{Week in Review}

It dawned on me as I reflected on photos from the past week.  Regarding the grand debate of nature versus nurture, this post serves as hard evidence for the nature argument.  The complexity and importance of both facets shouldn't be overlooked, but even as I sit at our table typing this, my toddler son is squeezing a string cheese between his fingers with all his might and chuckling to himself as he passes gas.  I assure you that Andreas and I have not modeled either of these behaviors.  Let's make some further scientific observations.

Each time I bake bread, Anders helps in the same capacity as he does with most domestic projects - dancing underfoot, eager to examine the mechanics of the task at hand.  With breadmaking in particular, this includes attempting to stick his fingers in the dough hook of my mixer as many times I will allow before moving him off the counter.  He's also very enthusiastic about punching down the risen dough.

Sadly this week, Anders was sick with a cold (see reference: Germ Pit from last week's post).  As far as I could tell his energy level was unaffected, but he was tired and irritable.  Every afternoon we were both equally desperate for entertainment, and every afternoon I did my very best to avoid allowing him to watch endless hours of television.  One day, we decided to occupy our time with a bubble bath.

Anders loves to play with bubbles, rub shaving cream all over his body, and splash.  Basically he's super into anything that involves making a gigantic mess in the bathroom.

Thursday we continued our seemingly endless stretch of indoor play.

This time the new bunk bed served as our jungle gym.  I feel like he is so easy to read in these pictures.  "Hey, Mom!  Look at me!  Do you think I should do it?"  What's truly amazing is that he hasn't actually figured out he can climb one more ladder rung onto the top bunk.  I'm not looking forward to that realization.

By Friday, it was clear we were ready to get outside again.  We walked around the neighborhood puddle jumping.  Anders got his pants and shoes completely soaked and then decided he was too tired to walk back and needed to be held.  Mom fail.  Next time I'll push the stroller behind him just in case.

When we were almost home, I tried to coax Anders into laying in our neighbors' leaves for a cute photo op.  Instead he chose to perform the can-can dance while repeating 'kick' at maximum toddler volume.

I love my little boy.  I can't believe I'm about to have another one!