smiles

Sam is walking and Josephine's vocabulary expands... and the two of them play together and do crazy things like try to fit themselves in the kitchen cabinets... I just can't get over what beautiful kids they are... So happy. And I feel like I'm becoming a better person by being their mother.

Playing

Sam!

S

Back in the wood house

The kids are currently living with their mother at what Josephine calls the "Butter Cup" house, but they'll soon be living here for half the week. Their first night back here at what I'll call the "Wood House" was the other night, and they seemed really happy to be back.

Josephine continues to be a pleasure to be around. We spent a lot of time on Memorial Day playing with this weird modeling clay from Crayola. We were supposed to be coloring Ariel's Castle, but we gave up on that and just made little people.

Sam is a treat to see walking around. He struts around the house in search of things to push around the floor. Yesterday he pushed this one chair back and forth across the hardwood floor. It's a little trickier now that there are rugs upstairs. We also played airplane a lot, wherein he climbs up on my legs and goes flying around the world. Great work-out for my abs, too!

Josephine got some new books upon returning back here. Sam got some new balls. I got him his first baseball mitt as well as a new red sponge-ball. He loves to throw the ball, and loves to go and get it. I don't think he entirely gets the concept, as sometimes he begins to cry as soon as the ball rolls away from him.

Next time: Pictures from one of our many trips downtown.

Kids

Photo features our friends the twins, Audrey, Josephine, and Sam...

I have dots (kid update, may 2009)

Jo says: When people get sick, they get dots. But YOU already have dots!
Me: You mean - my freckles?
Jo: Yes! hee hee.
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picture above: Jo took the trash stickers we have to buy to get our trash picked up and made crowns for the little stuffed animals with them, as well as bracelets and anklets for herself... sigh... also pictured above - Sam and Jo in shopping cart car at store; Sam and Jo at a birthday party; Sam wearing the tambourine...
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Jo's dream: I dreamt about reindeer in the snow, making snow balls with their antlers, and throwing them with their antlers. And then they got tired, and slept in the snow. Then they had to go wash up inside. But the little one didn't wash up, she wasn't dirty. And the bathtub was really big. Then I dreamt about dogs playing in the snow, and the little one, the girl puppy, was a poodle with rainbow hair, with pink not purple, and she was so tiny, she just played inside with her dog toys, and went to sleep in her puppy crib.
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Sam can say this sentence: "I want that."
He can also say "good" and make the baby sign for "more."
And yes: This is all related to food. Of course.
He is also, now that he is walking, like his sister in being a performing daredevil. That is, he will climb whatever is available and then look around grinning to make sure his prowess is being acknowledged.
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Jo is into rhymes (run and fun rhyme! squirt and bert rhyme!) and counting (it gets iffy after 12) and writing words, especially names like Sam and words like Love. She told me today that a little L looks like an I, and she held up her hand to show what a big L looks like.
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Memory: In the 'can't believe she remembers it' file, yesterday during a sudden rainstorm Jo started wailing in fear of a thunderstorm - 'we have to go home and go downstairs' - a YEAR ago, there was a tornado warning during a thunderstorm that forced us into our basement... she was fine once I told her no thunderstorm was going to happen...

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If what they do is a reflection of what the parent does, then what I do apparently is talk on my cell phone. Last night at one point I looked over and both Jo and Sam had a cell phone (toy) to their ears - each was chattering on the phone and was walking in circles. Oh dear...