growing, growing

This week, the boys will be nine months old. How astonishing is that? I know I've been putting up comparisons a lot lately (at least it seems that way to me), but really, their development is happening so quickly right now, I'm just constantly amazed. Laurie and I have been talking a lot lately about their growth, transporting ourselves back to the days when they were first born in amazement. I remember one friend asking how big their heads were - and my response that they were about the size of a big orange now shocks me... because of course their noggins are now probably the size of a big cantaloupe, and just as heavy, lol.

Soon after we moved to this house in February, I took this photo of the boys. They were just pushing up high on their bellies:


Yesterday I repositioned them at the door for a comparative photo:

this is a little deceptive... although they are obviously attracted to each other, Shoghi tends to be a little too aggressive for Max's taste, and we usually have to protect them from each other. Shoghi loves to screech and bite, and Max is very sensitive to the noise. As a result, they don't play "with" each other as often any more, although they are of course always together.

just 4 days shy of being 9 months old.

Now, as you can see, they are sitting unassisted, and Shoghi is not only properly crawling, he's also climbing under the exersaucer, pushing himself into a kneeling position, and starting to try to climb into things, like the bouncy chair.

Shoghi on his first successful under-the-exersaucer mission

Max, on the other hand, is now starting to get up on his knees and rock back and forth - so cute! It's a little sad, because he keeps pushing himself backwards when he wants to move forwards, but that's just part of the learning. While Shoghi is clearly a kinetic learner, Max is all about the words. Amazingly, he repeats syllable sounds, saying things like "this" and "dit" and "gook". He also tries to repeat the Dr. Suess rhyme: "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" by going "da, da, da" - it is incredible to realize what he's trying to do. The other day, we were playing peek-a-boo for the video so that I could capture him putting the silk over his own head, and realized that he was also saying "boo"!



I tell you, the acquisition of new abilities never ceases to amaze. We take such pleasure, such awe at the new things that emerge every day.

And now for Self Nurturing, Day 2:
Our napping schedule still isn't as pretty as I'd like it to be, and that means that we're still doing a LOT of car naps - particularly the last nap of the day, which is usually sometime between 2 and 4pm. In fact, the boys are waking up consistently between 5 and 6am, and that results in them taking THREE naps a day. This whole thing is a great frustration for me, and when they're car napping, I can't even stop the car for very long - maybe 5 or 10 minutes maximum. I listen to Fresh Air, or a book on CD, and drive the neighborhoods around Mt. Tabor. In this glorious spring weather, this drive isn't very much fun - I'd rather be doing chores around the house so that in other free and awake time we could be out walking.

Many days my sister ends up taking the boys for a walk just so I can get a half an hour to get something accomplished. I find that my post-pregnancy body is very much changed - one of the biggest differences is that my knees and my feet are always sore, probably from the pregnancy weight I am still carrying around.

So, yesterday was Tuesday, which is also chores day. This means that we spend several hours outside the house, doing groceries and other errands. Because it was raining, I knew that we wouldn't be likely to have the opportunity to be outside walking, so I planned our walk at a mall. This wasn't the most ideal way to get in a walk for my sore body, but it was important for me, and the walking with my sister and the boys was pleasant. We gawked at the store fronts and expressed our gratitude that there wasn't anything that we actually wanted! Although it was a pretty exhausting day, the walk was definitely the best thing I did for myself. :o)