With just on the cusp of running (it’s looking like they’ll skip walking altogether), it suddenly hit home how quickly the boys are changing, and how many of their little quirks and habits have already changed or disappeared altogether.  I don’t want to forget them.

Nic laughs in his sleep.  I know I’ve said it many times before, but it’s an absurdly adorable habit.  It used to happen all the time, but I haven’t heard it in a while now.  He’d just be sleeping on your lap, or in his crib, and suddenly start chuckling.  It would last a few seconds, and maybe repeat a couple of times, and then he’d just be sleeping peacefully.  We never managed to capture it on video, sadly…

Dexter crawls like an orangutan.  He crawls on one knee and one foot, with his leg splayed out to the side.  I don’t know if we’ve caught video of it, but we definitely have a few photos.  I know it’s because of how close he is to walking, but he’s been doing it for more than a month now.

Nic power crawls.  Every once in a while something catches his attention – usually the laundry room door being left often mistakenly – he grunts, and suddenly he’s off.  It’s LOUD.  His knees and hands pound into the floors and he rockets forward, so intent on wherever he’s going.  And he yells at us so loudly if we beat him to the door and close it first…  In another few weeks he’ll be walking, and the power-crawl will be gone.  Another thing I don’t think we’ve managed to capture…

Dexter squeezes both eyes shut when he’s smiling hugely and flirting with you.  He didn’t used to, but he picked up the habit and now it sticks.  I don’t get it, but that’s alright.  This kid is a natural born flirt, which I can assure you he doesn’t get from my side.

Nic EATS HIS VEGETABLES.   I have to write it down because even now this is changing, and I imagine we’ll be fighting for the next 17 years to get him to do so again.

Dexter wrestles with blankets.  He’s face-plant into the blanket and bite it, and then roll in it.  Quite likely he’s a crocodile.  And if you go and lay your head on the blanket, he’ll laugh and come over and wrestle with the blanket, pushing his head into yours.

Nic dances!  Any time there’s music or a beat, he just starts bouncing up and down.  If you put toys in a bowl and start bouncing them up and down, he’ll come and grab the rim and start squealing with pleasure.

Dexter will break out in laughter if you put a snugglie on your head, and then work his way over to you and take it off, and bust out laughing once he’s gotten it in his hands.

Nic growls.  It’s deep down in his throat, and suddenly he’ll just start growling.  Not in a scary or angry way – it’s just like when Dexter starts blowing raspberries.  Dexter blows raspberries – Nicholas growls.

Dexter smiles when you apply powder to his nether regions.  I only mention this because when he’s a teenager,  I’m going to need all the blackmail material I can get to keep him for generating early grandchildren, and this one small start.  We also have a photo of when he escaped in the middle of  a diaper change and went crawling off across the floor sans diaper, laughing all the while.  He then peed on the floor, but we didn’t take a picture of that.

I know that there are many, many more little quirks and aspects of their personality that I haven’t listed, but at least I’ve written some of them down, and hopefully Katie and Laura will add their own as well.  And some of these quirks might stick around for a while.  Still, they’re growing up so incredibly fast, and while that’s an unmitigated wonder to behold, I can still think idle, nostalgic thoughts of the phases they’re already passed through.

-Joel