My beautiful boy Daniel doesn’t have a ton of hair.  Though it came in earlier and darker than Rebecca’s, it seems to be growing and filling in quite slowly.  But I have noticed for a while now that he’s getting a little bit of the balding man’s mullet going on.  Despite not having a lot overall, the hair in the back and over the ears was getting long.  But it seemed ridiculous to take a child with that little hair to an actual barber.  So I committed the cardinal mommy sin and went out to buy a pair of scissors at the beauty supply store.  “Just a little trim,” I told myself.  Clearly, Daniel knew better than I did…

I sat him on a stool, M attempted to entertain/distract him, and my sister-in-law held the camera.  No, he wasn’t injured.  Though from the way he was carrying on, you’d think I was using those scissors to stab him in the back.

And you know what?  It looks like shit.  I mean, the mini-mullet that was bugging me is no more.  But there’s a reason people get training to cut hair.  And it’s so their hair doesn’t look like their idiot mother decided to do it herself.

So, for anyone thinking they’ll spend the $10 on a pair of scissors instead of $10 at the barbershop or kiddie salon?  Don’t.  Just don’t.  I’m resisting the urge to pick up the scissors and attempt to “even it out.”  I have come to my senses, and next time will just leave it to the professionals.

We were at our friends’ house, visiting and making dinner for them since they’re now expecting their third child.  Rebecca has been more and more confident with standing in the last week, and very insistent on me or M helping her walk around, but I wasn’t sure how soon she’d up and do it on her own.  Even when she was standing on her own, she preferred to do so while holding onto a beach ball.  I’m not sure why.

Anyways, yet again, animals provided the final push of motivation.  When she first crawled, it was in an attempt to chase the dog.  This time, she was already standing with her hands on our friends’ long-suffering cat.  The cat decided to go elsewhere, and Rebecca was so focused on it, that she just went right along.  We all cheered wildly, and proceeded to make her walk back and forth between us for the rest of the day.

Yikes!  A walker! We’ll see if she remembers her newfound ability tomorrow morning, or how long it takes her to just do it on her own.  I suspect it won’t be long and she’ll be tearing around the house on two legs shortly. That also busts my initial prediction that Daniel, though he crawled more than two months later than Rebecca, would be the first walker.  Ah well.  No rush, really!  I may have to bust out those little backpacks sooner than I thought…

The kids were great for our crack-of-dawn flight yesterday, and not long after arriving at my dad’s house, we decided to go out for lunch at a favorite old haunt.  Herm’s Palace is a burger/hot-dog joint that is practically like family.  In fact, my dad’s surprise 30th birthday party was held there, back when the original “Herm” was still alive, and before I was!  My dad and his buddies still go there all the time, though instead of the big Italian beef sandwich, he usually gets an “Epstein,” a heart-healthy chicken and pita dish that they all got together and created when heart attacks hit the group.

Anyways, they were so happy to see the grandkids, and toasted up a nice grilled cheese for them.  Scott, the son of the original owner, has been there forever.  He remembers your entire order without writing it down, repeats it perfectly to the short-order cooks, and whenever you get around to it (like after you’ve eaten), he repeats it again and adds up the total in his head.  Naturally, we had to get a picture with Scott to commemorate the kids’ first trip to Herm’s.

Rebecca and Daniel with Scott at Big Herm's

I think Rebecca is attempting her first bit of sign language.  Is it “mommy?”  “dog?” “more?”  Nah.  I think my daughter’s first word/sign is “fan.”  As in ceiling fan.  Not perfect form, of course, and you’d only recognize it if you’re really looking for it.  But if that girl sees a fan, that little hand goes up and starts twisting around.  I saw her do it with some prompting in our house, as there’s a ceiling fan in the room where we have the changing table.  But then she did it today at a store, totally out of nowhere.  She just looked up, saw the fan, and started twisting her little hand.

They’re full of imitation these days.  Raspberries are always a favorite, but you can also get Rebecca to do a little clicking sound with her tongue, and Daniel will work on emphasis with “ahhhhhAH.”  It’s a bathtime favorite.  But her quasi-recognizable sign for “fan” may be the first word connected consistently with its actual meaning.  Of course, it might be that she’s trying to tell me all sorts of things, like “da-da-da” means dog and “da-DA-DA-da” means “I prefer cheddar to mozzerella, thank you.”  But she’ll have to forgive me, I’m a little slow on the uptake.

But I’m going to go out on a limb and declare that my daughter’s first recognizable sign is, indeed, “fan.”  Now if she could just master “change my diaper,” we’d be in business.  I guess I have my motivation to keep signing to them, though.

It’s a friggin dental-fest in my house, and it’s all Daniel. Five-to-one! Rebecca’s single snaggletooth is now quite visible, and Daniel looks more like a vampire than ever. But I could tell the top-middle ones were close, and the first of those two cracked the surface last night. I swear, he’s going to have a mouth full by the time he’s a year!

Daniel decided he did not want his status as tooth front-runner to be in jeopardy. So in response to Rebecca’s first tooth three days ago, he decided to bust out tooth number four, the companion to his first fang.

I sure hope those middle two come in soon…

The score: Daniel, 3; Rebecca, 1!

Only 2.5 months after her brother, my girl popped her first tooth today. She’s been gnawing on M’s fingers something fierce, so it was only a matter of time.

As for the requests I’ve gotten for a picture of my son, Fang, I have to wait just a little longer for it to come in enough to show well in a photo. But believe me, it’s silly-looking.

I discovered yesterday morning, somewhat to my surprise, that Daniel has cut a new tooth (his third, Rebecca still has none). I suppose this isn’t a huge shock, as he’s been especially drooly and gnawing on everything in sight, but the budding tooth hadn’t been as visibly apparent as his first two. Or maybe I just wasn’t looking.

Anyways, it’s an upper tooth. But, interestingly, not one of the middle teeth. A lateral incisor, so it would seem, the one on Daniel’s left. It’s counterpart on the right appears to be on the way as well. Um, a little out of order there, buddy.

Either my son is getting fangs, or he’s just going to look like an old man or a hockey player, missing his front two teeth. Nice. That’ll be cute.

Another day, another milestone in my house! Saturday, after returning home from our new Sign & Sing class, I removed our trusty Graco SnugRide carseat bases from the minivan. I had been leaving the seats themselves in the car for the last week or so. It has just become too heavy and cumbersome to lug them in and out of the house with the babies in them. While the kids aren’t particularly close to the stated size limits (22lbs and/or 29in), it just felt like time to be done with them. Maybe if I had just one kid I’d hold onto it longer… but not with two.

[As an aside, I can't imagine purposefully getting one of the seats with even higher size limits... not only are the seats, themselves, even heavier, but lugging a 30-lb baby around in a carrier?! Good lord!]

This also, of course, means saying a fond farewell to our Double Snap N Go. Ah, the Snap N Go. My constant companion. You just can’t beat having a carseat stroller frame. It literally was used almost every day. It has gotten to the point, though, that I have sort of a love-hate relationship with it. Convenient and essential though it was, it also drives like a bus and can be kind of awkward and clunky.

Taking the place of the old equipment are two Britax Marathons (purchased on sale from Amazon.com last month, at a better price than Babies R Us, even with the twin discount), which are enormous but should last us a good 3+ years. For the stroller, we’ve been using our Peg-Pérego Aria Twin off and on all along, but now it’s the primary go-to set of wheels. The best part about it is that it’s quite lightweight. The downside, as is the case with many standard strollers, is that it can’t handle much more than flat, dry, unobstructed pavement. I’m not much of an outdoorsy-type, but I do like to take nice walks and could see the benefit of a more terrain-friendly stroller. So, I’m stalking Craigslist to see if I can find something (the Mountain Buggy Urban Double, if I’m lucky) for a more reasonable price than the $650+ for a new one.

Daniel & Rebecca are outgrowing (physically and developmentally) a bunch of things recently. The swing hasn’t been used in nearly two months, bouncy seats even longer. And today, we wave goodbye to their main mode of transport for the last eight months. In truth, we’ll use them once more when we fly to Florida in two weeks, but that’s the last of it. I have an email partially composed, ready to send to my MOT club listserv, to unload all of this baby gear on someone else. It has been good to us, and it’s all still in darn good condition, but I’m ready to see it go. There’s plenty of other stuff taking up space in our house right now.

If I sit and think about it, it’s a little bit bittersweet to think that my babies aren’t such little babies anymore. I think about how tiny they used to be in those carseats they’re now outgrowing. I think about how the Snap N Go was a lifesaver, that I wouldn’t have been able to leave the house without it in those early weeks and months. But then I remember what those first weeks and months were like. And I quickly snap out of it and remember how much happier I am now, with fun and nearly-mobile eight-month-olds, than in the hazy, hellish days of eight-week-olds. Yeah… see you later, newborn stuff!

Cross-posted at How Do You Do It?

Since the kids are sitting up reasonably well on their own these days, and because the splashing in the infant tub was getting completely out of hand, we’ve moved baths up to the “real” bathtub! It’s not an ideal setup, as our bathroom has kind of an odd layout, and we have sliding doors instead of a shower curtain. That may have to change, since it makes for a relatively small portion of the bath that we can actually use. But it’s a fun development, nonetheless. And Daniel definitely seemed to enjoy himself, splashing away with the washcloth. My kids are getting so big, so fast!