I'm well behind, lots of reasons (three kids and a full-time job).
Some random thoughts on Matthew and Renee being 11 months old:
- they both crawl. Renee was first. Matthew started at a Shabbat dinner at my parents a few weeks ago and never stopped!
- Matthew climbed up the stairs today
- Matthew loves music, dances all the time. He really likes pivoting in one spot.
- Renee claps and waves
- Renee says "Mama" (at me, at my mom and when ever she doesn't like her circumstances). She says "up" when she wants to be picked up. And, at daycare she says "no" when they put her in her crib for naps.
- Renee cruises and walks holding someone's hands
- they love, love Cheerios, especially Matthew, and are starting to feed themselves (i.e. make a mess of the kitchen and themselves)
- both love putting things in and out of containers
- Matthew loves looking at light fixtures; Renee likes turning lights on and off
- they are not so keen on their exersaucers, but love their activity table
Our typical weekdays:
- wake up, nurse, get dressed, play without adults while adults get ready, go to day care
- pick up from day care, get home, nurse, play, eat dinner, play, bedtime
- wake up 1-2 per night (per baby), or more if sick (as an aside, of the 6 ears in our house under the age of 4, 4 are currently infected!)
Our weekends are a blur of fun and non-stop "things to do" (like laundry which we do daily, cleaning the kitchen, diapering and dressing, grocery shopping). The fun is mostly time we spend together, both the 5 of us and the 5 of us plus Abbeywood (my parents, sister, nephew) with whom we have dinner every Friday and Sunday. The three kids are at an age where they are a lot of fun.
Samuel continues to be hilarious and perpetually happy. He has really embraced the Judaic and Zionist aspect of his school, although when asked "are you Jewish?" he says "no" and then says "I'm Samuel". He loves reading from an illustrated children's Bible. In the section on the 10 Commandments, he denies the existence of the 5th commandment, honour your mother and father, and has instead replaced it with "you won't break your bicycle". Everytime he sees blue and white, he breaks out in song "kahol velaban" (blue and white and my colours, blue and white are the colours of my flag). He has taken to saying that he'd "like to be a baby again in Washigton DC" - we think all the changes of the last year have caught up with him now that M&R are older, mobile and starting to invade his physical and social space. I hope he continues to take change in stride when school ends in 2 weeks and he starts attending M&R's daycare for the summer.
Matthew and the Stairs:
Daddy and Babies:
One night Eduardo came for dinner, they outnumbered us 2:1 - good thing they can play together:
The activity table:
