Well, the only one in the household left on their hands and knees is me (scrubbing the floors) -- Dante is through with crawling. While he looks like someone slipped some tequila left over from our wedding into his sippy cup, walking is his preferred mode of transit. He weaves and wobbles around and still falls down frequently, but he just gets right back up. Alejandro is now the victim of not-so-random drive-bys. Dante sets his sights on his target, runs in at full speed, swipes a toy while still on the run, turns and takes off knowing retaliation is not far behind. We've had some minor altercations thus far but the stage has been set for some serious turf/toy wars. It's all okay though because Alejandro says "I love my brother really really much." Dante keeps Alejandro company in the corner when Alejandro is in trouble (usually for picking on Dante.) Dante is also aspiring to be the next Lebron, I found him trying to shoot hoops. He's figured out how a lot of the toys' pieces and parts go together by watching his big brother. But the imitation is not one sided as Alejandro mimics Dante's stagger and gibberish.
Our trip to Ohio helped me notice some of Alejandro's personality quirks to which I had become immune. He prefers broccoli over french fries and you can bribe him to do just about anything for a slice of watermelon. When he's in a hurry to finish eating, he always stuffs as much food as he can in his mouth. He recently discovered another food receptacle. After he completed his own impression of a chipmunk, Alejandro decided to shove the remaining slices of carrots and cucumbers into Dante's mouth (who was more than happy to comply.) We have to keep a constant vigil at meal time as Alejandro tries to feed Dante unattended baby food as well. (If you know how messy a baby eats, and how messy a two year old eats -- just imagine the combination of the two year old feeding the baby. Did you think I was kidding about scrubbing the floors?) 
Anyhow, not a whole lot else is going on. The summer here is almost beautiful enough to make one forget how miserable it was when we first arrived (almost -- but not quite!) Our move date to Israel is currently the end of December but that will probably change again by the time I finish typing this sentence. Short term we are looking forward to some company, both visitors and other families on temporary assignments for Intel.
Love always,
debi
