Ramblings of a busy mom...

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity...from Krista's wedding to MOPS and everything in between, finding a spare moment is ever-challenging! Right now, my blogging prowess is taking priority over a pile of clean laundry awaiting my specially honed folding skills.

Little Zoe is steadily growing - now working on filling out clothes in the 6 months size range. From day to day she may look more like mommy, or more like daddy, but there's never any doubt that her brother is Ian. Besides, if we forgot, Ian would probably remind us! It's so cute hearing him say "Soooeeee" and "sisser."

I believe Zoe is our observer. Unless she's hungry, we don't hear too much out of her. You can engage her in "conversation" of "goo" and "ga" (sometimes both), especially with raspberries. It's very humorous to hear her speaking in the stereotypical language of infants, as Ian had a language of his own from the beginning.

Daddy is very much her favorite person in the world. Looks from him can send her into bursts of giggles! I love those baby belly laughs!

Zoe is also working very hard at sitting up in the car carrier, and rolling over. We had a little talk about this, as I really feel like not enough time has elapsed for this to begin! Honestly, where does time go exactly?! Her tiny little hands still learning to explore the world, and every day farther away from the helpless baby of mine! (And one step closer to toddler-hood...do you see my dilemma? Haha!).

Her favorite toy at the moment is a "taggie" blanket. For those of you who don't know what this wonderful little invention is, I'll tell you! A mom (it must have been a mom, dad was too busy avoiding diaper duty to catch this little detail!) noticed that little baby was always playing with the little content/care tags on the baby blankets. So she had the idea to just sew a blanket with a bunch of tags around the edge! Brilliant! Two scraps of fabric and some ribbon, voila!, instant baby entertainment. Zoe is enthralled with entwining her fingers around those tags and pulling them into her mouth. I couldn't be happier because the best part about it is that it doesn't make any noise! You moms out there know what I'm talking about! :)

Ian loves to get right into Zoe's face to nuzzle her nose, or just stare at her! I guess he figures there is nowhere else for Zoe's wandering baby eyes to look if he's right in her face! She greets his very enthusiastic shows of affection with a quirky little grin, and often crinkles up her nose at him. I wonder what goes through her mind as she peers at her brother in macro! I'll say this much, she doesn't seem to mind it...not even crying when she gets bopped in the process. This leads Matt to believe she's plotting her revenge already.

At the moment, Matt and I blissfully stare with love and awe at how wonderfully they get along! They share their toys (Zoe doesn't mind a bit when Ian yanks things from her), play together (staring and drooling counts for Zoe, right?), and never complain to us, "Make him/her stop touching me!!!" (it's a good thing we really don't have personal space "bubbles", hers would have been popped long ago!).

Ian is very interested in making sure little sister follows the rules, though. When she waves her little arms and legs around, and happens to brush him in the process, he emphatically tells her, "No hit. No kick!" So we humor Ian, and gently instruct her not to hurt her brother. You should see his pleased little grin. Big brother enforcing the rules...Priceless.

He definitely likes to exercise his authority. I peeked into the nursery one day, to watch him telling the other kids to sit down and eat their snack. Of course, he had a particular chair in mind. He's also insistent that everyone use utensils for eating. Even finger foods require a spoon or fork. Well, all finger foods but ketchup. Sticking your whole hand in the red mess is perfectly acceptable, as is wiping it all over the table in the process.

Little bossy pants is also a chatterbox. A drive in the car is quite entertaining for me these days. He talks and talks and talks... This past Thursday, he was playing with a rubber duck (his latest fascination), and had a dialogue going, "NOOOOOO! Duck! A shark, a shark! Aaaaaaah. Bella coming, oh no! Look out! Got you...tickle, tickle. I gonna get you." Vivid imagination!

He's also come out with some phrases that stopped me in my tracks. For example, bringing me a toy, "Show you sompin" and getting excited about it hopping up and down. Or, "Where daddy morning? Work. Daddy at work. Go go see daddy work."

I know Matt's favorite expression of speech at the moment, though. Observing recruit training every day has led Matt to introduce certain routines into OUR routine. For example, they did "dress by the numbers" for a while. This was Matt acting like a Drill Instructor while getting Ian dressed. "Ok, when I say go, you will put on your shirt...Go!...One, two, three, four, not moving fast enough, better hurry it up..." I wish writing out this dialogue could even marginally capture the humor of watching this little skit. But, the recent crowning glory for Matt was yelling out, "Five minutes until bedtime!" and hearing Ian respond, "Min, min, aye sir, sir, sir!" We both died laughing! That was Ian saying, "Five minutes, aye sir, good evening, sir!" as Matt and I have jokingly modeled night after night. Daddy is so proud his son does better than some of the recruits!

It's interesting to see the different phases that pass as we turn into bigger kids. (I can't bear to say grown ups! I don't ever want to grow up!). I'm glad to remember that some of these are indeed "just phases" and with consistent reminders to stay on the narrow path, he'll be a well behaved gentleman. I know his playmates will appreciate when he's no longer pinchy. And, his parents will appreciate when his crabbiness level drops in decibels!

I guess that's about all I can think of for now...we begin with some cereal and a book...and eventually will end up passed out on the bed wondering what exactly happened to the day! :)