Entomologist in Training?

We found this massive, massive ant in the garden yesterday. This thing was a full inch long. Yowza.

Here's the only picture I could get. 


Anyway, James saw it, thought it was cool, and when I asked what kind of ant he thought it was, he said, "Maybe it's one of those big queen ones, that's the mama, and she's got lots of babies."

We looked it up, and sure enough, it's a queen carpenter ant.

I really hope she doesn't set up shop in my garden.

However, my boy is one smart little cookie.

11 Months!

I don't know how this happened, but my baby girl is 11 months old today. Wow. She has 6 teeth, loads of personality, and she's such a stinker that she crawled today for the first time-when nobody was looking. She says Mama, Dada, Brudda, no, tickle (iggle), duck, hat, and hi.

Length: about 30 inches (90th Percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds 3 ounces (7th Percentile)

Shockingly, she's long and skinny. Her weight is less than last time because I weighed her naked versus fully clothed.

10 months!

Height: 29.25" 90th Percentile (approx)
Weight: 17lb 3oz 10th Percentile (approx)

She's still on her curves! I can't believe my baby girl is already 10 months old! Her clothing and shoe sizes are the same as at 9 months. She just got tooth #5 on Saturday and is on the mend from her most recent cold. In addition to Mama, Dada, and Brobro, she says "iggle" which means either tickle or wiggle, depending on whether she's making tickle hands or not. She also says "hi" and waves, though the word part of that isn't terribly regular. She's become a pro at spinning herself in circles, and is closer to crawling all the time.

Flashback: How Not to Take a Nap

This is an old one that I accidentally reposted, but it's funny so I'm leaving it up. It's from January 2011.

You will need: one 3 year old boy, one comfy bed, and about an hour of time.
You will imagine that your son will snuggle with you like he did as a baby, and that you will both have a very nice nap together.
What will actually happen is that the boy will lay down very sweetly for about 10 seconds. He will then decide he wants to hide in the covers, and request that you lift them up so that he can do so. Once hidden, he will rapidly wiggle back to the pillow and lay down again. Since you are still trying to sleep, you will tell him that he needs to lay down and have quiet time so you can sleep. He'll respond by telling you that you need to open your mouth, and demonstrate by making snoring noises. If you don't open your mouth, he'll stick his fingers in it and make you open your mouth. Then he'll move on to your eyes, and get really, really close to your face. He'll poke you in the eye so you will look at him, and then he'll laugh and tell you that his eyes are blue and that you have eyebrows and he has eyebrows. Then he'll decide to hide again, and once again wiggle back up to the pillow. At this point he'll tell you he needs a toy to take a nap, and he'll go to the living room and get two tiny Dimetrodon (sp?) dinosaurs that he got for his birthday. This will take him just long enough that you will start to doze. You will soon be awakened by a small dinosaur tail in your nose. At about this point your dog will start scratching on the door of your bedroom, and your son will let him in while he goes on another trip to the living room. You will remember that your dog is an ideal napping partner, as he just curls up by your feet and goes to sleep. Soon your son will return again, and this time he will have a hamburger that he made special for you. This will be given to you in that he will throw it at your (not) sleeping face and tell you that the hamburger came apart, and can Mommy please fix it? Shortly after this point, you will realize that your attempt at a nap was completely futile, and you will give up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love!

Gems from tonight:
James drew blood on the picture he made for Chris for Valentine's Day (because he has blood in his body, apparently he needed to include that?). I will try to scan it later to share it, because it's darn cute.

James asked whether, if he pulled on his penis hard enough, it would fall off and he would die. It took some convincing, but I think he understands that his penis can't fall off. My theory is that since Ian recently had a loose tooth, and a grown-up tooth grew in, and the grown-up tooth is bigger than the baby tooth was, James thought that all body parts fall off like teeth and then you grow new ones.

9 months!

Height: 28.75" 90th Percentile
Weight: 16lb 0.5oz 10th Percentile
Head Circumference: 43.25cm 25th Percentile

Happy 9 months to my little girl! You wear 9-12 month clothes (though sometimes you fit in 12-18 month things...) and size 3 shoes. You say 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother) and you absolutely adore your brother. You love toys, especially those that James gives you to play with (and those that he ends up taking away). You have just started scooting around on your butt to get places, though you're pretty slow at it. Right now you have 4 teeth (two on top and two on bottom) and you love everybody once you get to know them a little bit. You really like to turn pages in books, and you love to look at books before you chew on them.

A Growth Report on the Kiddos

Chris is seriously the bravest man ever. He took this boy

and this girl

to the pediatrician for their 4 year and 9 month (respectively) checkups. By himself. Also, during the day, wee Delilah decided that it was a good time for her 4th tooth to break through. Both kids were rockstars about getting shots. James was a big fan of the dinosaur on the eye chart, and he had a nice talk with the doctor in which he bemoaned not getting too much junk food. He's also been super into puzzles lately (good thing he got so many for his birthday!)

Here are the stats, since I know you all want to know!
James: 39 1/2" tall (40th percentile)
          34 pounds (45th percentile)
Delilah: 28.75" tall (90th percentile)
           16 pounds 1/2 ounce (10th percentile)

Delilah isn't crawling yet but she's getting closer to being mobile- mostly James just brings her things, so I don't think she's very motivated, though she will rotate and scoot a teeny bit if she's sitting somewhere.  She's also been working on talking. Yep, talking. She is a REALLY early talker and has 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother). Bwabwa was a big surprise for all of us, but she certainly seems to mean it, and she lights up and says "BWABWA!" when she sees James. Sometimes this is followed by an attack kiss. I don't expect that she'll add many more words any time soon, but who knows. Her favorite food seems to be peas- she gobbles them up like there's no tomorrow.