Marshmallow Fluff and Stuff

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Thank you everyone for your input on my Christmas card picture post!  Still not 100% sure, but leaning with the vast majority of you towards #3.  It was funny to read that some of you liked that picture because of the background, and for other people, that historic red barn was the reason you didn’t like it.

Sorry for the brainless post - this is what happens when you take the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.  I’m planning on posting a discussion topic soon, but thought I’d share these pictures first because they’re pretty funny.  Check out this progression:

Here’s our family band, the Broccoli Trio…they wanted to "make soup;" it’s one of their favorite things to do, especially when we’re in the kitchen.  Somehow, it turned into a music-making session with frozen broccoli strewn about. 

Have I told you about our wee-est one recently?  All 15lbs of her (jk, I actually have no clue how much she weighs at this point…but she’s small)?  I think I forgot to do a 7 month update for her, but she’s changing all the time, so it’d be outdated by now anyway!  She got her top 2 front teeth.  Weird, since she doesn’t have any other teeth yet and usually the bottom ones come in first!  She’s all about sticking her tongue out and rubbing it against those teeth - guess it feels funny to her.  She’s also pulling up to a stand, unassisted, and cruising with small steps.  Yesterday she went from the train table to Travis’ leg on the couch behind her…never letting go of anything of course, but taking steps to move from him to the table and back.  I think she’s realized immobility could be a dangerous thing around here.  When you have brothers that treat you like an inanimate object, zooming cars across your head and pile toys on top of you, you’d better get moving!! 

A few people have said that she’s looking less and less like Travis, and maybe just a tad bit more like me?  Does anyone else see that?  Travis says she has sort of a rotund build, so maybe she will have some physical resemblance to me!  Trav has been jokingly calling her "Short-Round" lately.  Hahaha!  Very funny Daddy.  BTW, he is TOTALLY kidding.  We don’t have weight issues around here, which is why I polished off ~2lbs of steak by myself the other night.  Poor Fin though; she has the lumpiest, bumpiest noggin right now.  She’s in that stage where she takes some nasty spills about 5 times a day - the stage poor Shane-bug was stuck in for awhile because of his disproportionately large nogging.  Usually Fin’s accidents happen after she pulls up on something, reaches for an object (usually the boys’ food), gets bumped or forgets that she needs both hands to hold on, and falls on the back of her head.  She’s going to be 1 tough cookie, that’s for sure.

Shane is doing fantastically lately.  He’s been happy, healthy, and sweet as a muffin.  He’s my snuggle-bug and I LOVE it.  We’ve been doing better with 1 on 1 time for him, and he’s just blossoming.  Still a total homebody, but when he’s in our home environment, his little personality is really starting to shine.  He’s so full of affection and is constantly coming over to give us these gaping mouth kisses (FULL of slime and slobber!), and does the same to Finley still too.  It’s adorable.  He’s starting to sign more now and he’s still just jabbering, but starting to mimic our words and sounds much more.  He said "dada" and "mama" a few times this week, but it was after a lot of encouragement on my part. 

Jackson is as full of energy as usual.  He successfully shoplifted his first item last week.  That was a proud mommy moment.  A freakin doorjam??  If he’s going to do it, I need to at least teach him to only snag the good stuff!  Geez!  The amazing part was, we were at a coffee shop with some friends and 1 of my girlfriends told him to go put the doorjam back.  He’d been a little obsessed with it, so she made sure to have him put it back before we left.  But then, somehow, I got home and saw him take it out of his pocket.  Little sneaker!  Oh, and I think it’s time I make a concerted effort to stop talking like a truck driver.  He got frustrated with his legos this weekend and yelled "OH, $hit!"  Whoops.  This is how it all went down:

Jackson: "Oh $hit! Oh $hit. Oh $hit. Oh $hit."

Travis: "Laurie, you have to stop saying crap like that!"

Me: "What?  How the hell do you know it was me?!  Your language is less than F&*#ing spectacular."

Travis: "Because I’m not home as much."

Me: "Damn it, that’s true."

Jackson: "Damn it!"

His new favorite show is Word World, which has been the case for almost a month now.  He’s starting to sound out letters, so you can ask him "what letter does book start with," and he’ll say "book.  bbbb-ook.  B!"  It’s pretty cool and I credit Word World for that!  Every now and then, Jackson is inspired to be adorably sweet and affectionate too.  I have to admit though, this was prompted by me asking him to give Fin a kiss.  Still cute, imo: