Why Christian will never learn to crawl

Christian doesn't get a lot of "tummy time" around here, certainly not two 10-20 minute sessions a day as recommended by many experts. I know about tummy time and I know why it's important. Now that babies are going to sleep on their backs, a practice which dramatically reduces instances of crib death, time on the belly is even more important to help them develop the skills and upper body strength that lead to rolling and crawling. And I try, dutifully putting Christian on his belly on his very colorful and interesting playmat (courtesy of Sandra. Thanks, Sandra!) daily. But Christian hates tummy time and starts crying - really wailing - after about three minutes. No matter what toys I present him with, however much I lower myself onto the floor to get fact-to-face with him, no matter how much Mozart that playmat belts out, Christian wails. Which I can be hard-hearted enough to disregard for the sake of his physical development but for one thing: Alex comes running, yelling "Mi bruder ! Mi bruder! Nay nay hor oof!!* He doesn't like that!" and starts to try to roll Christian onto his back.

Which is totally interfering with Christian's development but is kind of the cutest thing ever.

I hope he's always this protective of his chly bruder.**

* Translation: My brother! My brother! No, no stop that!"

** Translation: little brother

Um, did somebody say it was Easter weekend?

Alex, at least, was very excited about this little development.

Precious cargo

Alex loves his tractor. Alex loves his brother. Therefore, this shouldn't really come as any surprise:

For Robin, who remembers Alex as "serious"

Alex in July 2005 (6 months)...



... August 2005...

...and November 2005.


In fairness to Robin, Alex was a bit on the serious side if I remember it right. But clearly not all the time!

Brothers