Tessie 3.9, Caden 18 months

The holidays have come and gone and a new year/decade has started. The kids have been doing well. Tessie was very excited for Santa's visit. We made cookies and left them by the tree to bribe the big man for some fun toys. Tessie was rewarded with a set of Disney Princess (Barbie-like) dolls and Polly Pockets. An hour later, she was playing in the laundry basket. Santa brought Caden some blocks and trains. He was thrilled, but now he is learning Tessie's rule of, "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine." He is pretty good about sharing. Santa left a couple of lumps of coal for Tessie as an I'm-watching-you warning.

Tessie also got her first pairs of ballet and tap shoes to prepare for her first class on Saturday. She loves to show us how acrobatic she is by showing off her "moves". Maybe a little guidance will give her some grace. She still loves anything girlie: dresses, princess, chapstick, shoes, etc. She was in her glory when Auntie Kris took us to see "Disney on Ice". Her face during the whole show was just precious. She is doing very well at Preschool. She can write her first and last name, Caden, mommy, daddy, Ava & Nora (her friends). She loves to play rhyming games, count (up to twenty-ten), read books with us, and do puzzles. She also loves to watch movies. She looks forward to Caden's naptimes on the weekends when she can watch them. She's on a Snow White kick right now. When she starts to act up, I tell her that she's being "Grumpy" and to pick a different dwarf to act like. When I told her to be "Dopey" once, she said "But Dopey doesn't talk". My reply: "PERFECT!" She is generally a very good girl, but she will tell you that, "Santa brought me coal 'cause I was a little bit bad."

Caden is growing so fast. He is officially a toddler. He walks/runs all over the place, tortures his sister, and is a wonderful huggable creature. He is quickly becoming a little boy. He, again, has changed so much since the last post. He is showing us every day how much he understands. I have been signing with him like I did with Tessie. I really think this has helped his language and vocabulary tremendously. When he recently switched from the infant to the toddler space at daycare, I wrote out all the words he knows and I was amazed. He has about 70 words that he communicates to us! They are: all done, apple, baby, ball, banana, bath, bear, bike, bird, book, bubble, bus, bye, car, cat, cheese, coat, cookie, cow, cracker, cup, dadda, diaper, dog, doll, duck, eat, eye, fish, flower, frog, grampa, grapes, hat, helicopter, hi, horse, Mickey (mouse), Minnie (mouse),momma, monkey, more, motorcycle, no, nose, orange, penguin, phone, plane, please, plug (pacifier), poo-poo, Santa, sit, snack, snow, snowman, sock, spoon, strawberry, stuck, Tessie, train, tree, truck, uh-oh, uncle,up, waffle, wash (hands), water. He understands much more, but that's just what he either says or signs. He also tries to parrot words when we label them- overall he's just great with language. Caden is learning to feed himself with a spoon given the food is sticky, like cottage cheese. He is a climber, too. I'm amazed that he hasn't had as many black & blues as Tessie had as this age.

Stay tuned as the winter bears down on us. Hopefully the thaw will come sooner rather than later. These kids need to get outside more!