embrace your bipedality!

Sir Stubborn has been getting stronger and braver, but we're still not there.  To encourage his efforts towards walking, this afternoon's project was a PVC railing from the porch to the play house, and from there to the slide.  (Because our backyard isn't overflowing with enough plastic, clearly.)

He did cruise along it a little after I put it in, so we'll see if it helps.

My mom gets credit for the idea.
God gets credit for the gorgeous sunny weather which made the whole project seem fun.
Our Honda gets credit for me having acquired a new tool!  I didn't bring my hacksaw, thinking Lowe's could cut the pieces for me so they would fit in my car.  But they were absolutely slammed today.  Then I saw this ratcheting scissor device just for PVC pipes!  Who knew??  Proud owner, right here. (up to 1.25" diameter, if you need to borrow it)

more sunshine

yesterday

not ALL stoic

At this age, Josephine charmed the case off any camera in sight.  But you try to take a photo with Clement, and he almost always looks like this:

perk up, sonny!  mommy's trying to make a memory!

You have to catch him in his element to see his real personality, which is actually QUITE vivacious.  (His "element" is most easily described as anything involving a door, fan, banana or small animal.)  Case in point:

boo!

He's really fond of these monster pajamas, by the way.  Seems to have a special relationship with each one of those faces smiling at him.

Need to get some video of this boy; his talking and trilling lately has gotten pretty amusing.  (He will have NO trouble rolling his Rs in Spanish class.  And he's been curling his tongue taco-style for months.  Just a whole bucketload of recessive genes in this kid!)  

I will work on trying to capture this and posting more regularly!

some yuletide-themed pictures

Some pics from mid-December, which I took when I still had hopes of sending out a Christmas newsletter...   oh well.  :-) 

Sure loved getting y'all's, though!

(this would have been the one we used in those not-happening newsletters)

The ones above and below are my favorites, though.  I had a polar bear on my head, which had them laughing hysterically-- hey, it's the little things, right?  

And below, I love how it's the perfect example of sibling tutelage:  Josephine takes off an ornament and "fixes"it.  Clement watches her every last move and absorbs how this whole Christmas thing works.  I love the dynamic between the two of them.  (Especially if you pretend the ceaseless antagonizing doesn't exist.)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.