Life at Random

We are rocking and rolling through life. We have been happy and healthy and enjoying life together. The babes are fourteen months today. They seem to be developing and growing. Here are some random shots I've taken over the past week. Above is Elliott sporting Mama Bee's "I Voted" sticker.

A typical scene of babies playing and "reading". It is amazing how fast a mess can develop.
Mama Bee playing with the children one morning. They made a pallet on the floor.
The babies have started sitting on the couch. We are working with each of them on staying "on your bottom." This is something we really had to work on when we moved to bathing in the big tub. They have gotten the concept there and seem to understand it on the couch; they just don't always want to mind on the couch.
One of Elliott's favorite things lately is for us to make a pallet on the floor. He goes to the fireplace each morning (where we fold and stack them each night) and pulls down the blankets and boppies. He thinks it is funny when we lie down next to him. Elliott is also our studier. He will spend the most time with things. The girls flit about often, but frequently he chooses something and stays with it. Early in the week he spent at least 30 minutes with a yogurt container and lid, putting the lid on and taking it off. He also loves books and spends a lot of time looking, reading, and studying them. H watched him study a Maisy book that had lots of different picture of things that go, things you wear, things you eat, etc. He would look intently at each object, touching it, and moving his face in closer to get a better look. The other thing he loves is to imitate sounds H and I make with our mouths: clicks and pops. He will watch our mouth and then try to replicate what he sees and hears.
Here are the girls on the couch. As you can see, we still need work with "on your bottom".
Here is Mama Bee working with girls on couch. Climbing is something they are doing more and more of. They climb onto the hearth; they've made it up onto the sofa with the aid of a wooden box. All three of them have climbed onto the door of the dishwasher. I dread them acquiring this new skill.
Here babies are looking out the window.
Mazie standing on the Edge of the basket to get a good look out of the window. The dogs often sit on the porch below the window. Luckily she is not too heavy to topple the basket. Mazie is really imitating words. She will repeat single words we say. She also loves to "sign," though she isn't making any real signs. She'll move her fingers like she is signing letters. She does know a few sign language words too, but sometimes on her own she'll walk around the room moving her fingers into different shapes. Mazie is also very affectionate. This week she came up and gave me a kiss for the first time without any prompting. It will probably be one of my favorite things ever. I was sitting on the floor with Lucia and she just bent down and gave me a kiss. The girls will give one another kisses if we prompt them. Mazie is also starting to pronounce the first syllable of Elliott's nickname. One morning with Mama Bee she walked to Elliott's crib where he was still sleeping and said, "Buh" and pointed to him.
Lucia this week has started sitting up in her crib and hanging her legs out the side, kicking her legs back and forth. Another thing she has started doing is coming up behind me and hanging onto my legs. It warms my heart. Lucia's newest talent is playing the piano with her bottom. She loves to sit down on the keys and make some noise. We are trying to work with her about being gentle with her siblings. She loves to slap them on the head. It is a mood she gets in and she can't help it. We are teaching her how to touch them gently and that she can slap the chair or sofa if she feels she wants to do that. We have much work to do still. She is very sweet though, as when Elliott fell today and started crying she ran over to see what was wrong.