I crawl, therefore I am.

"Walking takes longer than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed."
-Edward Abbey

James is crawling.  He’s still doing the army crawl, but we can no longer put him on the floor and expect him to be in the same spot when we come back into the room.  His favorite things, much like his big sister, are cords.  This makes it even more important to watch him.  Luckily, he’s usually content just grabbing and playing with whatever is nearby.  I suspect that will soon change.

Aunt Tracy’s birthday is coming up this week and the family got together this weekend to celebrate.  Ashlyn put on one of her new dresses, refused to pose for a picture, and then got in the car so we could go to our favorite local Italian restaurant.  James enjoyed coloring with Heidi and Ashlyn got to play a solo game of “Lady and the Tramp” with the alfredo pasta.

Now that James is eating more solid food, Ashlyn has been eager to help with the feeding.  We let her try this weekend, and James didn’t seem to mind even though only half the food ended up in his mouth.  While we appreciate Ashlyn’s interest in taking part in the raising of Baby James, the feeding may be one activity better left to Mom and Dad for now.

These final pictures have nothing to do with anything really.  They’re just two pictures of happy children, James with his piece of toast and Ashlyn being pretty in pink with her new umbrella.

I’m going to end this post with something that I’m not all that comfortable talking about.  At gymnastics on Saturday, two boys were fighting over who would get to sit next to Ashlyn.  Both boys tried to help Ashlyn with the various events, and Ashlyn even picked one boy over the other.  His name is “Danny”, and while I didn't get a chance to meet him I’m pretty sure he has a criminal record and therefore shouldn’t be hanging out with my daughter.  Records of 3 year olds aren’t available to the public so I can’t confirm this of course, but he had a “look” about him.

Random pictures and a hint of movement…

"How many colours are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'green'?
How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye?"
-Stan Brakhage

With most of these posts I try to make a semblance of a story out of the weekly pictures.  This week however will be different, as most of the pictures we took were random events of the kids being photogenic.  So without any further ado, here you go.

This is a series of photographs showing their favorite toys of the week. 

Clockwise from top left:  Ashlyn and her new umbrella, James and his noise making table top, Ashlyn and her cups of beans, James sitting in a hamper while Mom was doing laundry.

I’m not sure what is going to get child protection services called on us first, the act of putting our baby into a laundry hamper, or the socks Mom put on him.  My money is on the socks. 

Ashlyn has always been interested in helping out with James, but we were a little surprised when she wanted to fix his hair before gymnastics.  I suspect this will work better when he has hair.  For now she should work on Baby Ben’s.  That little dude was rocking a sweet ‘doo.

I suppose I have one series of pictures that has something behind it.  The family came over on Saturday night for my birthday dinner, only five weeks late thanks to sick kids.  Ashlyn prepped the chairs for a train ride before dinner, but we had to take the train apart so we could eat.  That didn’t stop the kids from getting together and having fun.  James in particular seemed to enjoy seeing his cousin Ben.

And this is just James being awesome.

And finally, James has started the journey to mobility.  He’s still a little awkward, but he’s learned that he is capable of moving forward towards something that he wants to play with.  It’s time to button up the baby proofing that we never needed with Ashlyn.  We’re going to need it with James.

Breakfast and bouncing…

"Rusty you have sharp nails, so don't you step on my brother again!"
-Ashlyn

As Ashlyn gets older she continues to show more interest in helping us in our various activities, especially when it comes to making food.  Also, as she gets older, her “help” is turning from “help” with quotes around it to actual productive assistance.  For instance, this morning she cracked eggs into a bowl and whisked them up.  I only had to pick out a handful of shell fragments too, which is impressive.  James just watched and smiled.

As the season begins its transition from Winter to Spring our area is starting to hold community events.  The first event of the season was cookie decorating with the kids.  Ashlyn had a fun time of it and managed to take down two impressively decorated cookies covered with icing, sprinkles, and M&M’s.  There’s nothing like two pounds of sugar to get a three year old in a relaxed mood for the afternoon.

In the world of James, he has migrated to the taller bouncer.  We’re not sure if he’s enjoying the experience.  I’ll put some of the pictures below, and we’ll examine them over the next week to determine if he likes it.

Our little Picaso still likes to make art, and we’ll keep encouraging it.  Here’s one of her latest drawings, unfortunately part it got erased before we could stop her to take the picture, but at least the little smiling baby on the bottom was intact.

Teething and laughter…

“Adam and Eve had many advantages but the principal one was, that they escaped teething."
-Mark Twain

James has officially joined the millions of Americans that have teeth.  He has one that cut through and we can already see the next one working its way out.  We tried to get a picture of it to put on the blog, but he’s too squirmy.  So instead of pictures of a tooth, here’s pictures of him enjoying Nala’s company.  That’s just as good, right?

We’re doing what we can to help that second tooth come out, and so far his favorite thing to chew on is apple slices.  He doesn’t care much for bananas, which was Ashlyn’s favorite fruit, but he’ll chew on pretty much anything else.  We’re hoping that the second tooth will work its way out in the next few days, because we can only go so long without sleep.

I was able to get better pictures this weekend of Ashlyn at gymnastics.  You can see that she’s doing great on her own and the beam is no longer the enigma that it once was.  Go Ashlyn, go!

Since we have been spending most of our time with a fussy baby and trying to find sleep where we can, we haven’t been taking as many pictures as usual.  So in lieu of more pictures, here’s a properly censored video of Ashlyn cracking James up in the bath.  Nobody can make James laugh like Ashlyn.