Tamar in the Tube

Daniel Loves T-Ball

He loves coming to Benji's games and playing with the extra equipment on the sidelines.  Now, if he could only figure out which end of the bat to use...

--Victoria

Benji Can Really Swim!

Benji and I spent almost an hour at the pool yesterday and he just amazes me.  He has never been afraid of water and has absolutely no fear of being underwater, despite the fact that he can almost--but not quite--swim. At least that's what I thought until yesterday. He definitely crossed the tipping point into "being able to swim" and could probably go for about 10 feet by himself.  Other skills he began to learn yesterday:  he did his first bellyflop, his first dive, he swam a little on his back, he floated for a few seconds, and he was able to tread water for about 10 seconds at a time.

I'm so proud of him!  I foresee frequent pool visits in our future.

--Victoria

Sleeping Kids

Benji's School Writing Folder

One of Benji's homework assignments was to decorate his writing folder. He used so many stickers that some of the early ones ended up totally covered. He assured me he was okay with that. He was very happy with the final product  --Victoria

Daniel Loves Zoo Animals!

My parents visited recently and bought some toy zoo animals for the kids after we all took a trip to the zoo. Tamar and Benji like these toys, but Daniel LOVES them.  He plays with them all the time so I took a couple of them with us on a trip to the doctor yesterday (he had a runny nose and congestion for so long that they put him on antibiotics, and he's already doing better). This evening, I came into the living room and found him making some of the animals cross the bridge that's part of the wooden train set that Benji loved at this age.

It never ceases to amaze me how different they all are!  Benji would never have put zoo animals on a train track when there were trains around...

--Victoria

Crazy Morning Hair Benji

I love this crazy boy so much!  --Victoria

Hanging Out Together at the Park

Sometimes they ignore each other but sometimes they do hang out together.  --Victoria

Tamar's extra syllable

Tamar uses a lot of words and she pronounces them clearly, but often she adds an extra syllable at the end when she first starts using a word.  Milk was originally "mik-eh." Book was originally "book-oo" and then became "book-eh." Unfortunately, she pronounces the word "fork" as "fok-oo" -- usually loudly, while pointing at a fork I'm holding, so it looks and sounds like she's cursing at me!

But the cutest of all is when she wants a hug and comes up with open arms, plaintively saying "hug-o? hug-o?"  Who could resist?

--Victoria

Daniel rides a horse (with help from Grandpa)

Daniel's all-purpose word

Lately, I have been baffled by the fact that Daniel seems to be calling everything "Daddy" --  including me, himself, random strangers on the street, dogs, and statues of lions. Then I realized that he's actually got three categories of things:

(1) Daddy, which is pronounced "da-da"

(2) Dan-Dan (which is what we call him), which is pronounced "da-da"

(3) Cool stuff, which he draws my attention to by saying "That! That!" which is pronounced "da-da"

It all makes sense now!

--Victoria

Books for Grandpa!

Daniel decided that Grandpa must have ALL THE BOOKS. Daniel is a very determined little boy!

--Victoria

Sleepy Stroller Ride

Brothers Can Be a Pain!

Playground Fun (part 2)

Playground Fun (part 1)

Music Morning!

On Friday, some folks from the DC Youth Orchestra were outside Ludlow Taylor when we arrived in the morning, showing the kids various musical instruments and trolling for recruits. Benji had the chance to blow a trumpet and a trombone and performed admirably on both. Maybe all those raspberries he's blown during his life have been practice for a future career as a brass musician?  Only time will tell.  --Victoria

Settling In To Daycare (from Friday morning)

Benji's Art: Our Family

Apparently what we do for fun is go to the beach. I keep forgetting to ask him why all the family members have numbers assigned to them.  --Victoria