Growing.... Growing.... Growing...

My kids are growing up. I know, I know, this is a "duh" statement, but sometimes I forget. I look at them and think about what they were like 1 year, 1 month, even 1 week ago, and I'm amazed!

Griffin has 2 teeth now. (He's actually trailing behind his sister, who got her first tooth at 4 months.) He is eating peas, prunes, and rice rusks. If it was up to him, he'd be eating steak! He is also babbling like crazy. He says, "Dadadadadadada" sometimes, which I consider quite traitorous! I don't care if it's easier to say, it shouldn't come before "Mama," especially when momma is the one who is providing 95% of your nourishment! Oh, well, it's still exciting :)  He can sit up by himself for a good 10 or 15 seconds, and he can get up on all fours and rock back and forth, just dying to crawl! Am I bragging? Not at all. I'm just blown away. Two weeks ago, this little guy was laying flat most of the time, grunting occasionally, and struggling to keep his rice cereal from going down his chin instead of down his esophagus! What on earth has happened! Did I get abducted by aliens and miss some time, or did it all really happen as quickly as I think it did? He is really getting to such a fun age, and I can't wait!

Cambree is growing as well. Literally. I have a great friend and a family member who both gave me hand-me-down jeans in size 24 mos/2T for Cambree to wear, and I was pumped! She had enough jeans for every day of the week to last through the winter without me spending any money! Well... apparently those little legs are just growing and growing, b/c she's starting to look like she's wearing highwaters! Luckily she has a few pair that have a ruffle at the bottom, which makes them about half an inch longer. Also, she has a hard time keeping her pants up on her waist, so when they're sagging they're long enough ;) Between this and the fact that many of her 2T shirts are starting to show her belly, I'm thinking that she may be getting clothes for Christmas!

She is also just a sweet kiddo! (Well, most of the time. She is 2, and the word "Mine!" is a large part of her vocabulary, but all in all she's a great little girl.) For instance, Thursday night, my mom and my cousins Jill and Lora were over here with their kids, Callie (4), Brock (3) and Whitney (2), getting ready for our yard sale. It was nearly 9 pm, and the kids had played hard. They were tired, and I expected break downs to occur from any or all of them at any moment. Cambree had been in the house and was walking through the garage on her way back out to play. Suddenly she screamed. I wasn't worried, because it was her angry/frustrated scream, not her hurt scream. Jill looked over and noticed that Cambree had spilled some water on the garage floor. She took her cup from her and noticed that it was actually 4 plastic cups, stacked one inside the other. They were the see through kind, and we saw that each cup had about a tablespoon of water in it. Cambree was still visibly upset. I put 2 and 2 together and asked, "Did you bring water out for everybody?" She pitifully nodded. I told her that each cup still had some water in it and gave them back to her. She proceeded to give a cup of water to Callie, Whitney, and Brock. Yes, my 2 year old daughter had gone inside by herself, gotten out 4 cups by herself, put water in each cup by herself, and brought them out to deliver to her cousins. The icing on the cake? Apparently she spilled water inside, too, and rather than wear wet panties and jeans outside, she just took them off and left them inside, choosing instead to deliver her water wearing only a shirt. No one appeared offended, although I'm pretty sure Tullahoma won't issue us a permit for a bottomless bar!

Also, my suspicions that my child is not in fact afraid of the dark but simply saying so to delay bedtime were confirmed this weekend. We went to a pumpkin patch Saturday night. We decided to buy some glow sticks and go through the corn maze. In case you weren't paying attention, the moon Saturday night was a tiny sliver, not providing much light at all. Cambree started out in the stroller, but after a few minutes she decided she wanted to walk. Ed and I both had on black jackets and jeans, which made us pretty hard to see in the dark. Did she care? Nope! She would just walk on her own, not caring if she was a few feet behind us, all alone in the dark. I was much more freaked out by the whole experience than she was! Afraid of the dark, my left foot! This child is in no way afraid of the dark, she's just learning how to play momma and daddy to get more attention at bedtime! I'm thankful, though, because I don't want her to grow up jumping at her own shadow like her momma did (and still does!)