Big growth month

Well September is over and I just want to record what a big push it has been both for Max and Eliza. Max started school, and I can just see his brain stretching. He was really nervous on the first day and asked me to tell him stories about my own preschool on the walk to school. Then he loved it, and as the month has progressed it has become all consuming. When he's not at school, he's thinking and talking about it, or sleeping on the couch which he's started to do. He's grown about an inch, and is getting really good at talking through his feelings, saying "I'm mad" instead of just acting mad.

His favorite friends as far as I can tell at school are Kika, Henry and Evan. Their names come up a lot.

Yesterday they celebrated his friend Henry's birthday. There was a birthday swing––which is teachers swinging a child back and forth. Max thought it was going to be a real swing, and was disappointed, and then terrified when he saw what it actually was. He talked about it all day––and he started out saying, "I'm mad at the birthday swing, I hate the birthday swing, hmmph," and ended up being able to say his true feelings, and then this morning said he would want the birthday swing on his birthday.

They seem to have muffins on birthdays instead of cupcakes. Whoah.

Eliza's 7th month has been record breaking. She learned to 1) crawl, 2) sit up, 3) stay sitting, 4) stand, 5) stay standing, 6) pull herself up, 7) clap, 8) wave, 9) use consonants. Again, whoah.

She's also taken to smiling a lot at us and at strangers. She has two smiles. First is her big smile––open mouth, two teeth on display, big eyes. Then comes her super big smile, where she squints her eyes and wrinkles her nose. Somewhere deep inside a little Scotty is saying, "Capt'n, I'm giving her all the power she can stand!"