Recent Developments.

Arden might not even be getting in the water yet, but that doesn't mean she can't make a fashion statement when the family heads poolside. That statement? "I am the cutest baby in the Carolinas!"

Arden has learned how to grab things, and likes to put everything in her mouth. So here she is with her first bite of food, a blueberry muffin baked by Daddy, with Carter's help. Carter's first bite of anything was bananna, which he hated. So, nutritionally, we've definitely backslid here, but on the positive side, she was enthusiastic.

The grabbiness is not limited to food. Also a favorite: tender parts of your face while you're rocking her back to sleep at 2am. It takes Arden around a day and a half to regrow razor-sharp claws after we whack them back to the quick with the clippers. And the power of those hands! I'm pretty sure there's either hydraulics or adamantium involved here.

Carter enjoys his own blueberry muffin. Muffin. Muffin. MUUUUUUFFFFFIIIINNN!

I can't hear you, Carter.

Muffin, Pease.

That's better.

Hello, class. My name is Arden, and I'll be substituting today for your usual Chemistry teacher. This model represents the complex relationships atoms can have at the molecular level. However, it is flawed in one very basic way. Atoms should be able to fit in my mouth.

Arden is such a skootcher! Anything you don't want in her mouth better not be in the room with her when you look away. I was helping Carter for a moment with something today and she'd gotten all the way across the room! For a second I thought that she'd started crawling when I wasn't looking, so I moved her back to the starting gate and let her go once more... and she showed me that slow and steady still gets it done for the pre-crawling crowd. That said, she's up on all fours a lot and it's week(s) only until she's really off to the races.

Carter's favorite pasttime these days... his "cd books." He'll spend so much time paging through, selecting the same discs over and over again. A prime canidate for work at a Top 40 station, as if those jobs will still be done by humans when he's old enough for employment.

Give peace a chance, says Arden! Actually I think she's counting how many fingers she can get in her mouth. Try a couple more, and you'll be closer to correct.

When I see this picture, I just think that the camera is about to cut to the E-trade baby and Arden's going to be giving him tips on home decor or something. Yeah, it's great you've got that killer portfolio, now how bout cashing in some of those blue chips to update that highchair? Floral prints are so last trimester.

Carter's been giving us some pretty rockin' concerts lately. His set list is expanding. Old MacDonald is tried and true, but then there's Twinkle, Twinkle, and Puff the Magic Dragon, often performed as a mash-up. Just today, for the first time with me he sang Frere Jacque, (sp?) but he still thinks I'm crazy when I sing "dan don dan" He looks at me with a silly smile and says "Ding, dong, ding" right afterwards like English is my second language.

He's holding the guitar now too, part of his bid to be independant in all things. Maybe some day we'll see him playing bass, he's got the stance right.

Carter's also really started to interact with Arden. Sometimes I like to take a step back and see what they will do. Here, he brought the slinkies over to Arden while she was in the excersaucer. They played for quite a while, one slinky apiece, with Carter brokering a trade whenever the one that she had looked better than the one he did. (That one must be better, with how much she's putting it in her mouth. The one I've got is tasteless!)