Bites

We've been waging a fierce war against clutter, here, and should be calling a cautious truce this week. Life has still continued onward, though.

James has decided to produce his first three top teeth all in one week. The third hasn't quite broken through, though, choosing to hover at the brink instead. We can see it, and he still gets a little crabby, but it's nowhere near the horrors of teething + allergies +nap strike that last week was. He's also learned some signs (please, up, milk and more), and it's so much easier to figure out what he wants. He's only a few weeks shy of his first birthday, and getting pretty big. He's gown faster than Joseph did, and there are several of Joseph's old clothes that James hasn't gotten to wear because he just didn't have time. James is already wearing some 12 month clothes (yeah, I know, shocking, but Joseph wore 3-6 mo pants until he was 1 1/2 so it's all very strange to me) and has just about outgrown his church shoes. We've noticed that he looks a lot like Elena, though noticeably lighter. I'm in love with his chubby knees and curly hair, too.

Joseph barrels along like a shockingly nimble bull in a blessedly resillient china shop. He's added a few more scrapes to go along with where his stitches were, but loves life and all the adventures it brings. He's learning more songs, at nursery and at home, and is getting better at singing along. Somehow, he manages to produce a quite tuneful song every time he picks up the harmonica Daddy lets the kids use.

Elena loves to read anything she can get her hands on, from books to music lyrics (she wants to sing along with us). She's even written some stories and "songs," herself, and hangs them on the wall. She finished reading her Book of Mormon Stories all the way through, about two weeks ago, and eagerly started over, though this time she's reading Doctrine & Covenants Stories at the same time. I'm impressed with how well (and how quickly!) she's progressed from last December when she read one verse at a time and needed lots of help, to now when she reads several pages all by herself. Part of me wishes she could start Kindergarten, this year, so she has that constant challenge, but the other part doesn't want to pack lunches and get up at 6am.

I've been knitting, of course--mostly baby gifts for the dozen pregnant women I know. I made a lace shawl, too, but ran out of yarn 5 rows from the end. Not sure what to do about that one. I'm currently on a banana bread kick, too. Jonathan works, and is the main motivator in the aforementioned war.

We got to see The Music Man, at Zilker. It was a hoot to see Joseph dancing to Marian the Librarian. We also got to see Michael and Kelsey's play that they put on with a bunch of their friends. Elena said it was a "silly play" and that it was "good."

So, that's pretty much us.