my boys

Ezekiel found his feet a few days ago. I love the way he grabs them and tries to put them in his mouth. He's succeeded a few times. From what I hear, toes make excellent teethers. Speaking of grabbing things... he's really getting better at controlling his hands. He's able to grasp things on purpose and put them where he wants them - which of course is in his mouth! And that's because he's still working on those stinking teeth! I swear this teething business has been going on since he was 8 weeks old. Bless his baby heart. I can't say that I'm really looking forward to them breaking through however, because that means OUCH for Mommy. He already clamps down pretty hard sometimes while nursing. A few times I've even yelped. Yes'sir, those gums have hard bone under them. Just like a snapping turtle!

This week my parents are on a little vacation (more on why later) to Texas so we're scrambling to have other people watch the boys. You know, because my Mom normally keeps them while I'm at work. So this week Manny has them part of the time and my Grandma Theresa has them part of the time. Except Manny is "deathly" ill with cough, cold, fever, chills, body aches. Yeah, so that's not working out so well. I don't even want to think about poor Ezekiel catching whatever Manny has. Thankfully Ragon is staying with us so she's able to help out. And boy, has she been a tremendous help!

Yesterday Grandma gave Zeke all his lunchtime bottle (I pump at work... oh joy.) and when he was still sucking "like no tomorrow" [her words] she heated up the second one and he finished that too! Conclusion: my baby is ready for cereal. I'm going to try giving him some tonight and see how he does. He's 5 and 1/2 months now so it's just about time. I was going to wait until 6 months, but we're pretty close. Something tells me I'll have a picture or two of the occasion to share.

Now Elijah... or should I say Frosty? Because that's what he goes by these days. Either Frosty, or Lightning McQueen, or Mater, or Thomas. And depending upon his identity at the moment he insists that Ezekiel and I go by corresponding names. Like when he's Thomas, Zeke is Percy and I'm Lady. (It's pretty funny when he says "Hey Lady do you want to such and such....") Or when he's Lightning, I'm Miss Sally, and Zeke is Mater. You get the idea. So yesterday he was Frosty, faithfully, ALL DAY LONG. And he will not give you the time of day unless you acknowledge the fact. And have I mentioned that he dictates a play-by-play dialogue for us?

It goes like this: "Hey Mom, I'm Frosty! I'm going to eat a carrot for breakfast because I LOOOOVE carrots. My nose is made out of a carrot. Hey Mom, can you say 'Oh, that's great, Frosty. Carrots are good for you, Frosty.'? Mom, say that!"

And that's the scene all day long. Just in variations. It's fun for oh, ten minutes. Then it gets a little tiresome and I have to remind "Frosty" that I'm the Mommy and I'll say what's on my mind, not on his mind. And that's more fun anyway because it keeps him on his toes, not knowing what I'm going to say next, rather than sticking to the script. I do play along most of the time though, just because I love him so much and some of the things he comes up with are so funny and creative.

The other night he came to me in the kitchen after reading a book with Aunt Ragon. He said "Mom, I need you to help me get on the computer." Of course I said "absolutely not." Then he said "But Mom, I need to look up Chuck and Friends dot com. Mom I neeeeeed to." Turns out this is the website mentioned on the back of the book they were reading.

Yesterday at Grandma's house I informed him it was time to pick up toys and get ready to leave. He threw his hands down to his side, dropped his head dramatically and said "You've got to be kidding me!" (I wonder where he gets his melodrama!?) :)