Oddities

This is Daxton.  He was all dressed up because he had his three month pictures.  Pretty adorable, huh?  I am not sure what I love more, the tie or the hat.  Our girls are supposed to go in for their three month and 18 months pictures tomorrow but both are pretty snot-filled today, so we'll see.  Huge globs of snot running out the nose and dried crusty snot stuck to the face and hair do not generally make cute pictures.

This is Oma with her two smallest grandbabies.  We keep trying to get good pictures of the kids together or with parents or with grandparents but it is proving impossible!  But I guess there really is no such thing as a "good" picture because often the best shots are the ones that are unplanned and the most genuine.  This photograph depicts reality.  It is an Oma trying to hold onto two babies and barely managing.  IAnd it is two babies who are simply trying to figure out the world around them.

It is so much fun to watch Dax and Veda together.  They whack each other across the face, occasionally grab each other's clothing and sometimes even hold a hand or a finger or two.  They frequently talk back and forth, and I can only ponder what the exchange is all about.  Babies are fantastic.  Most of the time.

At three months babies are supposed to begin becoming really fun.  They turn into expressive beings.  They smile and coo and sometimes laugh.  They are happy to see you and get noticeably excited at the sound of your voice.  And in the case of Sylvia, she finally began to emerge from her horrible state of colic.  Veda never got this memo about turning three months.  She was a pretty good baby her first few months, but now she has taken to screaming uncontrollably at night.  We feed and rock and soothe and pat and burp and diaper change and clothing change and bathe and more to try and calm her:

But nothing works.  There are only two things that seem to offer any comfort to her.  The first is sitting in a tub of warm water:

The second is going on a car ride.  So . . .   This week has seen a number of warm bath sessions followed by a quick bundling of the baby and throwing her in the car so I can drive around for an hour or more to get her calm and asleep.  Believe me, this is not how I want to spend my nights.  Generally I like to be asleep after midnight, or at least curled up with a good book or some knitting.  Eventually this will pass, but it is taking its toll on us in the meantime.

Sylvia, on the other hand, has been pretty good these past couple of weeks.  She is beginning to talk more and more and every day, if I pay close enough attention, I catch another word or phrase she is trying to use.  She also has a set of rather peculiar activities.  The most recent:

Last weekend she suddenly emerged from her room carrying two pair of socks.  She then placed them on top of this cat tree and trotted back to her room to grab two more pair.  She continued doing this until her sock box was empty and the top of the cat tree was overflowing.  She then gathered up an armful from the cat tree and walked them back to their spot in her room and continued until they were all put away.

Strange.  Very strange.  I often wonder what goes on in a toddler's mind.