starting to rain again :(

Dante started sleeping through the night, so we stuck him in his own room which happens to be the same place the computer calls home. So the only time when I'm free to use the computer (when Dante is sleeping) the room is occupied. Such is life. Anyhow, we have company now and the boys have been sharing a room the past few nights. They wake each other up at the crack of dawn but otherwise it's going well enough.
Time just flies by these days. Dante's birthday came and went. The baby days are long gone. He's signing like crazy and he climbs up, over and into everything! He's very astute and puts his powers of observations to good use by finding what buttons to press to drive people crazy. When he's not too happy with his brother, Dante will go and get Alejandro's most cherished stuffed duck, wave it in Alejandro's face and take off running. With me, he just spits and then smiles at me. The boys go between fighting over toys and beating on each other to giggling and hugging and kissing within a blink of the eye. I try to ignore as much as I can unless someone's life or limb is in peril.
Alejandro has turned into quite the little person with his own opinions, reasoning and observations. "I know it wasn't nice to hit Elijah, but he hit me first and that wasn't nice either." "I'm not tired yet but how about I watch a movie and then I'll go to bed. Okay? Good." He loves to help. But you have to be careful when letting him help you put produce away because he likes to try a bite of all the fruits to see which one he really wants. It's really sweet to watch him read stories to Dante though. He uses different voices for different characters and everything. He loves to re-enact incidents, especially when he was getting in trouble but he makes them these big dramatic experiences. Some friends watched the kiddos one night and the next morning Alejandro tells me "When we were brushing teeth, Mister Jay said 'No, no, no. You stick that tongue back in your mouth.' And then Miss Hettie said 'No, no, no. You be quiet because your brother is trying to sleep.'" Apparently everyone waves their finger when they says 'No, no, no' which is funny because I don't know anyone that has ever done that to him.
As a family, we finally started going on more trips now that the summer is nearing an end. Visited friends from college in Seattle, went to Mount St Helen's and Crater Lake. Tentatively, we are still headed to Israel after Christmas but Friday they announced the schedule was pushed out another 10 weeks, so we may end up here until March. Who knows?
Love always,
debi