Eight Months, Three and Three-Quarters.

It's been a busy fall. Rosie is crawling around the house as of two or three weeks ago. She's pretty fast now, exploring, seeking out toys, eating bits of dust and old food she finds on the floor, and often looking for Leo. She's also just started to pull up to her knees and it feels like she'll be pulling up to standing and beyond any day. Yikes. We've moved her crib into Leo's room, which he was mostly delighted about. He's been tolerating her invasion of his life and toys with mostly patience (unless she dares to knock down his lego tower or chew on his Uno card box and then trouble ensues). We're trying to give him privacy when he needs it. "Mamma, I want play alone," he'll say occasionally.

Rosie's eating lots, she prefers to feed herself rather than be spoon fed. Her favorites are cheese toast, cheerios, and pieces of steamed vegetables - cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini. When she doesn't get what she wants or enough of what she wants she sits in her high chair and screams. loudly. A smart second child survival strategy. She's still up at night a fair amount and we're zombies a lot of the time. She's so joyful and greets absolutely everyone she meets on the street, at nursery school, or in our house with a huge winning smile, whether she knows them or not. It makes her, and me, many friends. She's now all over Leo's toys, loves his legos and to suck on his trains and pull books down from the shelves. She seems totally bored by the "baby" toys we have around the house, who wouldn't be when you can chew on pretend sushi or roll tractors that are almost your own size.

Leo has started in the "Alef" class at school. He loved it pretty much immediately and goes bounding in the door every morning. He's made new friends, who he talks about constantly, particularly enamored with a set of identical twins who are new at the school. He's conquered the monkey bars and is eager to take part in every activity and class tradition and project. He got his turn to be a "shabbat helper" last Friday and was so proud. That shy boy who watched most activities without taking part last year seems to be gone, or at least faded to the background for now. He's sad when the weekend comes because he "wants to go to school everyday." I still love having him home in the afternoons. It's hard to take care of him and Rosie together, but still very joyful. He's not napping anymore so he "rests" in his room, often wearing his space helmet and elmo underroos. He's doing lots of really fun pretend play - airport, astronaut, or reenacting adventures from nursery school. He was very interested in space travel earlier this month and after a few library trips became an expert on "Apollo 11" and "rocket boosters" and "moon landers." He's going to be an astronaut for Halloween and tells anyone who asks he is "three and three-quarters."

We read books, go scooting outside, play trains, or sometimes do projects. He's usually really eager for Rosie to wake up so she can scoot around on the floor with him - they have big adventures under the dining room table, or filling the laundry basket "boat" with books and toys. Our house is crazy messy and crazy loud and chaotic a lot of the time and we're often not sure what happened to our life. They're worth it.


I have tons of pictures from the past few months I'll try to post on here in the next few days. Stay tuned while I catch up....