Bravo! Toss & Catch

Paulchen made progress on another skill today.  Paul threw Paulchen's ball back and forth to him and in addition to Paulchen's throwing the ball, he did a very good job of catching it.  He used his whole body to catch, but he caught it almost every time.  It was wonderful!

Yesterday Ava began clapping.  It was very adorable.  She was excited and then when I clapped my hands to a musical beat, she joined in.  The look on her face when I became excited over her actions was one of pure happiness.

Ava also has this little face she likes to make.  She scrunches up her nose and a little to the side.  It looks like she's thinking about something you said and contemplating disagreeing.  I have to catch it on film one of these days.

"Upstairs"

Paulchen really likes to help out in the kitchen when I bake and cook.  Unfortunately, it's very difficult to prep all our food on the floor, so I am often out of reach at the counter.  Paulchen however, now understands the infinite uses of "upstairs".  This is what he calls our step ladder that we happen to keep in the kitchen.  Now when I'm working at the counter he pulls out the "upstairs" and has me set it up so he can help.

We were really surprised today when he thought of another use for "upstairs".  He's been ill the past two days and vomitted a few times.  Today he was sick in the kitchen and threw up again.  Normally we grab the "puke" bucket and hold it before him in case there is more.  Before we could do that, while Paul was cleaning the mess off the floor, Paulchen moved the "upstairs" to the kitchen sink and leaned over that in case he was sick again.  We were very surprised and impressed at how he put two very different concepts together like that.

Sentences
I was asked the other day how Paulchen is doing with sentences.  Well, he just did a perfect one today.  Ava has an awful habit of eatin paper and Paulchen knows it's wrong.  As we were walking by her, he pointed to her and said, "Ava, paper in her mouth".  He used exactly those words.  I was so impressed that he even understood the useage of "her".  What a bright boy.

TURTLES!!!

Paulchen is obsessed with turtles.  They're his favorite animal and he loves anything with turtles.  I cross-stitched a little turtle on one of his t-shirts and he loves it.

Well, yesterday our family made a run to another base and we walked through the toy store there.  Paul poked through an animal bin and found a realistic looking turtle.  He bought it for Paulchen right away.  Even though Christmas is next month, we weren't to wait, he wanted his son to have the turtle right away.

Paulchen loves the little turtle.  It's smaller than his best bud Cruiser, his first stuffed turtle.  He hald it on the palm of his hand and walked all over with it.  He also had it walking across the car window on the way home.

Today was even crazier.  Again as a family we went to the Toys R Us just outside of Darmstadt.  As we were finishing wandering around, I caught sight of a large stuffed turtle.  I pulled Paul over and showed him.  He immediately asked how much and when I told him 20 Euros, he told me to get it.  He showed it to Paulchen and at first, Paulchen couldn't figure out what it was, he had never seen a turtle so large.  I pulled back so he could see the whole toy better and Paulchen's whole face lit up.  He was so excited by the biggest turtle he had even seen.  So now that turtle has joined the ranks and Paulchen enjoys playing with them all.  I'm not kidding when I say the newest turtle is about the same size as Paulchen.

As for Ava, Paul asked me if there was a stuffed frog for her.  I found a cute, large one and she enjoys biting on it.

Formula Party

I was sitting at the computer today when I heard a bunch of giggling from the kitchen.  Both Paulchen and Ava were at it.  The problem was, they were giggling just a bit too much.  So much in fact, it began to sound suspicious.  I glanced over the kitchen counter and nearly fell over.  Just as I looked, Paulchen grabbed a handful of formula powder off the floor and threw it on Ava.  The two of them and the whole kitchen, were covered in formula powder.

It seems the large canister of formula powder I had, was left in Paulchen's reach and the half full canister became a play toy.  At least Ava was okay with it.  Last time something like this happened with the oatmeal, she was crying.

I sent Paulchen to his room, but then thought about how cute it all was.  I didn't call him back out, as I don't want to encourage this behavior, but I took Ava's photo.