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There are so many little things that I don't want to forget about life right now:
Emily's randomly curly hair that's just getting long enough to reach the bottom of her neck when it's wet.
James' growing love of stories. The way he loves to read Joe's Bible. He's quite fond of James Herriot's Treasury for Children (a beautifully illustrated book of animal stories) but he's mostly interested in looking for the cars...hmm.
The way Emily is so incredibly flexible and likes to stick her foot in my face while she's nursing.
James' love for visiting Grandma's house. I told him we were going to go later in the day and next thing I knew he was pulling out the diaper bag to get ready to go.
Emily's love of animals, particularly dogs. She barks ("arf! arf!") when she sees one and sometimes she barks just looking outside. This afternoon we were outside for a minute and the dog upstairs started barking and Emily barked right back...hilarious. I think we need to work on other animal sounds, though, because last night she barked when she saw a goose.
James' fascination with climbing ladders, thanks to his favorite book (the Little Golden Fire Engine Book). He climbs a rock wall ladder at the park (by himself!) and likes to climb up the side of his chair, up the side of the rocking chair, up to the changing table via the potty chair and diaper genie...fortunately this passion hasn't translated yet to figuring out how to climb out of his crib.
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Emily is almost as adept at James now at making what I call the screaming vacuum noise. I've taken to asking them to please be quiet vacuums...
James is learning to count! I've heard him get all the way up to 12, possibly 13.
Emily is crawling! Still not her preferred method of transportation, but she uses it in tall grass and is getting better at it. She's also pulling herself up and Joe tells me that she climbed up on James' toddler bed today. Oh dear.
James is finally pacifier-free. (!!!) Last week we decided that most of his few remaining pacifiers were too damaged to use safely (he was biting through them) and ended up just taking them away. He did much better than we'd expected but it did complicate bedtimes for a few days...poor little guy. Lots of snuggles helped. Now naptime is a little more touchy but bedtimes are better and we're so relieved to not have to grovel on the floor searching for the missing paci in the middle of the night!
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My "piano time", as James and I call it, is one of my favorite parts of my days. It's part of our morning routine. After brekkies, walk, "gate time for Jamesie and nap time for Emmy-Bear", and my shower, I pour a cup of cold brew with milk, let James out of his room, and sit down at the piano for 15-30 minutes. Scales and arpeggios for warm-ups (I cycle through keys, playing all major and minor scales, major, minor, dominant and diminished arpeggios, and scales in thirds in one key per day) and then I work a bit on my pieces. It's good to pull out the metronome, work hard on something specific, and feel myself making progress. James likes it too and recognizes the music I'm working on if I play a recording of it.
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Tonight we're off to Joe's mum's place for a snacky dinner and some worship time around the piano. It's been years since we've done that, but it was kind of our signature thing as families: when we got together we would often end the evening around the piano singing our favorite worship songs. We've missed it.
All for now! Joe's getting the kids ready so I'd best be off.
Rachel
some mountain beauty from a few weeks ago
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