Allie's Accomplishments!

Monday was a big day for our baby girl!

When I went up at 6:30 to get Allie up for the day, she was on her knees with her hands on the railing of her crib. Ack!! She's learning to pull UP already!!

She had a rough night the night before, which I chalked up to her cold. She was getting awfully annoyed that she couldn't suck on her pacifier since she couldn't breathe through her nose! I thought it might be teething when I saw her pink cheeks this morning, but only felt swollen gums. Then, after her morning nap, she gnawed on my finger and I felt it. ALLIE'S FIRST TOOTH!!!

And our girl can move, too! She still travels with her belly on the floor, so it's not an "official" crawl just yet, but let me tell you, she is efficient!! She does get up on her hands and knees to rock and can move her knees to crawl, but mostly, that pushes her backwards, which she doesn't like. So she continues to scoot, but covers an awful lot of area that way! Today, in the amount of time it took me to walk into the kitchen to refill Scottie's water, she had gone all the way from the living room, through the hallway, through the den, and up the small ledge into the playroom!!! All by herself!! When she knows what she wants, she moves fast!

And finally, Monday also brought with it the need for our baby gates again. Check out Allie's new trick when she sees someone head upstairs. Yes, this is my girl, pulling up on the bottom step/landing of our house. After seeing how she got into the playroom yesterday, I'm not doubting she'll make it up the steps in no time.

Ack! My baby is growing up! And today she turns 7 months old. Happy mini-birthday, Sweet Pea!!

Brotherly Love

Everyone always comments on how well the boys get along. They truly are each other's best friend. But the flip side to that is that they're also each other's worst enemy.

Yes, it's true that we were walking through the Home Depot this weekend and the boys, standing behind us, said, "Look at us!" So we turn to see them standing in the middle of the aisle, just hugging each other, like in this picture here. Fellow shoppers smiled and said how cute they were. If they only knew the episode from earlier that morning. Rewind about 2 hours and this is what happened:

Ron and I are finishing lunch in the dining room when we hear the telltale wail that means one of the boys is hurt. Typically, Robbie is crying because Scottie has hit him in a battle over a toy or Scottie has fallen down or walked into a wall, but we try to always hear them out to get to the bottom of it anyway. Well, this time it was Scottie who was the injured party. He came in crying, holding his hand.

"What's the matter, Scottie? Did you get hurt?"

"Yes. My hand is hurt."

"What happened? Did you fall?"

"No, I didn't fall down."

"Well how did you hurt your hand?"

"I tried to punch and hit a toy."

(Ron and I are now trying to conceal our laughter.) "You tried to punch and missed? What did you try to punch?"

"Robbie."

"So you went to punch Robbie, but missed and your hand hit a toy and that's how you got hurt?"

"Yes. Can you kiss it to make it better? I need a snuggle."

Well, we just couldn't contain ourselves anymore after that. Ron and I burst out laughing and told Scottie he doesn't get a snuggle for trying to punch Robbie. We sent him on his way and finished our lunch. Just a typical day in the Maisch household!!

Robbie, the Reader

Last night, I took Robbie upstairs to go to bed. As he's brushing his teeth, he sees the flashlight we keep in the medicine cabinet for emergencies (and sometimes for reading books to Robbie after Scottie is asleep). He asks, "Mommy, can I have a book tonight?" I tell him, of course, he can.

"Actually, Mommy, can I read the book tonight? And can I use the flashlight to do it? I know which book I want to do. I can read "Little Jack Horner" all by myself the right way."

So, we get him tucked in and he says his prayers and I get the book. (These are little 5-page nursery rhyme board books we have from a whole set.) I'm thinking he'll say all the words and then flip the pages and talk about the pictures, like he usually does.

But he takes the flashlight in one hand and the book in his lap and uses the flashlight to follow the words across the page. He turns the pages all at the right time, and said every word correctly. I was just so proud! I know he's not "reading" it yet, but I love this pre-reading stage. It's so cute and he's so excited about learning to read!

When he finished, I told him how proud I am of him and he said, "Maybe someday I can read ALL of our books the right way, Mommy!" Love this kid!

Here's a little taste of him "reading" to all of us last week when we had my parents over for dinner. "Green Eggs and Ham" is another favorite and Robbie did the ENTIRE BOOK for us like this. It was so cute!!



And we can't leave out Scottie. His favorite book before bed is Sandra Boynton's "Snoozers". It's a collection of bedtime stories with the silly Boynton rhymes. Here's Scottie reading us his version of "Pajamas" from that book:

Kid Quotes and Prayers for "One HIP Grandpa"

We've been saying prayers at night with the boys for Grandpa's hip surgery to go well. We're pleased that it has gone well and love hearing what the boys say in their prayers for him. A few favorites include:
"and God Bless Grandpa's hip." and
"God Bless Grandpa with shurgy" (that's with "surgery" from Scottie) and
"God Bless Grandpa with a fast covering" (that's "fast recovery" from Robbie).

Another cute one that gave me a giggle was last night in a conversation with Robbie. We were talking about why I've been on the computer so much this week (I've been filling in for my editor while his family was on vacation) and this is how that went:
Robbie: Mommies don't work. Only Daddies work.
Me: That's not true, Robbie. A lot of Mommies work. Mommy is a writer. I just get to work from home. That's what I do when I'm on the computer.
Robbie: But Mommies don't GO to work.
Me: Well, some Mommies do, but they get someone else to help take care of the kids.
Robbie: Well, Mommies should not work when Daddies work because then we would not know what is the right things to do.
:)