Lots of milestones

There has been a LOT going on around here of late in the milestone front.

Probably the biggest in terms of impact on our daily lives is Evie's ability to move herself around.  I wouldn't quite go so far as to say crawling but it is definitely forward propulsion.  She needs to learn to lift her bum off the ground but even without that she is pretty darn quick.  So quick in fact that the gate has gone back on the top of the stairs.  I've included a little movie of her taken the other week (so she is quicker now!) - as usual it won't open on ipads/iphones etc.  Not sure why this is.  I hope to figure it out one day.

An Ollie milestone is his drastic improvement in swimming.  I've started taking him for lessons at another swim school as our old one shuts over winter as it is outside.  The new one is like a different universe in terms of professionalism and the results are starting to show.  This also might be due to him having two lessons a week.  I thought that would be a good way to get him up to speed a bit and I was certainly right.  While he won't be trying out for the Olympics anytime soon he can now dog paddle underwater for a short distance and most importantly has realised that he won't sink provided he keeps his legs kicking.  I am just so proud of him and I think he looks especially gorgeous in his little swim cap and goggles.

Evie milestone number two - a TOOTH!!!  I can't show you any pics yet because it has only just cut through but it is definitely there.  I suspect some more are on their way too.  I can't wait to see how cute her little smile looks once she has sweet little teeth to poke through.  It hasn't really even been particularly traumatic.  She has had a few restless nights here and there but it is difficult to know whether to attribute that to teeth or any other range of issues.  And while this milestone is about Evie I have to give a bit of kudos to Ollie who has just finally cut all four of his second molars at once.  Now that would be painful - those teeth are massive.  Ol should have got these teeth a year or so ago but as he seems to have inherited my silly teeth (I still have baby teeth) they have taken a little bit longer.  Again, poor little thing doesn't seem to have suffered to much.  What awesome little people we have!

Ol has dug out his superhero costume lately and wants to wear it everywhere.  Thankfully he looks a bit adorable in it and he hasn't used it to jump off anything terribly high, yet.

He also has been very interested in the workings of the body of late.  There is a model skeleton at daycare at the moment and that seems to have sparked something in him.  He keeps telling me that he has a skeleton in him but that it doesn't scare him because he is very brave!  He is also very interested in the blood in his body and every time he hurts himself (no matter how minor) he asks me if there will be blood coming out.  We thought we might build upon this interest a bit the other day and drew our own skeleton on a life sized Ollie.  He thought it was pretty cool seeing what bones there were and looking at where they are on our bodies.  The whole knee cap thing was most intriguing to him.  That is until I pulled out some real x-rays and then they trumped anything we had been able to draw.

There has also been lots of music around here in the last week.  Want to know why?  That is worthy of it's own blog.  Stay tuned for the answer...