The title is a Simpsons reference. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. The weather around here has been more like a typical March than May – chilly and rainy. So the new albums of January, February, and early March pictures won’t seem quite so out of place. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Just smile and nod at me. Coming soon: Easter pix!

Evan is currently racing around the culdesac on Liam’s old two-wheel bike. Some of you will recall that about two years ago, Liam got the hand-me-down bike from a neighbor and just hopped on it and rode off. It’s never had training wheels on it. This weekend, it was Evan’s turn to amaze us, as he just decided it was about time he could ride one, too. Brian gave him a push, and he was off! Barely 48 hours later, he’s out there doing tricks and riding around like a speed devil. I do not look forward to the day when these boys get driver’s licenses. Maybe by then the age will be 20!

A combination of difficulties (of various kinds) has prevented me from uploading new pictures in months. Since Christmas, in fact. I have felt really bad about it, which any procrastinator knows has not helped motivate me to catch up. I apologize to those of you who don’t see the kids any other way – I’m sure it’s been disappointing to visit here and not find new pictures. But Spring is in the air, and with my birthday always comes renewed energy and determination to get things done. So I’ve finally uploaded the Christmas, 2007 album. Over the next week I will work on getting the last four months of pictures up for everyone to see. Enjoy!

Lori (at 10 months) has officially taken her first wobbly steps, after about a week of standing there thinking about it. She’s still not too sure about it, but I’m going to count it as walking. She still does this really funny half-bear crawl most of the time. She spent some time on the playground yesterday with Cara’s class at school, creeping around on her bare feet and hands (no knees) in the mulch and sand. She looked like a baby gorilla, and she loved it!

Another cute milestone Lori has achieved is giving kisses. She makes a smacking sound with her lips and then leans in with an open mouth to slobber on your face. If you’re really lucky, she’ll slip you the tongue. It is the sweetest, cutest thing in the world. My baby’s growing up so fast!

Cara’s teacher related the following conversation to me, which occurred in front of the bathroom in the classroom as Cara was coming out and a little boy was going in:

Boy: “I have a penis, and you don’t.”

Cara: “No, I have a vulva.”

Boy: “No, you have a ‘gina.”

Cara: “No, I have a VAgina, and a vulva. And a BUTT,” which she slapped for emphasis. Then she turned on one heel and marched off to wash her hands.

The little boy was left standing there blinking, wondering how he had suddenly lost this game.

Wow, it’s already well into March, and all I’ve posted so far this year is a cornbread recipe. Sheesh, you’d think I was busy or something…

So, just in the last two months, Lori has made some amazing developmental leaps. When I visited my sister just before New Year’s, Lori was sitting up well and playing with toys. Now, she crawls around (using one knee and one foot), pulls up on things, claps, waves, tries to talk (she says “Dada” reliably), and is generally more like a little kid every day. Just the other day, she was playing with something in the middle of the living room floor, and she pushed up and stood up all on her own. She still had the toy in her hand, so I guess she thought she was holding onto something. It only lasted a few seconds, and then she plopped back down on her butt. Then she laughed and tried it again and again and again. I’m trying to discourage the walking for as long as I can, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to hold her off! If I set her down on the floor, she bee-lines it straight for something to pull up on, usually my leg. Today she stood at the kid-sized table in the dining room and “typed” on the unplugged keyboard for 15 minutes.

The only thing that’s weird about Lori’s development is her complete lack of interest in putting anything in her mouth. Normal children of this age put everything in their mouths. She very rarely mouths on toys. She won’t even put a Cheerio in her mouth. She can pick them up. She will happily eat them if you put them in her mouth for her. But she will not pick one up and put it in her mouth. I don’t get it. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t have any teeth yet, but Cara didn’t get her first tooth until the day before her first birthday, and I remember her feeding herself well before that. Who knows what’s going on in that little head of hers, but perhaps she knows if she fed herself, she’d get much less personal attention at mealtimes. We’ll just have to give her time and wait and see…

Everybody who has eaten my cornbread wants to know what I do, so here it is:

Start with a box of Trader Joe’s cornbread mix. The box calls for 1 egg, 1/2 cup oil, and 3/4 cup milk. I change this to 1/4 cup egg whites (you could also use vegan egg substitute), 1/4 cup oil (I use organic canola), and 1 can cream style corn. This eliminates the cholesterol and the dairy, and cuts down the fat significantly. The result is sweet and moist and really… well, corny.

We’re riding along in the car on the way home from the nature center yesterday, and Liam asks me one of his questions that means he’s been mulling something over:

“Mom, what comes after ‘quintillion’?”

In the second that I paused to consider whether ’sextillion’ is a word (it is), Evan piped up with a much more accurate answer:

“Quintillion-one.”

Brian and I were playing Cranium WOW this evening with friends. To win the game we drew a card in the Word Worm category which read:

“To win the Mindmeld, two or more players on your team must match at least one answer with a teammate. Each player on your team secretly writes down three words that come to mind when thinking of the topic below: Saturday Morning Cartoons”

After about ten seconds, Brian and I revealed our tablets, which both read:

SMURFS, TRANSFORMERS, GI JOE

Children of the 80s indeed.

Cara was playing peek-a-boo with Lori and proceeded to try and make Lori cover her own eyes with her hands.

Mommy: “Cara, please be gentle. Remember, Lori’s not a toy. She’s a person.”

Cara, giggling as if I had made a joke: “No she’s not.”

Mommy: “Yes. She is a person. Just like you are a person.”

Cara, indignantly: “No I am not. I’m a skunk.”

Well, then. What do you say to that?