16 months old!

Dio is 16 months and racing towards becoming a little boy. People who haven't seem him over the summer will remark on how different he looks, how they wouldn't have known it was him if I hadn't been there. I think he looks the same, but that's because I'm around every day. It's strange, and a bit bittersweet, to look at pictures of my children when they were little babies. They look like strangers to me now--Zari especially--even though I was sure I had memorized every feature.

You know, these kind of moments.

Illustration by Heather Cushman-Dowdee of Mama-Is. 

I saw it at the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog.

Here's a rundown of our day--it gives you a good idea of what Zari and Dio are up to.

• 6:30 am: Dio wakes up. I go in and nurse him, in the hopes that he'll go back to sleep. Doesn't work, so we get out of bed at 7:15. Potty and then breakfast. 
• 7:30 am: Zari wakes up and joins us for breakfast. Dio eats a bowl of cereal and then homemade yogurt. He wants to do it himself, so I give him the bowl and spoon and let him have at it. He's very happy and very messy. Eric gets ready for his 8am class (first day of school!). He teaches all 3 classes on Tues & Thurs. Zari and Dio play in a big cardboard box and help me hang up laundry on the clothesline.
• Dio goes in the shower with me, since he's a walking yogurt bomb. Well, technically he takes a bath in a small rubbermaid bin that sits in the shower--we don't have any bathtubs in our house. Zari hops in too. We get dressed, brush teeth and hair (Zari hasn't had a hair brushing freakout for at least a week, thank goodness), put shoes on, and pack a few snacks for the morning's excursion.
• I load both kids in the 1-passenger stroller and head out on a gorgeous, sunny day. First we go to library story time. On the way home we stop by a sewing machine store and a few furniture consignment stores. I give the kids cheese and crackers to keep them content during all this errand-running. When the food runs out, Dio starts trying to climb out of the stroller. We have a few freakout moments, especially when I tell Zari she has to walk the rest of the way and she melts into a crying puddle on the sidewalk. I cheer her up and she decides that walking isn't so bad after all. But then Dio wants OUT. Eventually I undo his buckles and let him stand up in the stroller and hold on for dear life. He thinks this is pretty cool and decides to stop screaming.
• Lunch (eggplant parmesan and wickelkraut from last night, plus cherries and plums and grapes). Naptime for Dio. Then Zari comes into my lap and falls asleep too! Eric comes home and sees both kids sleeping, so we head off to the bedroom for some talking and snuggling and you know...
• Both kids wake up at 3:30 pm. I was able to read for a while (fun page-turner called The Terror--great for going to the gym, because it makes the time go by quickly). We go outside and hang up diapers on the clothesline, play on the swingset, water & pull weeds in the garden, and pick raspberries. Eric comes home briefly to change clothes, then heads back up to campus to play Ultimate frisbee. 
• 5:30 pm: I fetch Eric from his frisbee game because I need to make a last-minute trip to a town an hour away to buy a sewing machine. He takes the kids and I hurry off, hoping no one else has bought the machine. They haven't. It is awesome. More about it later. I get back at 8:30 pm. Dio is already in bed. Zari helps us set up the new sewing machine and finds lots of treasures in the new sewing desk: antique thimbles, a wooden pencil case with scroll-top lid, and a magnifying glass. I tell her that if she goes to bed and sleep all night long, she can play with her treasures first thing tomorrow morning. We snuggle and talk and finally I tell her that I need to go downstairs. She reluctantly lets me go. Most nights we end up snuggling with her until she falls asleep, but she was a bit too wired tonight.

Today was very good in terms of Zari-Dio conflict (or lack thereof). Some days Dio shrieks almost constantly, usually because Zari is taking away his toys or pushing him over. But if we keep busy enough, the kids have too much fun to get frustrated with each other. I still can't believe that I'm having another baby. I've thought about this pregnancy for probably a grand total of 5 minutes! Once I feel the baby moving and listen to the heartbeat on my fetoscope--haven't tried yet, but it should be audible soon--it will feel more real. I also have my first prenatal visit next week.

Now some pictures...

 Zari's first time horseback riding, at my aunt's house in Cache Valley.

With their great-grandparents at Third Dam in Logan, UT