Some recent photos of Talia

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of Talia, and she has been growing like a weed. Here are a few I took the other day.

Summer's here, mostly

Well, the annual Dogwood Festival has come and gone, which was a lot of excitement for everyone. Zeke actually stood on the porch, pointed to the rides as they began to set up, and -- being too excited even to form words -- let loose shrieks of pure joy and anticipation. In other news, Talia fell down on the front stairs and knocked two of her front teeth loose. One of them now seems to be turning black, which I guess means the nerve is dead, but so far it doesn't look like it's going to fall out. We're waiting to hear from the dentist. 

Here are a few favorite recent photos in a slideshow format. Click here to see this whole collection on a single page. When you're watching the slideshow (in this post, or in almost any other slideshow or video) look for a little icon like this:  or something similar, here (and usually elsewhere) found in the bottom right corner. If you click that symbol, the slideshow will expand to fill your whole screen. 

Zeke also recently figured out that if you sit on your tricycle at the top of a hill and start pedaling, you can get going pretty fast. So far there have been no accidents. 

A few recent favorite photos

The photos with the crown are from Talia's birthday. The photos with Zeke and his grandmother are from Christmas. Zeke got a few hand-me-down pink footie pajamas from his friend Carmen and, if he could, would never wear anything else.

A couple of photos from the last few days

If you are a contact of mine on the photo-printing site Snapfish, you can get prints of any of these (and a bunch more) by going to ReinFamilyPictures.Snapfish.com.

A cognitive milestone for Talia -- maybe

Today, when I picked the kids up from day care, Talia informed me: "Eat cake. Happy birthday to you." This was the first time I've heard her tell me, in a declarative way, about something that happened in the past. (There had been a little birthday party for one of the kids in her "class." She couldn't tell me whose birthday it was, but Zeke filled me in on the details.) In fact, I believe it's the first time I've ever heard her use language to describe something that was neither (1) immediately in front of her or (2) something she wanted us to get or do for her. Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems like a major cognitive milestone to me, in terms of how she uses language and how she thinks about events. I don't remember anything quite this dramatic with Zeke.

Here's something else -- two photos, showing Zeke at age 22 months and Talia at age 18 months (a few weeks ago). I think it's pretty striking -- you can really see how much alike they look.

First weeks of summer

It's been a long time without a real update. Sorry about that, loyal readers (all three of you). In the meanwhile the clan has been off on two short (four-day) vacations, one to Ricketts Glen State Park (about fifty miles west of Scranton), where we hung around in a small cabin and did some light hiking (very light) in what passes for mountains in Pennsylvania. The other one was to a rented vacation house at Chincoteague, Virginia, i.e., a trip to the beach. Both were a lot of fun. Both kids liked Ricketts Glen, and they also found they liked the beach, though the waves made them nervous. Zeke in fact was in some distress the first few times he watched his mother go into the surf.

In other news, Talia is really talking. She's hard to understand, but she is definitely stringing short sentences together. She imitates her brother a lot. She has a few fairly adorable verbal idiosyncrasies, like saying something that sounds like "see" instead of "it's" -- thus, when eating, "See good!" or when playing, "See funny!" (You can see an example of that last one in the video at the bottom of this post.) For a while, when she was eating, she'd always comment enthusiastically, "I yike it!" but that seems to have passed. Her other habit is screaming at the top of her lungs when something excites her, and also dancing around, with lots of prodding from the audience. The two of them, at least at the moment, are getting along famously and really enjoy one another most of the time.

I have no real good stories off the top of my head, aside from the little one-liners that I've been posting. But there are a few nice photos. If you are reading this in an email, you probably won't be able to see them; click here to see this post on the web, where everything ought to work properly. Same goes for the little video at the end of the post.

First, here are the photos from Ricketts Glen.




(Note: Some of my favorites aren't visible here because they show someone else's kids. If you want to see those, go to Flickr.com, which is a site I use for managing digital photos, sign up for an account, and then visit my page and add me as a "contact," either as "friend" or "family." I can walk you through this if need be. After that, the hidden photos should be visible here. If this is too much of a pain, well, eventually I'll come up with something else. Also: I have left out many of my own photos that show only scenery, but if you want to see those, they're here as well. Ricketts Glen is a very nice place.)

Here are some Chincoteague photos. For some reason we only took very few (sixteen). You can also see them here.



And finally, here are a couple of other recent favorites. Personally, my favorites are the ones of Zeke and Talia perched together on the "changing table" (i.e., a foam pad on top of a dresser), both goofing around. (For some reason they're not displayed together, but they're part of a series, and it'll be obvious when you flip through them.) All those can also be seen here.



And, one last little tidbit, here is a one-and-three-quarters-minute video of Talia and Zeke jumping up and down in a crib. That's all it is, but it cracks me up anyhow.

Zeke running in the trampoline

Made with my phone.

A few more:

"Space," by Zeke

   


Some of Zeke's recent art.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A couple dozen photos

We took a several-hour-long trip to Naani and Pop-pop's place today. No great stories, but Heather took some photos. Here's a slideshow, or click here to see them all laid out.

A few recent photos

Talia enjoying herself in the bathtub.


A few glamor shots of Talia, taken by Heather.





Talia has sort of decided that the high chair is hers, which seems to be more or less O.K. with Zeke, most of the time, since that means he gets to sit in a grown-up chair. She likes to climb up into the seat and try to stand on it, shake it back and forth, or contort herself into weird positions (as in this photo -- she gets stuck a lot), while saying, "Chee-yur! chee-yur!" (chair) over and over again.


An action shot of both kids playing on the slide. Talia really likes going down the big slide as fast as possible.

They are really starting to look alike

Zeke and Talia at the table (diptych), uploaded 29th March, 2008.

Neither Zeke nor Talia is particularly flattered by these photos, but I'm struck by the fact that they look so alike here. (It's also kind of funny that their facial expressions almost match, too.)

Talia playing peek-a-boo in the cabinet

Talia playing peek-a-boo in the cabinet, uploaded 22nd March, 2008.

Talia also played with bubbles recently.


Heather took these; see them larger here.

One of Zeke's favorite places

Zeke in the Goodwill, uploaded 16th March, 2008.

Zeke loves the toy section at the Goodwill near our house. (Incidentally, I recently discovered that it's not just a Goodwill store, it's a Goodwill Fashions store). I think he prefers it to the zoo. We don't even have to buy anything for it to be worthwhile. Last time we were there I also spotted a Hasbro "Queasy Bake Cookerator" (four bucks), evidently a boy's version of the classic -- but very pink -- Easy Bake Oven.

Some photos of kids eating

Here's Zeke and Talia goofing around, having some toast and jam on the bed.


And here's Talia having some string cheese in her high chair.


At the moment, the kids and I are out of town. The residential sewer lateral that connects our house to the city sewer appears to have collapsed and needs to be replaced. (If this sounds expensive — it is.) No showers, no flushing the toilet, etc. Luckily Naani and Pop-Pop are only two hours away.

A quick update

Our home computer is still busted (not connecting to the Internet) and may remain so for the foreseeable future, so if I'm going to maintain this blog, I'm going to have to get used to using my work machine. So here goes. First, here's the news. Talia's completely mobile. Not only is she walking, but she's trying to climb pretty much everything. She continues to be pretty sweet-tempered most of the time, but she's beginning to develop a very strong will (to match her very strong muscles -- I sometimes have to use two hands to hold her still while diapering). She shrieks with displeasure when you take away something she believes is hers. On top of this, she's beginning to talk -- a lot. She has a hell of an appetite and accordingly probably sixty percent of her vocabulary refers to food. "Quacka" (cracker), "nana" (banana), "mee" (milk), "goff" (goldfish), "chee" (cheese) -- all staples. (As you can see, she's not yet adept with final sibilants and palatals.) She's also into dancing around in circles (in a sort of proto-toddler waddle) and making funny faces. It's cute.

Zeke is still getting used to using the potty. I feel like we've been saying that for a long time now. But anyhow, he continues to make progress. He hasn't worn a diaper or Pull-Up in probably several months now, but accidents (especially the smelly, filthy kind, rather than the wet, rug-destroying kind) are frequent. As you can see from the previous post, he is very interested in letters and reading. Perhaps surprisingly, he is maybe even more interested in numbers. Every time he sees a cluster of numbers together (especially in the car, like on a highway sign), he asks what it means, for example, "Daddy, what do two 2's and a four mean?" on seeing the sign for U.S. route 422. He's fooled around a little with making his own numbers, but he hasn't really discovered yet that one can draw symbols for oneself.


And then, some recent pictures.


Go here to see all these pictures together on a single page.

Finally, here's the latest quip from Zeke. This is from bedtime tonight.

Z.: Daddy! Do you smell something?
Me: Um, no, do you smell something?
Z.: (rubbing his nose) That's boogies! I smell boogies!

(By "boogies," he means, ahem, boogers. )

Two quick updates

First, a photo of Talia and me...



Just look at that nice, wide, round head!


Next, a going-to-bed quotation from Zeke:

Z.: Daddy, we're completely out of date.
(pause)
Z.: Daddy, do you know what "completely out of date" means?
Me: No.
Z.: It means, we ran out of raisins. We're completely out of raisins.

In other news, Zeke's second Christmas proved to be pretty much all about Thomas. Thomas trains, Thomas books, Thomas movies, and Thomas songs. We're all learning a lot about steam trains.

Talia's birthday mosaic (photos by Nani and Pop-Pop)

Talia's birthday mosaic (photos by Nani and Pop-Pop), uploaded 2nd December, 2007.

Talia turns one tomorrow. Nani and Pop-Pop came by for a few hours today. They took these photos.

A little late-afternoon fall hike in Valley Forge Park

Larger versions here. Zeke was absolutely loving it out there. He was finding mushrooms, different colored leaves, and sticks; jumping over things; and generally having a blast.

A couple of recent photos, plus one old one

Not much new to report. Just a few photos. A couple of Talia from the past week:
     
I've been scouring old pictures trying to find two that I can set next to each other so as to make the change in her head shape clear. But so far I haven't found a good pair. I feel like I can see the change, but it's really only obvious from the back.

And two of Zeke:
  
The first one is actually over three months old, but I forgot I had it and just rediscovered it. The second is from Monday, when he was feeling sick and was allowed to spend a rare hour watching TV. He seemed to enjoy it.

As always, click on the photos for a larger view.

Talia's third day in the hospital: a few photos

These are from Wednesday. You can see that her face is a little puffy. The swelling is mostly gone by now.