Hometown Stories: The Winter Series

…and we’re back!

Over the last two weeks my children have grown by leaps and bounds. I don’t know what it is about spending time around extended family. Maybe it’s the constant attention and the bright light of adoration that makes them flourish like pot plants in a hydroponic environment, but every time the kids see their grandparents et. al. they gain more and new exciting words or skills.

Brady has a whole new bag of tricks to show off now: “so big,” clapping, kissing, and waving. He also is finished with crawling and insists on climbing up to standing and even cruising a little.

Kyle can say things like “Cincinnati” and “California” and “Connecticut” and “turbulence” and he is not shy about running up to strangers in the airport to tell them that he just pooped on the toilet and he’s going to get three Gummi Bears – red, green, and yellow. He is also exhibiting a new-improved pain-in-the-assness: when I scolded him on the airplane yesterday for continuously kicking the seat in front of him he stuck his face in mine with that “neener, neener, neener” expression. I am not into corporal punishment but if I was, boy did that one deserve a smack.

One of the other developments that came about during this visit is that my nagging has finally paid off: my mother has started a blog. It was inevitable, really. She has so much to say.