The Brothers Blankenship: General Mayhem

We have heard about the terrible twos, the contrariness, the tantrums, but its not the screaming, thrashing negative Nancy that gets us down. Its the emotional roller coaster that is so draining (and here we thought we got off easy having boys). Overwhelming parental pride turns to nearly uncontrollable shaking anger so quickly and all over a little person we love more than anything in the world - so proud and so crazy all at the same time. One minute Bjorn it thanking me for "this wonderful food you made, Mommy" and the next he's biting his brother for the fourth time that day. It is tough living in a two year old world where all wants are needs, all needs are immediate and logic does not apply. But, aside from the high and lows there are a lot of silly, fun and creative in between moments like the time I made him a phone out of cups and string. After he tired of talking to Santa on the phone, I found him snuggled away inside the closet "pumping my belly" with it. I'm left wondering how we went from phone to breast pump in under five minutes, meanwhile B's moved on to running the leaf blower he's made out of a length of climbing rope, the phone/breast pump and a lot of imagination. The two year old mind works in mysterious ways.

We've focused a lot on Kai's skills over the last few months because they come some quickly in the first year but Bjorn has been working on a few of his own. Notably, he is now a biker striding around the neighborhood and seeking off road opportunities wherever possible. He also continues to improve his parenting skills and has a rotating baby he calls Elgin (incidentally Elgin is also the name of the street we live on). Baby Elgin can be any one of several objects, depending on his mood, the day, the weather, what have you. He might be the orange pillow, the butterfly or the ugly doll but regardless he is cared for lovingly, rocked in the glider, put down to bed in Kai's napper, monitored on the baby monitor, nursed, packed in a baby wrap, etc. On a rare occasion Kai can be the recipient of these paternal feelings.

Kai turns 9 months today, weighing in just shy of 20 pounds! He's got a two speed crawl (high gear is reserved for when he's making a break for the bathroom to fish around in the garbage), loves to stand and shake his booty and drools constantly leading to a red, chapped chin. He likes to eat puffs and work on his pincer and has sprouted the his top middle teeth. The only thing Kai is not excelling at is sleep but nobody is good at everything.

The combination of sleep packaged in 1-2 hour increments and two year old antics contributes to a general feel of insanity at our house but we're hanging on, admittedly by a thin strand sometimes, and trying to make the most of this crazy, wonderful time with two crazy, wonderful boys.

Jess, Shane and Margaretta come for a visit