What's worse than finding a worm in your apple?

Friends

You all know the answer to that one - it's "finding half of a worm". Rachel thinks that ladybugs are edible, so we've had to scrape some sad-looking ladybug remains out of her mouth.

Since last time, we've graduated from the first year of playschool (we're no longer a "young three") and Daniel was voted most likely to succeed. Well - sort of - the actual commendation thanked him for being social, but Sue pointed out that she really meant "most likely to succeed" - Daniel made quite an impression on his class. At the lunches we got to hear "Oh, that's Daniel - I've heard a lot about him", while with us Daniel took the approach that "what happens at playschool, stays at playschool".

Daniel and Anida took another ride in an ambulance and got to test the overnight facilities at Children's hospital after D had another seizure yesterday. Everyone is home now. Reducing it down to a one-line statement might somehow give the impression that this is not a big deal, or that we're used to this by now. We're not. It's an absolutely heart-stoppingly terrifying experience each time.

"I can't imagine" is the most common response we get, and here's hoping that none of you will ever have to do more than imagine the sequence of wondering if your child will survive, then whether they'll be OK, then whether these seizures will stop happening. I think I'll leave it at that - it's scary.

We'll be back soon, hopefully with some fun updates. There should be a fun trip in the near future, and summer is here already - that's bound to bring some fun times. Oh, and more Rachel-coverage, she got sort of neglected in this post and is definitely developing a personality.

Love, D.A.R.E.

There's Trouble in Capital City, and that starts with T

and that stands for... Timeout

Friends.

Reading this little online diary, you might get the impression that Daniel and Rachel can do no wrong. This is just not the case. In the last couple of weeks, we've had a dramatic increase in Daniel not listening, or testing his limits by deliberately not doing what we've asked him to. There's also been a marked increase in food aversion - the kid who'd eat anything suddenly says I don't LIKE it. And the occasional hitting of his sister. And so there are timeouts - three minutes on a chair by himself to think about what he did. Daniel does not like this.

As one of Eric's friends said when told about this - "thank goodness, he's a normal kid" -> and really, this is probably true. We never saw anything that resembled a "terrible two", and even the current state is only notable because it's so unlike him. As Garrison Keillor says "all of the children are above average"

Rachel has been in decent spirits, considering that she's teething again. The poor girl doesn't do teeth one at a time - she batches them up and is popping another 3 or 4 a the same time. So there were some sleepless nights.

Speaking of which, Rachel is now finally off the bottle alltogether. She gets a sippy cup of milk and some cheese at nighttime, but no more bottles. This is a good thing. She's also gotten into books. Until recently she wasn't too excited about them, but now she'll make the sign for book and demand to have 3 or 4 stories read to her at night.


Daniel's concept of time has really advanced pretty significantly in the last couple of weeks. For a long time, anything that happened in the past was "yesterday", but now he knows about "last week", "2 months ago" and "when I was little" among others. He also knows about the days of the week "On Friday, I will go to Playschool" and about events that are scheduled to happen. He doesn't always get the details right, but he's showing a much greater understanding of time. "Yesterday, you said that I could have big waffles today" - yeah, I guess I did say that. Note to self -> kids hear everything, remember everything, and can remind you of everything.

We took the bike trailer for a little ride the other day, and went over to the beach on the other side of the state park that's right next to our house. This was a popular excursion - the ride was exciting, the beach was a big hit. Rachel was just giddy wading in the water, while Daniel thought that maybe it was a little too cold.

Daniel's first year of playschool is coming to an end this week, with end-of-year parties and an evening celebration on Friday. The experience has been good for him, and he'll be going back in the fall. This summer there will be lots of other activities. Some travel, some visitors, some undetermined activity. It'll be fun.

That's about all for now.

Love, D.R.A.E

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.