Elevensies

The March part of this month was all snot, all the time. In April we moved out of illness and I decided to rethink that Kleenex stock purchase. (crosses fingers and kicks self for tempting fate this way) Ian finally decided to try crawling the "normal" way, though he still resorts to commando-style when he really wants to get someplace or needs to hold something while moving.* Mira prefers to put an object in her mouth to carry it while crawling. We'll be working on fetching next.

 

I finally found a way to keep Ian and Mira from crawling away from the camera

But then you can see what that led to...

  

Speaking of Ian, although he has trailed Mira a bit on the physical developments, he is officially the first of the two to speak. For a while now he has been saying something that sounds like "Ada" but we were never totally sure. With such a vowel-heavy name, "ada" could be like "mama" - one of those things kids say over and over without clearly meaning something specific. But last week, Ian looked up at Ada descending the stairs, pointed at her and declared "Ada!" Since then he's been saying her name a lot, sometimes as a question. He also seems to be saying "Papa" but that is less definitive.

Did I say that Ian has been trailing in physical advances? Scratch that. Starting last week, Ian became obsessed with climbing the stairs and no amount of redirection would convince him to give it a rest. On Saturday we installed the gate at the bottom of the stairs. This led to a frustrated Ian rattling the gate a bunch. I can practically hear him yelling "Attica!" When I do give the kids access to the stairs, Ian has no problem scaling all 15 steps. Mira is less dedicated to this pursuit, but generally holds her own climbing-wise.

Both kids are waving hello and bye-bye. The latter has come in handy recently, as it tends to keep the kids from getting upset when Chris or I leave, as long as we repeat "bye-bye" and wave for a bit before we go. Mira caught on to clapping a few weeks ago, and now we all spend big chunks of our day clapping and playing patty-cake. The only other sign we've consistently used with these two is "finished" (though we accompany it with the words "all done"). Mira uses it mostly to let us know she's done (with food, with having her diaper changed, with sitting in the stroller), but occasionally it seems to mean she was different food, but not no food. We're working on it.

We have entered a phase that will last for at least the next 14 years, I think: Ian and Mira MUST HAVE whatever the other one is using. Stealing and screaming are now rampant. Chris and I are torn between trying to instill a "no stealing" policy and just sitting back and letting the kids fight it out. There is no obvious victim or culprit, as they both do it to one another all the time.

The above photo shows some evidence of the crown of bruises that Ian sports these days. Learning to crawl and climb and stand leads to a lot of falling. I know it is not just us. Lara's 11 month update on her twins included photos of her son with similar brow-bruises. Of course, it is Mira who took the most recent header on the porch, leaving her with some impressive scratches on her nose and upper lip.

blissfully scab-free at Grandma's house

Ada is continuing to grow and mature as she moves toward 5. Some days are so good that I even dare to hope that we are moving out of the extended tantrum and whining-extravaganza that has been our life with her for much of the past year. I will have more about her tomorrow, but for now here are two quick Ada updates:

(1) This month she learned to ride her bike. Really ride it, with no training wheels and without any assistance starting and stopping. Chris and I are completely impressed and proud of her.

(2) As of Saturday, Ada is back sleeping in her bed. She told Chris she wanted to re-arrange her furniture, and he suggested that she could move her next onto her bed. For now, at least, we no longer have to tell people that our daughter sleeps in the closet. 


*Someone who saw Ian do his arms-only crawl described it as a "zombie crawl", as in, how zombies move when their legs are incapacitated. Not to be confused with this kind of zombie crawl, which until 5 minutes ago I'd never heard of.