The Pentecostal and the Amish Eaters

Lia loves food. She is passionate about her food. So much so, that she had titled a Lemon Pasta dish "Amen Pasta." We initially just thought that was a fluke deal, until last night's chili dinner. In the middle of devouring her chili she yelled out, "hallelujah!" So, we now have Amen Pasta and Hallelulah Chili. 

Zadie, on the other hand is much more lukewarm about her food. First, she doesn't wear it quite the same way as Lia does. And not only does she not break out into praise while she's eating, but she downplays it all. If you ask her if she likes something, she simply responds with a very soft, "yeah."

Oops!

Someone's got a little wedgie. 

Girls' Weekend

Daddy had to go to New Jersey last weekend, so we had a fun weekend with just the girls. 

Are You A Cow?

I have been trying quite hard to get the girls saying their ABCs. Much to my disappointment, we can't get past C. Neither girl will spell her name despite many renditions of songs where we sing the spelling out. Lia tries to write her name (lots of scribbles, and almost some resemblance of 1-1 correspondence, but no where near forming letters). Zadie can recognize a Z but gets very upset if I try to write her name instead of drawing pictures for her. All this to say, I've kind of given up on any sort of direct teaching of the skills that help kids read. 

Last week I was reading Sandra Boynton's "Are You a Cow?" to the girls. Zadie had hopped off my lap, I got distracted with something else, and Lia stayed on my lap flipping the pages. (She can stare at pages in a book longer than most 2nd graders I know--she's fascinated by something). A few minutes later I hear her jabbering away and tune in just long enough to catch her saying "Dog? No. Lamb? No...." (The exact words are "are you a dog? No.. etc). By the time we got the video going you can only hear her do two pages worth: "duck? No. Frog? (Which sounds like a very bad word) No." I tried helping her with page turning, but we're quite independent right now, so she won't take my help. She later on got caught up on the page with the hippo because the phrasing changes up there and she couldn't handle it. Anyway, it fascinated me that she was actually reading a book that fit her little 2-word-sentence language development. Looks like she won't be relying too heavily on phonics to get going. 

In the meantime, Z pulls out a Jamba Juice gift card from Kyle's wallet and says, Jamba Juice. I think we have baby geniuses on our hands.

24 Weeks

Turns out baby Gwendolyn is growing quickly. Mama figured she ought to start capturing some of the pregnancy before little miss G arrives. While she seems big, she's not as big as she was last time around. 

ToTo

We had to say "bye" to one of our favorite babysitters, ToTo, as she left for grad school in Wisconsin. Not to worry, we'll see her soon for her wedding, and we always love singing her songs--just about anything from Sound of Music. 

Pool Preferences

Bottom line- Lia prefers to be jumping and splashing in the pool while Zadie prefers to have nothing to do with the pool. While we may not have a pool in our backyard anymore, we have taken several trips to our neighborhood pool and taken advantage of a small inflatable pool in our backyard. Lia is a little daredevil and will jump from the side of the pool into our arms. Zadie clings with all her night to us, but had gradually worked up to sitting on the side and holding our hands while she falls in. The best part of swimming? We look so darn cute in our suits!