Matching elephants

I like Ky's curly tongue (also, note the milk jug lid that he is holding---a permanent fixture in his hand)

I like this picture; Abe just hugging Honey and ignoring all the elephantine chaos around him

Seems like just a few months ago that Abe and Seb were wearing these matching elephant shirts. *sigh* :)

Sebby and Ky were playing a game where Ky* would put his fingers in his mouth and Seb would pull them out and Ky would put them back in. They found it quite hilarious.


*Do you think we should have spelled it "Chi," as in "Malachi"? But no one would know how to pronounce it.

More outdoor hilarity

Malachi is such a confident walker now that he feels like he can move on to harder challenges: walking on uneven surfaces, for example, or up hills.

(the tongue out, in concentration)

Walking up (pleased with himself)

He also really, really wanted to ride Seb's trike, so Sam finally gave him a ride on it.

(the rightful owner)

Fields of purple

(and more flowers across the street---click to enlarge)

Near our house there's a park where they planted crocus bulbs and grass seed in the same spaces. I love it, because the flower buds come up before the grass really gets going, and make whole fields of purple and white. By the time the grass turns green and needs mowing, the blooms are gone, and they can mow the leaves down with everything else so it just looks like regular grass again. It's so pretty! (I'm trying to figure out if there's a place we can do this in our yard!)

Anyway, we've had a great time playing outside the last few days and enjoying it all. The boys were very interested in, but careful with, the crocus (crocuses? croci? dang, it's hard to start a speech with this crowd!)---they have been learning for several weeks not to hurt the "tender little baby flowers" coming up in our yard---and in fact, they seemed to be actually "tiptoeing" through them at times. Isn't that what one is supposed to do through tulips? :)

A rolling lesson--conducted by Professor Abraham

Abe on his head

Ky sees a bird (he LOVES birds)

Art

Malachi did this the other day. (My fault--I fell asleep while he was playing and he got colored pencils out of Sam's backback and decorated this wall.) I took a picture of it before I cleaned it off, because frankly, I was quite impressed.

Because he really worked on this. Look at it! It's not just a few scribbles to see what would happen. It's not deliberate destruction. It's construction. There are two different colors present. And lots of layers. I could tell it took him a lot of time and effort. (I slept for over an hour without hearing a peep from him!) Cute little guy!

Lookalikes

Sebastian

Dad

Quelle sophistication!

Sebby called me in to see this carwash he had built this morning, and then informed me, "It's the Eiffel Carwash."

[Another cute thing today: Abe came up to me quietly while Sebby was downstairs and said, "Mommy, we need to start encouraging Sebby to put my piano music away in the right place, because I keep finding it on the floor."]

Scout + hat

My aunt made a little Scout suit when her oldest son was a baby, and since then, all the babies in the family (including me) have had their pictures taken in it. It's been Malachi's turn for a while now, and I recently realized it was imperative that I get some pictures soon, before he grew out of it.

It still fit just fine, luckily, but because he's such a tiny guy, he's older than my other babies were when they wore it, and it turns out that makes things more difficult. He would NOT leave the hat on. He kept removing it and saying "Hat! Hat!" and holding it out to me triumphantly. He was none too pleased with the neckerchief, either. Still, I got some cute pictures.

Misdirection

Sam and I were talking about trying to confuse a potential follower by altering your tracks. Sam pointed out that, were one to be tracking Malachi, one would probably find Ky's tracks to be confusing enough with no alteration.

• Sometimes his tracks would be two baby feet.
• Sometimes his tracks would be two baby feet and two baby hands.
• Sometimes his tracks would be two baby feet and two big-person shoes.

signing "where" (looking for the other shoe, I presume)

signing "shoes"

Ky is usully found walking around with shoes on his hands. He prefers it, in fact.
None of the rest of us can ever find our shoes anymore.

Expressionism

Malachi has developed several deliberate facial expressions which he trots out for us when he's trying to make a point. The above is his silly smile. "Look, I have a shoe on my hand! Funny!"

Here is a mad, squinched-up-nose scowl/cry which he uses here to say, "Hey, I didn't want to come inside! Why did you bring me here against my will?"

And this one . . . well, I guess I don't know what this one means, actually. I suppose he likes to retain some mystique.