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progress report

Ok, I'll admit it, I am a terrible baby-book keeper. I just never get around to writing in those books where one is supposed to note the milestones and moments as the baby grows up. But, I do have this blog. Thank goodness. And when someone asks me when the Little Dude started walking, I just have to browse through old entries and hope that I wrote about it at some point. Blogs are such a funny thing really. I mean, am I writing this for you to read, or for me to remember? Its a question I often ask myself as I decide what to share and what not to share. 

Anyhow, as few notes to my future self, who at one point will be looking back and wondering what happened when. First of all, the Baby has learned to scootch. I'm sure I mentioned it before, that he was starting to get around, but not he's really getting around, pulling with his arms, pushing with his legs and generally getting where he wants to go, and pretty quickly too. We finally had to get out and set up a play pen again. I remember when the Little Dude was a play pen user (and when he outgrew it) and it funny to see it around again. Of course, L.D. wants to get in there with him, and I'm telling you, it is not a big space for a three year old with what he refers to as "very kicky legs!" Not when he's sharing it with a baby. So that didn't last long. But the Baby doesn't seem to have a problem with the play pen, for which I am grateful. Because mama needs to shower. 

And the Little Dude is officially totally toilet trained. Yay! I mean naps and nights and everything. He's been day trained for aaaages, but night training is another think entirely. For the longest time I didn't even bother about it, just kept putting a diaper on him at nights, because, really, what can you do? You can't will someone to not pee at night and you can't give them advice on how not to pee at night. I just figured that one day he'd figure it out. And about a month ago I realized that the diapers I was taking off of him in the morning were very light. So finally we put some plastic sheets on the bed, took away his beloved night-time sippy-cup, and hoped for the best. And there's only been one accident so far. Also someone gave me an excellent tip. You double make the bed. So you put on a set of sheets, then a plastic sheet and then another set of sheets over that. So that when they do have an accident, you just pull off the top sheet and the plastic sheet and then voila, there is another set of sheets underneath, all clean and ready to go. Definitely streamlines things in the middle of the night. 

Oh, and I have a question for all the moms out there. When are they old enough to go to the bathroom by themselves at night. L.D. calls me to take him, which is the down side of being potty trained at night. Not every night, but at least every other night I have got get up and out of bed, sometime between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. to walk to the bathroom with a groggy toddler and help him find the toilet. When does that stop? Not that its so bad. He goes back to sleep very easily. But still. 

Another observation about trying to be 'green'. I do my best not to use plastics. In my life and with my kids. We use real plates and cups and cutlery. And I try to store most things in glass. We have as many wooden toys as we can afford. But there are certain categories of things that I just don't know how to replace with non-plastic. For example bath toys. I gave the baby a wooden spoon in the bath tonight because I just didn't know what else to give him. He chews everything and I can't stand to see him chew hot wet plastic. I can practically see it off-gassing. And how about the aforementioned plastic sheets. Oh, and potty seats. Is there a plastic alternative to potty seats? Hubs and I have been making a lot of jokes about hand carved wooden potty seats. Maybe it'll be the niche market that we finally get into. Anyhow, any tips from other mom's who don't like plastic so much. 

(Disclaimer: we do have plastic in the house, because we po' and North America is what it is. And I don't judge you if you have plastics. I've got my fair share of tupperware and find it darn handy. I just am trying to de-plasticize my life a little. I saw this documentary (The Disappearing Male) when I was pregnant and it FREAKED ME OUT. You can watch it and many more good docs at Doc Zone page of the CBC.)

Anyhow, I re-read that and its pretty ramble-y. Tonight I think I wrote for me and not you. Tomorrow I'll write for you. It'll be fun and have pictures, I promise.

its beginning to look a lot like Sweden

I mentioned lately that L.D. is getting pickier in his eating habits. He's funny though, in what he will and won't eat. There are some things that are not surprising; for example, he loves the usual toddler diet - anything white and bland. Lots of carbs and cheese. He'd eat cheese sandwhiches and cheese filled tortellini any day of the week. And he's still ok with most vegetables, though not in as large a quantity as he used to eat them. Now its two beans, or two carrots, as opposed to a regular serving. But he's still happy to have us back up the avocado and tomato truck any time of the day. And he loves all fruits, in large amounts. But the real tough ones are protiens and anything in a sauce. He does not like sauce. Oh, the sadness when I set down a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce on it. Our rule is that he has to try one bite (a 'no thank you' helping) to see if he really doesn't like it, or just thinks he doesn't like it. And then, almost every time, there I am at the sink washing the dreaded sauce off his pasta. It's Kamut pasta, so he's still getting a whole grain, I tell myself. And he will make an exception for pesto. So that's good too.   (Hubs and L.D. working up an appetite)

But protein is really tricky. He's just not very interested in meat. And will now only eat the white part of the egg (which kind of works out ok, since the Baby eats the yolk very happily, 'and so betwixt the two of them the lick the platter clean'). But I cannot get that kid to eat chicken. Except for the chicken satay from the Thai place in town. He'll eat a couple of those.   (note the use of both shovels and croquet mallets as the front walkway gets re-bricked)

Anyhow, hubs and I were confering about dinner plans today, when hubs had the bright idea to try meatballs. He'd taken the Little Dude to Ikea a couple of months ago, and remembered that he quite happily ate the meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy that they serve there. Which is another anomaly as he has generally always turned his nose up at potatoes, which I find odd because they fit the toddler menu of bland and white perfectly. However, Ikea cafeteria food does not exactly fit my ideal of a healthy meal. But I figured, if I make it myself I can make it better. 

Et voila! Homemade Ikea food. I know its not the most swank or foodie of food, hardly photo worthy in concept, but I must say, this was actually a darned good meal. I got compliments all around from the little boy and the big one.

So here's how I healthied it up. We had some free range ground beef in the freezer, so I used that for the meatballs. I seasoned them with sage, thyme and a little bit of garlic salt. And I surprised myself. I'll tell you what, those meatballs were good. I'm totally making them again. And then, you know, the mashed potatoes are just mashed potatoes, but I did throw a few cloves of garlic in with the potatoes while they boiled which gives them a little something extra. And we added a side of asparagus (the baby's favourite) Then, in the not-healthy-at-all category, the gravy was just out of a package, and the lingonberry sauce is actually the lingonberry sauce they sell at Ikea. We just happened to have an upopened jar in the pantry which we bought on a whim probably before the Baby was born. Anyhow, the sauce was arguably the Little Dude's favourite part of the meal. "I really, really love it, this sauce part" he declared as he spooned up what is essentially jam with great glee. But the good news is he also ate the meatballs. At least three of them. And some potatoes, with gravy of course, and two beans and two carrots. Because he wasn't allowed to have more lingonberry sauce until he'd eaten them. 

 

swickly, swickly*

*(That's what my sweet niece used to say for "quickly, quickly" when she was a toddler. So cute, and it lives on in our family language.)

I ran out of time for blogging last night, and ended up in bed waaaaaay too late. But this morning I just want to say that:

a: We are all feeling and sleeping so much better, thanks for asking.

b: I made these Zucchini Fritters for dinner last night and they were SO GOOD that they made me wish we had actually planted zucchini this year! They were crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside and even the Little Dude ate them (after I sneaked a few bites into his mouth when he was not paying attention).

c: L.D. continues to crack me up with his observations on life and crazy little kid logic. "I'm not picking my nose," he said to me yesterday "I'm just cleaning it out with my finger." Natch.

problem solved

So we've been very happy with this Baby Led Weaning business. The Baby loves to eat, loves to feed himself, loves to mumble happily away on all manner of foods, and manages to ingest a good percentage of what we put in front of him. And its good for our family too, in the sense that he's pretty low maintenance as he happily gums away at asparagus and sweet potatoes. Which is handy because the Little Dude has become increasingly high-maintenance at dinner times. Three is the new Two, or so they say. Getting him to stay in his seat is a bit of a challenge, as he's learned that to get out of his seat all he needs to do is say the magic words "May I please leave the table?" But of course, he usually utters that oh so polite request about four minutes into the meal. And we've had our fair share of spilled milk. And water. And pickle brine. And really, all I want to do is sit down and EAT for Pete's Sake!

So. The only complication we've had with Baby Led Weaning is: The Messiness. Boy is it messy. Like, head to toe messy. Its causing a lot of laundry. I end up washing his bib, his shirt, and his pants. It seems like no matter how big I make the bib, it still is no use. How does he get food under his arms and on the back of his pants? Actually I can answer that: flailing baby arms and gravity. Anyhow, laundry is not such a big deal, but he eats a lot of foods that stain (fruit is the worst. For some reason I did not remember what havoc a peach can wreck on a favourite onsie) I managed to completely ruin one shirt by not getting it into the pre-soak fast enough. And its not like this kid doesn't have a ton of clothes, but still, I hate to have things ruined. 

So I was thinking about it the other day and realized that I was going about it the wrong way. Instead of an agressive post-meal pre-soak laundry regimen or bigger bibs, what I really needed was a paradigmatic shift in the way I was thinking about the problem. Instead of thinking 'how can I keep the clothes from getting dirty', I needed to be thinking 'what if it doesn't matter that the clothes get dirty?' Do you see where I'm going here? To the thrift store obviously.

There are some people who think that every problem can be solved with duct tape. I think every problem can be solved with the thrift store. My original plan was to make some very long, very thick smock-type bibs. I also wanted them to have full sleeves. But I thought I'd save myself some work by buying shirts and cutting the sleeves out of them to attach to the smock bodies I was going to make. It did not matter what they looked like, since I was going to cut them up and the Baby was going to smear avocado all over them. My goal was to not spend more than a buck on any of them. The local thrift charges 1.50 per shirt, but I explained to the nice lady what I was planning to do with them, and since I was buying a bunch she let me have them for a dollar each.

When I got home from the store it was almost lunch time, so I grabbed one of the ugliest ones and threw it on over the Baby's clothes.  You can't quite see it in this picture, due to the lighting, but it got good and dirty. However, despite the fact that he vampired to bits nearly an entire quarter of a cantaloupe, the clothing underneath this little sweatshirt stayed dry and clean. And that's when it occurred to me, I didn't even have to make these things into smocks. They already are smocks! So now there is a little stack of them in the drawer by the table where we keep the napkins and bibs. We refer to these as 'ugly shirts' as in "Put an ugly shirt on that Baby before you let him loose on the watermelon." We also have a few button up the front plaid flannel shirts that we use too. Nice and absorbent. We usually top those with a drooler to act as a sort of neck caulking to keep the peach juice from getting his clothes wet at the neck. Its a very good system so far, and since they are not 'nice' shirts, I don't worry about soaking out stains or anything. And now when I'm at the thrifts I keep my eyes out for the cheapest, ugliest little tops I can find. Which is kind of fun. Bad colours, boxy fits, cheesy appliques, unfortunate slogans in other languages - I'm up for anything. As long as its absorbent. 

 

another finished quilt

I feel like I'm on a roll here. This one came together really fast. Well, you know, quilt fast, which is to say, slow compared to most other things. But not as slow as usual. 

Its the Star Wars quilt I just blogged about. (Made with vintage thrifted Star Wars sheets, just in case you are new here, and don't know about my vintage/bedsheet/starwars obsessions. Here's the Little Dude having a sneak peek:  And here's the full shot, though I apologize because its not a very good one.

I finished it 15 minutes before dinner, and tried to take a few quick shots while I still had daylight. But really, only had about 10 minutes to do it in. Hence the crookedness. 

See what I mean by the offset sashing in the blue? I put sashing only on two sides of each block and then alternated which sides I'd be sashing and laid them out with alternating sides sashed. Hm, I just read back that sentence and I think it'd confuse anyone, even a non-quilter (hi Marcia ;)

What I mean is that the patterned blocks themselves sort of rise and fall and create a bit of motion without detracting too much from the images themselves. And I quilted it with one long continuous line passing through the blue sashing, like a path through a maze. Which was not as unpleasant to do as I thought it might be. It really only took me two sittings (nap time and an evening) which is what I like about making crib sized quilts. 

Its funny, as I was taking these details I noticed what a lot of shooting there is going on in this quilt. As a liberl-ish, lefty sort of parent, I have not given my kid any gun toys (and he has not requested any yet, nor has he picked up a stick and pointed and said 'bang', as I hear they all do eventually) We're not pro gun in a gun-in-the-house-for-protection kind of way. But we do live in the country so I'm not appalled by the idea of people owning a rifle for the occasional shooting of a rabid skunk or something like that. More gun-as-tool instead of gun-as-weapon. Anyhow, my point is that L.D. doesn't have any gun toys, because I'm not a fan of games that involve killing as a plot point. However, Star Wars seems to be a loop-hole in a strange way. After all, its called Star Wars, not Star Non-Violence Conflict Resolutions, y'know what I mean?

This C3P0 pointing block is one of my favourite. 

I also enjoy this one with C3P0's feet a great deal. 

And here's the backing fabric. I took me a looooong time to decide what backing fabric to use. I hemmed and hawed and re-washed/freshened about seven different sheets from my stash. All because I asked Hubs opinion, which is something I try not to do so often because inevitably he has different thoughts than I do (because we're different people, duh) but then I get all thrown off because he did not immediately agree with my choice like I thought he would. And then I debate it way longer than I would have normally because I just should have gone with my original gut instinct. I never learn. Chalk it up to an overachiever girlhood combined with a need for approval.

Anyhow, its done now, and I can get on to the next one. I'm really happy with this one, and like the pattern that I made for it alot. Also, I'll be able to apply it so a lot of other nice fabrics, as its a great one for showcasing a pretty series of designer fabrics, or some special vintage ones or something like that. I kind of wish it wasn't going away so soon, but I know its going to a good home. Plus also, how many small Star Wars themed quilts does one home need, right?

new emotions and a new quilt

Well, we're hanging in here in the land where no one sleeps. But just barely. If it weren't for the fact that Hubs is still off on sick leave from work, and that my mom is a saint, I don't know how I'd do it. The Little Dude seems to be over the worst of the croup (fingers crossed) but we still had a terrible night, and another difficult day. Boy, was that kid cranky today. I keep telling myself that he's tired, and probably has a crazy headache, and a very sore throat and is not able to articulate those things well. But really, it mostly came out as anger and frustration on his part. There were many, many melt downs today. Three in the space of the 15 minutes before nap time. But I've got to hand it to the kid; he 'uses his words'. Which is parenting lingo for expressing anger verbally instead of hitting or breaking things. There is not much violence on his part, he doesn't try to hit us or anything like that, but he will go from zero to sixty in the emotion department on a day like this. One moment he's quietly playing with a toy and in the next second there is a howl of inarticulate anguish that would imply that the world as he knew it was ending. Or he couldn't get his new tractor hitched to its cart. Probably much the same thing when you are three. But we've been working on his ability to name the emotions he's feeling (I've been reading a new parenting book; Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, which is influencing this dialog) and quite accurately he'll stamp his foot and wail "I'm feeling FRUSTRATED!" Whoo. I'll say. Or, not without its humour, at the top of his lungs he'll yell "I'M A LITTLE BIT ANGRY!!!!!" I hear that.  

But there have been some nice moments today. After a long night, with many wake ups, and a good solid hour of time from 1 - 2 a.m. spent trying to soothe/comfort/help him sleep, I was going to sleep in. Hubs had taken the boys to the kitchen for breakfast, and I was trying to fall back asleep. L.D. ran down the hallway and into my room, where I fully anticipated that he was going to climb up and jump on the bed and then be difficult about leaving me in peace. But instead he opened the door and quietly padded up to the side of the bed. I opened a bleary eye and peered groggily at him. And he leaned over and kissed me and said "I love you as much as anythings." Which, though grammatically vague, was still very, very sweet. 

Anyhow, I can't have another non-picture post, and I've got a new quilt going on that I want to show you. Even though I haven't really gotten to work on it in the past couple of days, I'm still pretty happy with it. 

Its another Star Wars quilt. This one is a commission, but I still have a lot of freedom to work with it. All that was required was that it involved Star Wars. No problem. Its all made from vintage bed sheets again. And this layout is not how it will look in the final version. There will actually be blue sashing between each block, as can be seen at the edge of the one on the bottom right. This was just to ascertain the arrangement of the patterend piece of each block. 

These are such fun sheets really. Its all fussy cut, which means that each block is carefully lined up and cut out to feature a motif. It takes longer than random batch cutting, but makes a much nicer effect I think. I didn't know it was called fussy cutting, until I was reading someone complain about how they hate fussy cutting on another blog, but that's how I do so much of my work, and I really do enjoy it. 

Anyhow, I hope to be done it next week, and I'll have pictures of it the for you, with all the blue sashing in between the motifs. I'm almost done, just getting the binding sewn on it, but I haven't had time to take more pictures. 

And now I'm off to sleep. Glorious sleep. Though for how long, who can say. I'm just hoping for a stretch longer than 3 hours. Here's hoping. 

the opposite of fun times

Ok, so we had a bad night followed by a rotten night topped off with a terrible day. And the upshot of it is that we are all some level of sick. Hubs and I have have some combination of colds and sinus headaches and sore throats. The Baby is teething and L.D. has croup AGAIN. sigh. So I'm one-hand typing this while the other hand restrains a very active, drooley baby as he tries to 'help'. (his attempts to smack at the keyboard are quite comical) And now we are both off to bed because it's been two consecutive nights of less than four hous of sleep for me and I have to set my alarm for 4:00 am so I can wake up and give L.D, his second dose of croup medicine. The irony is I'll probably be up anyhow. Blerg. 

fabric, fabric and more fabric

Just in case that title did not indicate clearly enough, this post is going to be about fabric. So if you don't like bright colours and fun patterns, this might not be for you. Also, really? You don't like colours and patterns? I feel kind of sorry for you. I'll be thinking of you as you navigate away from this page and go off to, I don't know, check a News site or something. Anyhow, for those of you still with me here are some lovely things I got at the V.V. and a couple of random garage sales lately. 

The V.V. had their 50% off day just a little while ago, and I got quite a haul. By the way, I'm kind of annoyed with them because they do not include 'housewares' in the 50% off (cups, plates, pyrex, knick-knackery, etc) or books, which totally sucks. Thank goodness they include their 'bed and bath' section or else I wouldn't bother to go at all. Anyhow, I brought everything home and washed it and put it out on the line. One of the things I was most excited about is that blue rose floral on the left. Its a full queen sized set; fitted, flat and pillowcases, and I had big plans to use it on our bed. I don't think I've every used the sheets I buy as, well, sheets because I've always got big plans to cut them up and make them into something else. But this blue set was so nice. First of all, the fabric quality is really great. They are made of that nice heavy-weight 100% cotton from the 50's/60's that I just adore. And they looked hardly worn. No pilling, not sheer in any of the high wear areas. Good quality sheets. So I put them out on the line to get the V.V. smell out of them. But then I had a closer look and saw why they'd been donated away from their original home. Holes. Lots of holes. But all mended.

Its one of my favourite things to find when thrifting; nicely mended rips and holes. 

There is something so dear about a mend. So very few people mend things any more. Not even new things! I used to work in retail and when a button fell off a brand new shirt they just sent it back to the company to be sold at a yearly cut rate 'damaged items' sale. That used to drive me crazy. It would take me, like, five minutes to sew that button back on, but no, into the cut rate bin it went. 

Anyhow, though I loved these mends, there were just a few too many of them to make them useable as bedsheets (they must have had moths, because there were many clusters of little holes). But the pillowcases didn't have any holes at all. And look at the adorable trim.    So they have found a new life on my bed. They are my new pillowcases. And I'm not sharing them with hubs at all. I don't know what happens to that man's head while he sleeps, but to look at his pillowcases you'd think it leaks maple syrup. I'm telling you after a few months they look like civil war bandages. Gross. Anyhow, these babies are all mine. 

And I don't know what sort of bed they were on in their previous life, but their new job with me is helping to prop up me and the baby while we breast feed. Which is a pretty good gig for them, I think.

I already have a pillowcase like this in pink, which is very fun, but its nice to have a full sheet of it. It'll make a great quilt back.

This one is a bit 'generic 70's' I have better examples of this orange/yellow/pink 'flower power' concept, but I still like it. 

I love this stripe. The colour palette is awesome. I could build a whole quilt around these colours. 

And this is a table cloth that I got at a church rummage sale. It is really, one of the softest fabrics I've ever felt. Its a cotton linen blend I think, but it is so worn and washed that it literally feels like brushed silk. Ridiculous. And the drape is GORGEOUS. I think I'm going to have to make a dress out of it, just so I can feel it against my skin. Or maybe a tunic-y blouse or something. Heck, even a night gown would work. I don't think I've had a night gown since I was eight, so maybe its time. 

Also, there are all these sweet little details in the design.

I adore this little set of keys. Really, its kind of a weird design over all, as there are fruit and vases and .... keys. Whatever, I'm not going to question it. 

Ok, that about does it for the sheets and stuff. Then I actually bought some clothes as well, but again, just for fabric purposes. I had little people with me, and therefore no time to try on clothes. But I got this interesting thing:

I didn't take a picture of the whole garment, but the fabric is really great. Another very soft cotton. I believe its African. Its a sort of a tunic. The whole thing is patterned, but the pattern varies the whole length of the garment so you get this kind of large scale floral in the body, but then these nice small details at the edges.  Like this. Awesome, no? It makes me want to bust out some screens and print up a whole bunch of yardage like this. So great. 

A quick browse through the kids section got me these two cute little shirts for the Baby. They are so sweet on him. 

And of course I had to hit the men's shirt section too. Again, my props to Mr. Hilfiger, who really makes some lovely men's wear. Both these shirts are by Tommy Hilfiger. I espeically love the one on the left.

A nice Hawaiian/plaid hybrid. Who knew?

Lastly, I got this shirt.   As a shirt its pretty bad. The fabric is a bit too heavy to be used as shirting, and that embroidered placket makes me cringe. 

But the fabric itself is going to be great, cut up and made into something else. 

So many project plans. So little time. In my next life I'm going to come back as a person who does not need to sleep. 

I heart pyrex

I did a little thrifting about a week ago, but things are have been so busy I did not have a chance to post my finds. I finally got around to taking some pictures, but I've broken things up into categories so that my posts are so, so long. 

I'm also trying to be a bit more choosy with my thrifting. I find so many great things, but its important for me to try and decide whether or not all those great things actually have to come home and live in my house. Just watch a few episodes of Hoarders and you too will be thinking twice about purchases. Really, there is such a fine line between collectors and hoarding and I try to be aware of it. Also, I have budget restrictions. And one of these days I'm going to have to pack it all back into boxes and carry it all into a truck again, and I try to be mindful of that too. As I stand in the Value Village contemplating yet another very cute mug, I have to ask myself, "am I willing to pack and unpack this someday?" That really helps me edit my cart after a couple of hours in the store. 

But these, I'm definitely willing to pack and unpack someday.  Aren't they lovely?

   A full set of Cinderella bowls in the Autumn Harvest pattern. I had to go and look it up on the ever useful Pyrex Love site, which also informed me of what a 'Cinderella Bowl' is (its the bowl with the two handles/pouring lips on the edge as seen above) You learn something new every day. 

I'm very happy to have found these, because they are not only useful, but so, so pretty. I love how luminous pyrex is. And they are in great condition. But since its a relatively new pattern (from the '80s) I'm not going to be all precious and collector-y about them. Nope, they are going to be for every day use. Though of course I'll be careful and not put them in the dishwasher. But I will use them for mixing pancake batter and cookies in. Its such a pleasure to use them and makes every day tasks feel more special. 

These, however, I'm going to be a little bit more careful with. They are going to go in the display case and do their job of looking pretty. 

Look at the gorgeous blue colour on the inside. I have never seen pyrex like this before. They are usually all white on the inside. 

But again Pyrex love comes to my aid with the information that these are indeed a little bit special. The blue on the inside is called 'delphite' and the pattern is a promotional called "Golden Grapes". They are actually a chip and dip set from the 1960's (see the picture here) but I'm missing the little metal deal-y that connects the one to the other. I actually have another vintage chip and dip set that goes together like this, but not made of pyrex, but of a printed clear glass. I actually use it every time I have a party. Very handy, though outmoded, the chip and dip combo. Perfect for nachos and salsa.

Hm, now I need a snack.

giddyup

So, I'd like to say that I have a lovely long post, filled with pictures and stories and all your favourite things, and all my favouite things and maybe even some thrifting thrown in, just for fun. But really, instead of blogging like I usually do, I took the night off tonight and finished a new quilt top while watching the Emmy Awards and eating salted licorice (droppies, for those in the know). It was a very nice evening. And I'll show you pictures of the quilt top tomorrow maybe, but right now its too late to upload and edit photos. 

Though I will share just one little story about the my boys with you. They are becoming much more interactive lately, with the Baby paying a lot more attention to what the Little Dude is doing, which is adorable. And the Little Dude delighting in making the baby laugh. Also, the Baby is this close to crawling. He has a very accomplished little 'scootch' that allows him to get around, albeit rather slowly. And every now and again he gets up on his hands and knees, belly off the floor and everything. But then he usually makes a little backwards move that just seems to confuse him, at which point he gets back on his belly and scootchs and rolls to where he wants to go.

Anyways, he's very active, and I try not to leave the room whenever he is on the floor, uncaged as it were. But the other day I just had to pop into the kitchen for a minute (probably to get a damp cloth to wipe something off of somebody) and when I came back, the Little Dude was sitting atop the Baby. Yep, straddling him like a pony, and smiling to beat the band. The Baby looked unfazed, and just seemed to be trying to reach for a toy to chew on, as per usual. But I was not so calm. "What are you doing!" I screeched in the age old tradition of mothers who ask obvious questions. L.D. smiles up at me as I race across the room to haul him off his brother. "I'm playin' horsie with the Baby." he says, much pleased with himself. Once I'd determined that the Baby was unharmed, I explained that L.D. was too heavy for the Baby and would hurt him if he put his full weight on him. "The Baby should never be a horsie." I told him earnestly. But I found him again today, straddling his good natured little brother. "Look, I'm not putting any weight on him. I'm balancing!" He told me reasonably. And its true, he was carefully holding himself above the Baby, and making 'giddyup' noises. So really, what can I say?