Kid Updates

In the midst of this crazy busy summer (I can't believe that our original plan was to be moving right now), the kids are growing and changing and reaching milestones. Lately I've felt like this is moving so quickly, that I want to take a moment and notice all of these precious developments.

David, oh how he is changing! He's understanding more and more all the time, following commands like, "go get your shoes" or "let's go upstairs." He acts more and more like a toddler: when I tell him, "No street!" he runs to it over and over and over again with that "I'm a stinker" look in his eyes.

This is one of my favorite stages of development. His language is cracking me up every day. I want to make a list of his words, since this is the closest thing he's getting to a baby book.

Wah-Woh! (Hello)

Mama

Dada

Bye-bye

Ish (while doing "milk" sign - means "juice" or "drink")

Bah (ball)

Baa (bath)

Buh-Buhs (bubbles)

Uh-oh (when anything hits the floor)

Bbbbbbbb-a (rasberry style long "b" sound - banana - this is a favorite and we try to get him to say it all the time)

Mo (more, says while signing)

Sigh (usually outside, but sometimes inside, basically wherever he wants to go that he's not)

Ca-ca (cracker)

Shhh-Shhh (shoes)

Bah (cereal bar, contexual distinction from ball)

Wa (water)

As I'm looking at this list, most of these words are new within the past couple of weeks. It's amazing how they reach those explosive stages.

As for Miss Katy, the most significant achievement over the past several weeks is certainly potty training. I'm not ready to say that she's trained, but we have certainly made some huge leaps of progress. Since her first successful poop in the potty over 2 weeks ago, we have gradually moved to more successes than accidents in that area. And as of today, we haven't had a poop accident at home in over a week. The only issue is that she will not go out in public, and she does not seem to be able to figure out how to hold it until we get home. So we need to work on that some. As for wet accidents, they are sporatic, and usually very small. Most of the time, it's just that she didn't keep herself totally dry before realizing that she had to go. So I'm optimistic that she'll have it figured out well enough when school begins in 6 weeks or so. We drove past it yesterday and that's all she talked about today. That will be another huge transition.

One more thing. This is an example of how opportunity for practice develops skill. The girl who could just barely pedal a tricycle a couple of months ago can now do this: (I would have to take this video on trash day, wouldn't I?)