August Shenanigans

It's been a long time since my last post (sorry), and August has flown by. We took a trip to Bintan, Indonesia which involved an hour-long ferry trip from S'pore to Indonesia. I thought the ferry would be like the ones you see in the movies around New York, but I was wrong. These looked like yachts with a bunch of seats and crappy carpet instead of a bunch of bling. The ride over to Bintan started right after a storm, so there were a lot of people breathing into their sick bags. Luckily no one got sick, though the boys didn't like sleeping in our arms.

Sean got to play golf on a course designed by Greg Norman which included a few holes along the South China Sea. I rode along since I haven't played in over two years and certainly need lessons. The scenery was beautiful. The resort has a great pool with frog fountains which the boys loved. There's also a beach, and Liam enjoyed playing in the sand, but Graeme wasn't so sure. He had a hard time walking in the sand, so he would stand there frozen with his legs shaking and his arms out with jazz hands. He was alright once he sat down and played, but he still didn't throw the sand around with glee like Liam did. One of the funniest moments was when Liam quickly crawled from our play spot on the beach to the edge of the water where Sean was standing. He left a track from his belly in the sand, which looked like a giant slug had visited the beach.

Back home, the boys have been progressing rapidly. Both are pointing to things they want and saying "na" or "ma", which appears to mean "I want that thing right there, now!". Graeme has repeated a few things I've said, with cheese being his funniest word because he says it correctly in this happy tiny voice. Liam is talking plenty, but not in English. I think he's concentrating on walking now, which he just started a couple of days ago. He still prefers to crawl but is now standing up and walking about 10 steps regularly.

One hilarious thing Liam has started doing is telling Graeme off. In the past, Graeme would take whatever Liam had and Liam would cry. Starting in Bintan, Graeme took Liam's toy, and Liam took it back, then stuck out his arm in a "talk to the hand" position and just read him the riot act in twinspeak. When I thought he was done, he stuck that arm out again and did it for longer. Graeme looked kind of dumbfounded and then played with something else. Liam has done this a few times since, and has now started stealing Graeme's toys. Ah, the fighting begins! But just when I think they're not getting along, they'll put their heads together and rub noggins lovingly.

They've started climbing onto my lap with certain books as a request for a mommy reading session, and will sit for the entire book more and more often. They will also pick a book off the bookshelf and quietly sit alone and "read". Favorites include Sometimes I Like to Curl into a Ball, Brown Bear..., Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pat the Bunny, and Goodnight Moon. Their favorite picture book is My Big Truck Book, and they really fight over that one. Gotta look at the fire truck and excavator now!

The boys' current favorite activities besides reading include playing peek-a-boo with any type of cloth or their hands, rolling around on blankets, kissing mommy (wet from Liam, mostly nose from Graeme), "feeding" the baby doll, pointing and talking to dogs during our walks, swimming, playing with stacking barrels and blocks, singing and dancing at Kindermusik, making strange noises with their lips, and fighting over the slide.

We'll end for now with one of the funniest things I've ever seen in person. As Liam is starting to walk, he gets into the gorilla position more often as Graeme did when he was beginning to walk. Yesterday Liam got into the gorilla in the bathtub but kept his head up, and started splashing water backward between his legs toward Graeme while giggling. Graeme was sitting about 4 inches from Liam's butt, and he would "receive" the splashes and splash them toward himself. It looked like some bizarre form of wet toddler football hiking without the football. Complete hilarity. Too bad Daddy had the camera in Cambodia.