Words and ABCs

Recently we have been working with Evangeline with therapists, she has a developmental therapist and a speech therapist (who we haven't met with yet) and a physical therapist. Anyway her developmental therapist had us start making a list of words that she says and this has got me really listening to her to see what words she actually knows.

While I have found that she knows a lot more words than I thought she does I also discovered that she is saying phrases as well. Things like, "There it is!" "Where'd it go?" "Its a..." and more. I also found the other day that she knows most of her letters. I was putting away some puzzles and found a letter puzzle and thought, "Hey why not see what she knows." Turns out she knows all her letters except for maybe two or three. Crazy! She also knows some of her numbers and some of her shapes. I guess David is a good influence.

As far as David goes he has started to do basic math, such as basic addition. Smart kids!!

Spiders

Last year a female orb weaver spider set up shop outside our sliding glass door. Being a person who does not like spiders but is fascinated by them in controlled circumstances I started to watch it. Kevin joined me and soon we were checking on it nightly, sometimes staying up late just to watch it build a web or eat a meal. We watched it mate and then fall came and it disappeared. Then we had one of the coldest, harshest winters we have ever experienced out here. In fact last winter broke records for how cold it was. Understandably we were shocked when the spider showed up again this year. She was HUGE but happy and seemingly healthy. So we took up watching her again. Tonight I went to check on her, because last night was rather weird. Last night she did not come out and remake her web and a male orb weaver was wandering in the web. Tonight the old web still stands with no spider out to take it down and make a new one, instead I saw a tiny baby spider rappelling down our door. I think it is official, Charlotte is gone and a new generation has replaced her. I am ironically sad for the first time that a spider has died and I actually hope that one of her babies takes her place.

Transitions

Sleep, it is one of those rare things when you become a parent. When we had Davy it was rather easy, he slept exceptionally well for a baby and allowed me to get better sleep than what I realized. We kept him in a bassinet until he was like six or seven months, basically until he was too big for it. Then we moved him over to a crib. His bassinet was in our room, the crib was in his room. It was a big transition for me.

When it came to Evangeline things were more difficult. She was a cluster feeder. She liked to eat every two hours. So she woke me up a lot at night, and she didn't really sleep through the night until she was almost a year old. She started in a bassinet co-sleeper, and stayed there for a good long time, then I moved her to a crib but put it in the spare bedroom so I didn't have to trek all the way across the house to get to her, instead I just slept in there with her. Finally after Kevin protested enough times I left her in there and went to sleep in my own bedroom. This, it turns out was just what I needed to do to get her to sleep through the night.

So at this point she has been sleeping through the night quite well. I have been wanting to move her into the kid's room so that she isn't all by herself in the spare room. But I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Then today Kevin and I started talking about it and how it would be nice to move the hope chest out and put the crib where it was. Kevin was too sleepy today to help me with it before work so tonight before the kids went to bed I cleared out the area for the crib and drug it out of the spare bedroom and into the kid's room. I won't say it was easy, in fact it was quite a lot of work. But now it is done and based on how quiet it is I think it is successful so far. We shall see if Evangeline sleeps through the night or not. I am crossing my fingers.

Zip Zip Zippers

Davy has recently (as in within the last few months or so) figured out how to work zippers. He loves to use his new found knowledge on things like his jacket, toy containers that are closed with zippers, and his jammies. This has led to some of the more numerous of his toy messes, as well as his tendency to come out of his room in the morning without his jammies on. Today the kids were playing happily in the other room and I decided to check on them. I called both their names, Davy came up happily and said, "Hi Mama!" Evangeline giggled happily every time I said her name and eventually came over, as she rounded the corner I noticed that she was naked except for her diaper. "Someone" had helped her unzip her jammies and take them off. It is fun to see how "helpful" Davy can be when it comes to his sister.