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…

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.”

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?

Quote of the year (so far):

Evan: “I want to be a policeman when I grow up. But I’m going to drive a red mustang to trick people.”

Liam: “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up… But I think I’m going to invent a solar-electric powered car and sell it for under $300.”

Since Thanksgiving Day, Lori has been sampling solid foods. She loves pears. She likes apples and bananas. Brown rice cereal is acceptable when made with breast milk. Sweet potatoes are great. Carrots are yummy. She even scarfed down an entire container of green beans. But not peas. Oh, no, not the peas. Don’t try to feed her peas unless you’d like them splattered all over your face.

Liam’s birthday was last Wednesday, and he finally turned SEVEN! He’s been telling everyone he was “six and eleven twelfths” for the last month, while I’ve been saying “almost seven.” He’s now over four feet tall (he’s grown almost two inches since Lori was born)! It’s hard to believe, but I guess that’s what happens when you keep feeding them.

We’ve been celebrating all week with friends and family, including a TaeKwonDo party at TopKick. Liam asked his friends to bring donations for Toys For Tots instead of gifts for himself (it wasn’t his idea, but he embraced it enthusiastically), and everyone was SOOoooo generous! Yesterday we dropped off a grocery cart FULL of toys and books so that other kids might be as happy as Liam is this time of year! He continues to grow into the intelligent, responsible, loving person we’ve always known he would. Keep it up, Liam, and Happy Birthday!

Click on the picture below for a short video of Cara reciting the Turkey Poem:

Cara is 2.6 years old!

Cara’s Quote of the Day from a few weeks ago, while looking at herself in the bathroom mirror:

“My eyes are blue – like Liam’s.  And Evan’s eyes are green – like yours, Mommy. And Daddy’s eyes are brown… like poop!”