Growth spurt

For the past few days, Emmett has been eating as much as David.

Two month checkup

Here are the stats from the two month visit:

14 pounds, 2 ounces
24 inches long
41.25 cm head circumference

He's basically on the same growth curve that Emmett was, with about a half-pound head start. Each of those numbers is in the 80-90th percentile range. Otherwise, he was pronounced perfect in every way (but I knew that already).

Cupcake! Broccoli!

Often when asking for something, the boys (Emmett is the worst offender) will just point and shout, "Juice!" or, "Cupcake!" or, "Banana!" After a million reminders of hoe to ask nicely, David and I started to shout back. Sometimes foods, sometimes just nouns. So now it sounds like this:

"Cookie!"
"Window!"
"Cookie!"
"Banana!"

...followed by some confusion and David or me saying, "I thought we were just shouting out things." They usually do make an actual request at that point, sometimes even using the word "please!" I know this parenting thing is a marathon not a sprint, but that doesn't make the repetitive reminders any less tedious - it's nice when we can make it a little fun!

Luke prefers blue

Luke has started asking for blue cups whenever getting a drink. Sometimes nicely, sometimes not so nicely. Fortunately Emmett is sane, so the requests are easily accommodated.

Another weird thing - Luke always wants the same flavor Dum Dum that Emmett gets. I guess that's not so strange, but it goes so far that when Luke is getting a sucker and Emmett is having something else, he'll still ask what Emmett would have.

Henry

Henry's smiling much more these days, flirting with me, David, and his brothers.

It's getting easier to do things in the house, too. He's happy to lie under his play-gym and look at the toys for a while, especially while I'm in the same room cleaning.

Another time I had him on the bed while I was folding laundry. He was getting squirmy so I started singing. He quieted right down and then got happy, making cooing noises to sing along with me.

One more thing - for some reason (it could be the sun), Henry wakes up at 6am and then spends the time from 6-7 wiggling, kicking me, and cooing. It makes it very hard to sleep in. At least he's not fussing!

Poor dad or poor mom?

After dinner I was nursing Henry and Luke wanted a drink. David heard the request and asked, "Can I get you something to drink?"

Luke replied, "I want mom to get it."

In the end, David got the drink, and Luke said, "Thank you" in his tiny sweet voice that sounds a bit like "tank you."

Sweet

Emmett still doesn't like to write, so he doesn't get much practice. He can produce all of the letters, but it's not easy for him yet. Luke, on the other hand, is interested in writing. He likes to trace letters and tries to reproduce them on his own, though he hasn't mastered many yet.

This morning Emmett was writing something when Luke looked over and with completely genuine two-year-old awe said, "You're really good at writing letters!" It was such a sweet compliment, and it reminded me what I should aim for when I'm encouraging him.

Daredevil

Luke likes to jump off of things. He jumps off of our bed (which is not very high), and he jumps off the couch. Then he decided to jump off of the back of Jenny's chair, which is about as tall as he is. David and I told him it was pretty high, maybe not such a good idea.

A few minutes later he had collected two throw pillows from the couch, Henry's round pillow, a pillow from my bed, and draped a quilt over the whole collection to make a landing pad. I was still concerned that he could hit the door, so he jumped while holding my hand and all was well.

6 weeks old

We visited with Rebecca today (the midwife who delivered Luke and Henry), and she weighed Henry. He's now reached 13 pounds even. So from birth to two weeks he put on 19 ounces, and in the four weeks following that he put on another 37 ounces! It's actually quite similar to Emmett's growth. At this age, Luke weighed about 10 pounds.

Henry update

Henry's gaze has morphed from aimless wandering as a newborn to full of intent these days. He looks at things attentively now, moving from one to another with purpose.

He's also started cooing! Although most of his noises are angry ones, he occasionally will just talk to you with sweet little happy noises.

Smiles are becoming more frequent as well, especially while he's awake.

And while we're talking about tiny little things, when Henry is just waking up and I pick him up, he throws his head back, arches his body and pulls in his legs so his bum sticks out, and pulls his hands to his shoulders while stretching his elbows up high, making little squeaky noises and turning his head from side to side. It's adorable.

Narrating his life

When Luke is pretending, he voices his actions. For example, when he's stirring something in the kitchen he'll say, "stir" or when he's turning knobs he'll say, "turn" and when he's using the cookie cutters he'll say, "cut."

Today in the hall he was moving a lid, and while he did it he said, "move." Then he moved it with his foot and he said, "kick." It's the first time I've noticed him doing it when he's not pretending.

And for anyone who is keeping track, Luke still says "mine" in place of "my." (as in "I dropped mine fork.") I don't know when he'll outgrow this one - sometimes Emmett mimics Luke with that usage, too.

Lucky shot.

When Emmett was born, I spent hours with a camera pointed at at him. It was easy to catch lots of facial expressions - yawns, sneezes, smiles, everything! With Henry, not so much. He has started smiling occasionally, and not just in his sleep. I figured it would be a while before he'd smile regularly enough to get a picture. Last night he looked cute in David's arms so I grabbed the camera. You can imagine my surprise when a fleeting grin went by. Even more surprising was that I managed to catch it!

They're just better than we are.

Have you seen Wipeout? Since you're probably better than us, too, maybe you've seen a commercial for it? Anyway, David and I were watching it when Emmett and Luke showed up. We decided that while a steady diet of laughing at the misfortunes of others wasn't a good idea, it would be ok for them to see (and laugh) a little.

Then something amazing happened. They weren't laughing at the wipeouts, they were cheering for the contestants! When a contestant successfully completed an obstacle, they'd both jump up and down on the couch in celebration. David and I never considered that as a possible way to watch the show...

There is a downside, though. Emmett now wants to create his own "wipeout zones" for Luke to navigate.