Curmudgeon has been in KS for about six weeks now. School has been in session for nearly a month and he's enjoying his classes very much. I know the learning curve for first-year teachers is a steep one, but he seems to me like a fish in water and just as happy with them as can be. (correct me in your own post if I'm wrong, C)
The babies and I are still bunkering with my folks in UT. It's been great for them to get to know our little ones and we've had a wonderful summer together, but I'm definitely feeling a bit crazy for my own home and especially to be reunited with C again. Also, I only brought summer clothes with me and it's starting to get uncomfortably chilly here on the edge of Wyoming. sigh.
Happy and Chubbles are growing incredibly fast. Happy seems to add new words and more sophisticated concepts to his vocabulary every day. To give you an idea of his favorite subjects and the very cute way he talks about them, let me share some of his most common words:
funt-a-woda (frontloader)
dosus (bulldozer)
crane
dump truck (also, "daddy" dump truck and "baby" dump truck to delineate their sizes ;)
tractor
haybale
kangwoo (kangaroo, obviously)
ri-sus (rhinoceros)
efunt (elephant)
monkey
horse and cow (which are still interchangeable to him and both say "moo")
It's amazing how sharp he is about some things. He absolutely knows the difference between frontloaders, backhoes and bulldozers and makes sure I get it right.
A couple of days ago he got mad at me because I wouldn't let him draw on my paper--don't worry, I wasn't intentionally stifling his creative development. He had a whole stack of his own papers. After a brief and firey tantrum, he stormed up the stairs to his bedroom and slammed the door. I went up to check on him a few minutes later and he was happily playing by himself on his bed. great, right? So I just left the door open a crack and went back downstairs. About 30 seconds later I hear him get up, go to the door and slam it shut again. I never knew it started so early!
Chubbles is so close to being completely mobile. She has taken lots of steps by herself but hasn't quite gotten the confidence to just let go yet. Maybe today. She crawls like a champion. We haven't actually clocked her, but I bet she could win any baby race.
She's also an impressive mimic. She and Happy have hilarious "conversations" as they copy each others noises, each louder than the other until it escalates into possibly unsafe decible range. She has taken to making kissy noises at us, she claps and dances all the time and last night she repeated "night night"many times before I put her to bed-- well, it was more like "na na"--but she was definitely copying us.
One of my family traditions is to the famous "sailor suit" picture when any baby turns one. All of my siblings, myself and all of the grandchildren have gone through this little ritual. Chubbles just barely squeezed into the suit and it barely covered her diaper. She has cousins on whom the dress hung loosely down past their knees at the same age. Oh, my hilariously huge babies.
And her first birthday cake. Happy had a very healthy, low-sugar pumpkin bread cake for his first birthday. You see how my resolve has been worn down...
We took a brief visit to see my grandparents. So here's a four generation shot of the kids and me with my beautiful mother and grandmother.
Well, if all goes as planned, we should be able to move into our new home by the end of the month. Then regular posting will begin again, as will our monthly movies and music posts and whatever else we can think of.
