on guard

With Isabel on the move Cael is constantly defending his toys from her reach. She is completely enthralled by him, follows him everywhere, and he is quickly becoming disenchanted. But every now and then he glimpses the possibility that she could fill a new roll in his life.

She stands with a precarious, wobbly hold on the piano bench. He starts to attack her with the orange screwdriver, but stops, looks around, runs to get the blue screwdriver (the flat-head), and stuffs it in her hand. Isabel is wide-mouth thrilled as they fence with their plastic screwdriver swords.

what's in a name

After months of referring to a full diaper as a 'poo' Cael has finally met a bear of the same name (thankyou Sierra) in 'Pooh's Heffalump Movie'. Now he picks up every teddybear in the house and shouts "Poop, poop!" and asks to see the movie again by shouting "More Poop, more Poop!" Yes, his language skills are becoming more refined.

water baby

Cael hangs on the edge of the pool and practices getting in and out of the water over and over again. Then he sees the girls. “See gerrs seee gerrs, more gers,” he chants as lurches and kicks and splashes in their direction. They jump and bob in the water, completely oblivious as Cael follows them around the pool in awe. What better motivation to learn to swim than to be able to chase older girls?

carry on my wayward son

Cael brandishes his screwdriver like a sword and gets into a crouched stance with arms at the ready. We think he might be channeling a ninja. Where is this from? We are working on turning his strikes into tickles. It is the reaction he is looking for anyway. He just needs a way to get us. Or “getcheeew” (get you).

Isabel salutes everyone with a huge open-mouth smile. Arm up, palm out. She looks like she might be expecting a high five and bursts into giggles if she gets one. If she happens to have her binkie it looks like she is offering it up. And for added emphasis she brings out the other arm for a two-armed salute.

there's no accounting for taste

Cael insists on watching ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Legally Blonde 2’, pointing out the “Pink dog, pink dog!” on the cover. He then takes a nap clutching a Harpers Magazine, falling asleep with his face in a political opinion essay.

mmmm crayons taste gooood...

Isabel discovers something new every day. She is just getting to a sort of frog-legged-hop-crawl that when combined with the sit-and-spin-roll seems to get her wherever she sets her mind to go. (Cael is running around the living room picking up his toys, “no, mine,” and hiding them from his sister). Today she learned that when she drops her Cheerios onto the floor, that fluffy white thing eats them right up, but if she drops her sippy-cup Mom will return it to her. And she has just developed a new noise. It is a ‘yip’ crossed with an ‘eek’, employed primarily to attract the attention of the person with the nearest supply of food.