7 weeks

It's hard to catch on "film" but we're getting lots of great smiles from Audrey these days. We'll have a little flirt-fest with each other and I don't want to ruin the fun by flashy-thinging her. She's 7 weeks old and is a real sweetheart. She absolutely lights up when she sees Miles, so I can't wait until they can play together a little better. He adores her too, the first thing out of his mouth in the morning is "Where's Audrey?" I'm sure that's out of concern for her, and not just to see if he gets all the extra space in our bed for a while. Back to her... she's starting to swat at her little mobile over her bouncy seat, but hates tummy time. She can hold her head up well when we hold her in our arms, but gets really frustrated trying to lift her head from flat on her belly. I remembered the mirror I used to hold for Miles and I think that is giving her a little more reason to look up - who is that cute baby over there? And check out that thick mane! It's really coming in and I affectionately refer to it as Kramer hair. Especially when freshly washed, it curls on top and sticks up until she sleeps on it.

Poor Miles has been running a fever today. It started before bed last night and continued all day today. But despite being sick, we had one of the best days together in a long time. It was close to a zero-fussy day, and he didn't try to swindle treats and TV time out of me, even though we were home all day. I started pulling the Disney books off the shelf to read, a big step because the stories can be really long. We started with the Three Little Pigs, which I don't think is in the book club anymore. We also tried Pinocchio and 101 Dalmations. I hope I can find Mickey and the Beanstalk at McKay, because one of his favorite Little Einstein episodes right now is about the giant up the beanstalk.

More fun stuff from Miles - he's totally into his tools. He insists on wearing jeans so he can wear all of his tools around the house. He especially loves these carpenter jeans because of the loop on the side. He refers to them as his "hooker" jeans. When we had the guys here working on the kitchen he would ask them if they had hookers. That got some good reactions! I've gotten him to call a belt-loop by the proper name, but that loop on the side remains a hooker until I can come up with a better name for it.

We're using tools for a higher purpose now too - bribery. We got him the jackhammer he earned by wearing the cute suit and shoes for Uncle Kyle's wedding. Now we have a chainsaw up on the shelf just waiting for a poop on the potty. We also got a big set of tools to dole out for more achievements like staying dry all day, telling me when he has to go, etc. The incentives haven't worked yet, but I need to start making him try to go hourly. I guess it can be my Earth-Day resolution - get the oldest out of diapers!!