and they had with them the same toy that we
had with us, a little Lamaze brand sun/moon thing with toys
hanging off of it. At one point another kid was carrying the
other toy and Lex went up and tried to take it away, saying,
“that’s Eve’s, that’s Eve’s” :) I had to explain that there
were two and only when I showed him that Eve still had hers was
he happy to let go of the other one and move on. He sure loves
his sister!

At bathtime tonight I put Eve in her
jumper for the 3rd time and this time she really got it! She
was jumping up and down and laughing and cooing and gurgling.
So cute. She really laughed when Lex was
“helping” her jump. He was a little rough for my preference,
but she was loving it :) A bit later she settled down and was
holding on the the front straps and leaning her head back to
watch the spring as she bounced. She was just bouncing along,
lounging back (I was reading stories to Lex) when suddenly she
hit her poor head into the edge of the door frame! Her eyes got
huge and she let out an enormous wail! Poor baby! I pulled her
out of the jumper and Lex was right there saying “wanna kiss it
and feel make it better.” :) So he gave her lots of kisses.

Speaking of kisses… we were putting
them both to bed and Lex asked for a “family hug.” He’s no
longer content with “a hug for mommy and a hug for daddy,” he
now requests “family hugs” and “Lex sandwiches” :) So we had a
big family hug and then he said “want to have kisses” and he
gave each of us a kiss. He kissed Alan and I on the lips and
tried to get Eve’s mouth but she was bopping her head around so
he settled for several kisses on the head instead :)

I love my little family!

It’s a beautiful day, the kids are
sleeping (at the same time, can you believe it!!!), and the
house is moderately clean, so I figured I’d ramble at you all
for a bit.

Things are going pretty well
these days. I found out that I need to be registered to do
daycare around here, so I’m working on the paperwork for that.
Nothing too hard, just paperwork. I had a 19mo old here two
days last week and a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old for 1/2 day last
week. All in all not too painful :) Once I get the registration
I’ll be able to advertise and get a few regulars. Eve was
pretty indifferent to the whole thing, but Lex was a little put
out on the day we had all three extra kids. Twice he took the
toy he was playing with and went into the office and closed the
door :) I’m ok with that though.

Lately
the subject of introvert and extrovert came up and I find
myself thinking about it a lot. My mom showed me an article
that basically says the difference is in how you recharge.
Introverts need alone time to recharge while extroverts
recharge by being with other people. I’m definitely an
extrovert and get a little crazy with too much alone time :)
Lately I’ve been thinking Lex might be an introvert though. His
personality is mellowing a lot as he grows up (2 whole years
now!) and after a busy day doing whatever he is very happy to
sit in the corner and read books. Even when we go to
playgroups, he’ll play with others for a bit then take off to
do his own thing for awhile. It’s neat to watch as all the kids
grow into their personalities. The wild, uber social Lex from
last year is now a more mellow kid. Still has is wild moments,
don’t get me wrong, but definitely mellowing :)

It has also been neat to see his imagination
start to come out. Lots of other kids now play games with
dollies, build houses and put people in them, etc. but Lex
hasn’t shown much of that imagination until recently. The other
day he put a book on the Noah’s Ark toy we have and “sailed” it
across the hearth to a picture of him and Eve. “Book is on the
boat. The boat sails to the picture,” he said as he did it. He
has also started “wearing” his blanket and pretending it’s
other things. Sometimes it’s a “warm coat” or “nice hat” or
“big scarf.” Hmmm… I had a few other examples, but can’t
think of them at the moment. Oh well.

Ok, Lex is awake now so I’m outt here. More
later.

These were taken at a playgroup the other
day (by someone else). I think they are great. He looks like
such a little guy and she has a great expression. My kids crack
me up!

I keep thinking of lots of fun
things to blog about, but when I finally get a chance (10:45pm)
I’m just tired and can’t remember any of them. Sorry!! I’ll try
to get better. In the meantime, hopefully the photos will keep
you all entertained for awhile.