The new skills emerge

Max is still the only one walking, but that isn't keeping everyone from showing off their new skills.

Caroline has decided her new identity will be ... Contortionist!  She crawls up to an opening - say between the couch and the ottoman, or underneath the supports of a chair, perhaps - and stares for a moment before slithering in between the obstacles.  The only problem, of course, is that she is not actually a contortionist.  And, bizarrely, even at 14 months, she has girly little hips that keep her from progressing through to the other side of the passageway she thought she saw.  This results in much loud whining until a parent-type person comes to retrieve her.  If it's an "under" excursion, it's sometimes her puffy diaper that gets her stuck, but the result is the same.

Daniel is sneaky - he is very good at stealing his brother's and sister's toys, only to offer them back with a big, happy grin on his face the minute.  I foresee this being a problem in the future, but the smile does make it slightly better than Max's talent for stealing things WHILE smiling, and then laughing when we tell him, "No!"

And, speaking of Max... the past few days, when we've put the boys down to drink their bottles (we lay them down on boppy pillows and they hold their own bottles, feeding themselves), Max has taken to chugging his his and then slamming the empty bottle down on the ground and sitting up, triumphant that he was the first to finish!  Joey Chestnut...you may have some competition on your hands in a few years...