Opposable Thumbs Baby

Reina loves to sit up and hold stuff in her hands. Usually her favorite object is whatever her brother doesn't want her to hold i.e., his shark, his tractor, his firetruck, etc. Sometimes she's happy just holding her chupee (pacifier) and a block to bang it against. If it's something new, she'll turn it around and around in her hands and you can almost see the little wheels whirring as she tries to figure out what it is and what she can do with it. Watching her I feel like I'm looking at a monkey figuring out how to use tools or early man banging two rocks together to make a fire. She's more inquisitive than I remember Will being at this age. Will would roll all over the living room but Reina's more content to sit there and holler until someone hands her something interesting to hold. Here's Reina dressed in her football-watching finest. Those Bronco pants ended up being good luck charms! Here's a picture of Will at the same age as Reina. I like to pull these out once in a while and compare their little faces. Look at those forearms! I loved his little rolls! I haven't written about our daily activities for the last few weeks. On September 20, I ran my first half-marathon with Aunt Vicky and a few of her friends. I'm happy I finished but that last mile was not only the longest mile of my life but also the most painful. I've been jogging all summer but I still wasn't prepared for how badly 13 miles can hurt. But, I'm proud of my accomplishment and look forward to trying another one in October.

It's officially hunting season in the Pauley household. Glenn went antelope hunting last weekend and was successful and we now have a freezer full of antelope steaks again. Glenn shot a pretty big buck - if you are interested in all of the gory details (literally) email us. He's planning on deer hunting this weekend and elk in November. I love months that end in 'ber'!

Will's language has really taken off lately. He is now capable of stringing together pretty complex sentences. Most are in the form of commands or complaints, but I do have to say that it's nice to know what he's thinking. Tonight I was feeding his sister and he was playing with a plastic dinosaur nearby. He brought the T-Rex over to me and informed me that his dinosaur wanted to nurse. Yeah, I didn't really know how to respond to that. I told him that the dinosaur was too big and didn't need "baby milk." Besides the eating habits of dinosaurs, Will remains obsessed with all things firetruck, (the movie) Cars and Thomas the Train. Looks like Christmas is going to be easy this year.

Here's our helpful toddler feeding Reina cheerios.