In Other News....

Elliot has been my fussy baby this week--very unlike him. I don't know if it's teething (he's cut two teeth in the last two weeks), the frustration from always trying to keep up with his big sister and the other 'big kids', or the fact that he constantly is bumping his head, scraping up his face and bruising up his little legs, but man, has he been cranky.

Last Sunday, Elliot went flying head first down a 'big kid' slide and wound up with a facefull of wood chips--many abrasions on his face. On Wednesday, he fell backwards on concrete--big goose egg. On Thursday nite, he did a flip off of the futon. Today he ran fullspeed and headfirst into the wall (he had a towel over his head and was playing his crazy boy version of peekaboo!). And I can't even count the number of times a day that he falls while trying to climb up on a kitchen chair, the coffee table, couch...... Or the number of times that he slams his fingers in a door. He's remarkably resilient and really doesn't get too upset when he does get hurt--that's the good part; he also doesn't have the same sense of caution that his big sister has--that's the bad part. I see many trips to the ER in our future!

Delaney had a really good week. She's always challenging and never 'easy', but she really is growing up. She only had one bad tantrum all week. We can talk to her so much now and she absorbs EVERYTHING that she sees and hears--for better and for worse. She's opinionated and spunky and slowly is learning how to express herself in a positive way! Delaney's so much less clingy to me than she was even a few months ago. However, this newfound independence brings a new set of problems--she's not nearly as likely to stay right next to me in a store or parking lot and has started to 'wander'-which can be really scary, when I turn around and suddenly can't find her. She can be quite defiant and can really argue with us now-I don't think that this will improve for the next 20 years or so, but we'll see. But she also says, "Mommy are you happy?-I'm so happy" and sweetly asks me "Mommy are you awake now?" when I get her out of her crib (yes, Delaney, I'm awake!)--which makes me happier than anything!