Ripping on the scooter

Howie is now 3 years and 2 months old, and Eleanor is 19 months. Eleanor has of course been walking for several months. She can mumble a few words, though fairly slurred. She often pretends to speak sentences by repeating the first syllable a couple times before saying the whole word, such as "heh heh help!" When she spills her drink at the table, she yells "ma ma mess!"

Eleanor is SO snuggly. You can pick her up almost any time and she'll lay her head on your shoulder, and get all smushy on you. These days I've been holding her a little longer before she lays down for bed, just to soak up the snuggles while they last.

I often say, "Who's my pretty girl?" and Eleanor pats her chest and grins.

Howie and Eleanor are fantastic together. They love to play together. I've heard Howie introduce Eleanor to strangers, saying, "this is my friend, Eleanor." So cute! Howie is an expert interpreter of Eleanor language, often telling me what she wants. They sleep in the same room, and they are completely immune to each other's noise. Even the most livid screaming from one will usually not phase the other. I hope they always have a good relationship.

Eleanor is presently in the 95th percentile for height, and Howie had dropped to the 50th percentile for height. He doesn't seem to have grown much recently, though I don't measure him. Maybe he's got a growth spurt coming up.

Howie is such a sweet little boy. The other day at the dinner table, he suddenly exclaimed, "I love you with the fastest heart, Mommy!" Katie tried to reciprocate the feeling but Howie said, "no, you don't Mommy, you don't. You love me with the slowest heart." These has become a common exchange.

For all his sweetness, he does throw some tantrums. However, we were at the park today and there was a little boy about Howie's age, totally out of control, doing the opposite of everything his grandmother said. He was picking up and throwing wood chips everywhere, not because he was upset, just to make trouble. He made Howie look like an absolute saint.

Howie speaks very enthusiastically and clearly, people often comment on that.

I bought Howie a Razor scooter yesterday. The box said ages 5+, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Well, he's a total stud on that thing! He instantly took to it. People at the park were commenting on how impressive he was today, and they couldn't believe when I told them he just got it yesterday. I'll try to post a video.

Howie also does well socially. He LOVES to see his cousins. On our last trip to Oregon, after a long day it was time to leave the McCourts house and Howie began softly weeping, "I wanna see my cousins." We're most likely going to enroll him on preschool soon to get him socializing with other local kids.

One again, here's hoping I don't wait so long to blog again!

Crawling and feet tickling

It's been too long! Gotta keep blogging.

Eleanor is about to turn 1 in a couple weeks, and today I saw her crawl for the first time. She's been army-crawling for three months or so, but tonight finally got up to her knees. Eleanor has an infectious smile, her face all scrunched up as she grins ear to ear and rapidly breaths through her nose.

Tonight I read her a few little books before bed, which is something I hadn't started doing yet. I totally regret not starting earlier, because she absolutely loved it. She kept pointing at all the pictures and doing baby talk. On nearly every page she would turn the book over to reinspect the cover, then turn it back to continue reading.

She still only has the two lower teeth, so she won't eat much of anything but pre-made baby food. For some reason she won't touch a mushed up banana or avocado, it sometimes even make her dry-heave. However, she does like eating baby crackers, so that's a good step.

Howie is such a boy now. We went and got haircuts together just before Christmas, and he just looks like such a big kid now. Of course, he's got a LOT more growing left to do, so he's still my little boy.

Howie communicates with us really well, and he is polite most of the time. Mommy has instilled good manners. He often says "no thank you", even if he's frustratedly asking the baby to stop bothering him. And when asking for something, say for example getting down from his chair, he often begins with "Daddy may I please get down please?"

Howie is a daddy's boy. A few days ago, I was sitting next to Howie at the table along with Katie, Cy and Julie. Howie leaned over and rested his head on my arm and said "I love my daddy." It almost made me cry it was so precious.

Howie makes Eleanor laugh really hard sometimes, especially when they're in the stroller together. He'll tickle her feet, and play peek-boo with her, and she belly laughs over and over. It's neat to see these two little creatures we brought into the world having their own interactions with each other. It makes me imagine all their years of sibling interaction ahead. Maybe one day they'll drive to highschool together. Then I'll tell them how he used to tickle her feet.