Tub Fun

One of my good friends recently posted some tub pictures taken at a "clever angle" she said. Since I thought my tub picture posting days were over I was very happy to discover that there is another way.

~

I love tub pictures. Something about those dirty little kiddos splashing around in the tub.

~

With those adorable little grins.

~

Those pictures just make me happy.

Baby Fun

We went out to the farm again this weekend and got to have a little baby time. It is so fun to watch the babies playing together. This was the first time they actually were noticing each other and interacting. Usually they will look at each other but then lose interest quickly. This time they sat on the counter and played together for a little while. So cute.

They did a good job of sharing.

Although there was much accidental whack-age with all the flailing arms. :)

Waylon gave two kisses...unfortunately I didn't get either of them on camera.

They are almost exactly the same height, even though Waylon looks taller to me when they are not standing together. They are going to be so much fun at Christmas!

Sisters

Now that Boo is crawling the sisterly interaction has kicked up a notch, or several. K has always gone over and hug or kiss S every now and then, but now that Boo is on the move K will actually play with her. One of their new favorites is to play Legos (or Duplos, I guess) together. Well, K actually plays with them, Boo just sits on them and chews on them. :)

~

But by far, their favorite game seems to be a little reminiscent of torture. K will lay her sister down on the floor, grab both hands and rub her face in Boo's stomach. This invokes much laughter and squealing from both parties, and since they seem to enjoy it so much I've been letting them. Although I would hate to be pinned down while someone tickles my stomach, Boo doesn't seem to mind a bit.

~

The hand pinning was a strategy implemented when Bug got her hair yanked on for about the 100th time. :)

I'm sure there will be many more games of torturing fun over the years.

As long as it makes them both this happy I won't stand in the way of their fun.

It's Independence Day

I was wrong. Utterly and dismally wrong. And I have never been so thrilled. I thought that with Boo's new-found mobility my life would get a lot harder. Imagine my surprise that it has turned out to be just the opposite!

~

Boo has been a model baby. She is always smiling, rarely fussy, and generally content. But in the past few weeks she took a shift for the worst. A couple of weeks ago we went to Panda for dinner and she threw a fit. I mean a FIT. Screaming her head off, arching her back, kicking her legs, and all because I took a plastic-wrapped fortune cookie away from her. I looked at her in astonishment wondering where my little angel went.

~

Her frustration levels appeared to be mounting and I could only hope that the 7 months of blissful babyhood we have been enjoying were not coming to a screeching halt. Much to my delight, other than a behavior-altering state of mind it seems that all her frustration was directly related to her quest for mobility.

~

Now that she is crawling she is back to being that happy, content, sweet baby that we brought home from the hospital. Instead of crawling making things harder for me, it has made things drastically easier!

Now I can just plop her down on the carpet and she will happily crawl from toy to toy and play, quite contentedly, on her own. She has discovered a spirit of independence and I'm loving it! No more of the carrying her around for hours on end as I have been for the past few grueling weeks. (Along with the fits came a desire to be carted along wherever her sister and I were going.)

Now she will play for 30 minutes to an hour by herself...yes an hour! She has discovered that we have bins of toys in the entertainment center and even better, that she can get into them. She will crawl over and pull herself up on them to see what treasures await.

So proud of herself!

Needless to say I am happy as a clam to discover that as we move into the 8th month of Boo's little life we are not only getting back to normal, our "normal" is actually a happier place to be which means that for both Boo AND Mommy, it's Independence Day!

Wordless Wednesday

*Photo and arrangement by K

Koala Baby

I don't think I have ever officially introduced Koala to this blog. As I was putting up these pictures I was trying to remember when he became such a big part of our lives. He was given to K when she was born, but it's only been since May that he has played such an important role in our family.

~

K has never had a special blanket or toy that she is very attached to...until a few months ago that is. She had just started carrying a little stuffed dog around and she left it at our friend Linda's house (the only reason I can pinpoint the dramatic entrance of Koala) and since I really didn't feel like driving an hour to get the dog back I picked the thing that was most similar for her to sleep with that night, and it just happened to be Koala.

~

They have been inseparable ever since. We MUST have Koala with us at ALL times. The other night we actually left him at Red Lobster when we went out to dinner with some family that was visiting. Those few minutes of backtracking were quite tense. Thankfully we had only gone about half a mile before his disappearance was discovered. It was a good object lesson about how if you don't stay near your mommy you might get lost and left behind. It made more of an impression than any lecturing I have been doing on the subject. :)

~

So for fun I was looking back through the pictures of our summer to see if I could find Koala...a Where's Waldo if you will. There were too many pictures to show but here is a random selection.

~

Koala enjoying a baseball game.

Koala wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Koala on an outing to the city gardens.

Koala at the lake.

And Koala in Canada.

(he didn't need a passport)

So with all the traveling he does you can understand that he gets a mite haggard looking every now and then. Periodically we have to have a "special" day for Koala where he gets to go swimming...in the washing machine that is. We have to make a big production of it.

~

Last week when it was time for a bath K said, "Koala doesn't want to go swimming. He just wants his Mommy." It wasn't easy to convince her that we had put it off long enough and Koala was indeed going swimming. He needed it!

After two swimming trips, with much exclamations of "Whee, he's going around and around!" and "Oh, now the water is going to come back up so he can dive way down!" and "Look how much fun he is having!" He finally came out looking more like an orange Koala and less like a ball of grime.

And, yes, he was very happy to be back with his Mommy.

P.S. K and I were looking back through some of the old blog posts and spotted Koala's foot in this picture of K when she was only 14 months old. Love that little face. :)

P.P.S. K has been sick for the past three days so I think Koala is going to have to have another swimming trip. If I can pry him out of her fevered little hands that is. I hate to think of how many germs are lurking on his soft, orange fur.

*shudder*

Shimmy and Shake

This video is also from when we were at my parents. Since we don't have TV I let Bug watch Sesame Street whenever we are there in the mornings. I was sitting on the couch, reading my book, and when some music came on she got up and started shaking it. It was so cute I had to grab my camera. I thought she looked like a flapper with the new hat I had just bought her. So funny. :)