Today was a day for milestones

Friends

Today was a great day - and I actually think that you should just let the video tell the story. It's only 2 minutes long, but because I wanted to keep the quality high, it might take a few minutes to download.

Rachel's milestone for today was that she mastered the "F-words". Now that might not sound like a desirable achievement, but until today, she would consistently say "S" rather than "F" at the beginning of words. Firefighers were "siresighters", Four was "sore" and "I passed gas" was "I sarted!" Not today -> all of a sudden, it seems that a switch flipped and we now have "F".

I'm going to finally get around to writing the vacation update blog once I post this, so right after this posting is another set of updates.

Love, ADRE.

August. really?

Friends

How did we get to August? I mean, really - what happened to June and July? Time is just flying by. Two weeks of that time was our vacation in Norway/Sweden/Iceland, but before getting to that....

Back in the beginning of July, Daniel had another seizure. Yes - it had been about 10 months. Yes - we thought we might be done with them.

It all worked out fine in the end, but there was some additional drama when the doctor at Children's Hospital screwed up the dosage of the antiseizure medication, giving him 500% of the correct dose. So that bought him an overnight at the hospital while he worked it out of his system. The effect on Daniel was as if he was very, very drunk - he lost enough control of his muscles that he couldn't really stand, but he could still ask the pretty nurses to dance with him, and tried to impress them with his knowledge: "Did you know....that.....I....can count to...........40?"

By the 4th of July, he was back to normal, and we got to see the fireworks show and that made a big impression.

Then it was time for our summer vacation. The flight to Norway via Minneapolis and Iceland went without a hitch - we have some of the best little travellers ever. It was considerably easier than 2 years ago when we took the same route and there were delays. Once in Norway, we rested up for a day before zipping on over to Stugan - the family cabin on the Swedish coast. The weather was kind of bland for the first couple of days, but quickly got nicer. As usual, the boys spent their days catching crabs, while Rachel was much less certain that she wanted any part of that. Rachel did, however, have a complete crush on her hero Jacob, and wanted nothing more than for him to play with her (which he did - showing himself to be a very mature 9-year-old).

Daniel and Leo really bonded on this trip, and played wonderfully together. There were trips in Grandpa's boat, strawberry picking at the local farm, but otherwise just a lot of hanging out and having fun.

From Stugan a quick trip back to Oslo, then onwards to Iceland for a 4-day stopover. Iceland was a fantastic experience this time around, and defied a lot of stereotypes. It was warm enough for shorts every day and due to the economic meltdown there, it was cheap.

We got to see puffins this time, got to go whale-watching, see the sights from last time in sunshine rather than rain and have a relaxing soak at the blue lagoon. Equally nice was the municipal pool 3 blocks from our B&B, where all of the outdoor pools were maintained at very pleasant body-temperature water, thanks to Iceland's access to geothermal heat. The highlight from the last day was the Reykjavik zoo and park, where the kids play area was simply fantastic - Daniel just about peed himself when he found the Caterpillar sand scoops that used real hydraulics to lift and move dirt. Daniel got a viking get-up, and Rachel got a puffin, which she insisted was a penguin, so his name became "Penguin the Puffin".

Back in Denver, we've had the local city summer celebration day (slides, carousel rides, and Daniel got to paddle a kayak), which was nice.

The local HOA party where we met some new neighborhood kids, and otherwise a number of get-togethers with friends. I hate to skim over these, because they were a lot of fun, but that's the price of updating so seldom.

And that's the historical timeline update. Next, some anecdotes from the last 6 weeks.

Love, ADRE.

Anecdotes from the last couple of weeks

Friends

There are some things that have to be written down just so that they are remembered, without necessarily fitting into any of the previous posts.

As you probably inferred from earlier postings, Daniel has been able to earn a quarter here and a quarter there by helping out around the house. He used this money to buy himself a "recycling truck" which has been his pride and joy for the last couple of weeks. That's the background for the following exchange from last week:

Daniel wanted to watch something on TV, but had been a pill about it, so we'd said "no", and asked him what he might do to get what he wanted, thinking that he'd answer something like "I could ask nicely" or "I could calm down", but what he said instead was: "I could give you some money..."

We've been spending some time with a Realtor lately, so it probably shouldn't have surprised us when Rachel asked "Are we going to look at pwopaties today?" - Anida is convinced that we have the first 2-year old to use "properties" in a sentence.

We're actively trying to phase out Dora the Explorer and Diego from our media picture, because Daniel and Rachel have both really outgrown them (but they don't know it). The new hit is "Super-WHY" from PBS which is great in that it teaches word recognition and intro to reading.

I really ought to do a dedicated Rachel update because she passed the 2 years and 6 months mark at the end of July, but I just know that if I postpone, it won't happen. So in brief (hoping that I'll eventually flesh out).

Rachel is certainly developing and showing a personality of her own. For a long time, she's been the quiet one - happy to be included in anything that Daniel does, and without strong opinions of her own. That phase has ended.

We now have a confident, self-assured toddler who wants no advice from anyone. "I can do it mySELF" is frequently heard if you try to dress her, and she recently started to refuse to wear diapers/pullups "I'm a big gurl, I wear PANTIES!"

Speaking of which, there has been progress on the potty-training front, and we have more successes than failures these days -> it's just that the failures are so - well - messy. Nonetheless, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, and Rachel can count to 20 and is very proud of that fact.

Sliding and Swinging are still some of her favorite activities, and she loves to color and paint - just loves it.

And that'll have to do for now. Until next time.

Love, ADRE.