Marching On (Or, photos from March)

As promised, here are photos from March. 27 of them, to be exact. 

We'll be up to "real time" in no time.

 We had a flood in our apartment that left us without most of our kitchen for about 3 weeks (one of which we had gracious company!). Moses loved getting to interact with all of the workmen that came through our door and they were kind enough to let him work along side them with his own tool kit.

 Tired little bundle in a basket.

 I get little prizes for Moses at the dollar store and thought that he'd get a kick out of these grow capsules. I give him two or three at at time. I, however, was the one that was most amused. It's not so funny that the grow capsules rendered a lamb and a bull...

 ...it's just that from the way the package was labeled it wasn't what I was expecting.

 For the fourth year in a row birthday buddies gDad and Moses got to celebrate their special days together. (We brought out our best china, as you can see.)

 Both the younger and the older like cars so their cake was thusly decorated.

 

 Yes, among other things, we gave our child bubble wrap for his birthday.

  Nana Dru came to visit and amused Cates. Or, Cates amused her. Not sure which.

(Tastefully) Unclothed.

 

 Clothed.

 Helping Dad work.

 A perfect fit.

Face of playdoh concentration.

 We had balloons at Moses's and gDad's birthday party and the balloons came with a decorated weight. It has been one of Cates's favourite playthings. She looks slightly upset, but trust me, she's happy.

 Moses was here.

 Hi.

 The "nursery" at our church got a face lift.

 Clean, fuzzy headed (in a soft baby way, not a confused mommy-brain way) and ready for bed.

Me, too. Good night!

A Look Back at February

A photo extravaganza from February.  My, how they've already grown since then! (Don't forget you can click on the photo to get a better look.)

Cates's bellybutton is shaped like a "C". Good thing God didn't decide to stamp her with the first letter of her middle or last name. How would she explain that? :)

 

An early birthday celebration with Grandma. Thanks for the cupcake and balloon! He slept with that balloon for days.

 Two perfect portraits of being almost 3. 

(That's a strawberry he's eating, and he managed to pose in front of the artwork I was hoping to photograph.)

 

And yes, we did get a haircut very shortly after this photo was taken!

 (Sorry, Moses, I should've done it sooner.)

 

 A girl wearing a cupcake on her shirt should never look so forlorn.

 Taking up a little room at church.

 Moses's feet have been growing at an astonishing rate. We like his not-so-little feet.

 

Another good 3 year portrait. Lighting McQueen, shaggy hair, happy smile and daddy's shoes.

 Anne of Green Gables was right. Puffed sleeves are divine.

Posting retrospective March photos in a day or two. Come back soon!

These two

 He is 3 years and 1 month old. She is 5 months, almost 6. They are a pair. I keep telling Jeremy that I know things can change and that my expectations were so low, but they adore each other and that blesses my heart. I can only pray they continue to find good company in each other. I can't tell you how many times Moses has abruptly stopped what he's doing to "go check on Cates." This happens often while she's napping and I follow him hoping he won't wake her. He gently pets her head, draws in his breath and says one of three things : "Awww...she's so cute." "Awww...she's so beautiful." or "Awwww...she's so expensive."

Don't worry, I haven't gone all Annie Leibovitz on you--they were just both wearing jeans, Moses had taken his shirt off ages ago for who knows what reason and Cates had just drooled through hers (again) so mid re-dressing I snapped a few shots.

 

She likes to grab his hair (he lets her) and she makes him grin some of the most genuine smiles he has. He laughs when he is the target of her drool or sneezes and he can get her to stop crying. He holds her hand from his car seat.  He sort of shares with her; when he takes one of "his" toys from her he always replaces it with something else. "She's a happy girl with a happy grin," he announces. When she wakes up from her naps he is on my heels galloping along to help greet her. 

 

I caught this photo today in the car. Look closely at the upper right hand corner. It's hard to see in the convex mirror but look who's smiling back.

"Literacy"

Since the beginning of January, Moses has been sounding out the letters in words. His new-found interest bordered on the obsessive; as trucks and buses passed us in the car he would attempt to sound out the letters printed on their sides, or he would manage to catch the first few letters of store marquees. Our car rides were punctuated with various vowel and consonant sounds, deconstructed words our percussive soundtrack. Even at bedtime I had to tell him that it was time for our brains to sleep, not sound out letters (any letters within sight in his room were fair game--the "Sony" brand on his ipod dock, for example). Seriously. Obsessive. But it has led to his best and most endearing mistakes thus far. Jeremy and I don't bother to correct him because we enjoy it so much.

The first time Moses sounded out letters was on his Hippo from Uncle Wilson. "L-A-M-I-N-A." (More often than not he sounds things out backwards. Seems to be a trend with this kiddo.) Thrilled that he'd done this both correctly and unprompted I (out of curiosity) asked him, "What does that say?" He drew his pointer finger across the word from right to left, once slowly as if tracing the letters, and once quickly. He looked at me confidently, nodded his head and stated. "Hippo." (pause) "It says 'hippo'."

Most of Moses's socks have a brand name written on them and he likes to sound out the letters. Regardless of the brand, to him, they all spell "socks." He has a lunchbox (that we call a suitcase) that has "Dr.Pepper" printed on it. Moses thinks that spells "suitcase." Any sports-team-looking logos/letters are automatically "Packers" or "Cowboys" depending on the day. You get the idea.

Fast forward to this display of "literacy." Mind you, in this video he gets his S's and C's confused and his L's sound like W's. Please also note that we wouldn't normally provide instructions next to our toilet--it's from our landlord.)



This week, Moses correctly sounded out and then read "TEXAS" from one of my sweatshirts!! Jeremy and I showed so much appreciation for his feat that now, most words he sounds out become 'Texas.' He's also correctly sounded out and read "Girl" from a shirt Cates was wearing ...now, he hadn't seen that word before, and he did indeed sound it out, but I just don't know if he read it or if he just happened to guess correctly. In conventional Moses wisdom one would think he would have said "It says 'Cates'"?

The last triumph of this and possibly the tapering away of the most adorable answers came yesterday. Moses sounded out (backwards) and correctly read the word "CAT' short for Caterpillar from a construction vehicle he saw while we were out. Still, I think the missteps will outnumber correct answers for the time being and I will continue to lovingly surround "literacy" with quotation marks.

The Here and Now

Now that January's photos are up I plan to gather the best of February and post them. In the meantime, here are some photos from today (today, folks!).

Cates leaning into life in the morning light (that, or she's about to take off on the 50 yard dash).

All that leaning (or running) led up to a good mid-morning snooze. That basket's not going to last us much longer, is it?

I made some playdoh recently and it's been a hit with Moses. I keep thinking the magic would have worn off by now, but he played with it for a good portion of the day. Here he is using the bottom of his stool to make playdoh...compartments (I guess?). I have enough playdoh photos for a post of their own (hint, hint).Moses has decided to go beyond handprints.I adored that he came over to me and excitedly asked me if he could show me his "paw prints."

Anyone guess what this is a print of?

It's his bum.
Oh, Moses.

All this playd0h fun is showing up everywhere. Even on our socks.

Moses and Cates have been best buds today. He was able to get her to laugh (yes! she's laughing now!) and that has been the ticket. They also shared a few squeals. Moses is 'helping' her with her saxophone.

Astonishment at the singing saxophone.

Brother's gone to bed and it's just the two of us girls.

Fuzzy, fluffy and looking sleepy in her after-bath pajamas. Good night, all.