Today's updates:

• 16:33 Zeke: "Daddy, tell me a story about a boy named Nicholas who liked bears. He loved bears so much he started to act like one."
• 21:03 Tonight at bedtime, I could have sworn Talia (age 16 mos.) said: "Eyes... shut. Night-night Talia."

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Talia playing peek-a-boo

Talia playing peek-a-boo (mosaic), uploaded 28th April, 2008.

Heather took this series of photos. Click here to see the photos individually (click on the small images to view them larger).

Today's updates:

• 09:33 At bedtime, Zeke rubbed his eyes. Me: "You sleepy? Or are your eyes itchy?" Z.: "No, Daddy, I'm just eyeing."

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"Space," by Zeke

   


Some of Zeke's recent art.

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Today's updates:

• 00:33 Zeke at bedtime: "Daddy, tell me a story." (I oblige.) Reaction: "Daddy... that story didn't work. Tell another one."

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Today's updates:

• 08:03 Zeke at breakfast, apropos of nothing: "Daddy! Doesn't APPLE PIE sound good? Yeah!"

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Numbers are complicated

Zeke's bedtime routine has come to include the song, "Green Grow the Rushes, O," which is interesting. He used to love the as a baby, and then we sort of forgot about it, maybe because it's so long, and it never seemed like a great bedtime song. It's a traditional cumulative counting song, which begins with one and runs through twelve. Anyhow, he now wants to hear it before bed. Tonight, presumably wanting to postpone the inevitable, he interrupted me halfway through the song and instructed me that I had to sing all the way through twenty tonight. I laughed and told him I didn't know any more after twelve, but that I'd see what I could do. He answered, "If you don't know the other numbers, I can teach you." I said O.K. After I got to twelve, and stopped, we had this exchange:

Z.: Daddy, you forgot two numbers. Thirteen and fourteen.
Me: I don't know those.
Z.: I can sing them for you.
Me: Okay.
Z.: (after a pause, in a speaking voice) Thirteen. (pause) Fourteen.
Z.: (after another long pause) Daddy, thirteen and fourteen are hard to explain. Very hard to explain.

Talia wrestles a Teddy Bear

This is actually Zeke's bear. It was given to him by a then student of mine around the time he was born. He never developed much of an interest in this or any other stuffed animal, but Talia absolutely loves it.

Zeke lexicon: 'hicked'

Click to Play

Me: "Zeke, can you tell me what 'hicked' means?"
Z.: "Hicked means kind of breaked. With a train."
Unfortuately it gets cut off before the real explanation.

Mobile post sent by nathan using Utterz.

Tweets for Today

• 08:33 Another new word from Zeke: "snibbing." Meaning: "running around under the chairs to find a warm place, or a place to hide." #

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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

Click To Play

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.