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.

first day of first grade

Yesterday, Zachary went back to school. In the morning, I woke him up and he jumped out of bed with a large grin and lots of hugs. He put on his big boy hat and helped bring the school morning routine back like the summer hadn't happened. He was delightful; dressing himself, eating breakfast, and clearing the dishes. He decided on the way to school that he didn't need me to walk him to his classroom, so off he went at drop off.
Later, when I picked him up from his after school program, he was still chipper! He chatted all the way home and some. Telling us about his lessons and teachers, games and worksheets, new classmates and old friends. Lets hope the rest of first grade is this exciting and wonderful for him.

All tuckered out

The kids asleep in the car coming back down out of the mountains after an amazing week with the family at Pinecrest Lake.

Miriam stands

Eventually she topples over slowly and fairly gracefully onto the precisely placed pillow to her right.

Off he goes

Zachary and Grandma Tuttle heading to California. A quick ice cream to celebrate getting through security. Our house is so quiet

Last night

I was changing a diaper around 3am and Miriam rolled. She has been doing this for a while but has suddenly got some speed and efficiency to her roll. She flipped over and off the top of the dresser!!! Fortunately I was prepared, I had a hand around an ankle. Instinct and my automatic muscle reflexes kicked in. I managed to grab her other ankle and pulled up to halt her head first momentum to the floor. No thunk. I win! I then carefully hauled her up to finish the diaper. She was still asleep, double win!

and one of Miri

Tongue out in concentration for the rev-rev-reving of the pre-crawl.

Helping around the house

This morning Z made his own pancakes this morning. He got everything out, added the mix and water, put the pan on, cooked and flipped 'em.



He also helped me with the vacuuming yesterday :-) Amazing since he normally scurries to his room and hides when I start cleaning. It's all motivated by his current desire for us to give him pocket money for doing jobs around the house.

But *why* don't the bad guys think they're good guys?

An inquiry from Zachary, after dinner.

"Why do all stories have good guys and bad guys? And how do the good guys know they're the good guys? And why do the good guys always refer to themselves as the good guys and the bad guys know they're the bad guys? Why don't the bad guys think they're the good guys?"

Why indeed.

swim lessons pt.2

Z is on his second set of swim lessons at Bartholomew pool. With one instructor (instead of 6 in 8 lessons) he has improved dramatically. And today diving finally clicked for him, both on the side of the pool with the instructor and here from the diving board. Everyone was like "how old is he?"

cheerio chewing

After several attempts with cheerios (and also small cubes of tofu) she has finally got the chew down. Here she is smiling proudly at the cheerios she is munching.

TOOTH!

It came through about a 4 days ago, but I finally got a pic of Miri's first tooth.

How they play

Yup hair chewing and pulling is a game in our house.

Pre-Crawl excerising

Miriam's hip wiggle samba has been a big feature over the last month. She's been working hard to isolate those thigh and leg muscles and often ends up with a knee up by her belly and then tipping over to her back. But this week she figured out both knees under and she's pushed up into a pre-crawl pose. Think svanasana (the table).  Fortunately at the moment she can only hold it for a second. But I know the time in which sitting her on the floor to play will soon to be over.

fireworks and sparklers

https://www.flickr.com/photos/m0nk3yphd/14596713793/in/photostream/

Z even got to light a firework with Erik's help. Miriam had a great time too, she got to ride in sytle and where the best wig ever.

Cherrywood July 4th parade

children reading