Lex is totally reading these days. It
amazes me. He likes to read the paper with me in the morning
and he sees words, sounds them out, and gets so excited :) He
read “Food Store” yesterday and then asked for help with
“Specials.” We read the comics together and he read “My dad got
a” in Baby Blues, but gave up on “speeding” and asked for help.
The longer words are tougher (obviously) because he can sound
them out, but forgets the beginning by the time he gets to the
end :) Alan says he has that problem too! It’s just amazing to
watch him go. He points out signs to me and even asks questions
about them (“no what?” he says, pointing to a No Parking sign).
My sister bought a bunch of Sunday papers while she was here
and Lex spent Monday with the papers spread all over the living
room floor. He walked around looking at them and pointing out
words. He’s also starting pointing out the page numbers. The
other day he said, “An that’s B5, yeah!” (still very self
congratulatory). I had to ask, “B5? What is B5?” and he pointed
right to the page number. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s
just so cool to watch little brains learn and grow.

These two are growing up, for better or for
worse :) We’ve decided that in the past few weeks Lex has
really become a kid. He is speaking in full sentences now,
using extra words like our names, “almost” and lots of
descriptive words. He has also had a physical burst and likes
to jump on one foot, jump off the coffee table, and get into
weird climbing contortions. All great things! On the down side,
the whining is annoying and he has a lot of emotional bursts.
It occurred to me yesterday that the emotional issues may be
age related, but it may also be daycare related. He definitely
doesn’t get the attention he used to and we don’t get out much
:( Our weekly grocery shopping is the highlight of his week.
Eve has decided to join in the emotional party and cries
randomly and for no apparent reason (I blame it on teething,
’cause, well, why not?) She’s also getting a little attitude
and working the manipulative cry. I put her in the high chair
and turn my back and she wails. But when I pull the box of
Cheerios out of the cabinet she’s all smiles. She’s also got
this little “hmff!” with a body nod (hard to explain) action
going on. I think Lex did it for awhile too. Sort of
emphasizing her “gack!” point. “Gack!” is her favorite word and
she uses it for just about everything. That and “gone” which
she uses for food, toys, people, etc. Instead of saying goodbye
to people she just says “gone” and does the matching baby sign.
So funny. Along with her new little attitude though has come a
lot of physical developments too. She can walk around the
kitchen, with just a hand on the cabinet for balance. She can
walk around the house holding on to someone’s finger. And
yesterday she took one tiny step. She was holding a box of
diaper wipes in her hands and she took one step towards me (1/2
step I suppose because only one foot moved) then let go of the
box with one hand and reached out for stabilization. Good first
step though :) She’s getting into reading and pulls books down,
flips through them, says “gack!” as she points to various
pictures, then tosses them aside and reaches for another. She
loves to dance and she’s also very friendly and says hi
whenever people come in. And her and our daycare baby love to
“talk” to each other. All in all they’re growing up pretty good
:)

On that note I should probably go. I
have five kids here tomorrow (my two and three others) and I’m
a little scared. Hopefully it’s not pandemonium! I had some
other thoughts to add to this post, but I can’t remember them
now. Maybe you’ll get a PS later. :)

Lex has started using “mommy” and “daddy”
a lot more when he talks. It makes it extra cute when he says
things like “here you go mommy,” or “let’s go daddy.” On the
other hand, it makes it more difficult when he says things
like, “no daddy no, I don’t want to go!” He’s in the bathroom
now saying, “no daddy, I want to brush.” (they’re brushing
teeth now)

We’ve entered a fun new phase with Lex –
whining. Blah! He’s got his whiny voice down pat and his “I
want it, I want it, I want it” going strong. Very annoying.
He’s a persistent little bugger. This is the first time that
he’s really, clearly just being (or trying to be) manipulative.
And he gets no sympathy from us :) He has been sitting on the
stairs for about five minutes saying, “I want some milk, I want
some, I want some, I want some, I really really do.” He’s also
become anti-bath and we’re on day 3 of no bathing. Tonight he’s
going in the tub like it or not. Fun times :)

We have a tooth! Well, Eve has a tooth.
The rest of us have a few :) She got her bottom, front right
tooth first. I couldn’t get a very good picture tonight, but
I’ll keep trying. For now you can kind of see it in this
picture, which was supposed to be a shot of her fancy new
diapers. (more on that later)

Happy nine months to Eve! She’s getting so big
so fast! She can crawl (she’s the cutest little crawler in the
world, I do believe), and she can pull up, cruise a bit, and
say mama and dada. She’s happy and smiley and LOVES her mommy
:) We are so very lucky to have her.

Her 9 month check up is currently scheduled for the 22nd,
but I’m going to see if I can get something sooner than that.
She’ll be almost 10 months by the 22nd!

Eve has had a very busy week or
so. Just recently she has perfected her crawling, pulled up to
a kneeling position (first on the hearth, then elsewhere),
pulled up to a standing position (first on the rocking chair,
then elsewhere) and started cruising. Just today she pulled
herself up to a standing position in the crib, which made for
difficult naps. Once she figured it out she just kept standing
up. Unfortunately she hasn’t leanred the sit down part just yet
and so she wailed until I rescued her, or else slipped and fell
face first into the crib railings. Neither are very elegant
solutions to her standing up predicament :) Just tonight, with
my grandparents watching, she went from crawling back to
sitting. First time for that one too. Also within the past week
or two she has started saying “dada” and “mama” accurately and
consistently. She did “dada” first and would call him and look
around for him when she could hear but not see him. A few days
later she started saying “mama” and now she does this sweet,
pathetic “mamama” as she crawls towards me. She’s a bit of a
mamma’s girl at the moment and doesn’t like to be too far away
from me. It’s sweet and makes me feel loved. :) Busy week, huh?
Of course all of this new activity comes with its bumps and
bruises and she has no shortage of marks to show for her
efforts, including a semi-crown of bruises across her forehead
and a small cut on her eyebrow. A small price to pay for such
skills though, right? :) I kept meaning to document each thing
here, but the milestones were coming so fast I couldn’t keep
up. Go Eve go!

Almost forgot, tonight she also
tried to crawl up the stairs. Hello 2nd baby
gate!

I’ve been kind of bummed this week because there
is so much going on, but I’m kind of trapped in the house.
Right now my entire family is on the way to SC to see Joyce
graduate from Clemson tomorrow (go Joyce!!), but I couldn’t
figure out a way to get down their myself. And Jim & Julie
had little Molly the other day and I just want to jump in the
car and go visit them, but I can’t do that either. My practical
husband says they need some time to settle in to their new life
anyway, but I say bah! And my two year old girl didn’t work
out, so it’s just my kids and our new 3mo old friend this week.
The babies are happy enough, but Lex is bored, bored, bored.
We’ve been doing a lot of baking this week, because that’s the
only project he seems to enjoy. Baking and block building. And
reading, reading, reading.

Anyway, the point of my subject line is that
sometimes I think plans were meant to be for whatever reason.
The day after I really wanted to go visit baby Molly, Lex woke
up with a very runny nose. And today, when I really wanted to
be driving to SC with the family, I ended up taking Eve to the
doctor for an ear infection diagnosis. The poor girl is none
too pleased with things today. Thanks goodness for Infants’
Tylenol! She’s actually
on the floor behind me right now, fussing, and (first time!!)
pulling herself up on the futon! In both cases I
think it was good that I was where I was and not where I wanted
to be.

So life goes on and we’ll get
through. We’ll see our lovely Clemson alumna (?) next week and
baby Molly soon enough. And we’ll figure out our days so Lex
doesn’t drive me too crazy with his boredom. Hopefully we can
get another toddler or two soon. Hopefully Eve’s ear infection
passes quickly so she can return to her usual happy, mellow
self. And on that note, I’m going to go snuggle and get
settled, ’cause I think her and I are in for a long
night.

I thought it worth mentioning that Eve is
basically done with bibs!! Yay! Well, we do use them for
eating, of course, but she has such great control over the
spit-up these days that I don’t both with bibs any more. Yay!!
And the rare occasion she does spit up, she usually just
whipped her head around or something, and would have completely
missed a bib anyway :)