Some recent videos

Friends

We're not oblivious to the fact that it's been some time since we last posted video of the kids on this site, so here it goes.

First off is a 2.5 minute video of Rachel dunking her doll. Now, you may ask yourself - what is the significance of this, and we don't really have an answer for you - but considering her recent height measurement, maybe you're seeing some early WNBA action here?

Daniel's video? Well, it's 3 minutes of cake-eating-action. Who could possibly resist? You know you have to see it.... We've been taking a lot more videos lately, so this is one of those "tip-of-the-iceberg" things - be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. In any case. Hope this provides a temporary fix for your video needs.


Love, A.D.R.E.

The D is Three...

Friends

It was party-central on Saturday when Daniel celebrated his third birthday a few days early. Harrison, Eli, Reid, Ethan, Declan, Ella, Sergio and Carlos showed up with their parents in tow.

Daniel is quite clear on how old he is, as you can see from the picture. We actually think that he's proud of that fact. The theme of his 3rd birthday party was, in case you're not up on current preschooler trivia - "Bob the Builder". Daniel loves his construction vehicles and tools. So Anida made him a construction-site cake.

He blew out his candles on the first attempt. Overall, it was the most fun birthday yet, just because Daniel clearly understood everything that was going on and was excited about it. He had wished for a "Scrambler" toy and got it, and when he got packages delivered, he proudly proclaimed "I got mail". So it was just a lot of fun to watch the pure joy as he opened packages.

Let's see what else is new. The promised picture from swim lessons shows Daniel actually having to share Miss Jenny's attention with another level-1 swimmer, but he's quite proud that he's swimming on his own (holding on to a bar). The swim program has been great, and we wish it kept going through the summer, but there's only 2 more lessons and then a break until fall.

Both Daniel and Rachel went to the pediatrician this week for official stuff. Daniel weighed in at 28lbs and 36", which puts him at the 10th and 15th percentile respectively. Rachel's stats have her at 22lbs 11.5oz and 32" or the 50th and 92nd percentile. Someone's heading towards tall. They are both, of course, perfect - not just in our eyes, but according to a medical professional, which is always nice to hear. Rachel got some shots, Daniel didn't.

Rachel turned 15 months today. Her babble and vocabulary kicked up a notch this week, and she has a new tooth (making it 7). Her favorite outdoor activity is picking dandelions. She has picked up on the fact that Anida has waged war on them and has decided to join the battle. It's great because she leaves everything else alone. Would it be too much to ask her to pull out the whole root?!?

When we're inside, she's either trying to climb onto the highest surface around or she's in the middle of whatever Daniel is playing with at the time. Fortunately, Daniel is getting better at handling these situations by either including her in his play or finding a distraction for her.

She's also been very affectionate lately, to the point of Daniel exclaiming "I don't want any more loving" when she tries to hug-and-kiss him.

And that's all for now.

Love, D.A.R.E

Is there something in the water?

Friends

Spring is here, and we have a fresh new crop of injection-molded plastic sprouting in the back yard. This picture was not staged, it usually looks even more chaotic.

The play structure is new and both kids really like it. Daniel can climb up the side walls like a rock climber, while Rachel can figure out the steps when she wants to. When she doesn't want to - well, she just loves the slide, so you can be her best friend by lifting her up, letting her slide down and repeat the process until your arms fall off. For Daniel, the house alternates between being a firetruck, a pirate ship and a mouse house.

The "Cozy Coupes" are another big hit, and there obviously had to be two of them to avoid conflict. Both Daniel and Rachel love driving around on the deck and the driveway.

With the warm spring weather, we've been spending a lot of time outside in the back yard.

Rachel's list of words and instructions that she understands grows every day - a complete list isn't really possible anymore. We've started to watch more carefully for verbal sounds, and have discovered that she's making more sounds than we previously thought - it's probably just hard to get a word in edgewise with little-mr-talkative in the house.

Daniel goes to swim lessons every Sunday, and is making nice progress there. Through pure luck with the scheduling, he's actually getting private lessons. He has no fear of water whatsoever. He can *almost* float on his back on his own, and when holding a floating bar can kick himself from one side of the pool to the other.

Someone is quite aware that he's almost three years old. He's also had a recent growth spurt that has pushed him to 29lbs and the 25th percentile for weight, which is a huge jump in a short amount of time. Rachel, who wants nothing more than to be like Daniel right now, is trying to catch up and is at 24lbs.

And that's it for now. We'll be back with an update after the party. Hope that everyone is doing well.

Love, D.A.R.E

Getting Graded

Friends

you know - I think I'm going to let Daniel's little report card from playschool speak for itself.

We're inherently biased, of course, so it's nice to get the feedback from his teachers, who seem to be charmed as well.

As expected, playschool is turning out to be a very positive thing for D. It's a great environment, and the teachers are so positive. Thanks Sue, Sandy and Pam.

A.D.R.E

Easter, March Madness, Grandparents, oh my...

Friends

Hopefully the long delay since the last posting here hasn't caused too much stress. Between changing out parts of the home computer, guests and some travel, there just hasn't been much time to sit down and take care of the updates.

In any case - easter came and went since last time. We had a nice easter dinner, and had an easter-egg hunt in our back yard. Both Daniel and Rachel found all of "their" eggs - they had to be marked with R and D respectively so that Daniel wouldn't grab all of them.

March is basketball season, of course, and those of you who've been reading for a while know that every year Grandpa and Farmor come to visit us from Norway around this time.

Both Daniel and Rachel got into the spirit this year. Daniel can now sink baskets when the net is quite a bit higher than him. If you ask Rachel to dunk a basket, she'll look around for the ball, pick it up, run to the basket, dunk it and do a little victory dance if she succeeds - it's adorable

Xavier did just fine again, getting to the Elite Eight, but no further. As always, we had a great time with the grandparents here.

Daniel took advantage of the situation and conned farmor into reading book after book at nighttime, but it's hard to say that she really minded. Getting back to 2 or 3 books before bed has been a little tricky.

We went to the zoo, took the lightrail downtown for the autoshow (Daniel was in a tizzy with all the cars he got to drive) and in general had a good time.

We all have a bit of a cold, and have for the last week or so - so that's not a lot of fun, and Rachel in particular has had a hard time of it. There are signs that it's nearing its end though.

Rachel's words and signs are getting stronger and easier to understand, though she hasn't really added any new ones. She clearly knows a lot of words - you can say "go get your shoes" and she does, or "let's go to the play room" and she toddles away. When we left the kids with the grandparents for a date night, she wandered around looking for us and signing "mama" and "papa" at the door we'd left through.

Swim lessons have been on hold for easter and spring break, but resume tomorrow. Play school has been out of session for a week or so. Rachel is enrolled in the next level of sign language, and Daniel did some modeling work for a sign language book, though we're not allowed to post copies here.

Only three more weeks until Daniel turns 3. Time flies. Hope to have at least one posting before that.

Love, A.D.R.E.

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