Daniel can pedal, Rachel knows about diapers...

Friends

Today we went out for an easter egg hunt with Carlos, Sergio and Ella and their parents Eddie and Kristy. It was fun, but it was all over in about 30 seconds - you have seriously never seen a field get cleaned up so fast.

Daniel has learned how to pedal his tricycle. Until now, he's been riding on it and scootching along, but he now can propel himself forward for quite a distance by pedaling, which is fun.

He also went in for a checkup on his foot with Dr. B. We have tended to forget that Daniel ever had a clubfoot because he's so mobile, but it's still important to get professional advice. Dr. B. is very pleased with the current state of his foot. There is a little more "play" in his ankle than the norm, but nothing that warrants any treatment now.

Rachel continues to pull off stunts that indicate that she understands more than she can express. No new words, but she's more consistent with them.

Today when she was dirty, so we asked her to get a clean diaper. Sure enough, she toddles over to the bathroom, opens the cabinet, pulls out 4 diapers and comes back with them.

Rachel also likes to climb on things. She can now get up on the couch by herself, which is trouble in the making, and we've caught her climbing up on her little red chair in the middle of the playroom floor. On a fun note, she's a little dancer. Play any song with a beat to it, and she'll stomp her feet and move her body to the sound. At this point, her enthusiasm for dancing resembles her mama, while her moves look more like her papa's dancing...

Daniel started swimming lessons last week. More on this later, but he had a good time.

And March Madness is almost here again. Grandpa and Farmor come this week. Go Xavier...

Until next time,

Love D.E.A.R.

Colors? Rachel knows colors?

Friends.

So about an hour ago, we had one of those jaw-dropping, "how-do-they-do-that?" moments, when we asked Rachel to go get a ball. Now, we know that she knows what a ball is, and so that request was pretty simple, but just to mess with her a little, Eric changed it to "get a yellow ball".

When she selected the yellow ball on the first try we said "ah, a fluke". Then we asked for the red ball, the purple ball, the yellow ball again and she got it right every time.

Now we knew that she understood a lot more than she could express in words, but the idea that she knows colors just blows us away because we haven't worked on that at all. By our latest count, Rachel can communicate 11 definite words (more, eat, milk, book , ball, cat, dog, bear, hat, that, Daniel) and maybe 3 more (duck, shoe, sleep). But she understands a lot more.

Daniel is big on rules these days. There is a certain way that things are supposed to be, and not supposed to be. One rule we have at the house is "no toys on the table". The other day, our dryer was broken and Anida hung some clothes to dry on the kitchen table. Daniel woke up the next morning, came downstairs and said "no clothes on the table Mama. - this is a warning". A warning is what you get before a time-out or a toy is taken away, and clearly, mama's transgression warranted a warning.

He's also big on pretend play. He's a fireman, a medic, a garbage man, a bug, a shark, a you-name-it. If you don't know how to play with a bug, he'll tell you what your next line should be; "Papa, say 'help medic'".

There are signs that Daniel is starting to see Rachel as a valid playmate. They'll alternate turns when playing basketball, and he's initiated a few things where he wanted to play with her. (though it still needs to be on his terms)

I'd love to be able to report that we're sleeping through the night these days, but that's just not true. It's a rare night that Rachel doesn't wake up around 4am, and many a night Daniel comes in to announce that he "has to go potty". He'll go on his own, he just wants us to know about it and hang out with him.

If you have a moment, we'd like to promote the following video. Our second cousin Brett has Down syndrome and this is a beautiful video with stunning pictures of individuals with Down's. Brett is appropriately placed right after the quote about the perfect person.

And that's about it for now.

Love, A.D.R. E