Moving right along

Big news this week! Sam is finally crawling according to the definition that we all understand. Sometimes he keeps his hands fisted, and his movements are somewhat jerky, and sometimes he reverts back to that military creep that he has been doing for so long...but he's actually crawling and he does it more and more every day (this is day three). He also REALLY wants to walk. He gets so excited when someone, anyone, is willing to hold his little hands and help keep his balance as he puts one foot in front of the other. Here too, his movements are rather jerky...but the outcome is even more cute because of the small jerks in his movements. He is also working really hard to pull himself up to a standing position. He can do it if he holds an adult's hands, but he gets frustrated every time he tries to pull himself to standing on the furniture. He does pull himself to his knees with great success.

And then there's Liam, who is becoming almost acrobatic in his moves. He is cruising from furniture to furniture and racing behind his walking toys and standing without holding on to anything. He is quite proud. I think that he is Oh So Close to walking. Frightening.

It is sometimes difficult to believe that at this time last year we were still in the NICU. It seems like Christmas was forever ago and we continue to wait. I think that March 3rd is going to feel really really good this year.

On a personal note, my Aunt Terry forwarded a message from a member of our swim family (Chris) this weekend. It seems that one of the youngest swimmers (when I left) on my old USS team swam her last high school sectional this past weekend, and she was the only swimmer from a team that once dominated that sectional to make it to the State meet this year. I can tell you from experience, that going to a state meet by oneself is not a fun position to be in. Chris also added that her oldest daughter became engaged the night before sectionals...and that someone beat my sectional record. So congratulations Brooke, and Kym. And to the girl that finally beat my record, congratulations, it was about d**m time! And yes I did the math, that thing was 13 years old (needless to say, we swam in a slow sectional). But really, it has been 13 years since I stopped swimming. I still partially define myself as a swimmer because it was such a big part of my life. I still define myself as a teacher even though I no longer earn a living in that profession. And I will forever more define myself as a mother, long after these beautiful birds leave the nest...but let's not go there. For now, I will look forward to my next visit to the pool with my friend Nancy whose daughter just began swimming for her middle school team. I hear she likes backstroke, I might be helpful there! :)

And now for a love note to my Aunt Kris and her obsession with infomercials. I like to make fun of my Aunt Kris for her tendency to buy things she hears about on television. One year at the family Christmas shopping trip she kept going on and on about the silver bullet or the magic bullet and how wonderful it sounded (really she was talking about the magic bullet food processor). This of course was the same Christmas that my cousin Clint asked for a pair of black Dickies (pants) and Grandma just couldn't understand why Clint would want a pair of "black stiffies" (please note that a good sense of hearing is not something that runs in the family). This became endlessly (and granted in a sophomoric way) amusing to the the younger generation, as stories from the family shopping trip often do.

And today I am here to apologize to my wonderful Aunt. We bought a food processor a couple of years ago with the understanding that it would be something nice to have and that as we planned to one day have a baby that we could use said processor to make our own baby food. How many times have we utilized the food processor since the babies came along? Once. We roasted organic sweet potatoes and froze enough to last us for weeks. It was delicious and the babies loved it...but we did it once. How many times have we used the magic bullet that mysteriously (though not sooo mysteriously) showed up on our house one day? Countless times. On those occasions when we actually cook, I always stick some of what we are having into one of those blending cups and mix it up with milk and cereal (if it needs thickened) and feed it to the babies.

Sometimes we have trouble getting the boys to eat. Sam especially has trouble with textures mostly. He will only eat fruit if it is mixed with cereal, etc. etc. But if I blend up what Ben or I have cooked, it is difficult to get them to slow down. And I swear that one of Sam's first words besides "mama", "dada", and "hi" is "yum". The "hi" sounds more like a "ha" and the "yum" is more of an "uuumm" complete with kicking feet and bouncing bottom. So thank you Aunt Kris for your belief in infomercials and their products. We love you.

Of course, then there is Liam who eats pretty much anything he can get into his mouth. I was eating a grapefruit the other morning and fed him a little bite without skin so that he could chew it...and he LOVED it. He became angry at me when I wasn't fast enough with the peeling. I think he ate nearly a fourth of that thing. But even he prefers it when we get out the magic bullet.