A couple of days ago I heard Isaac giggling in the playroom, so I peeked my head around the corner to see what was so funny. To my utter surprise, he and Lucy were kissing by the window! (Up until that point, the only other person he had ever kissed was me—more often than not during his dinosaur routine). So when I came upon Isaac kissing his sisters again today (yes, he was initiating the gesture), I hurriedly grabbed the camera in time to record some more smooches:
After I took this video, Isaac also kissed me and attempted to kiss Jude, who ran away laughing and squealing, "Noooo!" (must be a boy thing). Not sure what's gotten into the normally aloof Isaac lately, but I guess sometimes you just need to spread the love!
Isaac is a pretty reserved fellow, and his public displays of affection are most frequently bestowed upon yours truly. Which is one reason that I was shocked (and delighted!) to witness these exchanges tonight, first with Jude:
And then—even better!—with Lucy:
Anyone who's met Isaac knows how huge this is. Perhaps Dahlia's friendlyovertures have finally convinced him that these built-in buddies might not be so bad, after all!
None of my kids will kiss me on demand—and unsolicited besos are almost as hard to come by. So imagine my delight when Isaac incorporated this ever-elusive display of affection into his "choreography" for my abbreviated version of "We Are the Dinosaurs" (one of the kids' most-requested Laurie Berkner Band songs):
He goes through this same routine (hands slapping my legs during the marching part, standing and throwing back his head for the roar, leaning in for the kiss on the last word) every single time I sing this song. I have no clue where he got the idea to do all of this—but I love every second of it!
Jude has always struggled with personal space issues, complaining the minute that he thinks his siblings are infringing on his territory. (Being on the bottom of the heap in the womb will do that to you, I guess.) I think the girls must be starting to notice the way he pushes them away because lately it seems that they have been on a mission to cure him of this particular idiosyncrasy. Their efforts to win him over started with the occasional kiss:
And then progressed to hugs:
And now they even try to double team him with affection:
The fact that he seems to be enjoying (and even reciprocating) this attention from the girls gives me hope that someday I will be able to orchestrate group pictures of the Fab Four without Jude giving me this look every. single. time:
If you played along with yesterday's whodunit and deduced that Lucy was the biter, you cracked the case! The victim was a hapless Dahlia—but she's not holding a grudge. Here's proof:
