Longer Out Than In

Ellie is nine months today. This is completely preposterous. Not because she's nine months, but because Kekoa was been two for basically forever and in the meantime Ellie has managed to go from a five pound blob that faintly resembled a naked mole rat to an actual tiny human.

I'm not kidding about the resemblance...

Tiny human!

How to sum up the last month or so? Well, the doctor put it best when she looked into Ellie's mouth: "OHMYGOSH that's a lot of teeth coming in....I am SO sorry."

Teething aside, she is feisty and crazy and loves people and loves moving and most, most, most of all loves eating. Well, unless eating involves pre-blended travel packs of chia seed supergreens. Which, let's face it, shows fairly good judgment on her part.

I thought that her increasing mobility would make her happier, but noooooo. Now she just wants us to help her walk around all the time. She has zero fear and I have to watch her constantly because she will just crawl off the edge of the bed, fling herself out of your arms, stick her head in the toilet, etc.

Her manual dexterity is improving, mostly due to an enormous amount of nose-picking practice. She gives high fives and is fascinated by whatever toy her brother is playing with. Her brother, on the other hand, has perfected the art of offering her his least favorite toy in an attempt to distract. She is not to be fooled.

The sibling relationship is an ever-entertaining roller coaster of emotion. We watched Uncle Andy's robotics team win their division at the World Championship, placing them among the top 8 alliances in the world (!). And my kids did a happy dance together, laughing and giggling (the robotics team uniform is orange shirt with turquoise skinny jeans. I don't usually dress my kids this way):

They adore sharing a room - neither of them will go to bed without the other (hmmm...is this because they're friends, or are they just trying to drag the other down with them?). Ellie's usually up from her nap first, and she loves going in to get brother. When we walk up to the door she gets a big smile on her face and starts lunging for him.

But both the cute and ugly moments are just that - moments. The other day I found them watching a video together, with their arms around each other and cheeks pressed up together.

But then I got out the camera and they both turned to look, which destroyed equilibrium. Cute sibling moment becomes a less cute wrestling match.

And while this is primarily about Ellie...well, what's life without a few Kekoa snapshots? He keeps us laughing, that one.

One night when we were going to bed, we saw this. "Kekoa, go to bed," Josh ordered, but the hands didn't move. So I nudged them...and they didn't move. He fell asleep that way. I couldn't decide whether it was funny or creepy.

 Trying to put away state puzzle pieces, one state won't fit in the container:
Kekoa: "It's not working! Texas is TOO strong!"

Singing to himself a deeply philosophical song of his own composition pondering the inconvenience of love:
"I like cuddling, I like cuddling
I like snuggling Pooh Bear and fire truck blank[et]
I like hugs and kisses
But I'm very hot....I'm very hot....I'm very hot."

On the way out the door with Josh:

Kekoa to me: " I love you, my love!"

Don't Blink

We recently spent almost 3 weeks in California with my family, first for a family wedding and then for a robotics tournament that my youngest brother participated in (his team did awesome - easily the best individual robot there, his team won the most prestigious award, and their three-team alliance came in second. I'm kinda proud).

But during those two weeks, little Miss Ellie decided to grow up. She had been crawling for about a month, but not far or fast. And then in the space of two weeks, she was crawling everywhere, pulling herself up, getting back down, waving hello, cutting a third tooth -- and in the week since, a fourth -- and saying "Ellie" (which she pronounces the way her brother does - "eh-yah") and "hi." It was funny to come home and realize that we were not at all babyproofed - I had moved breakables and tearables and chokables off the bottom shelves, but suddenly the second shelves, end tables, and night stands were in danger too! If I go insane, it's because of the great love of Duplos that my children share. Or rather, one's great love of building that seems to directly contradict the other's love for destruction. And the fact that Ellie can now reach every surface Kekoa can, so nothing is safe.



We determined she was an extrovert. Kekoa used to save all his big milestones for right after a trip, when he was relaxing at home. She was totally energized by our crazy schedule full of crowds and socializing.

This, of course, means that I have an introvert who freaks out if we're out too much and an extrovert who freaks out if we're in too much. But whatever. Fortunately both our kids are similar to one of their parents - Josh and Ellie will be the social ambassadors and Kekoa and I will be the homebodies. It's all good.

We also pulled out the rest of my old baby clothes. Miss Ellie now has so many sweet summer dresses, I need it to be summer STAT. And speaking of me as a baby....

Ellie at 8 months

Me at 8 months - look like anyone you know?

Kekoa had a grand old time with his cousin on my side of the family - the two boys got along splendidly and were adorable together. Most toddlers aren't really interested in playing together, but his cousin was and that made Kekoa so, so happy. Like, new best friend happy. Looking at pictures later: "It's my favorite dog Benji! It's [cousin!]! I love him! My favorite friend!"

He also adored the robots and promptly got to work making some when he found his Duplos (you can see why it looks this way by seeing one of my brother's robot matches here - I'm a proud sister).  The other trucks are the audience who intermittently yell "Come on guys!" and "Great job Uncle Andy!"

Another funny thing Kekoa has started is using placeholders when he thinks there ought to be more adult words, but he doesn't know which ones. So he'll be telling me a story:

"Hey Mommy! We went on a walk to the library and eee uh ah ooh ee ah see a police car!"

Or when he's singing, if he can't remember the rest of the line: "Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light, ah uh ah oh in eh oh EEMING"

They're all very distinctly pronounced syllables and he doesn't miss a beat as if he's searching for words or saying "um." He just acts as if everything he said was perfectly clear.

That is something that can be said for toddlers: life is never boring. Mind-numbingly repetitive - yes. But boring? Not so much.