As promised, some randomness...

Ethan is really enjoying pretend play these days. Today I was a tractor, polar bear, and a horse. We built tunnels, forts, and an igloo (which he calls an "eggen", so if he talks about it don't be concerned we were contributing to the delinquency of a minor by taking him to egg houses!) He cooks pasta and soups every day in his play kitchen, and uses Ella as his sous chef/taster.

He loves to play "hide an peek", but seems a little fuzzy on the concepts. Usually he tells you where to hide, or he hides in the some place repeatedly, or he hides and then comes out to chase you.

While we certainly have the end of the day pre-dinner cranky, the most consistently challenging time of the day around here is the lunch hour. Since Ethan just takes one nap, and I've mostly gotten Ella in a routine where she takes a short morning nap and then goes down shortly after Ethan for an afternoon nap, everybody is a bit tired and hungry by mid-day. (I'll raise my hand as the first in the cranky/hungry lineup.) Usually I get Ethan started on his lunch and then start feeding Ella while trying to grab some food for myself somewhere in the mix. This works if everybody is in the sweet spot of just hungry enough. If either kid is not really hungry or starving it makes everything a bit off. Today Ethan realized that I typically respond quickly when he says he's all done (so as to avoid any plates "accidentally" hitting the floor) and tried to exploit this fact when he didn't want me paying attention to Ella. The boy who cried done multiple times then lost his plate of food, and I became the woman who took food away from a child begging for it. One look at his belly will reassure any worried that he wants for food.

Ella has decided food is good again. She thinks peas are okay, really likes bananas, carrots and sweet potatoes, LOVES pears, and has repeatedly let me know that apples are clearly baby poison. Who doesn't like applesauce? In case it's not clear by the faces she makes, she usually throws in a couple gags. She's doing a lot more sitting up (longer times, but as soon as she loses her balance she can't recover) and is starting to pass objects from one hand to the other. She has a truly impressive reach and really enjoys grabbing and pulling. Ethan will frequently back up to her so she grabs his hair and then giggle repeatedly while saying "no hair Ella...no hair!"

Speaking of which, during the Olympics Ethan became fascinated by the athletes with shaved heads. He now feels the need to point out loudly "no hair! no hair!" While this hasn't yet happened while outside our house, it's probably only a matter of time.

Top phrases heard around our house:
*Hereitcomes!!!! (yelled with glee about ordinary daily events!)
*Lookit? (used whenever he wants to see anything of interest)
*Hi!! and Byebye! (used liberally; for example, he tells the water in the potty bye bye and night night)
*Putitindere (applicable in a surprising number of situations around the house)