Dust Bunnies and Swaddling

Today, Maya noticed a rather large dust bunny on our floor and promptly inquired, "Mama, wus dis, Mama?" (What's this?) I answered, "That's a dust bunny!" Maya then crouched down, bent over, and ever so slightly curled and uncurled her little fingers in a waving motion, as she softly said, "Hi, duss bunny! Dood see you!" (Hi, dust bunny! Good to see you!) After the sincere little greeting, she bent over a little closer to the dust bunny and blew it a kiss! She jumped up and said, "Tiss, tiss!" with the sweetest little smile on her face. (Kiss, kiss! is what she always says after kissing something.) How cute is that?!

Another phrase I heard today, when we were visiting our friends, Miriam and her two girls, was "Yiya eat sumping, pease?" (Maya eat something, please?) She is really putting it all together! I'm amazed at how quickly her vocabulary is advancing. She learns several new words every day. It's awesome.

Liam continues to melt my heart. At Miriam's, he just kept erupting into fits of giggles over nothing! It was so sweet. He has a hearty little boy laugh that I just can't get enough of. I remember working so hard to make Maya laugh and being so frustrated when she wouldn't let it out. I don't have to do anything to Liam, and he will laugh on his own! I love the sound of his laughter! When I put him to bed at night, I find myself looking forward to the morning, when I can play with him again. He's so easy going and happy! Liam's not at a demanding age (feeding aside), so I can stick him anywhere or just lay down and talk and smile at him to keep him happy. It's so easy! I look forward to spending time with Maya, too, but at this age, I know that the good times will be punctuated with a lot of trying times... sometimes toddlerhood can be very overwhelming! I love the moments like the ones I wrote about from today. Those are the times when Maya brings me the greatest joy... that and when she's in a full on belly laugh! There's just something about the sound of my children's laughter that makes my heart swell and takes away any stress or frustration I may be harboring from events of the day. The sound of their laughter instantly brings a smile to my face and makes everything "all better".

Speaking of putting Liam to bed, I'm pretty sure I may be done swaddling him. He fought so hard to get out of the swaddler tonight that he actually broke into a sweat! I finally released him, and as soon as he rested his hands on either side of his head, he quickly fell asleep. I know that from his first month of life (back when I thought he hated being swaddled) he slept all the time with his hands by his face. Then at 6 weeks when I started swaddling him again, he got used to sleeping with his hands down by his sides. Most recently, every time he wakes up, he has managed to bust out of the swaddler, and I find him with one, if not both, hands free and either flailing about (depending on how worked up he is) or resting up by his head. After going to bed, he slept for 5 straight hours, probably because he didn't start to stir and wake himself up while trying to fight himself out of the swaddler! I heard him stir a couple of times, but it was only for a brief amount of time, without any sounds of struggling or distress. I'm thinking that he's matured past the swaddling stage! We shall see!