Sunday, March 8, 2009

Reluctant Dancer

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William the Fearless

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Tickle Tickle

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Chronicles #9 Photos
























Chronicles #9

Jan 2009- March 15th, 2009
William has made a huge step of progress in his language. He has always used simple words or phrases but now he is finally repeating every word we are saying. His little pre-school has helped him immensely and we are excited to see him communicate with us more clearly.

William continues to surprise us in that he can recognize and pronounce the sounds of most letters. He has even written a few. He gets very excited when he sees a letter on clothing, books, or big trucks going by. “Dubba-You, wuh wuh, Tee, tuh tuh!”

William took a grapefruit out of the bowl and added his potato head parts to make a very cute grapefruit-head man. We finally had to hide the grapefruit as they were all getting covered in little holes.

We thought it was very cute that every time William played doggy with Emma or played with a dog stuffed animal that he calls it Happy. He says things like, “Happy, come ere! Bad dog!” We just realized that instead of saying puppy he says happy. We still think it is a great name for his pretend doggies.

I had the rubber mallet out for some project and right before William’s bedtime, he found it. He very excitedly grabbed it. I put him in bed and just as I was about to take the mallet from him, he hugs and kisses it, holds it close and pats it, as though it were the most precious thing ever.

William’s favorite thing to do at Grandma & Papa’s is to ransack the closet while he is supposed to be sleeping. I went in the room and he was trying to put on one of Papa’s leather riding boots. I told him to get into bed. He grabs the boot and scurries up into bed. He hugs the boot closely and pats it. (In case you are wondering, he does have plenty of stuffed animals and toys.)

William loves to snuggle down and bury himself in the clean laundry pile. He giggles as he disappears from sight.

William said to Emma, “Emma, pease say boo”
Emma: “Boo!”
William: “Aaaaah!”
Emma: “Boo!”
William: “Aaaaah!”
Emma: “Boo!”
William: “Aaaaah!” You get the idea.

We recently watched Harry Belefonte’s visit to the Muppet Show and now both my kids run around the house belting, “DAY-OOOOOO”.

Emma has recently started doing her own hair, which involves putting every single hair clip into her hair.

Emma also is learning her letters rapidly as we prepare her for kindergarten. She can recognize most letters and sounds. She can spell many words out on her etch-o-sketch drawing pad and is constantly asking how to spell words like, “Elephant, bear, kangaroo”. She came up to me and said, “Mom I spelled pig!” and on her pad was the word, “GIP”. We are still working on the importance of putting letters in the right order.

Emma was dressed as a queen with several blankets wrapped around her waist, one over her shoulders, a tea towel draped over her head, along with her Little Bo Peep Bonnet. She was walking with slow, royal gait and her head held high. I told her that it was time to clean up her mess in the den and she very regally responded, “Queens do not make messes! Kings make messes. My husband the king made the mess.”

Emma with a very furrowed brow, concerned look on her face said to me, “I don’t know when I will find the man who I will marry”. I calmed her by telling her she has a lot of years to figure that out.

We don’t know where she picked it up, but for some reason all animals or imaginary friends of Emma’s get named either Lisa or Nina.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Chronicles #8 Photos




































































Chronicles #8

September - December 2008 William really loves the PBS show “Super Why” and we found the best way to get him out of the bathtub is to say, ”William, do you want to be Super Why?” He very excitedly allows us to place his hooded ducky towel on his head and goes running full throttle with his cape flapping in the wind.

William’s hat obsession has extended to all balls in the house and we often find them with Tupperware, buckets or actual hats on top of them.

Anytime something is broken (which happens quite regularly) William will bring the item to you with all pieces and imploringly say, “Ix it, ix it”.

William now says his name as “YahYum”.

I made William his B-day cake with a 3-d brownie train. He came in after his nap and made me feel good about my labors. I got a very loud, “ooooooooooh, toot toot!” He also started crying when I put it in the fridge. He went and got a chair and opened the fridge and stood there pointing excitedly at it.

William had a bit of a drippy nose and I gave him a tissue. He said, “Tanktwo”, and then proceeded to wipe his nose on his arm and then used the tissue to wipe his arm. I guess the indirect method is better than nothing.

We took William to Chuck E Cheese for his Birthday and the kid was like a pinball bouncing from one game to the next. It was even enough sensory stimulation for our busy boy.
I ask you, who in their right mind would put a tube maze on the ceiling of child entertainment center? Obviously it was not someone with a young child. William slipped past us and started to explore with glee, until he realized he didn’t know how to get out. Every few feet there was a clear plastic window and we would point which way to go, but when there was a fork in the tube, there were no windows. So frustration built into tears until he laid down on the window in sad defeat. Here comes Emma to the rescue! Emma scurried up the tube like a pro and found here brother and gently led him back. He collapsed into my arms and held on tight. Time to depart.

William is adding new words to his vocabulary every day and never on command, just when the moment is right. We were coming out of Sam’s Club and William was riding on his dad’s shoulders and handed the door checker the receipt, which the checker drew a line through. William handed it back down and said, “mile”. The checker drew a smiley face and returned it to our happy boy.

Once conquering the word smile, he now uses it regularly as we draw our smiley faces. William chants this as we draw, “dot, dot, dot, MILE”!

William sees his Daddy & I on our cell phones often and to not to miss out, he picked up what was handy, and began talking on a plastic potato.

Anytime or any context that Burton and I say “Ready”, William blurts out, “GO”!

Christmas morning was complete for William once he opened his stocking and discovered his slinky. He bounced it up and down saying, “bonk-ka, bonk-ka, bonk-ka”. I thought this might be just a special slinky sound effect but today on our walk he saw an inflatable yard Christmas Tigger and pointed and said, “bonk-ka, bonk-ka, bonk-ka”; an interesting substitution for boing.

Emma was having a fit about something in the car and to try to distract her I pointed out some horses along our drive. Emma, still in full fit mode yelled, " I hate horses!" I decided to not say anything more and ignore her. After a few minutes of sniveling and grouching Emma says in a full whine, "When I am done whining, I think I will like horses." "Mama, you be my wife & I'll be your husband. Wife, (in deep gruff man voice) I am going hunting!" After I few minutes she comes back and says, "Wife let's cook reindeer for breakfast". We were driving home at night and in front of some new construction down the street from our home, I spotted a Javelina (Shaggy wild desert pig). Burton flipped the car around so the headlights lit up the new-build house without any doors. The javelina quickly ran into the garage and there were 3 more inside. As our lights hit them they all ran into the house. Emma started giggling and said, "They think they are persons!"
At the store Emma says, “I want this toy, it’s not too expensive and it’s not annoying.”

Emma’s memory often shocks us. We went to get ice cream at Baskin Robins for William’s 3rd B-day and the last time we had gone was on William’s 2nd B-day and at a completely different location. As we arrived at the store Emma said, “ I want the rainbow ice cream with pink and purple.” She had Rainbow Sherbet a year ago.
“Mom, I want to learn how to play a tuna.”
“Tuba?”
“Yah, Tuba”

Emma: “You have to water a chi chi chi chiba chiba pet!”

Emma saying her prayers, “Thank thee for my family, I like them more then I thought.”

Emma turned 5 this December and she has been asking for a Javelina Birthday cake for the last 6 months. For those of you not familiar with South West critters, a javelina (pronounced havelina) is hairy dessert pig/hog. I was quite concerned how I could make a cake to look like this not so beauteous creature. I made a German chocolate cake as I thought the coconut frosting would mimic well their shaggy hair. After getting it cut out and frosted Emma came over and said, “It’s perfect!” I like that girl.
Emma also asked for a stuffed animal skunk, which her kind Grandma & Papa helped accommodate. Her Uncle Keith & Aunt Shelley heard about her weird obsession with Javelinas and found her a mama and baby stuffed animals. She has quite a menagerie.

Emma had her doctor set and had her little ear scope and said, “Mommy, let me look at the tiny aminals in your ear.”