Today's updates:

• 21:06 Q.: "Zeke, what do you want to be for Hallowe'en?" A.: "A toilet in a shark costume."

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Talia

Talia, uploaded 27th October, 2008.

Heather took this with her phone. It doesn't matter what I do -- her pictures are always better than mine.

Today's updates:

• 10:36 Zeke, on walking into the bathroom: "Something stinks in here. Something is FILTH."
• 15:35 Talia peed on the potty yesterday. And on the bathroom floor. Not bad for a 22-month-old.

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"Don't think about your mommy"

Zeke, a few weeks ago, trying to comfort a friend on the way to school:

Don't think about your mommy. And don't think about your daddy. I'm thinking about how nice it is inside our school. And about how nice our teachers are.

Talia has learned a new skill

Sorry for the long silence. There's no especially cogent explanation -- mainly, I don't seem to have collected many very good pictures, and it's only fairly recently that I managed to get my home computer working properly again. Anyhow, though, I intend to begin again, and to show I've turned over a new leaf, here's a nice webcam photo of Talia for you. I have a camera attached to the computer at home, and I was trying to prevail on Talia to do something cute for it. Like, for example, sing. Ordinarily she seems to sing pretty much constantly, except, I guess, when you want to show her off. Her favorite song is the alphabet, but she will repeat almost anything she hears anyone else singing. Anyhow, though, this is all I could get out of her.

Today's updates:

• 21:35 Zeke does some weird acrobatic move and then says, "I learned that from my shadow."
• 21:35 Me, to Zeke: "Was Euan mean to you?" Zeke: "You and me and who?"

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Today's updates:

• 13:38 Zeke (age 3), picking up a twig while getting into the car: "I'll bring this stick, in case there's trouble in the car."

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Kids playing in the morning

They both got a lot of sleep last night -- more than usual -- so they're in a really good mood.

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Today's updates:

• 17:08 Talia holds out her hand. "Slap hands," she says. I slap her five. She grins & immediately also gives a high-five to a bowl of cereal

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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.

Today's updates:

• 05:51 Zeke (3), at bedtime: "Daddy, I'm really old, and I'm about to die." Me: "Why?" Z.: "Because I've been playing for years and years."

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Froot Loops

Z.: I want to go with you to the store so you don't forget to buy Froot Loops.
Me: Why do you want Froot Loops?
Z.: Because they're very expectful to eat.
Me: What's "expectful"?
Z.: "Expectful" means, um, "really reliable."
Me: What does "really reliable" mean?
Z.: (after a pause) Poop.

Not sure where he ate Froot Loops, but I don't intend to buy any, just for the record.

Today's updates:

• 18:46 Talia shrieks. Heather: "Talia, what are you doing?" Talia: "Skeemin! I yike it!" ("Screaming! I like it!")

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Today's updates:

• 14:46 Zeke (age 3), after listening to Talia (age 1): "When I was little, I used to say: 'See this buggy-buttsy-boots.' That means 'Hell..

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Talia changing a stuffed animal's diaper

This is a regular game of hers. She lifts up the toy's legs and exclaims, "Peee-you!"

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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.

Today's updates:

• 12:08 Heather: "No, Zeke, I'm not buying you that train." Zeke (age 3): "That's O.K. I'll just have to buy it myself."

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Today's updates:

• 04:38 Zeke at bedtime: "Daddy, we died a long time ago. We're not going to die again, are we? Will you keep me safe from dying?"

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Today's updates:

• 15:11 Zeke: "We can all be the boss. But specially I'm the boss."

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Cameraphone video of Talia jumping

Pretty low-fi ... but ... enjoy anyhow.