Hat in the Ring

The kids are growing.
No really?
Yeah. Serious.
weird
I know! You would think they would want to be kids all their lives.
Yeah well, what are you gonna do?
Not sure, but you know I wanted to stay 11yrs old, and look what happened.
Dude. Tell me about it.
I would, but I would rather go in this direction, conversationally:

Keelie is taking her first steps. If I knew what I was doing, I could post them. But I don't, so the only way you can see the video is to either be here, or get them in an email from me. Anyway, the number of steps, when we count, has gotten up to about eight steps. My earliest recollection of her steps was when we were in Seattle, so maybe Aug 18th. She seems real proud of herself when she takes steps, but she still knows that she is more solid crawling, so she has not given up on the crawling thing yet.
She his experimenting with crying intensity. It seems we have reinforced this behavior by responding to intense cries. Originally, these cries were the result of pain from falls, or other such things. Now, she is trying this out for lesser things like, toy being taken away by sibling, I'm not sitting in this chair anymore, etc. The fun stuff.
Riles is doing cartwheels all the time. Then she goes to gymnastics, and "has a headache". Not sure if I know what is going on there, but it does not sit well with me. She does not respond well to the stop whining, and suck it up shtick. I'm going to blame it on the Washington genes, and pay the price when Sarah reads this. Still, at the pool today, Riles was nothing but go. Swim here, throw me there, jump in, go under water, on and on. Compared to Ethan who was on the side of the pool doing the iguana. So, Riles has this endless energy, then balk, and I have yet to figure out the rhyme and reason.
Riles listens to my ipod all the time. And when she is not listening to it, she is asking me for it. On the plus side, she seems to enjoy "For Whom the Bell Tolls" off of the album Ride the Lightning. And she appreciates Shane McGowan, and Flogging Molly. This only encourages me to hand over the ipod, and we lose Riles for a while.
Ethan, while on the side of the pool, became interested in another parties game of throwing a ball. He joined in uninvited. Very un-Halsted in my opinion. Apparently they are his friends now, so it is OK. What are their names Ethan? "I don't know" -in the "what difference does that make?" tone.
The two of them are all into racing each other all the time. Though they know that Ethan is faster. So, it usually involves the announcement of the race, by Rileigh, when she has half the distance to reach the goal as Ethan. Then there is competition until the outcome appears to go in favor of Rileigh, and a whole bunch of whine/deal/excuse/cover-up ensues.
The two of them have not been able to sit near each other for at least two years. This is still true. By themselves, they can quietly engage in a myriad of activities. Together? Chaos. It usually involves throwing stuffed animals, or pillows. However it can also involve hitting, and other WWF type stuff. Riles has to choose underhanded tactics, as she has not been able to match Ethan physically. ...which usually leads to escalation, and then pain, and crying to Mom and or Dad. During school they were not allowed to sit next to each other. In the Sienna, they are not allowed to sit next to each other- they must be in separate rows. On long trips, the isle separation proves to not be enough. Still, we have yet to threaten to stop the car. In the theater, I sit in between. Growing up, I remember having a pecking order- we fell in line behind Clark, and the poo poo rolled downhill. Teasing did not occur unless someone was bothering someone else. The youngers did not push the olders because the outcome was a done deal. I don't ever remember chaos. Is that because age plays a factor? or is it the male /female thing? Could it be genes? And now I'm thinking of rose colored glasses. There was harmony when we were growing up, but certainly not all the time. ......still.
While we were in Seattle, I wish I had the microphone running the whole time. So many phrases lost due to my humming bird brain. Still, I do remember one:
We are eating at the Crab Pot on the waterfront in Seattle. They serve meals as "pots": throw a bunch of ingredients and food stuffs into a pot and boil it. Sarah and I are having the bay pot (or some such thing) which has, among other things, full shrimp in it. So, I am taking the heads off the shrimp, and the legs the shell and tail, which the kids have not seen yet. So, needless to say, they are intrigued.
Riles: "With their little eyes; they are so cute. So, you pinch the heads off?" -all in that oh so matter of fact even tone.