Kisses and Worms

I realized today I need to start taking a quick minute to write down the cute things the kids are doing, instead of being worn down by the tears, screaming and misbehaving. Miss Maddie has mastered the art of giving kisses, and she has to give the best baby kisses ever. She'll now lean in, pucker up, and plant a good one right on the lips, if you're lucky, and at the appropriate time, make a sweet "mwah" sound. It's heaven. :) When she's feeling up to it, she'll give anyone kisses, but besides being the recipient, I love that she will randomly crawl over to Joseph, rub his back and give him repeated kisses on his cheek. Those two are so sweet to each other, and so far have never intentionally done anything mean to the other person. I know it won't always be like that, but I'm amazed at how well they get along!

Joseph is becoming more and more boy, and today was having fun helping me dig in one of our flower beds. I remembered that I needed to get some tulip bulbs in the ground before it gets too late, so I waited to put Maddie down for her nap. I let Joseph use my little shovel to help dig, although we both realized that the ground was too full of tree roots and hard clay for him to really do much digging. I had quite a bit of trouble myself. 

So it was no surprise to me when I started uncovering worms, and his attention quickly turned to them instead of the shovel. He was so excited to play with the worms, started measuring them, talking to them about what they liked, and even determined one was his favorite. I also got a "favorite mom" nod for finding him the worms. Eventually, he asked if he could run off and play with his new friends, and when I said ok, he was thrilled. A few minutes later, Joseph came running back around to the front yard, letting me know that he had been "cooking with the worms." I had to clarify that he meant the worms were helping him cook, not that he was cooking the worms. After figuring out that, yes, the worms were helping him, he offered me a "piece of pizza" that the worms made for me. I love this little boy's imagination!

And Maddie is still not really walking. I filmed a short clip of her weeks ago, that is still quite relevant to how she is when prompted to stand up and walk. She is not interested in cruising on furniture, and to be fair, we have so little furniture on our main level that maybe it's our fault. Instead she'll stand up in the middle of the floor and take a few steps, before dropping back to her knees and crawling. She's fine walking holding our hands and will walk all over the place, so whenever she's ready, she's just going to take off. But not today. :)