Collett Chronicles: Life As Usual

Spring Break is over and now we're back to reality in the Collett household. The kids are growing and moving and learning new things every day. They are alert and inquisitive and are getting an independent streak that makes me proud and scares the daylights out of me all at once. I enjoy them wanting to roam about the house, but then I find myself grimicing and cringing every time they "almost" crack their heads open or "just miss" getting their fingers slammed in a door. I think we come centimeters from catastrophe everyday and somehow, I"m not sure how, but somehow we walk away unscathed. This parenting stuff is not for the faint of heart.

St. Patrick's Day started off our week. Here's a picture of the cute onesies Durinda got for them- so sweet. Please note that they're a size bigger than what they're wearing now so they have room to grow into them, and they have cute little shamrocks on the rear. I'm also including a couple of pictures from last St. Patrick's Day so you can see how much they've grown.

Here are a few shots of our every day lives this week. This week Harper started cutting at least one new tooth, maybe two (bottom teeth this time); that bring her tooth count to 7 (8). Poor Jack is still working with just two teeth- he has apparently gotten the Simpson teeth genes. While Harper is sharpening her chompers, Jack is learning to talk. He's started using a few new words this week, most notably "ball" (which he learned a few weeks ago, but now uses quite a bit), "bye-bye", "all done", and last night he said "duck". Here's a shot of this walking, talking guy in action. One of him meandering down the hall, and one of him opening his door after I walked around the corner to find he and Harper had closed the rest of us out of their room. It made me laugh that this little doorman ushered me in when I knocked- how can you not smile at that?

Harper still isn't saying much; she signs "more" when she wants anything and then points to it and grunts. She also squeals or screeches when you're not paying enough attention to her. Tony asked me if we should be worried by her lack of vocabulary and I don't think we should yet because her receptive language is so great. You can say "Harper, what happened to your sock?" She'll look down and see that she's missing a sock, give you the "I don't know" hands with a shrug, and then toddle off to go find it. I told Tony I think she'll talk when she feels like she needs to; this girl does everything on her own time. Her are some shots of her making a silly face while she drinks her water, showing off her perfect squat stance, and reading the new Highlights magazine that came in the mail. There's also a picture of her giggling- she had somehow managed to sit on her bottom and put her foot in her mouth; when I tried to get a picture of it, she fell over and was angry, so I was putting her foot to her mouth for her and she thought that was really funny.