Getting way behind!

I have so much that I haven't blogged about! I guess I will start with the most recent.

Today Eliana was playing in my parents' backyard and I was cooking dinner, when I heard, "Help!" I hear that all the time - it's so fun to play rescue games. Well, this is exactly why I've always told them not to call for help as a game, because it took me a while to figure out she wasn't playing. She was fence-high in a tree, and couldn't get back down. I've never seen her climb so far before! She said, "I won't climb so high again." I talked her down out of the tree til I could hold her and get her down the rest of the way.

Other new things she's been doing lately are:
Swinging independently
Whistling
Tying her shoes
Traversing the monkey bars
Adding hundreds with carrying
Jumping rope

Kes has been talking a lot about her family lately. She likes to include a bunch of people: "Me, and Mommy, and Daddy, and Eliana, and Donovan, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Bubbie and Papa, and Aunt Katie and Uncle Brian, and Rowan and Meriden, and Aunt Sheara and Uncle Kevin and Jakie, and Miss Pepring, and Maxine, and Cassandra, and Jolie, and Kalie." (I love the 3 non-family members in the middle of the rest!)

Kes has definitely reached the terrible 3.5's. Oh my! At least it's Kessa's version of the 3.5's, which is much easier than the elder version was. I am looking forward to her turning 4. Of course then I have several months of the sassies to look forward to (though sassy is part of the problem with the Kessa version of the 3.5's, so maybe 4 won't be as bad? Or maybe it'll be worse...).

Recently Eliana said, way out of the blue, "Mommy, can we go see Great-Grandpa? I want to visit him again before he dies."

Eliana also recently committed her first crime. Eliana has a drawer in the bathroom of her favorite trinkets, and she was showing my mom some of them. As I walked by, she hid what she was holding behind her back. I stopped and went in, and she shrunk back. I told her to give me what she was holding, and it was something that I had not gotten for her. In fact, it looked a lot like something we had seen in the checkout line at Borders. Still, we had been to a lot of birthday parties lately, and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. I asked her where she got it. "I can't remember." Me: "Kessa, come here. Where did you get this?" Kessa: "I don't know." Eliana: "I'm sorry, Mommy. I forgot it wasn't OK to take something without paying for it." Oy! Fortunately I managed to be calm (her being so cute about it helped) and I just said, "Well, you're right, it's not OK. We'll have to return it, and you're going to tell them what you did and apologize." She hated that. At first I was afraid it wasn't enough of a consequence, but man... she hated it. Good, she has a conscience, despite being an impulsive one.

Donovan has changed so much too! He sits up a little bit but still topples unless his butt is slightly raised, as on the potty or my leg. Speaking of the potty, he is starting to have dry dipes and to prefer to poop in the potty (going as much as a week without a poopy dipe). He has gotten much more smiley and giggly, but he is still my observant and pensive little dude. He loves playing with fabrics and other interesting textures, and is comforted by touching skin with his hands - he likes to hold my cheek or my hand when he falls asleep when not nursing (and of course to hold the breast when nursing to sleep). He absolutely adores his family - sisters, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, and is starting to really connect to his Bubbie as well. He's drooling and gnawing like mad but has yet to cut a tooth. Not much of a sleeper right now though. I've started him on solid food - mostly as a teething/taste experience, not so much as a calorie source. I freeze baby food and put it in a mesh bag so he can have a frozen teether. He loves it! When I try to spoon feed him the same food, not frozen, he looks at me with this great expression. ("Mommy, it tastes great, but the delivery system leaves much to be desired.") He understands so much already. If I say "paci" without showing him the pacifier, he opens his mouth. If my mom says "I'm going to blow your hair!" he squints in anticipation. It's so cool. Babies are SO much smarter than most people give them credit for.

I absolutely know there are things I am forgetting. Hopefully they come to me...