Talia picking flowers in the park

Sunday we explored Ridley Creek State Park in Media, PA. Talia picked as many dandelions as she could find -- I didn't count but at one point I think she must have had at least a dozen in her fist.

New words invented by Zeke recently

Hicked: "a little bit broken." Trains, in particular, can easily become hicked.
Moots: "when you do what you're not told to do it, but you do anyway." No usage example.
Grass-griffs: "a little hedgehog that comes out at night and sleeps in the day, and eats grass."

They sort of look alike (sort of)

They sort of look alike (again), uploaded 12th April, 2008.

A photo of Zeke from November, 2006 (at age 22 months) next to a current picture of Talia (in March, at age 15 months).

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.

One-minute video: Zeke and Talia in the bathtub

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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.

Pink

To my surprise (I guess this is what happens when you have someone else taking care of your kids for more than half their waking hours), Zeke has an opinion about what colors are appropriate for boys and for girls. Overheard recently (K. is our next-door neighbor, a girl about Zeke's age):

K.: Zeke, do you want to eat yours out of a pink bowl?
Z.: No.
K.: Do you like pink?
Z.: No. Pink is for girls.
K.: Do you like purple?
Z.: Yes, purple is for boys.
K.: No. Purple is for girls. Black is for boys.
Z.: No. I don't like black, but I like purple. Purple is for boys.

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.)

Zeke makes puns at breakfast

Zeke makes puns at breakfast, uploaded 24th March, 2008.

Zeke: "Daddy, this is gross."
Me: "Gross? Why?"
Zeke: "It came from the grocery store."

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.

Zeke explains a cake recipe

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Here's Zeke, listing the ingredients of a "cake" he made. (The cake is not real.)

Talia, asleep in her car seat

Talia, asleep in her car seat, uploaded 15th March, 2008.

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.

What the front of the house looks like now

The front of our house, post-construction, uploaded 16th March, 2008.

This has nothing to do with the kids, but here's what the front of our house looks like, after having the main sewer line replaced.

Talia's cheese

Zeke wants you to be his Valentine

This is a month old, but worth seeing anyhow.

Try as you will, you will not beat my kids for cuteness. Period. And yes, that's even WITH the booger he finds stuck to his foot at the end there.

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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.

More experimentation with reading

Zeke's been able to recognize his own name in writing for a while now, mainly (I assume) because you just don't see that many short words that start with "Z" (especially when they're written on the back of, say, the pictures he draws at daycare). But this surprised me.

Tonight, Zeke stared at this bowl for a minute or two and then asked, "Daddy, what does this say?" I said, "What do you think it says?" Then he sounded out what he saw: "Tuh... ah... luh... Talia."

Later, I was reading him a book (about Rosa Parks -- not sure this is really the most appropriate for his age, but he likes the pictures of buses) which includes, in large type, the text of a spiritual, beginning with the words, "O freedom, O freedom, O freedom over me." I read this out loud to him, and he interrupted me and pointed at each of the "O"'s in turn, saying "O feeding, O feeding, O feeding over me."

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. )

'Daddy! I made my name!'

Zeke, who's three, came in announcing that he'd "made his name" with refrigerator magnets. I was stunned to find this...

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