I figure the second ones are here to even up for the first ones. Beautiful photo and I love the little dino shirt!

Count me among the ranks of Parents Who Can't Handle More Than Two Kids (and, coincidentally, also among the ranks of Bloggers Who Abandoned Any Thought of Keeping Up A Monthly Letter For Two Children.)

On a related note: Hey, Jon, aren't vasectomies, like, the best thing ever?

Well, at least she is a cute little jackal.

If Marlo is Coco, does that mean Leta is Chuck? I suspect that she would object strongly, in the way that only kindergarten girls can (and by that I mean flinging herself bodily on the ground and howling about how she's having the WORST DAY EVER*), to that analogy.

*Oh wait. Is that just my kindergarten girl? Sorry... carry on.

she does look a bit rotten in that picture.....adorable but rotten

I loved the sage wisdom that I thought I had before I gave birth to Satan (oops I meant my precious second son). I thought I was in for *twice* the work. I could laugh for a month on that one....

You are hysterical. That's how I feel about my son. He was so cute! And little! And now I have a 25 pound nine month old who drags his high chair into the kitchen and slams it into my back to let me know he's hungry.

When our first daughter was born, I did a scrapbook page every month for her. Her last page was done in March of last year. Her sister, who just turned 1, has no pages. I can completely agree with you. I'll catch up eventually.... maybe.

I only have one but he is like that. I vacuum often, we keep stuff away from edges but he just keeps getting bigger and bigger and a farther reach. He can climb. And he still finds the smallest most most hard to see stuff on the floor and puts it in his mouth. And oh yes he bites. This is our first one. If my first one was like Leta I would probably want another one but as it is atm I'm content with just the one. I'm starting to realize he is just full of exploding energy and will never slow down.

Ahhh we are so living this right now. Our first, mobile somewhat by 9 - 10 months, was the rule follower. We said no, and she listened. Still does, as much as a nearly 3 year old can. Barely baby proofed.

The new 9 month old, the baby sister - a rule breaker since her first week - ohmygosh. And so mobile and into everything from ripping the carbon dioxide sensor out of the wallplug to trying to go to stairs and after anything her sister touches... she's a fast little sucker.

We feel your pain. :) Life is not 2x as hard its 100x.

We should get our 11 month olds together. Mine has a lovely bruise on his head because he tried to "walk" down the two little steps on the gross motor climber at daycare, even though he knows to go down steps backward on his belly, because he thinks he's a big boy. He also likes to dive face first into the bath tub, and lean over the edge of the changing pad on his dresser backward so he can laugh at himself in the mirror. NO FEAR of anything. Including large animals and strangers. I can't even contemplate how a second could be be more active/trouble. The little stinker annihilates everything in his path.

Wow. The image of a semi truck full of angry, bipolar chickens landing on a house is terrifying. And then following that up with the imagery of giving birth to a dog. Best. Post. Ever.

wow. almost 1. congrats on having two wonderful children and enjoying the moment

Just wait until you have to hand that little jackal the keys to your car and watch her drive off in a cloud of smoke, laughing her best mad scientist laugh muahahahahaha. We are wondering now why we ever taught ours how to talk.

You MUST get this:

http://littleplayzone.com/

I can't remember where, but we searched the net until we found one for around $69.00 instead of $99.00. GET TWO COMPLETE SETS - it is cheaper and bigger than the expansion sets. This will allow you enough to make it the size you want (just take some panels out for a smaller area). This has SAVED OUR SANITY because we can leave the immediate room for a moment and our son is STILL ALIVE when we return!

Quick mod tip: Long Zip Ties (you can get them at hardware stores) looped around the bottoms keep the pieces together when she stands and starts to pull them apart (which she will).

Since my son was mobile, this has been our great room centerpiece (shhhhh, don't tell HGTV!). He will be two on the 27th and he still doesn't mind going in when there's only one of us home and we have to run to the basement or garage. He is a couch climber - but hasn't yet climbed out of it - or his crib... yet.

We even saved money on a stair gate by zip tying one of the gates to the bottom of our stairs leading to the 2nd floor (the top landing has a proper gate).

Oh, yeah - ours is covered in crayon because before he was old enough to sit at his little table, we would have him color in there to prevent colored walls.