A moment of venn...

This is Zachary's homework from today. He did it on his own. I just found it flipping through his notebook.

Round and round makes for lots of giggles

Turns out we are tired but our house is still a lot of fun.

Cat water - it is just fun!

Miriam is fascinated by all things cat.  And now she moves so quickly they like to avoid her. The cat water however never moves, and is always fun. In fact Z thought so too, at exactly the same age.

Go Firesharks!!

So the firesharks have lost every game so far this season. But they never lose spirit and they are having a great time playing ball. Zachary has been doing pretty well. He has gotten to 1st in every game. He even got to get to third base in one game. Last saturday he not only got to second (in the picture he is all serious and ready to go from first), he also got an out playing on third base. One of the few actual defensive plays of the game.

On the move.

The baby, in full force. Early with the flashlight, she looked a little like a Jedi in training. I went to take a picture and she tried to use the force to stop me.



Zachary has been playing coach pitch with the SALL Firesharks! He even got to third base in the last game.

 

Size at 9 Months and bit.

Z held her shoulders and I wedged my foot to stop her moving. This is what happened before that. Escape. 

See the next post for a video of just how much she gets around.

Fireflies and turbo charged

Sometimes living in Texas gives us the gift of outside, and I remember why we moved here in the first place.

It is almost October. On Sunday night, I opened the door to let the cat out and our front yard was awash with flickering fireflies. Zachary came running out in his pajamas and changed them around as night settled in. Eventually he ran inside, got his "bug" gear, caught one, and we let it fly around under a magnifying lens. Zachary observed that the beatle was a totally different shape than he imagined, not having a "big butt that glows", but just a normally tapering body. He also noticed that the firefly didn't glow while trapped, but as soon as we let it go it shot into the air, and gave a goodbye glow.

Backyard science is the best.

In baby news, Miriam is not only all kinds of mobile, she loves us. I KNOW. Surprising. I went to pick her up at daycare yesterday. All new, since Mark started his job. I walked in and packed her stuff up, chatting with her teacher. She must have heard my voice because suddenly from across the room she squealed and charged in "battle crawl" mode all the way to where I was, pulled up on the knee high divider that keeps them in their area, and reached up her arms to me. She was all hugs, and snuggles, and arms thrown around the neck nuzzling. It is *the cutest*.

As an aside...

Two things.

While I'm updating prolifically...

1) I don't write much about Zachary here now. Mostly because he can read, and I assume that means at least some of his classmates can read, and it just seems like a bad plan. He is beyond fantastic. He is getting contacts, and playing little league, and reading up a storm.

2) Miriam has six teeth. She's a biter. Sometimes she pretends she's going to kiss you (which looks a lot like a moray eel with a gaping maw coming towards you) and then inadvertently she gnaws on your eye socket. I keep trying to write it off to "teething" but at some point we're probably just going to have to admit she's a part-time cannibal. This also serves as a general purpose warning and liability waiver.

Mark Can Crawl!

I don't really feel like this requires a description. Stand alone awesomeness. 

Shake it Out

Last week, Miriam learned to clap. I think they had a very intensive "Patty Cake" training session at daycare. As one does. She burst out into applause spontaneously for several days running. It was quite funny. She would be crawling along and then would just pop into sitting, start clapping, and look around to see if everyone was appreciating her genius.

We were, of course.

But never managed to catch in on video. So instead you can see her here, wildly over tired and clapping. As well as violently shaking the high chair because it is all that is between her and Linus who is out of frame and JUST BEGGING TO BE HUGGED TO DEATH. As cats do. 

Clapping

skill unlocked ...

video to follow but this is clearly a trick she ahs pick up from Daycare. Pretty fun and she looks really pleased with herself each time she does clap.

trapped

Contained in a basket but not for long, she got her rock on, and tipped out (safely).

How to carry a carrot while crawling

This pretty much counts for anything she wants to take along but it has to be small enough to carry in her mouth! 

Goes Anywhere

Baby on the move. Her favourite destinations include, any nearby cat, the kitchen, cat food dishes, garbage/compost and now the bathroom.

Swimming hole fun times

Jumping or diving into the 12 foot wide hole of Jacob's well makes this swimming hole a bit different.  The limestone wall has 3 tiers, here is Z jumping from the ~3ft shelf. He chose not to join me from top (10ft) shelf, sensible lad.  The water is cool and refreshing as the artesian spring spills forth fresh aquifer water from 120 meters down.  Most of this is sloping down progressively deeper chambers, but the "bottom" of the surface section is around 18 meters. At first Z didn't want to jump but by the time we left I could hardly tear him away.  Now to figure out the next stop on our water hole tour of Tejas.

crawling update

So far today Miriam has been into the cat food thrice, chased linus twice and gone for my cowboy boots once.

crawling .... .... .... the end is nigh!

So Miriam is no long immobile, not that she couldn't get around, it was just very brownian motion in style. Since starting daycare she has been making moves to go forward instead of the backward cycle that makes her so mad. Mostly because it generally has her ending up under a couch. After just one day with five other pre-toddlers she made a full forward cycle, hand, hand, knee, knee. Unfortunately she got excited and then went backward 3 feet resulting in couch and tears. By wednesday night she was managing to get 2 forward cycles strung together. She even looked like she was going to go further, but instead would sort of fall into a sitting position and admire her progress. This morning, Miriam got her crawl on! She moved about 3 feet in the direction she wanted to go. WIN for her. Baby safing and constant vigilance for us!

skill aquired

Miriam has been working on the flat on belly to sitting up transition for the last few weeks. She has finally mastered it. Now she moves around the living room by rolling, sitting up assessing and then moving into precrawl before collapsing and starting over. For the precrawl she has just start to put a hand forward and then lunge forward, she does not yet seem to have figured out the knee movement but it is only a matter of time.

size comparision

6y10mo and 7.5mo; getting bigger all the time. Zachary has gotten skinny over the summer, probably all the swimming and running around. He also grew about 4 inches I think. So he went from toddler pudge to a lean and skinny boy shape. Miriam is getting bigger too, she is now 22lb and constantly throwing her weight around.