Milestone Minutiae

Only a year ago, Luke wouldn't look at his ice skating instructor on his first day. Today he walked right into the ski school room to wait for his class and go skiing! I caught up with him outside and he moved quickly from riding the "magic carpet" to stopping himself with a wedge to riding the big chair lift! I asked if he liked skiing and he said, "One hundred percent!" It's hard to believe he's come so far so fast, both in physical skills and in trusting instructors and having fun!

When the phone rings, Henry runs through the house looking for a phone to bring to me. Over time he's figured out that he can reach the phone on the piano, so he usually makes a beeline for that one.

Luke wasn't exactly awake, but he was thrashing and making noise so David went to settle him down. Among the mostly garbled words and incomplete thoughts, he asked for "something to bounce on!" At least he knew enough not to try that on the bottom bunk.

At the age of 21 months, Henry has doubtless heard "Shhhhh" many many times. Henry is typically quiet as a mouse, so he's mostly heard it directed at his boisterous brothers. And now, he's saying it himself, almost. He's seen me with my fingers at my lips saying, "Shhhhh" countless times. He can't make the "sh" sound, though, so he puts his finger to his lips and blows on it. It's overwhelmingly adorable. Today I was singing a particular song and he was "shh-ing" me over and over. At bedtime he started nursing so I sang it one more time to see what he'd do. He even stopped nursing to blow on his finger!

The central conflict in the movie Ratatouille seems to be a matter of inheritance - a famous chef has died without children and his sous chef will inherit everything two years after his death unless an heir is found. To explain the scene where the sous chef is talking to his lawyer, I turned to Emmett and said, "So the famous chef died without an heir. What does that mean?" I asked him because this has come up a lot during our history lectures. Luke caught me by surprise by jumping up and yelling, "Vacuum!" In fact, Mr. Powell does hammer home the point that when a king dies without an heir, there's often a power vacuum and some chaos as a result. But Luke isn't really listening to history with us - he's usually playing with his iPod or watching TV in another room. I can't believe he picked that up just from being around!

One of Aunt Rebecca's friends taught the boys a fun series of "high 5s" that goes, "Gimme 5; Up High; to the side; break the pickle (the speaker puts their two index fingers together to make "the pickle"; tickle tickle tickle!" Henry has learned it too. Last night when he was falling asleep with David nearby, David noticed that he was repeatedly putting his two index fingers together in front of his belly, and then "tickling" his own belly.

I was talking to David (about what, I cannot remember) when Emmett chimed in with a correction. But he was wrong and I had been right, and in the back-and-forth with him (which, again, I cannot remember!) he said, "It's more like I 'incorrected' you!" (grrr - I wish I could remember more of this - it was really funny!)

On New Year's Eve, everyone but David was in bed by 8pm. Emmett was reading, but Luke wanted his iPod instead of the DVD he was watching. Out on the couch, David heard footsteps but didn't see anything until Luke popped his head up from the other side of Jenny's chair. Luke crept into the living room twice before giving up and watching the DVD.

Henry likes wiping up spills. He was eating yogurt and had taken it into the boys bedroom. Probably a bad idea to let him, but I didn't have the energy to redirect him to the table. A minute later I spotted him in the kitchen without the yogurt so I went to find the yogurt before the dogs did. As I picked it up he was right behind me, holding a rag. I asked him where the yogurt had spilled. He pointed right to a little drop on a shelf in the bedroom, and wiped it up.