"Firecracker" is definitely an appropriate description of our little Abigail as of late. She is toddling around a lot more these days. We don't see the 'Abby scoot' around the house as much - well, at least from Abby. Rachael has taken to the scoot, so we see it from her now (sigh). Abby has also figured out how to climb onto the stepstool in the bathroom so she can play with the water in the sink. She can push the button and open the dishwasher. I'll walk into the kitchen and see her playing with dirty silverware, just as casual as can be. And her assaults on the trash can continue. We call her our Dumpster Diva. Although this week she also figured out how to open the toilet lids with one hand, and throw things in the toilet with the other, so she now has a competing obsession. She is pretty smart and pretty strong-willed. If you ask her about going outside, she will walk to the door, and then come back and fuss at you if you do not proceed in a timely fashion.

Her male sibling counterpart, Joshua, has been busy as well this week. He's decided he likes the feel of dirt on mommy & daddy's sheets, so he goes outside, grabs handfuls of dirt, then runs into the house and dumps it all on our bed. Little pigpen then congratulates himself by rolling around in the dirt covered sheets. He has also developed a toilet obsession. He always want to play in the little pool or with the slip-in-slide in the backyard. And if you don't honor his requests for water play, he finds alternatives - one being the toilets. On Monday he also found a bowl of jello that had not set in the fridge, and decided to bathe in jello. He was streaked with red the rest of the day. He is also loving his popsicles, and opens the freezer constantly to make a grab. One day most of the items in the freezer had defrosted thanks to Joshua's continued assaults (sigh).

Jacob is just being Jacob. He'll be watching a good movie on tv, and will roar at all the other kids if they even think of coming into his vicinity. Then we turn the movie off, and he roars more. He's decided summer school is not for him - he'd rather be at home watching movies. But when he's not going to school he's bored, bored, bored. Kinda like all kids, I guess.

Rachael really enjoys picking out books at the library. She has one in her hands now. Lately, she will sit by me, touch my tummy, and say "mommy's baby."

..gotta go. Joshua is launching another full-scale assault on the fridge..