Scrunchy-Face.

Scrunchy-face. It's what the kids are doing these days.

Nate officially got the ball rolling a few weeks ago and then kind of dropped it – right around the time Seth decided to pick up said ball and run with it. Of course, this made it interesting all over again for Nate.

There is never a bad time for scrunchy-face time, so I decided to get my not-so-dusty camera out at supper tonight to see if I could get some good scrunchy-face for you all.

Which I did.

But then things kind of veered off as things often do.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves (while I add a few captions, of course).

It's scrunchy-face time! How cute is this? 

So cute everyone wants in on the action. At least temporarily...

*scrunch*

*scrunch*

Of course a distracted brother = an opportune moment for the other brother. In this case, there are some serious gears turning stage right.

Which started out something like this:

– Wheee! I is making scrunchy-face!

Which led to this:

– Wait... what?

 Which led to this:

– I is not liking 'dis, everyone!

 Which quickly led to this:

– Hands off my grilled cheese, bro!

Self-policing kids = a win for Mommy.

And no worries – things were quickly resolved when Nate suddenly realized he had plenty of grilled cheese on his own plate (even if poaching from your brother does make everything tastier). He was back to smiling in short order, and Seth was free to scrunch away in the background:

- L.

PS. A parting shot that didn't really fit in with the narrative since it happened earlier in the meal, but whatever is transpiring here... 

... bears an honorable mention at the very least.

This Might Be Part Of The Problem

Oh sure, my camera had a little dust on it from lack of use but I did finally drag it out of hibernation last week to take some pics of my babies.

See all the babies?

No?

Hmm... me either.

Try looking down.

Further down.

No, further.

Not quite there yet?

Are you looking straight down?

How about now? 

Hi, Mommy!

Ah, there we go. Found one baby. 

The other one seems to be rather close by also.

Hi, Mommy! What is you doing up there? We is down here.

And you know, despite the ever-growing vocabulary, sometimes words aren't really necessary. 

Is time to put the camera down now, Mommy.

If the posts and pics appear a bit thin around here lately, this might be part of the problem. 

- L.

Things We Know

At 17 months, we know:

Our colors:

Red, blue, green, orange, yellow and purple. And possibly white. Their favorite color to seek out seems to be blue, but their favorite color to say is "purple". They both love to say "pur-pah".

Our sounds:

All the requisite cow, horse, sheep, pig, goat, and pirate sounds. Yes, I said pirate. Everyone with a pirate ship should know how to say "yarrr!".

Enough said.

Also, courtesy of Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, we also know how to say:

Pop, pop.
Klopp, klopp.
Hoo hoo hoo.
Dibble dibble*.
Bzzz, bzzz.
Boom, boom, BOOM!

Our numbers: 

Nate and Seth have "one" and "two" down pat when stacking things. Also, they are freakishly good at stacking things. Blocks, toys, peas**... you name it. They are stacking it.

And whatever gets stacked on top of "one" and "two", be it three things or twelve things, the highlight is declaring "nine, ten!" when you are done.

Our alphabet: 

Or "abba-bet!" as the case may be. Upper-case abba-bet is no match for Nate and Seth. They are keenly interested in all things abba-bet and can tell you what every single letter is no matter how abstractly it's presented.

• • • • • • •

In case any of this sounds like a shameless brag, it's not. I'm not the mom with the flash-cards.

I enjoy reading to them. And building things with them. Sometimes we count, but more often we don't. We make noises. Often with purpose. Sometimes loudly.

We have fun basically.

And I have no idea what's going on over here lately, but I do know I'm outnumbered because I can also count to one and two.

And quite frankly, I'm a little bit scared.

- L.

*Dibble, dibble appears to be unrelated to this, although it seemed like a likely suspect at first. "Dibba Day!" (whatever it means) is no dibble dibble, in case you were wondering.

**I bet you thought I was kidding, but I'm not. They have attempted to stack peas – with some actual success. Something I learned from my 17 month old boys: with a little bit of careful squishing along the way, it's not entirely impossible.

Conversations With Nate

The vocabulary around here is pretty much off the hook, but I'm only halfway convinced Nate and I had our first conversation today because I'm in heavy denial about how fast my babies are growing up I suppose. Still, here it is (just in case this was the real deal):

Nate: I know! I know! I KNOOOOOWWWW!

Mommy: Awhhh. What you know, Nate?

*pause*

Nate: I no know.

- L.

Oh, hi everyone.

– Oh, hi everyone. Is me Seth. I not impressed at all by our long absence here. 'Dis my not impressed face. I think it sum things up nicely. If 'dis not enough to convey my point, then maybe Nate convince you.

– Oh, hi everyone. Is me Nate. I also not impressed, but I go for tug-at-heartstrings approach instead of side-eye. I hope 'dis cover off our feelings on 'dis matter.

•   •   •   •   •

Mommy note: Er... well... it's been an unusually busy month for a lot of reasons – not the least of which is my guys kicking it into extra high-gear on pretty much every level. And since extra high-gear = extra weary mommy I'm just going to go with that.

I finally got a chance to pull out my camera earlier this week and noticed (sadly) that it actually had a fine layer of dust on it. Not good.

Fortunately, someone with a less dusty camera managed to snap the angst-laden/unimpressed shots of Nate and Seth earlier last month when Padrin and I celebrated a belated Kidney Day. And by someone, I mean Uncle P. who – in case you couldn't tell already – is more than handy with a camera. We are big fans of his work.

And despite the very serious nature of said photos, I can assure you a good time was had by all.

All this to say, I think we're back now. Posts might be a little spotty, but *fingers crossed* we're done with the hiatus.

- L.