Electronics, Pepper & Diapers

Well, the other day our anwering machine was on the fritz, it kept blinking and wasn't working.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I went out and bought a new one.  The new one didn't hook up properly, but while I was trying to hook up the new one, Paulchen fixed the old one.  He was pressing buttons on the old one and suddenly it stopped blinking.  I couldn't figure out what he did, but just counted it as good luck.  Later I found out what was wrong.  The next day he turned off the power strip the machine was plugged in.  When I restored power it was blinking again.  It turnes out when there is no message recorded, the machine won't work.

 The next day, I woke to find CD-ROMS all over the place.  I couldn't understand why there were.  All our disks are in two places.  One is a drawer too high and too heavy for Paulchen to open.  The other place is a little cabinet on the counter with the more frequently used disks.  He had opened this little cabinet, taken out the disk he wanted, put it in the computer and put the case back in the cabinet.

 Today I woke up to find a $20 bill in his hand.  It turns out he climbed back on the desk and reached the money jar.  When I went to put the bill back in the jar, I found pepper all over the laptop.  I had a big mess to clean up.

 One thing good he did today though, was his diaper.  He started whining, "diaper", which meant he wanted it changed.  I'm glad he's finally bothered by a dirty diaper.  It took a long time and that means he's finally ready for potty training.  He didn't mind the training before, but it didn't mean anything to him.  Now it's a way to avoid a dirty diaper.

Now if he would just stopped whining for a banana and then telling me he doesn't want it after I cut it up for him.

Scissors, Screwdrivers and Sitting

Today was a busy day.  Paulchen has been very interested in helping me as I sew our Medieval garb.  He helps me move the fabric through the sewing machine, place the pins in the fabric and cut.  When I'm not using the scissors, he takes them and likes to cut by himself.  Unfortunately they are a little too large for him and he has trouble handling them properly.  He uses one hand for each finger hole; more like gardening shears.  So today I broke down and bought him his own pair of scissors.

 Now the package said ages 4 and up, but Paulchen's pretty good at learning things and I supervise his cutting.  What I didn't expect was what he'd do when he first used the scissors.  He placed his fingers in the correct spots and cut a perfect slit in the paper I gave him.  I figured he's hold them wrong, like he had on my large scissors or they'd flip to the side and he'd crease the paper, not cut it.  But Paulchen must have been watching me while I was cutting all the fabric for our garb, because he cut like a pro.

 Paulchen also learned another trick today, but that was because of Da.  For a while, Paulchen has mimicked us in using a screwdriver.  But tonight Paul helped Paulchen unscrew a real screw.  Then Paulchen did anopther one on his own.  He has done a few screws now.  Now we have to make sure the screwdrivers are up, or Lord only nkows what we'd find in pieces.  Boy our son is clever.

 Ava also made progress today.  Now when we sit her up, she'll stay sitting for a little bit on her own.  She's not pulling herself to a sitting position yet, but this is the first step.  We're very proud of both our children.

Bite Me!
Ava finally cut her first tooth today.  And it almost cut us.  We began to see under the gum, a few days ago.  Christa was the first to feel Ava's deadly bite.  I've felt the threat of it, but pulled my finger away in time.  It's so funny though.  She now has this little inscisor on the bottom jaw; a lone tooth in a mouth of gum.  But one thing we learned from Paulchen, toothless grins are adorable, but toothy grins are adorable too.  So she's losing the toothless grin, but soon we'll see her teeth slowly poke through and that's just as adorable.

Heaaaaad...

Paulchen was so cute today.  When we wanted him to get up from his nap, Paul grabbed Ava and placed her on the bed by his head.  Then he moved her hand to pat him on the head.  Speaking for her in a high pitched voice, "Wake up big brudder, wake up."  Paulchen shifted around, but finally woke up and looked at her.

When he stepped out of bed, he saw all of us looking at him he was the greatest.  He smiled, placed his hands on his head and said, "heaaad..." and we all sang the song while he and we did the movements.  he must have been half asleep though, for when we finished the song, he walked into his dresser.  It was great.

Big and Growing

I took Aveline to the doctor's today for her four month checkup.  She was 13 lbs 9 1/2 oz and 24.5 inches.  She's growing very nicely.  Of course she had her shots and was NOT thrilled, but she recovered quickly.

Ava is so bad with her need for attention.  I was sitting right by her the other night, but she was crying.  She I looked at her and she stopped immediately and began cooing and smiling.  I looked away for a little while and she began crying again.  Paul told me to look at Ava and once again, she immediately stopped crying and began cooing.  It was annoying, but so sweet.