Hello, Dash!

The boys are usually the youngest kids around, but not this time -- their friend Dashiell (Jason & Kate's son) is four months old. They enjoyed meeting him (and playing with his toys!) Of course, though Dash is younger, he's not all that much littler -- James is only about a pound heavier!

Matthew is going to town with his walking -- he can go in a circle, walk over obstacles, and I even saw him take a step or two backwards today.

James has done the sign for "more" a couple of times today. This morning his bottle ran out and we asked him if he wanted more milk, and he did the "more" sign and a few seconds later, the "milk" sign. (If he does it again, that would be pretty awesome that he's combining them!) He also did the "more" sign at breakfast when I asked if he wanted more pears, but then he wasn't actually too enthusiastic about eating more pears. So, I wonder if maybe he knows that the sign matches up with the word, but isn't totally using it to say that he wants more. We'll see!

The boys have been imitating each other more lately (things like clapping and waving their heads back and forth). It's very cute!

We've been visiting friends who don't have toddlers, so it's been interesting being in non-babyprooofed houses. For the most part it's been completely fine (though requiring lots of supervision), but James really wanted to play with the fireplace tools at our DC friends' house (sharp, heavy metal! perfect for babies!), and Mattie actually made it into the cat food here when we weren't looking. He got a couple of bits into his mouth, but spit it out (when I scooped him up and pounded him on the back).