Just Me & My Cousin

Life is interesting when you get two two year olds together! Caden and Gwen had great fun together while we were together, with only a few "Sharing is FUN!!" reminders from Aunt Sarah!

Who is that under that hat?
Caught in the act of getting our jammies wet!
Hey, what do you think we need to do to get some service around here?
Are you sure this cute girl is your sister?
What are we doing in this chair again?!
A little music lesson in everyone's favorite store, the one full of cool jewelry and exotic stuff from around the world.
Caden, look here! Isn't the beach terrific?
What is that boy thinking now?!

More Talking!

Gwen has more and more understandable language! She has a tendancy to add "ee" to the endings of words, giving us the following cute pronunciations:

~ chippy (torilla chips)

~ shoe-y (this refers to any shoes, including sandles, which she can put on and off herself, often on the right feet!)

~ jui_y (this is juice without the "c", but means any drink)

~ s_eepy (Sleepy without the "l", of course. She says this if she sees any person or animal with their eyes closed, and today in the car she told me she was s_eepy, right about naptime!)

~ jumpy (what she wants to do all the time, now that we have our trampoline up for the summer!)

Another pronunciation that we love is "a-too". It's how she says thank you, but sounds like a sneeze!

Little Fishy

Well, Gwen turned out to be a regular fish. This being only her second experience in a pool, she performed like an old pro! It was fortunate that I had a "tube suit" for her, because she wanted to be off and swimming. She loved jumping off the side, and would do it even if no one had their arms out to catch her! It helped that one of the pools was quite warm, almost bath water... made it very easy to jump right in. Why can't I just jump in by myself, Daddy?

Caleb plays a little "King of the raft" game with Uncle MarkSarah with sweet 3 month old Alyssa, who fell asleep in this position just a few minutes later.
Throw me higher, Dad!

Bird at the Beach

This big guy stood at the edge of the surf one evening at twilight, watching a nearby fisherman and waiting for a fish to be tossed his way. Because of his singlemindedness in waiting for his supper, he allowed us to get quite close!

Critters at the Pool

The boys enjoy hunting for certain little green critters when we are on vacation... Gwen wasn't so sure she wanted to see the critters up close! Caleb, on the other hand, likes the up close and personal attentions of his tree frog. It almost doesn't look real, posing there on his face, but I assure you it is! It took us several tries to get this picture because the little guy kept hopping away.

Get that thing away from me! A lizard, captured for a moment.

Life's a Beach

Not really, but it sure was fun to hang out there last week!

How She Eats

Pretty much everything... some of the things that have surprised me are fish, raw red and green peppers, raw zucchini (yuck!), any type of soup, stew or casserole; spicy foods, and even black beans right out of the can. When were in China she ate next to nothing. I think she existed on her bottles and occassional bites of steamed egg and wanton soup. Now everything is fair game!

One thing she doesn't like at all, and I've tried any number of times: strawberries!

How She Sleeps

This is how I often find Gwen when I go to check on her before we go to bed... turned completely sideways in her crib. Is this because she had a crib mate at Ybin? Or does she just like to be cozy?

Classic Seth

Sunday mornings are busy. I usually check to make sure the boys have something clean and unwrinkled to wear, something appropriate for church, but for the most part I spend time getting myself and the girls ready... which takes a bit of effort!

Today I let the girls sleep until the last possible moment. I made sure I was completely ready before going into their room. Seth was up and ready. I had gotten a polo out for him, only to discover that he was downstairs already, wearing a red polo and some black shorts and looking fairly put together. So I went back to the girls' room, woke them, picked out clothes, changed a diaper, dressed them, fixed their hair, found sandles, and took them down for breakfast, with precious few minutes to spare. We ate a quick bowl of cereal and got in the car.

As we were pulling out of our neighborhood onto the main road, I glanced over at Seth, sitting next to me in the front seat. I realize with slight horror that his entire left knee is caked with dried blood and dirt. Lovely. This was obviously left over from yesterday, as he had not showered, and although he was working on something in the garage while I was dressing the girls this morning, I didn't think there was dirt or bodily injury involved in that project. He had gotten home at a quarter to nine last night after spending the entire day at a friend's house. Somehow the mud and blood had escaped me, and was not visible when he was standing up because his shorts covered it.

Well now, doesn't my child just look so put together and well cared for? It was too late to go back home for him to clean up, we were already a few minutes late. Really all I could do was chuckle, and tell him to go to the restroom at church and clean it off with a wet paper towel when we got there.

If I didn't miss my guess, I'm pretty sure he had yesterday's socks on too, now that I think about it. Perhaps Seth needs a little more attention from Mom on Sundays.

Circus Act

Kind of makes me wish I'd had an older brother...

We Have a Puppy

...on our street, not at our house. I haven't given in yet! The neighbors two doors down have a miniature dachshund named Taz. He's been home only about 3 weeks, and of course he's grown by leaps and bounds, but he's still pretty small. We get to see Taz quite a bit, partly because the weather's so nice and they have him out a lot, but also because the neighbors have employed Caleb to take Taz out at lunchtime for a bit of playtime since they are all gone all day. It's been great for my kids to get their puppy fix this way... great for me, too! Better it live at someone else's house! But Taz is a cutie, and it's been lots of fun to play with him.

Gwen is a dog lover, but tends to love dogs from a distance and in books (she kisses their picture!). Up close dogs are a little scary, even very small dogs like Taz. And the licking of the face... well, that's just a little too much for her to take!



Alright Taz, I've had enough of you for today!

Communication and Change

Gwen's speech is improving daily. The other three children delight in getting her to repeat things, both to hear her funny pronunciations and also to be able to tell me new words that she can say. I'm always overhearing, "Gwen, say _____". Usually she gets the beginning sound of the word and not a lot else.

However, the newest addition to her collection of distinguishable words comes across quite plainly. It's this~ "See, Mom, see." She wants me to watch her, of course. Sometimes she's wanting me to watch her vague copies of Madelyn's gymnastics moves, moves where Gwen is on all fours with one leg in the air. Sometimes she wants me to see her funny little made up dances, the ones where she spins around a few times and then does some jumping, grinning all the while.

Gwen's "See, Mom, see" reminds me of a similar phrase from a little blonde boy, our first one... Caleb. We were living in Atlanta, and Seth was literally just days away from being born. One balmy Georgia day in December, we took Caleb to Lake Lanier to play by the water. It wasn't swimming weather, but certainly a nice day to be on the beach. He was not quite two and a half at the time. He found stones on the beach, as little boys will, and discovered the fun of throwing them into the water. Over and over, rock after rock, his little voice calling out with each toss~ "Mom, watch it happen!" In my pregnancy weary state, I was almost irritated that I was supposed to watch every toss, but now... well, you know. Now that first little blonde boy is finishing the sixth grade. He is nearly my height (taller than me with his roller blades on) and his shoes are too big for me. The years are rushing by, aren't they? I've tried to "watch it happen", but I can't remember seeing that blonde toddler slip away and return as this tall, brown haired boy that lives at my house now.