Expecting him to steal the keys and crash the car next!

Babies go through these brief periods of huge change. I remember Isabel doing something similar, but because she was methodical and cautious, it wasn't quite as dramatic as the phase Orin is currently in. In the last 24 hours, he's been an absolute whirlwind of change.
First, he decided walking is super awesome just before supper yesterday afternoon, when he took about six steps from the kitchen island to me (I was doing something else, so he wasn't even being coaxed). Up to that time, he'd take a couple of steps if coerced, but certainly not of his own volition. Now, he is doing it all the time and getting a real kick out of it.
He also started drinking successfully out of his Klean Kanteen this morning. This is a big deal for us because the water bottles he currently uses leak like crazy, meaning that his bed and clothes get much wetter than need be, so we've been trying to convince him for a while that the KK is where it's at.
He's shown incredible comprehension in a few instances today. First, he toddled over to the fridge and started waving his empty water bottle at the water dispenser. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal to most, but since we've never gotten his water out of the dispenser (too cold), this suggests that he has paid enough attention to what we've gotten ourselves and Isabel and the talk surrounding what comes out of the dispenser to know that it is water. Pretty impressive, in my opinion. The second instance was after supper. Isabel and Dad were heading upstairs to start prepping the bath while I cleaned Orin up in his highchair. He peeked around his chair at the two of them, so I asked him where they were going. He looked at me curiously. I then asked if he wanted to go too and he immediately started wrestling with the buckle and leaning out of his chair. I had no idea he would understand that question, but he evidently did and followed them happily up the stairs.
Lastly, his communication skills themselves have blossomed. He has been saying mama, dada and "cuh" (cat) for a while now. He recently added "nana" (banana) to his repertoire and I am quite sure there are more real words in that vast amount of babble he produces that we just aren't hearing. Most significantly today though was the fact that he is finally signing with some consistency. We have been using the signs for "more" and "all done" and, occasionally "water" with him for a couple of months now and, as a rule, he just looks at us like we are nuts or makes his own crazy hand gestures. Well, at snack today, he used "more" consistently until he was done, at which time, he threw a fit (alright...not exactly progress on "all done, but baby steps people). He used "more" again through supper. The hilarious part, which also indicates that increased comprehension I was talking about was when I put him on the potty prior to bath. After a bit, I asked if he was all done and instead he signed "more". We all had a good laugh at that.
Anyway, if I wake up in the morning and post a Facebook status about my car being missing, you'll all know what happened.

Project 365 - Mar 22nd to Apr 4th

Once again, I haven't got a pic per day, but given what's been going on, I'm lucky to have gotten anything. I promise I'll pick up the slack.

You know how some kids grab grapes and cookies and crackers out of the cart? Not my kid...he rips hunks off the romaine lettuce to munch on.

This crazy snowstorm kept drifting in and out while I did bus duty. One minute it would be snowing and the next it was so sunny, I wished I had my sunglasses.

Notice the look of disdain and desperation on Mischief's face.

Mmmm....death by pepperoni.

More fun in the playhouse.

Hey, girls....remember this guy?

Rat tail! Oh yeah! Jordan Knight was hot baby!

Thanks to a team effort on the part of Aunt Ruby and mom and Mike, Isabel has her now-beloved doll house. She spends hours happily playing with this thing.

A photo of Orin's first steps.

Wrestling after bath!

Helpin' Mama at work.

Poor tired and sick wee baby.

Some video footage to accompany the photos:

Catalogue of Izzy #9

{We are all sitting at the table toward the end of supper. David has his head resting on his arm on the table thanks to our less-than-restful weekend.}
Isabel: "I know you don't feel well, daddy." {Stands up, walks over to him and starts rubbing his arm.}
David: "Thanks, Izzy."
Isabel: "You take care of me when I don't feel well and I take care of you when you don't feel well." {Starts stroking the side of his face} "I will keep you safe."
David: "That's very kind of you, Isabel."
Isabel: {Strokes Dave's nose} "Zurg's not here, Daddy. Don't worry."

Catalogue of Izzy #8

According to Isabel, this box reads "Crackers for Babies and Isabels".

Products are far more specific today than I remember them being.

Still playing catch up.

The only thing that would REALLY deter me from having a third kid is what we are dealing with right now - the CONSTANT barrage of viruses and things when they start daycare/school. We just can't seem to keep up. We all had that TERRIBLE respiratory virus at the end of February/beginning of March...that took each of us about a week (overlapping) to get over.
Late the week before last, just as I was marveling at our entire family being well for a whole week, we all, again in succession, got fevers and various degrees of congestion/sore throat. I am the last one recovering from that and, after being told repeatedly on Thursday how terrible I looked and sounded (despite feeling 1000x better than I did with the last virus, I was feeling on the mend Friday morning.
Isabel projectile vomited at 2am Friday. We cleaned it up and decided that the most sensible thing was to have O go to daycare and me go to work in the morning since I am still #1 when it comes to his care (it comes with the territory when you are breastfeeding) and we wanted to minimize the chances of him getting it, given how serious it could be for him.
Around 7:20am, the call that I half expected and definitely dreaded came. Daycare is closed because her son has the same thing. We know no one locally who doesn't work, so I was now needed to care for Orin. A little too late to call our regular supply teachers, I took him to work in order to tie up loose ends and see if we could get someone off the list. I stayed for period one and Orin was as good as gold (and received no shortage of attention).
Orin fell asleep in the car, so I figured that we'd come home so I could get a few things, eat some breakfast (~10am...so hungry) and he could sleep in the car, thus avoiding infection. Well, when Dave and I talked about it, Isabel seemed fine at this point, we thought we'd done a good job of containing it (used rubber gloves, washed extensively and tried to keep all dirty laundry contained to garbage bags). We decided that so long as we kept them apart physically, we should be alright, so Orin and I stayed home for the day.
At 1:30am, Orin projectile vomited four times. We cleaned up, spent an hour trying to get water into him slowly and monitoring him closely (and packing an overnight bag just in case we needed to take him to the hospital). We thought it was safe to head back to bed around 2:45. While we were trying to get Orin back to bed, something crazy happened with the power (Dave figures it was as a result of a blown transformer or a lightning strike) and it went out. NB Power said they wouldn't get to it until sometime in the day. PERFECT! Beside the regular annoyances from a power outage, no power while on a well means no water pressure, which means no flushing of toilets and no laundry and no handwashing. Did I mention that my tummy was now churning and cramping?
The ending to this story is good though. We've all made it so far without any further throwing up. The power came on at 9am, so laundry is running again. And most importantly, Orin kept himself hydrated and seems just fine after challenging one of the more serious "minor" things that can happen to him.
Here's to an uneventful weekend.