Little people

It's so much fun watching my babies turn into little people. They're bursting with personality, learning more and more independence, and exploring everything in the world around them.

I rearranged my office/playroom so that we can open the shutters to the big window, and now it's their favorite place to play. They love to look out and watch the cats and squirrels, and got a big surprise one day when Grandma came up to wave hi before she came in.

Steven loves to stand at the window or a toy and play, and is getting to be a lot more mobile, but still needs some practice to get the hang of crawling. He may actually walk before he crawls... he seems to have the hang of "one foot in front of the other" better than Eleanor does, when he does practice walking, and doesn't seem all that interested in getting around any other way.

Eleanor, though, is ALL over the place. In fact, right this instant, she's attempting to scale my chair. She's funny, because she's very adventurous but also very careful. She wants to get into everything and do everything and go everywhere, but she's also very cautious about where she puts her feet or how she positions herself to sit down from standing. She's only toppled over once or twice, even with all her crazy climbing, and she's the most resilient kid ever - just picks herself up and dusts herself off and tries it again.

One of the reasons we loved our house when we bought it is the giant oak tree in the back. Our house is surrounded by trees, and that one's our favorite. It's absolutely majestic. And there's one branch that's just perfectly situated for a tree swing, with two hooks already screwed into it that are just right. So we went and got a swing, and got it hung this week. It's been pretty chilly since we put it up, but there have been a few warm afternoons.

They really like it - I thought about getting a second one, but I kind of like just having one for now. We can take one out if the other is napping, for some fun one-on-one time, and we have a nice little square of concrete for a patio where we'll be able to put outside toys, so once we have some little tricycles and things, they'll be able to play or swing on different toys if they want to.