A couple of weeks ago during our family reunion I asked Paela to tell me a story. I was quite pleased when she immediately started babbling. This was Paela's story:
"<blah blah blah> cousins <blah blah blah>. The end good story?"
* note that the <blah blah> sections went on for the length of several sentences each. And there was definitely no pause for a period after "The end" and before "good story?". We have a story maker in our midst, I just know it.
So Paela is officially adjusted to nursery. On Saturday, when asked to get her shoes, she promptly ran to the closet and picked up her sandals. Then thoughtfully put her sandals back on the shelf. Instead, she grabbed her black dressy shoes. She brought them to me exclaiming "Church! Nursery! Time for nursery!" and wanted me to put her dressy shoes on.
We spent the entire drive to the grocery store discussing how today is not nursery day, that tomorrow is, that it's a good idea to go to nursery tomorrow, that we're going to the grocery store today because today is Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday, and that we'll go to Church on Sunday. Eventually she declared "Nursery! No, not nursery day." We think she got the message.
The week was pretty quiet this time around. We made a cake, spent some time organizing the basement storage better, tried to learn about u-pick places in the area, enjoyed the cooler (though wet) weather, and avoided a funeral.
The cake was just because. read more »
It was my birthday this week. Thanks to all of you who sent me wishes, etc. Rebecca had a few nice suprises, but things were mostly quiet. Paela enjoyed tearing the paper off and looking in the packages for me.
I was even able to babysit for some neighbor's kids for the afternoon while I worked on my syllabus. I am trying to compile materials for teaching this class at the CC. They have given me some liberty in how I teach the class, as long as I am able to teach the skill set they want students to learn. read more »
You know we've been busy when we skip a week writing. Last week we went to Austin to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and to go to his baptism. It was a good visit and we're glad we were able to be there. We decided to make it a decent length trip, too, since we aren't expecting to want to travel this year for Christmas.
But before that, we spent time preparing for the trip. Prep time didn't take as much effort as we normally need for a Christmas visit. Packing was faster and more condensed. Plus, we had a direct flight this time (yay!) so we didn't need as many things for Paela to survive the traveling, either. There were a couple of complications to spice things up before the trip though. read more »
Paela doesn't like her nap schedule. A few days she has sat in her bed for the hour and a half during nap time, without saying a word. But other days, she lets us know she isn't sleeping and we try to put her down for a nap at 1. I didn't realize that kids changed their nap times again, but she's re-adjusting.
Camilla seems to have come over one day during the week and Paela and I went there one day. We had a BBQ on Saturday with a failed attempt at getting a waterslide. Eventually we crashed a hotel swimming pool, but it took a bit of inventive thinking to reach that point.
I guess Camilla also babysat for us one evening so we could go watch Harry Potter. The exciting bit of news was receiving a window air conditioner from freecycle. After we got that, we mostly stayed indoors to stay cool. Paela enjoys her story time at the libraries we hop to. And really, it was a slow week.
We spent much of the week planning our weekend trip. We had a good time in NYC, our second time in the city, though we could have used more time. We'll have to go again soon!
We were able to visit with my friend, Holly, before she moves to the other side of the country. She was an excellent source of information of all sorts and introduced us to a fabulous Dominican restaurant just across the street from her apartment. She even humored us by coming along to some of the museums we wanted to see. read more »
They promised us rain. The heat usually brings rain because the humidity escalates to a point where it develops into rain, which materializes in mid-air. Every morning, I would check the weather for when the rain would come, and every day they pushed it back more and more. Boston's weather forecasts change every other hour or so. But the rain never came, until Friday night when we were camping in Cape Cod. read more »
Well, Wayne probably ought to write this email, since he and Paela were the busy bumblebees this week. I just did the work thing during the day and hung out with the two of them in the evenings!
Sunday, Ian Davis and Betsy brought their kids over to play and hang out. We had a good time with them, and they brought a deliciously decadent chocolate pie with them; we saved much of that for Tuesday so we could celebrate chocolate day in style. read more »
It's interesting watching language learning as it develops. It is obvious to me that Paela thinks she is clearly saying more than we think she is saying. The days when "Daddy, <blah blah blah> ketchup" magically transforms into a clear "Daddy, I want more ketchup" are fun. It's like all along she knew what she was saying, and one day we are suddenly privy to knowing what she's known this whole time. read more »
