Drummer: 11 months

Clover has taken to calling Drummer Boyit, or sometimes just plain boy.  It's catching on and we'll say things like leave the boy alone!

Because he rarely is.  Left alone.  He loves it, yet already shows his annoyance by swiping at the offender's face.  They, of course, think it's funny.  Partially I don't blame him, but we still try to teach him to be soft.

He. Is. Loved.  

I can tell he doesn't have plans of walking any time soon.  I wouldn't either if I had someone playing my chariot all day long.

He hates holding still to be changed, but doesn't want to leave my lap once he is.

He's my longest nursing baby, the others had all given up months before they turned one.

Ryan says it's because he's a boy ;)

He is a joy, this boy.  And do you know what I realized the other day?!?  I get to make little boy suits!!  See ya frills, hello lapels! Okay, so there will still be frills, just an expanding of sewing repertoire to keep things interesting.

Also, he likes it when I color coordinate with him.

ps in case you wondered, his playsuit I purchased from zulily (again) which is a flash sale site, so they wax and wane in cute boy (and girl) things.  they seem to rotate through brands, this one is called "me too".

The Tongue

was discovered by the boy.

And captured,

with his mother's lens.

Then,

he got away.

Drummer-5 months

I took this sweet chubness to the pediatrician who declared him "developmentally advanced." Hehe!

Maybe it was all the peanut butter and fish oil I ingested while pregnant or the classical music I played ;) while he was in utero.

Or maybe she said what she thinks every parent wants to hear about their child.

But, what I think is decidedly the case,

this boy already has it figured out, 

if he wants any chance of survival with 5 older sisters,

he's gotta get moving, NOW!

Go Drummer!

I Ought to be Ashamed

at the amount of photos I took of this boy.  

But it's like when you make Deb's Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats,

and she has you add a bit of extra butter and then brown it (could anything smell better?),

loving the toe grab

and you dump it into a dish to spread that gooey, warm, delectable (Clover's new favorite word) confection,

who can resist putting some of that in their mouth, even though it might burn your tongue?

toes, illuminated

The sweetness is entirely overpowering after more than one piece, but it's still warm and still marshmallow stringy, so you indulge, and smile while you do. 

knuckle dimples

It's like that.  

hand discovery

It was the perfect photo shoot recipe: the early morning happies from the boy,

whistle blower

as I pulled him into bed to change his clothes and diaper,

golden goodness streaming in from the window,

those blues looking like they do, and that lower lip suck.

So, though I should be embarrassed,

limbs

I'm not, 

because I'm confident

you might have done the same.

Teeth, Feathers, and Storms

Some of you wondered how I get anything accomplished with this chunk of cuteness lying around (or is it laying? I never know).  

I'll tell you.

I've got a whole bunch of little mothers who sometimes fight over him.  I'll even admit to using him as an incentive.  Whoever gets their homework finished and lunch made first gets to hold Drummer first! I yell over my shoulder as we come in from the car: scrambling backpacks and scribbling pencils commence.

In other Dill household news, little miss Olive lost her first tooth this weekend!  At the end of the school year last year, Olive confided in me one day.  I feel lonely.  Why? thinking she missed her schoolmates and the hubbub of 4 sisters wasn't enough of a social fix for this girl.  Because I'm the only one in my class that hasn't lost a tooth.

Yes, she waited long for this moment and, as good sisters do, Pearl helped her finally free it with a bump to the face with her hard head (literal and figurative.)

The tooth fairy was generous and we joked that by the time Drummer got around to loosing his teeth (after he actually gets them, of course) that she'll be dropping a 20 on each one.

Divine gasped, got her big eyes going and then began to madly count her own teeth trying to calculate just how much that would be.  

Yes.  The boy is spoiled and probably always will be,

but I'm sure the spoilage and the torture inflicted by older sisters will somehow balance out.

Pearl was sewing up a storm again this week.  A most wonderfully wild stallion and two black cats.

Miserably, I failed to take pictures before she gave them to friends.  Makes you want to be friends with her.

(Someone else likes orange, too :)

A sandy Sunday stroll brought feathers for flying.

And why does it never get old to chase seagulls into flight?

I did it a few times myself.

I had Drummer strapped and sleeping.

We thought we could outrun the threatening storm looming in the distance.  I love how it looks as though Azure is conducting it.

We returned home curlier with a side of sogginess.  

It felt good.