The bear is getting smaller...

Really, it's the incredible shrinking bear, just look! It couldn't be that this baby is so big, so fast. Six months. 27 weeks. Incredible.

She's becoming so very intentional these days, reaching and grabbing and communicating and interacting in these very purposeful, person-like ways. New development this week is that everything is going in her mouth now. That plus a slightly moodier and droolier girl is making us suspect teething. Who knows, though. We've been wrong before.

However, in case we're right, here's a photo celebrating her gummy grin, before it becomes any less gummy.


And, a few more from this afternoon, because she's pretty darn cute in a rabbit hat. And wiggly. It was difficult, as you can see, to keep her, the bear, and the 27 week notecard all in their assigned places...




Thinking about children who are becoming more and more intentional-- You should hear Jack talk these days. So very precise and articulate and interesting, that one. Today as we drove home from Aldi Jack said to me, "Oh! Look at that big roof that covers the all whole house!" It was true, there was up ahead a roof on a church that came down very close to the ground. He notices everything and can describe and categorize and comment on it all...This is usually a wonderful and amusing thing, though there are moments we are wishing he was not quite so good at expressing himself. He is not holding back with his opinions these days, especially when we give him a choice of two things that are less than desired and he responds with "Actually I don't want either of those." With this little bit of three-year-old attitude in his voice. Good thing he's cute.

I do believe it is preschool that is causing this latest surge of "growing up too fast!" to happen to our boy. He's definitely different, not just more articulate and opinionated but more familiar with the concept of fighting (thank you creative play with the boys...sigh...) and even hitting (he now slams his fist down when he's mad...). Conversely he is also becoming more attuned to letters and words and numbers in his environment. Nat told him the other day that they were going to get a letter from Mrs. Young (his teacher) and Jack said, "Yeah! the letter C!". It's the letter of the week and this weekend Jack's found C's all over the place, including in the shape of a reciept, without me even asking.
Also, I do believe the boy is beginning to recognize some words. We've been reading this little book about WALL-E the robot, a rather poorly written and repetitive Easy Reader about smashing trash. In fact, a commonly occurring sentence in this book is "Smash Trash." Scintillating. Jack loves this book and we read it one-two times daily. So last night to ease the boredom of reading this book to him, for the umpteenth time, I decided to work on drawing his attention to the words and having him "read" the ends of sentences for me. He's got it memorized so no problem there. I also pointed out a few times that the word "trash" always looks the same. Today at Target he noticed a Hot Wheels racetrack set that was labeled Criss Cross Crash and he exclaimed to me, "mommy! It says "trash!" I thought it was pretty cool that he recognized the "rash" part of that word and linked it to our reading.

Thinking of Hot Wheels: Jack is currently rather obsessed with his collection of cars. He has a little group of them, maybe about 10, which he has given personalities to, and which he carries around everywhere. Used to be in a "deceased soldiers belongings" bag Nat bought at an Army Navy store years ago (hey, its a drawstring bag of just the right size...). Now he's upgraded to a Peanut Butter Jar with a rope handle added by daddy. His "car armor". He's managed to fit an astounding number of hot wheels in there. Its in bed with him right now....

With no further ado, here are a few "action shots" of the boy...

Enjoying a popcorn ball and a movie..

And a few from preschool. I am rather jealous of Nat who gets to be the parent helper once a month and see all this cuteness in person. But I am grateful that he has taken a few pictures so I can at least have a glimpse. I feel this overwhelming surge of pride when I look at the one of Jack sitting and working so nicely at the art table. My little boy.
And finally a couple from our walk in the Beachwood park a few weeks back.