The Fine Game of Nil

No pictures today, I apologize.

Just wanted to take a few moments while Dor is quietly sleeping in her cocoon to give an update on things in the Holman Household.

Liam continues to grow every day, adding words and sentences to his massive (to us) vocabulary. I love when he uses complex words in appropriate ways. For example, yesterday Dor and I met Alex and Liam in Davis Square when they got home from work. We decided to splurge and share a cup of ice cream (Almond Joy flavored). While we were ordering it, Liam kept insisting “I eat too, I eat too”. Maybe it’s not that impressive that he understands, and uses correctly, the concept of “too” meaning also, not just the number, but it seemed impressive to me. He continues to want to do things on his own, and often says “no, I do it” or “no, my turn”. He also carries the step stool round now so that he can climb up and get things off the counter, get on the bed, wash his hands at the sink, etc. If he wants to watch me do something in the kitchen, he will go to his room, get the step stool, and carry it all the way into the kitchen. We’ve begun a little bit of potty training, offering to let him sit on the potty whenever we change his diaper. He pretty consistenly pees in it, and has even pooped in it a few times (sorry). He isn’t at the point where he tells us beforehand that he needs to use the potty, but he is getting comfortable using it. When he uses it, he puts his hands in the air and says “yay pee in the potty”. Funny word pronunciation of the day is when he points at the fridge and says what sounds like “manyana”… this actually means “my yogurt”. Also, when he hears music, he starts to hum/coo to it, his version of singing. He calls music “noise”, even when I try to get him to repeat “mu-sic” he says “no-ise”. Plus, he is just incredibly cute, even when in the throws of “terrible twos”, or as I like to call it “angsty twos”.

Dor continues to develop and grow as well. We have been having random social smiles over the past week or two, getting more regular every day. She is cooing up a storm, already much more verbal than Liam was at this age. (We’re told girls tend to be more verbal than boys; boys tend to be more physical at first, then it all balances out). She is still napping quite a bit, and is pleasantly portable. She’s growing more slowly than Liam, but still at a steady rate. I think she is just over 10 lbs now. We’re beginning to wonder if her eyes are turning brownish, as both Alex and I have thought they look a touch brown out of the corner of our eyes.

Other exciting things, next weekend is our friend Taybin’s wedding. We’re excited to see him marry his fiancee, Kat. We’re also excited to see our friends from college: Naama (and Greg and their new daughter Lena), and Colin. I’m sure other college friends will be there, but those are the ones we are most excited about.

For Labor Day we are going to Lake George to visit Bill and Linda. The cousins may be there as well, which would be a lot of fun. Sadly, they have put the lake house on the market. Obviously this is their decision, but it is sad because it is my most favorite place on earth. (A close second would be Milford Sound in New Zealand, but Lake George is a little easier to get to). This will most likely be our last visit there, so I want to make sure to really savor it.

Then the next weekend we are going to St. Louis to visit my family.

Then it’s back to work. I can’t believe 12 weeks is almost over. It goes so fast.