Building Buddies

She may have other limitations, but Neve never ceases to amaze us with how quickly she picks up on new skills simply by watching us.  Take Lego building, for example.  She's obviously been able to demolish and tear apart Lego pieces for awhile, but she's now getting skilled at putting them together (in no particular order, of course.)  She seriously studies what Michael is doing and then tries to replicate it.  It's pretty cute to see a 1-year-old attempt to build decent towers.  Michael even tolerates her in his proximity when she's willing to build, rather than destroy.  We could seriously just dump all of our baby toys since she just wants to be doing what the bigs are doing anyway.  (Oh, if they could just inspire her to walk...)

In other non-baby-related news, Michael is friggin' killing us right now with his extreme 3-year-old fears.  Over the past couple of days, he has developed this manic-crazy fear of flying insects.  We're talking out-and-out, over-the-top, cry-at-the-top-of-his-lungs temper tantrums if he spots anything resembling a bug in the air.  (He has even cried after seeing some dust floating in the sunlight in our house.)  Should definitely make for an interesting summer since we basically live in a bug-infested swamp.  Oh yeah, and did we mention that cyclical forecasts are calling for the biggest crop of cicadas to come through in 17 years?  Good God, we are never going to be able to leave our house until the first frost hits again.  This is only a phase...this is only a phase....this is only a phase.....