We haven't taken a family photo in a while, so this post has three!

This is from July 20, in our kitchen.

This next one is from the same day. Our rose grew a crazy long stem from the root stock. When the feral shoot was just taller than the rose, Seth suggested I cut it off. I procrastinated, and Seth then asked me to let it grow so we could see how long it got. It was about twice as tall as the rest of the rose before we finally ended the experiment.

And this final photo is from July 15 at Thunderhill Raceway. We came out for a day of fun for me and Seth. With nursing and the long drive, we decided the logistics were easiest if we brought the kids. We hired a babysitter from a nearby town to watch the kids at the track and she turned out to be very sweet and plenty competent. All four of us had a fun and exciting day, and both boys slept soundly on the drive home.

And now about the boys!

Arlo:

Arlo loves to fly! Quite unlike Moby, who has always -- from Arlo's age through today -- been a little fearful of flying quite so high, and tried and tries to hold on to the arms of the adult throwing him up into the air. Arlo, on the other hand, once tossed asks to be tossed again, and again, and again.

Arlo also likes water. Here he is watering our calamansi. He sometimes begs to join us when we're showering and he enjoys playing in the kiddie pool. We've seen him bobbing his face into the water in what we thought was an attempt to drink water from the tub -- something quite un-Moby-like. Moby, in contrast, really dislikes getting his face wet. He seems to be out-doing his swim teachers in the contest of wills about whether he'll do a head bop or not. Moby is enthusiastic about swimming - as long as his face stays dry.

Arlo continues to be a great eater. He has his favorites, of course, but is often eager to try new foods or whatever we happen to be eating.

Moby:

Moby, being older, is growing intellectually; whereas Arlo's new feats tend to be physical. In this photo from July 10, Moby drew one of the first representational pictures that we've seen him produce. He clearly identified the head, body, arms, legs, fingers, and toes as he drew them.

Moby is also showing interest in writing and languages. He likes writing his name and sometimes asks for help in writing other words, mostly other people's names. He not infrequently asks me how to say something in Polish, though that may be because sometimes I insist that he speak to me in Polish before I answer a question or address a request. We had a Spanish-speaking lady helping us out around the house for 3 weeks in May who taught Moby "hasta mañana" and since then, Moby has show some interest in Spanish. Coincidentally this summer his school started offering Spanish lessons so we signed him up. The class meets three times per week. Moby missed the first two classes but had no trouble catching up. In the second week of classes, his teacher excitedly remarked to me that he's one of few children who speaks Spanish to her outside of class. This presumably means saying "hola", since they've only learned about a dozen words or phrases: "hola", "adios", "si", "no", "como te llamas", and "me llamo Moby".

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