Catsup (or I Have Nothing Better to Title This)

Danica marked her 25th-month birthday on Monday… makes me wonder when I’m going to stop counting months.

Kindra’s cousin Nicole left for home on Thursday morning, after spending a week here. We’re pretty sure she was ready to leave, since when you stay with us, you get the kids experience 24/7. She was a lot of help, especially when I traveled to Philly last weekend for my sister’s graduation from Jefferson Medical School (congrats to Steph!). Nicole was the last of our six weeks of help, so we’re finally getting a chance to adjust to “normal” life with just the four of us.

We spent today watching Danica figure out how to put on her shoes, while repeatedly encouraging her to get them on and then telling her to take them off because we don’t wear shoes in the house. For some reason, 90% of the time, they’re on the wrong feet. It’s kinda like when she first started opening up books, and they’d be upside down most of the time. Go figure. But, she can get shoes on herself now, if not actually get the Velcro straps through the loops properly. Unfortunately, she throws fits when she can’t get them on quickly. (FYI, she actually put on her shoes by herself yesterday for the first time that either Kindra or I have seen.)

Colin’s been on an eating rampage today. He’s definitely what you’d call a “snacker.” He eats some, falls asleep, and then wakes up an hour-and-a-half later starving. Kindra’s not too thrilled about it. And he always likes to do a little taste-test before he really starts eating – I gotta tell ya buddy, it’s the same thing you’ve always gotten. Believe me, I tried to get your mom to produce chocolate or strawberry milk, but she refuses.

The Boy never seems totally comfortable between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. for reasons beyond our understanding. He just never seems to sleep well and can get pretty fussy. It’s hard to tell whether to wrap him up in a blanket, take him out of the blanket, hold him over your shoulder or cradle him, put him down or pick him up, sit down with him or stand up… well, you get the idea. It’s a little crazier than it was with Danica (I think… but I don’t really remember), but I will say that he definitely sleeps more than she did.

Funny story that some of you haven’t heard… We tend to call Colin “buddy,” as in “little buddy.” I don’t know why I started it, but it’s stuck for now. So sometimes when he fusses, we say, “Oh, buddy…” Danica picked up on this, so from time to time she’ll call him “Baby Oh, Buddy” when she hears him cry.

Speaking of that, Danica’s really been picking up on words and phrases over the past few weeks. It’s crazy when she throws out a sentence or phrase that you haven’t heard her use before; she’ll even throw things togther from words she hears you say. For instance, if she doesn’t know where you are, she’s recently gone to asking¸ “Where are you?” She also heard me tell Kindra that I forgot my ring in the apartment, then spit out, “Daddy forgot ring,” which is just insane. Her expanding vocabulary is making it harder for me to understand her because her pronounciation isn’t catching up quite as fast.

And while we’re talking about Danica’s vocabulary, I’m proud to say that she said the word “basketball” for the first time when we put her Laker shirt on her. I can’t get her to say it during a game or even when we’re playing with a basketball, but she took one look at the Laker logo on the front of the shirt, pointed at it, and said “basketball” clearly. It was pretty shocking, because she usually just says, “Ball.”

The kids’ doctor’s appointment is on Tuesday, so we’ll get a chance to see where they are growth-wise. Kindra thinks Colin’s at least ten pounds, and I’m anxious to see where Danica’s at since she hasn’t had a doctor’s appointment in at least six months.

Oh yeah, after a call to our doctor, it turns out Colin’s skin rash on his cheeks was eczema, which cleared up with some hydrocortisone. His cheeks are still a bit rough, but they look a ton better. Danica had the same thing when she was his age, too.