They are their own people, from laugh to cry. It’s a bit strange stepping back and looking at how we are getting to know and grow with these little ones, even though for the early stages we’ve been through it once already. Helvi is such a laughing baby, like her brother was, but in her own way. I love those laughs. Must break out the recorder and just record our rides into and away from daycare, as we make our daily rounds.

However. She. Does. Not. Nap. No longer at daycare and not at home, unless we curl up in the rocking chair or family-bed style. Catnaps only at daycare - seems to be coinciding with growth spurts, perhaps my break from nursing drop offs? I don’t know. Whatever it is, only catnaps are not good for her; she’s so sad-lookin with the rubbing of the eyes and yawning and absolute refusal to sleep.

But she’s sweet and bubbly, really waking up to our world. And she lights up at the sight of the daymommies and her brother and us. Wriggly as all get out, just like when she was strapped inside. And though we’ve been good about reminding Wolfie to put his toys where she can’t reach them, little ms put-everything-she-can-reach-in-her-mout

h did manage to lie on her baby gym blanket and not find Wolfie’s whistle that I’d mistakenly dropped nearby.

Wolfie’s still sweet and sugar, too, though he’s trying out everything he can do. We’ve finally reached a solution to kicking the seatback in the car; a plastic tub beneath his feet he can kick and drum upon. He was always moving and kicking in utero, the best idea was to find a way to let him do it without driving me bonkers with the seat kicking.

He’s going through a phase of not wanting to go to daycare, and I don’t blame him. More time with mom and dad is fun. But we can plan things ahead, and do. Last week we got him eased back into routine by saying we’d work on a new pillow and blanket to nap with at daycare. He chose the fabric from my fabric stash, and one night I threw together a pillow (the blanket is still undone). He was thrilled with it, but understood when I told him the blanket wasn’t ready yet because I’ve been sick, too (better, getting there) and haven’t had time.

All the way to daycare that day (and the way home, too) he told me exactly how the blanket would be made. I was going to lay out the fabric, he was going to cut it, and daddy was going to throw away the left overs. Not sure how to accomplish this quite yet, but I know that once we do a project with him “using the grown-up scissors” there will be no end to it; I’ll have to keep coming up with ideas to use them for good, supervised play. Time to resurrect my old mantra used during his development time from baby to toddler … we are doomed.