Three and a half, and 10 months

****First, today is Sept. 11th, a day that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  So much now it seems as though people have forgotten, it is quite sad that people’s memories can be so short.  Many prayers for those who lost loved ones, as well as prayers for those who where lost.****

This is Paul and Dolores right now.  Well Paul’s a few days shy of 3.5 and Dolores a few days past, but close enough!

It has been so neat the last month watching their relationship grow.  Paul has gotten much more interactive with her, and also helpful and kind.  Yes sometimes he does still throw a toy at her, or other not nice things.  She just LOVES Paul, giggles and coos and ‘talks’ to him.  One of Paul’s favorite things to do is to make a pile of toys around her.  She enjoys the chance to explore lots of different toys and Paul likes making a mess with a purpose (at least I think he likes the purpose part, maybe it’s just the mess? :) ).

Paul has been having a lot of trouble with fears lately.  He has developed some new ones that really make life interesting.  Like being afraid of the noise from the planes (we live right in the path of the planes from Whiteman AFB, as in routinely we have planes fly between 100 and 300 feet over our house, routinely as in at least daily, unless it’s bad weather).  So this is a biggie.  He is also not liking to be left alone, whether it’s me going to the bathroom, or to play outside.  He won’t even play outside unless we are sitting right there with him, I can’t even go look at the chickens or some other part of the yard without him starting to freak.  Also, dark, and driving in the dark.  Which is getting to be a bigger issue since the days are getting shorter.  I don’t know if it’s totally normal, but I did find quite a bit online about kids this age and fears.  I hope that he soon works them out because it is challenging to say the least.

Dolores is a pretty delightful little girl.  Usually happy and wanting to play.  I am so grateful that my kids are both pretty happy kids.  Each day a little bit more of their little personalities shows through and they are just pretty neat people.  She is still crawling, and doing some standing on her own for short little bits, she gets around where she wants to go though.  Still doesn’t know what to think of food (we do baby led solids, no spoon feeding).  She likes to suck on crackers, and I think she sometimes ingests some, but mostly if she gets a piece in her mouth she just kind of looks at me like ‘what is that? and what do I do with it?’ then spits it out!  Paul didn’t eat until 11 months, so looking like Dolores will be around that age too.

Here are a few pictures from the last month, from my cell phone, so not the best, but the camera is MIA right now.

Paul holding one of the brand new chicks, a Dominique.

 

Here’s the whole bunch, we got them on Aug. 11.  Golden Lace Wyandotte, Silver Lace Wyandotte and Dominique's.

 

I came from doing laundry and Paul had put the umbrella up like this on Chip’s chair.  He was very proud of himself. 

This was just the other day at Lowe’s.  Paul loves the race car shopping carts and he insisted that Dolores sit with him, and he even buckled her in!  This was the best shot I was able to get.

Just tonight.  He wanted me to take a picture of him making this hole.  (there was already a hole there and we plan on turning that area in to a shelf or something, so it’s the place we let him get out his banging/hitting energy.  One day we’ll get around to actually removing it and putting in the shelf!)