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.