Big Brother

Greyson is an ardent, loving yet potentially violent big brother. It seems like no matter how much we tell him that he has to be gentle around Ella, not to yell in her face, not to touch her face, no squeezing, no hitting... I find myself always having to shield her in some way. Yesterday, he said to me, "Look Ma, Ella has glasses!" or something to that extent, and I turned and he'd taken a long piece of thick thread, fashioned it into an eyeglass, and placed it around her left eye. The end of it was hanging over her little nose. I wish, in those moments, I'd stop to consider taking a photo, but usually I find myself quelling a scream and instinctively jolting into rescue mode. I remember when I first brought Ella home, there was one day when I turned my back on the two of them for a while and I heard Greyson say, "I'm going to tuck Baby Ella in." She was in her room, still strapped in her car seat from returning home. I came back to find that Greyson had dumped the entire contents of her laundry basket onto her. I couldn't even see her, it was a mound of clothes piled into the car seat. Again, I wish I had taken a moment to smell the roses but all I could think of was what Ella must have been smelling having all her blowout-stained poopy onesies sitting on her face.

He's definitely the most challenging right now, but also the funniest. The things he says and does, just crack me up. The other day, he wouldn't take his nap, and just played in his room for two hours. When I asked him why he didn't nap he said, "Well, I lie on my bed and rest for a very long time, and I wasn't tired. I didn't sleep so... I'm ALIVE!!" Here are more videos of our two little ones. They make our lives infinitely more purposeful, and undoubtedly more challenging.

• Here's Greyson playing doctor with his buddy Olivia. My favorite line, "I'm shotting this thing!"

• Here's Roque playing Ella as "conductor" to the tune of Greyson's musical, "The Ultimate Superstar." You can hear Amy and I laughing the background. We were in stitches.
  

• In other news, Ella is growling. Our little darling is busy exploring her lower register. It's the most random and hilarious thing because she'll be giving you the sweetest, most angelic smile and then suddenly emit these gutteral, angry noises. We're still trying to get a better video of it. Roque and I vaguely remember our niece, Natalie, doing that for short time when she was little.