New Skills

The kids have been testing boundaries recently and, while some of it is as unpleasant as it sounds, some of it is also wonderful.  Nathaniel’s become much more of a little wiggle worm, propping himself up to look around at the world.

Yes, he really is as round and cute as he looks in that picture (20 pounds of roundness and cuteness, to be exact).  He has started trying to sit up by himself and roll over and, though he’s currently quite frustrated, with the help of a pillow he does pretty well.  Here I’d lain him on his back on the right-hand pillow, and, in the course of about a minute, he’d dragged himself up, smiled, and made a graceful nosedive into the couch.

And yes, I know it’s dark, but if you can’t tell, he’s really quite pleased with himself.

I hate taking pictures of his silly pacifier, but right now he’s drooling, munching, and obsessing all over it.

Katherine, meanwhile, is really into being helpful.  She is finally learning to play well with Nathaniel.  As you can see, she also has the backpack figured out.  She was so shyly proud of herself as she walked around with her doll in it that I didn’t know whether to laugh or get all sentimental.

Today I’ve had to work really hard to say something other than, “Not yet, Katherine!  Wait for Mama!  Oh, honey, not quite!” as she drags out my shoes or follows me outside as I set the recycling out (slamming the door shut behind us, nearly locking me out of the house).  But sometimes it works.  This evening I picked up a muffin pan from some friends leaving town, and we made carrot muffins before Katherine went to bed.  Katherine decided she really needed to get in on the action, dragging over a stool, handing me carrots, arranging the utensils on the counter.  She did a great job.  Here she is enjoying the fruits of our labor.

She loves carrots, raisins, and all things made with flour, so these were an overdetermined success.  All jubilant from this first mother-daughter cooking experience (I’m not counting the time I made banana bread with her in the backpack at one month old, a success of a different kind), I showed her this picture on the camera and asked who that was.

“Kah-thrin”

“Who???” [She’s never used a name for herself before, so I’m a bit floored.]

[Looking shy, but also like, “What, you didn’t hear me?”] “You.  Kah-thrin.”

Okay, so we’ll work on pronouns, but I’m pretty pleased that she’s finally given herself a name.  Well done, kiddo!

Erin