It probably goes without saying, but the boys are excellent. Griffith is fully mobile -- forward, backward, round and round. It is full on, twenty-four seven around here. At the moment there is approximately five thousand three hundred and eighthy-seven dollars worth of educational toys in the living room floor. Rather than play with any of them, Griff has been a free-range sort of child. So far I have had to jump up and grab Griffith about thirty times in the last 45 minutes to keep him from 1) grabbing Allan's oxygen tube, 2) grabbing Allan's sat monitor cord, 3) grabbing the glass bowls that I missed as being within his reach in the kitchen, 4) grabbing the key that was in the cabinet door of the credenza, and 5) poking Allan's eyes out. It is amazing that we get anything substantive done around here.
Griffith is not content to simply crawl. He is working on perfecting pulling up and doing, well, baby stuff. I would not be at all surprised if he were walking by the end of the month. God help us. Today he pulled up on the toy basket in the living room, stood up, held on with one hand and began emptying the basket with the other hand. I went to Meijer today and dropped a mint on Griff-proofing supplies -- baby gates, more plug covers, more catches for drawers, cabinets and closets, trash cans with lids. After a panic attack in the middle of the night on Sunday, we have had everything that was under the kitchen sink piled on the dining room table. Along with everything that was on the wine rack that we realized that Griff could tip over, if he had a mind to.
Griffith has learned to cough this week. You might not think that is funny, but that only shows how limited your imagination really is. Because it is really nearly hysterical. And can be used to your advantage. Dad has decided that it is time for Griff to learn to go to bed while still awake. So Thursday night, I put him (Griff not Dad) down in the crib. This was not where the action was and wasn't where he would prefer to be. It was pitiful. Griff crawled to the edge of the crib, pushed down the bumper and pressed his tear-stained little face up against the slats. When that didn't inspire any thing other than "it's okay Griffith" he got really wound up. Like he had lost his last friend. I tried to ignore him (hard to do since his crib is only about 3 feet away from the end of our bed) but when he started coughing and gagging, I had to go and check on him. I tried to ignore it, but kept thinking , what if he was really in distress? Of course, he wasn't, but I couldn't count on it, could I ? Which is what he was counting on. I can not believe that I am being worked by someone who isn't even eleven months' old.
Allan continues to be the center of attention. Julie the PT came on Thursday and she was quite impressed with the progress that Big Al had made. He is sitting up and balancing at a six month level - which is a big improvement from the 4 month level which is allegedly where he was about two weeks ago. Allan can not be trusted. We are pretty sure he underperformed on the initial assessments so that they would be impressed with his progress. Julie was very happy with how much Allan was moving his head and how much strenghth he has gained in his legs and back. He's so expressive with her. If he was at all uncertian about what she was doing, he would frown and look up at her like, what, exactly, do you want me to do? And when he would do well, she would praise him and he would get a Mona Lisa smile as if he were thinking, yes, yes, I did do very well, thanks for noticing.
At the pediatrician's we weighed yesterday and Allan was 15 pounds 9 ounces. That is a full 14 pounds heavier than when he was born. He is 26 inches long and has grown 2 inches in two months. He has nearly caught Griffith in height (he's 26.5 inches). But Allan has a way to go before he catches Griffith in weight. The Griffster weighed in at a healthy 18 pounds 11 ounces.
(That's 16 pounds and 10 ounces heavier than the day he was born.)
The boys have been enjoying the NCAA tournament. Except for last night when Dad and I kept yelling to encourage VCU to send Duke home. That was a little scary.) We are currently waiting for the UK game to start. We're not sure that we will make it through the whole game, though. These late games are hard for the little fellas (and the mama). As the pictures show, though, the boys are actually playing together some so that helps pass the time.