Ky's good idea

My mom makes these little toys for her grandkids: they're little coin banks where you put the milk lids into the slot and push them down into the can. Malachi LOVES his. (He is just the right age for it: it's a little challenging for him, but not so hard that he wants to give up.) He sits and puts the lids in the slot for 10 or 15 minutes at a time.

Today I watched Malachi get a good idea in his baby head. We have a stepstool in the bathroom with a hole in the top for carrying it. It looks just like his coin bank slot. This is what we watched him do:

He was SO happy with himself. Every time he put the lid in the slot, he'd look up at us with his mouth open, just waiting for us to be impressed.

He did it over and over, and it kept him busy all through the boys' storytime before nap. What a smart boy! :)

Sequences

Malachi has several patterns which he repeats day after day. He will repeat the above until we make it impossible (e.g. we stop taking pity on him and don't "help" anymore [rare; just look at his cute face!] or else we put some big obstacle in the door so he can't close it anymore).

He really, really loves furry stuffed animals (especially Abe and Seb's Honey Bear and Monkey---he seems to sense that those are the "favorite" animals) and every time one gets near him he hug, hug, hugs it. (Then bites it.) He has several animals in his crib that he likes, but whenever he gets bored in there he throws them out, then laughs, then becomes sad and wishes he had them back.

He is also getting better and better (and more motivated) at walking. (Click to enlarge the picture.) When he falls, he pushes himself right back up and starts wobbling along again. He thinks he is pretty impressive and often claps for himself enthusiastically.

Sweaters

Here are some pictures of the boys wearing the sweaters they got for Christmas. They looked very cute at church.

Malachi has started to look up on the stand and see me while I'm playing the organ. When I'm not playing, I look down at him, and I can see him pointing at me and saying softly "Ma-ma! Ma-ma!" It's so cute! Everyone else in the congregation is probably wondering why I'm sitting there smiling so much, but I just can't help it!

Sick

It seems like at least one of us has been sick all winter long. Right now it is Malachi. He isn't TOO sick, but he has a runny nose and a cough and he is a little more solemn than usual. When you try to make him laugh he just stares at you like this:

although occasionally you can coax him into this (after great exertion and funniness): (also note how he has enough hair to sort of stick up in the back. See?)

But then if you set him down and try to leave the room he does this:

Poor baby guy. We hope he is better soon.

The ascent

Malachi has (finally) learned to climb up the stairs by himself. He inevitably has an audience of admiring brothers following behind and yelling, "He's going up, Mommy! He's still going up! He's almost all the way up now! He's up! Come look, he went all the way up!!"

We're still working on getting him to turn around backwards to slide downstairs. He'll let you show him or pull him backwards, but he thinks it's a hilarious joke, not something one would actually do on purpose.

A few new things we are learning

Abe started learning to play the piano after Christmas this year. So far he is a pretty diligent worker (although he sometimes seems surprised how many times I make him repeat things until they are perfect. When I told him, "Sometimes I practice something 50 times in a row and it still needs work," I think he looked a little pale. Poor guy. So many hours of work ahead of him . . . but it will be worth it :) ) and he is trying hard to keep his fingers curved, sit up straight, etc. There is a lot to concentrate on!

Malachi is learning to walk. He will do 6 or 7 steps at a time now, but he doesn't seem to want to buckle down and do it for real. He perks up his ears every time we say the work "walk," though, and seems quite proud of himself when he manages a few steps. Maybe it's just as hard as playing the piano, in its way. I don't remember. :)

And Sebby. He has been learning to wedge himself into tight places which he occasionally can't get out of. He also writes letters on pieces of paper all day long. He is great at making most letters, and he can write "Sebby" really well, but he always writes these huge strings of letters and asks me, "What does it say?" When I try to pronounce his creation ("Um . . . it says, 'sbkleddeff'") then he says, "No, Mommy, what WORD does it make?"

Bigger

This is what our house, our baby, and our boys looked like one year ago. They are all bigger now (except the house).