return of the bimpire: Scootcher-Meister Meister-Scootcher

Emmett has had an eventful month. At 6 months his bottom teeth arrived and he learned to sit upright. He was the size of an average 9 month-old. Now at 7 months he's a new kid with remembrances of the former one. Once happy to sit still on my lap for lengthy stretches of time, he is now all a-wiggle with outstretched arms and an open mouth. He has all the motivation he needs to start crawling but only half of the skill. Place him on his rump and he'll immediately move into a half-split pose, front leg bent and back leg straight behind. He rocks until his weight propels him over the front leg and he can slide down to his belly. Now he is in prime scootching position. To his mild frustration, all efforts to move forward just push him backward until he hits an obstacle. Yesterday Bim pulled him out from under a chest of drawers, where he'd wedged all of his body except his side-turned head.

The girls dote.

Ally learned to knit in a split second and is now spending more time in her room. She has her own room as of two weeks ago when Bim took her and Liv to Utah for Spring Break while I stayed home to rearrange furniture and paint. Ally chose the color "Peru" for her room. Instead of storming off to her room she tells me she's going to Peru. Having her own space/refuge has made a big difference in Ally's life. She used to visit our room at least once every night, under duress, to deliver Liv's messages: she needed one of us to bring her a moon pack (her hot pad) for growing pains, or to pull her blankets back onto the bed or turn on Twilight Turtle's music. Poor patient, wretched Ally wasn't getting any sleep. Having separate rooms seems to have solved the problem. She's Liv's whipping girl no more! I'm happy to report that everyone except me and Emmett is sleeping through the night again.

Liv agreed to let me paint her room black (!) since she'd be sharing it with Emmett when he moves out of our room. I applied touches of pink and gave her a remote control to operate the twinkle lights outside her window, and she has been more than thrilled with the decor. Replacing the bulky ceiling fans with lightweight shades has opened up the rooms quite a bit. And I can finally display my mom's wonderful homemade Noah's Ark animals--a longstanding wish of mine.

I boxed up most of their toys while I was working and they haven't asked for anything back (yet), which turns out to be a great boon to both their play and our clean-up time. Ally's record player is getting a lot of use and the dress-up box gives and gives again.

Liv tells some wonderful stories these days. Most of them feature dreaded "bowlies" at school. These are always boys and they behave in dastardly ways, usually either calling Liv and her friends' artwork stupid, punching and scratching the girls, or both. Her eyes get very round and I'm pretty sure she believes her own stories as she's making them up. I always ask her what her teacher, Ms. Lizzy did when she found out about the bowlies, and I usually hear that Ms. Lizzy (the kindest, most gentle soul on Earth) kicked and punched them and saved the day.