Lisa & Jason Carriere (my cousins) had their baby last Wednesday August 8th: Elena Christine Carriere, 7 lbs. 10oz., 20 inches long. They are all doing well -- Ian (age 19 months), her brother, is adjusting to his new little sister. I am so thankful that Ellie arrived safely on the scene and that her momma didn't have to get all "cut up" this time around. Thank you, Lord God of babies and births. Brad, Atticus & I are hoping to meet our new little cousin this October when we travel down to Chicago to celebrate my friend Jeff's wedding in Wheaton.
One morning last week we had all just woken up around 6:30 am. Atticus pulled one of his sticker/picture books of his shelf, deliberately opened it up to the food page, and came over pointing at the page -- he wanted breakfast! (-: Isn't that cool? He did it two mornings that week.
Last night we had a splendid, ginormous storm. Brad woke up to close the windows and heard Atticus awake (but not crying) in his room. He went in and picked him up to bring back to our bed. It really was impossible to sleep during the highest fury of the storm. So we all lay together in bed and marveled at the light and noise. Atticus never cried once -- wanted to keep looking out the window watching it all. We were both so impressed by his calmness and curiosity. We call him our "brave little toaster" (from that quirky kids' movie Brad once told me about) -- he rarely cries from falling down (which he does constantly) and even the pediatrician today said Atticus had a confidence with the doctor's office people and "event" that he rarely sees in kids his age. He said we needed to keep making him feel that secure and also to watch out for him since those kinds of kids often try the most dangerous things. Daredevils and explorers. That's Atticus.
At the doctor appointment, he weighed in at 24 lbs. and measured 32 in. That puts him "on the charts" at the 50% for wt. and 75% for ht. -- pretty much where he's been for half a year now. He has four front teeth through on top, one top molar through and the other molar and two eye teeth just breaking through. He has two front bottom teeth all the way up and his two bottom molars just barely peeking through.
He is very affectionate besides being adventurous. He's begun giving kisses and recently began spontaneously coming over to lay his head on our chests just to cuddle. He especially does this with his daddy -- I've seen him do it right in the middle of wrestling and being wild with Brad. They both love riling the dog up -- Atticus spends alot of time egging the dog into licking him all over the ears and face (yuck!) and alternately hugging and nuzzling the dog. Victor tolerates all this attention but sometimes makes a run for it.
If we ask Atticus where our noses are, he'll point to them and he'll also point to his own nose or to his ears, if we ask him. He sometimes gets very funny and wiggles his ears back and forth and then cracks up. This weekend Brad made up a game where he tick-tick-ticks from across the room and then grabs Atticus yelling "BOOM!" and throwing him up in the air -- Atticus giggles and squeals every time. It's hilarious to watch the two of them. One more funny thing: Sometimes Brad and Atticus play some keyboard games on the Sesame Street website. In one game, you hit a letter on the keyboard and something happens that has to do with that particular letter. Every single time, if an "N" is hit (Elmo catches butterflies with a Net) Atticus just cracks up -- this only happens with one other letter "U" (Elmo opens an Umbrella and rain falls down on his head). A. has the most charming giggle....we get to hear it so often.
Well, I haven't really been in the mode of sharing such things about Atticus, so I'll try to be doing that more often but in much shorter entries.
Saturday morning Great Grandma Trellis and Great Aunt Caryl came from Des Moines, IA and River Falls, WI, respectively, for a mid-morning bagels and coffee visit. We appreciated them making the drive especially navigating the road-traffic mess coming into the Twin Cities from the east (after the recent bridge disaster). We love Atticus getting to know his family's faces.
Last Friday Brad came home and went with Atticus and me to the city park wading pool near our house. It was Atticus' first time. Now that his YMCA swim lessons are over for the summer, I thought it would be fun for him to experience a new kind of pool. It has been sweltering up here like most other places in the midwest...and it was a fun family thing for a relaxed summer late Friday afternoon.
So I've been trying to think of new things to do with Atticus. He's at a hard age because he's not old enough for so many of the toddler things there are to do "out there" but he's got the curiosity and energy and enthusiasm for all those things and more. So I thought -- finger painting -- why not? Makes a mess, but it's a fun mess, and he does loves playing in mud and water and such... But sadly he wasn't so sure about it -- strangely didn't like it on his hands and was even kind of scared (?) of the plate of paint. I tried showing him how it's done, but he just watched me amused but mostly wary of the whole thing. Ah well, we'll store the paint and try again in a couple months. No harm trying.
