Miriam is the great 8

Miriam turned 8 months ... a little while ago. Whoops. Oh well. Anyway, I'd set her on the couch but her great new accomplishment is that she's now standing. and cruising. and almost walking! The girl is determined to go. She can pull herself up to standing - which takes some serious muscle so I think she totally deserves to feel proud.

Doesn't she look like a cute baby Aaron here?

Here's some walking.

I think this is her game face.

The other day her walking bumped her into Reuben. He started giving her a hard time saying something like Move Baby. She turned to him and loudly declared Na Na Na Naa!! ROOOARR! So she's already learned how to live around her brother.

Spring walk

Into the Wild

On Friday we went on a Nature walk.

We played with Rocks.

Cave man Reuben.

Sasquatch Reuben. Can you see him?

Miriam can.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

We climbed on trees.

Reuben got himself wedged inside this split log. It was a team effort to get him loose.

Sweet freedom

Spring Forward

Time for spring! Miriam is taking her first steps and Reuben is jumping off everything he can scale. We are all enjoying the springs weather and increased amounts of outside time.

Reuben Flowers

Reuben Miriam and I went on a Leprechaun hunt at the garden today.

Reuben and I had the following conversation about the sprouting flowers.

Reuben: There are Dada flowers and Mama flowers and Reuben flowers and baby flowers.

Me: You're right. What color are the Baby Miriam flowers.

R: Pink

Me: What color are the Reuben flowers?

R: Purple

Me: What color are the Mama flowers?

R: Red

Me: What color are the Dada flowers, Reuben?

R: Biscuit.

Me: What?

R: Biscuit!!

Clearly, time to change the subject. So I filled Reuben in on how Leprechauns are tricky and hoard gold and love to dance with fairies and hide in hedges and steal away children and make them dance for forever. Then I tried to convince Reuben to try to catch a Leprechaun but he wasn't interested. He preferred to chase Robins. So I kept the Leprechaun chocolate for myself. Maybe next year.

Slippery Slope

The other night Aaron introduced Miriam to the slide at our local park. This is clearly her Are you sure about this?? look.

It's so much better with some company.

The Girl's Best Friend

Miriam's absolute favorite toy is a ping pong ball. We don't have a ping pong table so I'm not really sure where this comes from but M and I are both happy we have it. She'll play with it for forever, dropping it and catching it, and she's gotten really good at throwing it too. It looks like Reuben is going to have some shooting competition in the near future.

To be or not to be...

Be Careful

A few pictures of life around here. I set some bread out to cool and when I came back I found that both loaves had been nibbled on. I caught the culprit red handed. His response to being caught was to offer me a handful.

Today Reuben and I had the following exchange while coming down the stairs:

ME: Reuben James Cummings, be careful! The stairs are steep. Don't fall down.

Reuben watching me start down the stairs: Be Careful, Mama James Cummings.

Our stairs are steep and Reuben does fall down a fair bit. Yesterday I took him to the library and almost as soon as I looked away to play with Miriam, I heard a help! help! I thought, that can't be Reuben. What could he possibly have done to need help. Then I looked over and saw that he and a small car were entangled. His pant leg was snagged so he couldn't escape. As he tried to get away, the car kept dragging itself after him.

Here's Reuben fighting for his freedom.

Miriam and I thought it was pretty funny.