It's a hard knock life!

Carlee, age 2 1/2, is our little fashionista. She has very definite opinions about what she will (or will not) wear. Every morning is a struggle to reach a meeting of the minds between her and Carolyn.

The same thing is true at night, when after having taken a bath she digs through her drawer full of (mostly) pajamas and gowns. She pulls them out one at a time, gives them a look and then throws the ones not in favor on the floor.

Last night, Carolyn fussed at her and told her she would be in trouble if she didn't get all of them picked up and put back in the drawer. So, Carlee complied and feeling like she was being overworked, spontaneously started belting out "It's a Hard Knock Life." Most of you probably know that is the song in "Annie" when the orphans are being punished and have to work at cleaning their dormitory in the middle of the night. It's a great song and Carlee certainly sang it at the appropriate time!

I've asked Carolyn to try and get that on video. If she does, I'll upload it here and let you know when it gets posted. Carolyn says that both girls sing it; she saw them "cleaning" the tub and singing it, but Carlee is usually the song leader...using the real words. Kate is more into ad-libbing words and music.

Veteran's Day Program at St. Philip's

The St. Philip's Veteran's Day Program was held on the front lawn of the school. Boy Scouts raised the flag and then a number of songs were performed by the students. Instruments played included flutes, clarinets, trumpets, guitars, drum, recorders and bells. I had no idea they had so much variety in their music department. When I was going to school there, eons ago, they finally had a piano teacher about the time I was in 6th grade. I took from her, as well as from about 3 other piano teachers. I'm not sure what that says about me. I know I wasn't a prodigy, so I can draw a rather bleak conclusion from the number of teachers I had.

But, enough about me...

Carolyn thought that the pre-K 4 class was going to perform since Kate had come home singing patriotic songs lately. But, that wasn't to be the case. The little ones just sat and watched. Jax enjoyed the program, too. He was a very good little guy, especially considering that he hadn't had a nap and this was his 2nd program of the morning; they were at Gage's program earlier.

Here are a couple of pics of Kate telling Jax goodbye with hugs after the program.




Carolyn and Jax

Jax at 6 months

Jax turned 6 months old on October 29. He's a pretty easy baby...easily entertained and happy to watch his sisters or anyone else who sits near him. Of course, you understand that his sisters rarely sit. They are very busy, very noisy little girls. But they make him (and us) laugh.

Jax seems to be very zen...he spent a few weeks studying his hands, but now he seems to have moved on and particularly enjoys watching the palm trees sway outside the windows.

He seems to know that it's theoretically possible to travel from where he is put down to another place in some other manner than rolling. He's experimenting with a couple of different methods. One way is to plant his face on the floor, push his toes down and straighten his knees. That forces his bottom up (like he's in the middle of a jackknife dive) and has some potential. The problem, however, occurs when his heinie is at its' highest point. In that position, since he's using his face instead of his arms, he just can't keep his balance and he invariably falls to one side or the other. Imagine how far he would go if we took him off the blanket and put his head on a skateboard! Wow!!!

A second method he has tried is just to keep his belly down on the floor and kick his legs. It looks very similar to the way Kate crawled early on, but she actually used knees and hands. She seemed to exert an enormous amount of will power to keep her legs under control, but then all of a sudden one leg would fly up and waggle around a little bit until she regained control of it and got it back down on the floor. But to be fair, I'm sure she was a little older than Jax is now when she got to that point. So, we have that to look forward to with him. As I said, he keeps his belly down and kicks his legs and occasionally one of them goes high up in the air, but no forward motion can be hoped for unless he has some snake muscles in his belly.

I keep trying to get a picture of either his jackknife position or his leg up in the air, but haven't managed to capture it yet. The picture below is the closest I've come.

Kate

Here we see Kate (black headband, braided ponytail) showing some skills.



I sometimes forget to move the camera, so at the end of this clip you can hear, but not see, Kate saying "Hi, Mom!" as the play passes in front of us.

Carlee and sausage

Carolyn and Carlee were in the kitchen alone. I think Kate was at soccer practice. Carolyn had cooked a link of the sausage that Dee had given her. It was on a dish on the counter top, cut into bite-size pieces and was very, very good.

Carolyn told me that Carlee was standing on the kitchen step-stool, eating the sausage with the tongs. At one point she leaned toward Carolyn, looked her in the eye, and said very emphatically, "I like it!"

So, do I. It's really good sausage!

Jax and veggies

Jax has been really interested in the food that others are consuming for a couple of months now. The pediatrician told Carolyn at the 4 month check-up that she could start him on cereal any time she wanted, but she hasn't been in a hurry. For one thing, it's certainly more work to prepare food for and spoon feed an infant. Carolyn has always made all their baby food from scratch...no Gerber's in a jar for those kids!

The girls didn't seem to notice other food when they were his age...about 5 1/2 months now. But Jax has been watching food get picked up on spoons and forks; and he has been watching it get put into mouths; and he has definitely been interested.

So, a few weeks ago started him on cereal, which he took to right away and really seemed to enjoy. This week she decided to start him on a vegetable. She decided on avocado, which, I know, is technically a fruit...but, it's not sweet. The girls LOVED avocado, so she thought that would be a good one to start him on. She snapped the photo below after his first bite. Not loving it, I'm guessing.


In the next picture, he looks like he's doing the Tom Hanks bit from "Big" where Tom takes a bite of caviar and then tries to clean it off his tongue with the napkin.

Carolyn said he was a real trooper, however, and never spit it out or turned his head. But, he sure looks scared!

Jax singing and playing

I put Jax on his little play mat and started taking a video. The voice you hear at the beginning is his, sounding like the ending of a very simple song.

• FYI: This was supposed to be a very short clip. I edited it in Picasa, but then couldn't figure out how to get it to the blog...so, I had to just do it the usual way and upload the whole thing, which makes it a minute and 21 seconds. Feel free to quit watching as soon as you want.

I took the following video a little while later. He had been playing with the little roll-y thing, making it spin, but the seat had turned slightly and he just couldn't get coordinated again. You'll notice that he keeps looking at that taller purple toy...he seems to be suspicious of it...like maybe it's trying to sneak up on him.

• Again, I edited to make it shorter, but then couldn't get it to the blog.