Herding Cats

It's been so long - but two kids man. Love 'em, but I sit down sometime around 9:30 at night exhausted, not remotely interested in my as-yet-ignored to-do list, and looking to relax for a bit before snuggling with my pillow. I have no complexes about keeping my house clean, completing Pinterest projects, or anything even slightly beyond "fed and clothed." and that's just for me -- for my kids, it's really just "fed." since that takes approximately 85 percent of the day to begin with, ha. 

Levi has been getting more and more...independent, I guess is the right word for it. I expected the age of

three (a week away!) for him to be harder for us as parents. He's less attached to us, has a LOT more words and of course, more opinions. Really, with our genetics, we'd be concerned if anything else were the case :) He now uses words like ectothermic. While doing an alphabet puzzle (shout out to Susan!!) Levi pointed at the puzzle piece shaped like a W and said "look mom, Orcas!" Let me tell you, I learned the word Orca in what, 4th grade?? This kid. It's still so fun watching his imagination develop though, whether its pretending to be a crab in the tub and walking his feet up the wall, pretending to be a dinosaur, or setting his cars up in elaborate crashes. He "parks" every single toy before we leave to go somewhere. Always does things in an orderly fashion, that one. It must be a grandparent (cough cough British cough) trait that skipped a generation and carried through.

Theo is both becoming more delightful and more hard to handle. He'll interact with us with his voice -

laughing and waiting for us to laugh back, or making a sound and waiting for us to repeat it back. He loves to cuddle and play when he's in a good mood, and eat! But he also is practicing biting things - namely me, and it's a constant jumping game when he's nursing with me yanking him away if I think he might bite. ugh. He also has combined his "mommy is my favorite" with some separation anxiety, so if I leave a the building, a room, his line of sight, or stop touching him, he screams bloody murder and won't calm down until I reappear and pick him up.

He's learned to pick up puffs and small bits of food and put them in his mouth after a couple of weeks of trying to convince him to do that himself - he has great fine motor skills, but if I held a puff in my hand out of reach of his mouth, he would grab my hand and pull it to his mouth so he could slurp the puff off my palm.

Even if he got the puffs in his hands, he would just leave them there. For real, sometimes when he ran out of puffs by dropping them on the floor or because I walked away, I'd see him opening his hands and looking disconsolately at the puffs trapped in his grimy palm, but making no move to put them...in his mouth.

He's such a contradictory little person - even though he screeches when I'm around but not holding him and bites, he is the master of bedtime. I go upstairs, change his diaper and put him in jammies, nurse him while I

Yes, he sucks his thumb, against my wishes. Yes, his
face is dirty. Fed, but not clean, remember?

read to Levi, and go put him in his crib. No songs, rocking, mobile turning-on, nothing - and he doesn't fall asleep nursing, he's still wide awake and squirming around while we finish reading in Levi's room. I put Theo in his crib, turn off light, leave room. And he sleeps, every night. I'd say 80 percent of the time without fussing at all, the other percentage fussing two minutes, tops. I thought Levi was good because he would also go to sleep easily at this age, but there was a half-dozen step bedtime routine first. Although I should probably clarify that starting at 18 weeks, we're pretty strict sleep trainers as a rule - the kids are never allowed in our beds, we let them cry it out  after a quick check to make sure they're OK, etc.

And now, some fun conversations with Levi: 

Levi: that bridge had trains and cars.
Me: I like trains and cars. Do you?
L: Yes. They make me steam.
Me; They make you scared?
L: No. They make me steam.
Me: Like a smokestack?
L: Yes.
Me: Do you mean the trains make steam?
L: Trains make steam, but also I make steam.
Me: Oh I see. Does it come out of your head?
L: No. My fingers.

(pause)
L: Also, I not afraid. Of cars or trains. Or kitties.
Me: I think kitties are cute and nice.

L:My friend Mike has a cat. (we know no one in Levi's life who goes by Mike)
Me: ...Did you say Mike?
L: Yeah.
Me: ...is Mike a new friend from school.
L: No.
Me: Where did you meet Mike?
L: Mike winowski!
Me: Ooooh. (realizes he meant Mike Wizowski, from Monster's Inc. the movie) I'm not sure he has a cat.

Levi: Daddy, you have a big butt.
Tim: Well, you have a little tiny butt.
Levi: No, my butt is big and strong. It moves things. Like dirt.

Daddy got a Lego* set for (very late) Christmas

Herding cats, I tell ya. 

The Quintessential "I Have Two Kids" Photo.
Boogies. Food. Angst.

Hello Theo!

Levi's first Easter egg hunt!

*actual Legos, 100 percent real.