February = almost spring

8-month-old Lars has learned to sit up from a lying position and pull up from a sitting position and back himself into corners and get stuck hugging crib bars multiple times in the middle of the night. He is basically crawling. Yowza... we still have more babyproofing to do. We've never had a baby in this house. Ida was 18 months old when we moved here and she got comfortable with stairs really quickly (after the first cringe-worthy fall down an entire flight shortly after we moved in. ouch and so sad). And actually Ida didn't even really crawl until she was almost walking and I don't even remember what Theo did, so I am kind of rusty at this whole thing. Still 2 closet doors to hang--one on the pantry and one in Ida's room--and a door for the laundry room. Once we do that and put up gates I will feel much better about letting him roam the place. We should also put a banister on the basement stairs soon-ish.

So I think I may have mentioned that I am undertaking a MAJOR purge of all our stuff. We have hung on to so much stuff for the past few decades. I feel so light. Well, I will feel light once the stuff is actually gone. Right now it's still filling up an entire basement room. Yes, that's right. An entire room of stuff. At least it's in boxes and bags. I wonder how much it weighs. Anyway so a few nights ago while going through office stuff Matt uploaded files from his old phone, which had audio from Lars's birth. Hey-o! I know you all want to hear that. OK, so the final several minutes of labor aside, it was very sweet to listen to. Me saying "It's a boy!" and Matt laughing and my doula saying "He's looking right at you. He's looking right at you!" and Lars's tiny newborn cries. Eight months feels like nothing and everything all at once.

Theo and Ida are obsessed with their tricycles--particularly giving each other rides on their respective tricycles, which is quite a show to watch when Ida is pedaling with Theo on the back--and playing outside. I have vague plans to make a balance bike out of Theo's old thrifted "big kid" bike by removing the pedals. They love to roll down the grassy hill outside our house and shy Ida turns into a daredevil on that hill, riding her tricycle down it with her feet stuck out to the sides. They found my roller skates a few weeks ago and I showed off for them on the sidewalk, which was fun for all of us, and fun for a few of our neighbors who I think thought I was a little nuts.

They recently discovered they can fit inside the hedge and climb around in there, which is a dream come true for Theo who loves to climb trees and to be enclosed in tiny spaces. Not sure if I should be worried about territorial squirrels or birds. They got these BYU hats when we were in Utah over Christmas and they take them off for meals and baths, usually for bed, and for school and church. Otherwise, the hats are on. They also have this funny game of catch which involves every type of ball we own--football, soccer ball, baseball, basketball. They toss it to each other once or twice, then Theo takes it downstairs to the basement to put it away and get another one while Ida waits on the steps. Then he goes back outside, they toss the new one, then Theo goes and swaps it out again. So strange but they love it and played it for over an hour the other day.

Spring is coming. Allergies and all.