Scissor-mania

A little over a week ago, Mallory cut her hair (again). I was actually very relieved that she only cut about 3 inches off of the bottom of her hair in several places. It could have been MUCH worse - and luckily there are some awesome hair blogs out there with good ideas for shorter hair. Anyway, here is her new shoulder-length haircut. I know, not a great picture. I'll have to post more another time.


She is very proud of her hair-cut, which makes me wonder if she learned any lesson from this, or if she'll do it again next month. Please, not the bangs!

A few people have pointed out that maybe I shouldn't make scissors so accessible to Mallory, which is a really valid suggestion. However, cutting paper is one of her favorite things to do - and she is pretty good at it (not sure where that will take her in life, but I'd hate to squelch a talent). She will often spend a good hour cutting pictures out of coloring books, and it is hard for me to pull her away from it. I think it has been good for her fine-motor skills - and good for my sanity because it keeps her occupied during the day.

Anyway, I took this picture today of some of the things that she has cut out in the last few days. I promise that I didn't help, except that I colored some of the pictures (yeah - coloring is WAY more fun than doing the dishes).

"Ee-I-Ee-I-Oh!"

On his first birthday, Wyatt knew absolutely NO words. He wasn't even trying to speak. We were concerned about him because typically babies can say at least 4 recognizable words at that age. None of our other kids had been that late with speaking.

We are relieved to announce that Wyatt is finally talking, and probably a typical amount for his age. We think he is doing amazingly well and wanted to share some of his tricks with the grandparents. We wish they could be here to see how much he has changed.

• He can tell us what a cow, dog, horse, cat, bee, snake, monkey and lion say.
• He loves the song "Old Mac Donald Had a Farm", and when we ask him what Old Mac Donald says, he replies "Ee-I-Ee-I-Oh!" (See video)
• He is obsessed with stars and circles, and points them out everywhere.
• When we read him books, he jumps down and gets toys that correspond to things in the book - For example, he will go get his stuffed monkey whenever he sees a monkey in a book, or he'll get a teddy bear when he sees a teddy bear in a book.
• He likes to copy the other kids when they chant stuff. The kids get the biggest kick out of that.
  

Such a fun age! Hard age, but fun age. Now, if only we could get him to stop climbing and falling off everything...

Josh x 2

Josh and Wyatt both wore green sweaters today, and I thought I'd capture some pictures of the clones while they were looking so much alike.

The Igloo

Josh and the kids worked on an igloo for several weekends and finally finished it. Here are some pictures.

Mallory Translations

Here are some of the things Mallory has said recently, along with the translation...

"I'm rumbling" = "I'm hungry"
"I'm so smoothy!" = "I just doused my face with your lotion, and look SO beautiful."
"How do you like my paper collection?" = "I just spent a good hour cutting up little pieces of paper into a bowl so I can save it on my dresser for the next month."
"Mom, you need a nap" = "Mom, I want to watch a movie, so take a nap"

Working on her Paper Collection:

Mallory convincing me to take a nap so that she can watch Tinkerbell: