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.