Well, not really, but sort of. My babysitter Kim has been on vacation since last week, so I decided to just take it easy on work and spend the time with the kids while she is gone. Kim was nice enough to find a substitute to fill in while she is gone, but J and A aren't the kinds of kids who happily latch onto just anyone. I'm sure Adrian would be freaking out with a new person, and I'd end up having to hold him most of the time anyway. So why bother paying money for the disappointed expectation that I'll actually be able to get some work done? Might as well just skip it.

On that note, I've been taking the kids to the playground, on long walks, kicking the ball around the backyard in the afternoons, that kind of thing. The stuff I used to do all the time, but now rarely get a chance to because of this whole *business* thing.

Don't get me wrong, I love my business and am totally grateful for it becoming a success so far. But I have been working every spare moment of the day and night for a year now, and quite a bit for the two years before that. It's crazy. I'm about to hire a shipping/receiving person to take that piece over from me, and it will be a relief. Of course I still have to interview several people, and train the person chosen. Not exactly easy, but oh well. Growing pains are inevitable.

I feel like I've been missing out lately. For example, Adrian is having a major, major developmental burst right now. It's so much fun to be with him and watch him evolve new skills, sometimes in the span of a single day.

Last week I finally realized that Adrian has been saying not just "Ehhhh DAT!", but actually "I WANT THAT". Like hello, a full-on three word sentence! Kim pointed it out to me a few weeks ago, but I didn't really HEAR it until recently. Then I repeated to him, "I want that!" and he totally enunciated it. Which makes me feel like a complete moron for not clueing in until now.

He also says:
"There he is!" (when someone like Julian or Daddy comes in the room)
"Look!" (to show me something that he finds interesting)
"Ick!" (trash or icky stuff)
and brand new as of yesterday, but in full and frequent use today:
"Uh-oh!" (indicating that something has gone wrong, fallen, spilled, broken, etc. A VERY frequent occurrence around here)
and then the old standby "Doggie!", which was his first word, and which was Julian's first word as well. This word is often blended with "Daddy" so that we don't know which one he's saying. Sometimes he does a chanted medley of "Doggie, doggie, doggie, doddy, daddy, doggie, daddy, daddy, daddy, doggie, daddy..."

Other new developments:
He points to his crotch when he has to go potty! This one is quite awesome. He gets my attention and then says "Dat!" while pointing to his crotch. He even did it at the dentist the other day. I took him in the bathroom and he took a huge pee in the toilet. Not too shabby for a 14 month old.

Tonight at bedtime he got my attention, made the "milk" sign and then pointed to the rocking chair in his bedroom. He even went over to it and patted it, like "Sit HERE." Very clear...he does not want to be nursed to sleep in the bed, he wants to be rocked and nursed to sleep in the rocking chair. OK! And then he went to sleep like a little lamb, rocked and nursed in said chair.

He has a huge interest in dogs, birds, and most animals. He says "DOGGIE!" loudly and excitedly any time he sees a dog. The tiniest little bird chirp outside also has his immediate attention. We have a very active bird nest on the front porch, and every time I take him out there he points to it excitedly and makes a little chirpy sound.

He makes a "playing boy noise" that is completely adorable. He will get a toy car, or a toy plane, or even a toy animal, and while moving it around he makes a noise like "kshhhhhhhh", except it's in this little baby voice...so unbelievably cute. It's like the embryonic version of Julian making car vroom noises, or animal growling noises.

Tonight he had a toy alligator in the bath and was making the "kshhh!" noise with it, then he had a little picture book before bed and in it was a photo of an alligator. He pointed to it, said "Look!" and then made the growling/vrooming noise. Cute!

I keep trying to film this stuff on my Flip, but as soon as I break it out he and Julian want to come and grab the camera and watch videos on it. Makes it very difficult to capture anything...frustrating. I feel like every video ends with an outstretched hand reaching towards the camera.

I've been testing him with little things, like I say "Let's go outside!" or "Put it in the trash!" and he responds by leading me outside or putting a piece of paper in the trash. He understands! So now I'm making a big effort to *explain* things to him, rather than just treating him like a passive participant.

He gives delicious little kisses. He comes at me and sort of mouths the point of my chin. Sometimes in the morning he wakes up and sleepily presses his open mouth against my cheek for a few seconds, then makes a little smack noise afterwards, like a real kiss. Can't begin to tell you how sweet it is to wake up to sweet and loving baby boy kisses, it's worth all the middle-of-the-night headbutting.

I am doing a lot of signing with him, but so far apart from "milk" (which he uses way too frequently!) he hasn't signed back to me. I THINK he signed "More milk" yesterday, two signs together, but I might have been imagining it. Or maybe not. He does understand the signs I use with him, he just doesn't do them back to me yet...except for "milk". Just like Julian.

I think pointing to his crotch is a great potty sign. Much easier than trying to do a "shaking T" (for toilet) in ASL...which is not so simple for little hands. But anyone can understand the crotch-pointing.

Julian is also having a burst in his verbal skills as well. Today he used new and surprisingly advanced words *four* times to describe things. Now ask me what those words were...I can't tell you. Don't remember. Mommy brain. I just remember being surprised and thrilled four times today by something that Julian said, a turn of phrase, an idiomatic expression or big new word used properly in context. I swear I'll commit them to memory from now on. At least *one* to use as an example. Argh.

I'm getting rather desperately behind in my work, but eh...as long as I get stuff shipped out within a decent timeframe, I don't feel too bad. I do feel bad about sitting here writing this when I'm so behind on customer emails, but then again, this is a bit more important overall.

Tomorrow is a full day. I have a Pilates Reformer class in the morning, which I really enjoy, then it's off to work at Julian's preschool (with Adrian on my back the whole time), then home for lunch and THEN hopefully I can get some work done. I bought new wire shelving for the other wall in the garage, so hope to nearly double my storage space. Plus I got a sweet new shipping table for the middle of the garage, so I no longer have to pack boxes on top of the freezer chest, for crying out loud, and I can store boxes underneath. But yeah, now to assemble all this new stuff and get it organized. Sigh. Plus keep shipping on a regular schedule, moving towards hiring someone, updating my website, etc. Very, very overwhelming.

But I'm trying not to think about that right now. I'm thinking about my little boys, and what a nice week we've had so far, and how fast this time goes before it's gone.