I got a request about a week ago from Sarah to have another Roli Poli update.

Sarah’s little boy, Oli, is about 2 weeks younger than Roli, and ever since they were in utero, they have been competing for the title of Heavy Weight Champion. (Here are the competitors back in May. Arent they cute??)

Fortunately for Roli, (But very unfortunately for poor Oli) Oli won the “Who can get more ear infections” title. But he’s also got the “I get to sit in the sun all day in my diaper all thru Februaury” title, so maybe its a good trade off. As you can guess, Sarah and I are are both very busy and sometimes have to rely on each other’s blog to get our family updates.

With our computer all crazy lately, we haven’t been able to take the usual amounts of photos cause we cant load them all to the computer. Today I am posting pics I took on tuesday. I love this shot of me and my boys. I even love Elliott’s expression. Its one of his most common looks lately.

And heres a usual at our house right now. Roli is breaking 4 molars and 2 k-9 teeth through at the same time. Ouch

If he’s not crying from teething pain, he’s testing his voice and lungs. Do you remember us commenting a lot when he was a newbie that he has a cry resembling a cat screaming? There was a small boxed up piece of time (with a great big bow on it) that we did not hear that awful noise. Ethan and I found ourselves saying something like “at least he doesn’t sound like a cat in pain anymore” And of course… its back. And with a vengeance. He does it a lot. More like all the time. Except now it isnt associated with frustration – its all experimental. Other things he’s been experimenting with is running. Actually its more like running away. And laughing. He loves to tease Elliott and Neela and run away as fast as his bow-legs will carry him. Of course laughing and squealing in delight all along. Its really cute and hard to not to laugh watching him give the other kids a taste of their own medicine.

In other Roli Poli news, we had a little scare a few weeks ago with his breathing. Basically he had as asthma attack. It was a Sunday, so our pediatrician told us o go to the ER. Roli and I were off for a regular “Smith Family weekend ER visit”. After 4 hours, and one more albuterol treatment they sent us home with some steroids and a date with the regular doctor. Dr. Regular put Roli onto a “preventative inhaler” that he takes twice a day. I can tell a difference.

I love kids at this age. From about 9 mo. till that “almost 2 years” age. They are heaven. Every time you look at em you actually debate on cannibalism. I have starting asking Roli for a hug or a kiss. He will come running in from another room with a huge grin on his face and his arms stretched out wide. I keep expecting him to come running in with fishy face ready for a kiss. We’ll keep working on that one. For now its a smile full of teeth.

We are working on speech. He is behind, no real words yet. We have been successful at signing with him. Every time we understand what he wants, he giggles with delight and bounces up and down. Again with the cuteness. Dr. Regular also commented on this saying “Well he probably doesn’t feel the need to speak cause he’s getting what he needs with ASL.” This may be true to a certain extent, but i firmly believe otherwise. I have read and studied the effects of bilingual behaviorism on small children let alone Sign being one of them. I believe it is the Sign Language that has encouraged any communication at all considering he had so much hearing loss from those nasty ear infections. And lets be realistic here. We are just now starting to understand the sentences Neela is saying. And shes 13 months older!

Ok, Sarah. My update is done. Now your turn.
And to anyone else… Got any requests of what you’d like to see here?