They're breeding

The Sunday paper came with an advertising suplement. Matthew pronounced them the mama paper and the baby paper.

Melissa speaks

Well, not speaks, exactly. But she's mostly made grunts and hiccups to date.

She's been grinning at her mom in a happy contented baby fashion while nursing for a week or so now. Today she added cooing. Rachel tried the imitation game: opening her mouth, baby opened hers. Sticking out her tongue, baby stuck out hers.

Doesn't perform for Dad, though. Figures.

Choo choo

Matthew has a lego/duplo block train. Choo choo! This morning he whacked his rubber balls with a hammer for a while, then took them for a train ride, with the block stubs keeping them relatively stable. "Hang on tight, balls!" he told them. "Choo choo!"

Melissa likes her baths

I bathed Melissa again tonight. I think this is my second time bathing her, so yeah, this is one department Dad isn't pulling his weight in. But, it's not really a chore since she likes them so much.

She likes me splashing water across her, and particularly likes to twist her head to the side (usually her left) to get a drink of the water. She kept opening and closing her mouth and twisting her head after I took her out; when she realized that the water wasn't coming back she yelled at me for a while. So I put her in the swing, and she fell asleep.

Good baby.

(Far cry from her howling at Rachel and me until 11 and later, earlier this week.)

A walk with the peanut

I took Matthew and Melissa on a walk tonight. "Let's go for a walk, Matthew," I said.

Okay. "Help Grandma!" he said, as he looked for his shoes.

"Help... Grandma?" I wondered to Rachel.

"Because Grandma took him on walks."

Help Grandma!

All praise the vacuum

Melissa was on a rampage tonight, yelling at mom and dad for at least an hour straight. A lot like Sunday. Then Rachel suggested turning on the vacuum -- one of her old tricks to get Matthew to settle down.

I turned it on in the next room over. Melissa started at first, then apparently decided, "Wow, that's louder than I" and settled down.

Peanut existentialism

I sat Matthew on his dresser this morning to put his socks on him. I accidently knocked over one of his baby pictures as I did. "Uh-oh! Baby! Fall down!"

"These are pictures of you when you were a baby. Did you know Matthew was a baby once?"

"Yeah. White sock on."

I guess it will be a while before this "past" concept sinks in.

Boys

The Coverstons came over last night. Matthew and Ben (about 6 months older) shot each other with foam arrows, chased each other inside and outside, and generally had a great time for almost four hours.

Little boys need to play with other little boys.

Cleaning up

I sent Matthew to his room this morning. When I went to let him out, he was backing his Tonka truck up to his bookshelf, filling it with books, and dumping them out on his bed. "Teen up. Mess," he explained.

I don't know if his mother would agree that he was cleaning up, precisely, but I guess his heart is in the right place.