Well, our Internet was down for a long period of time, so I was unable to write updates of the children, but now it's finally fixed.

I am really impressed with Ava.  Paul and Paulchen were counting together the other day and I heard Ava making sounds.  Some of those sounds sounded like numbers.  So I sat with her and counted as well.  After I said 1, she said 2.  Then she said 3.  Her numbers aren't perfect, but she had the basic concept down.  I was so amazed.  I looked at Paul to make sure I wasn't hearing things and he realized what she was doing as well.

Today, I had to vacuum and she grabbed the vacuum attachment and began to vacuum as well.  Once again, I was impressed.  Paulchen did these things as well, but it took him a little longer to catch on.  Ava is only 14 months as she does things he didn't do until about 18 months.  I'm not certain if it's because she's the second child, or because she's a girl, but either way I'm very impressed.

Posted by sportell0 at 12:01 PM MEST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Ava is doing very well with her walking now and hardly ever crawls.  She likes to walk all over the place.  The little bouncing zebra she received for her birthday is one of her favorite toys right now.  She can't get on all the way by herself, but she gets her leg over and starts bouncing.  Her face lights up when she bounces.  It's very adorable.

This morning, I brought Ava into bed with Paulchen and me.  Paulchen kept giving me kisses.  Then Ava smacked her lips and leaned over me.  She then proceeded to give lots of kisses.  It was so cute.  She now we can add kisses to her repetoire as well as hugs.

Posted by sportell0 at 11:02 AM CET

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

Today was Ava's first birthday.  We had a nice little day.  We went to the circus.  Paulchen really enjoyed it until he grew tired and cranky.  He watched everything intently.  Ava sat on our laps and clapped when everyone else did.  It was really cute.

When we came home, we had a simple meal of chicken and then cake.  Ava didn't like the frosting, but she ate some of the cake.  It was very funny, Paul kept trying to get Ava to blow out the candle, but she just looked at him like he was crazy.  He really tried hard before he finally gave up and blew out the candle.

Then we openhed presents.  Paulchen helped Ava open the gift from him.  It was a small box with shaped holes that she can put shapes through.  She also received clothes and a bouncing zebra from family.  The zebra is really cute.  She needs help getting onto it, but once on it, she bounces around and slightly turns around.  She really likes it, as she bounces and it plays music.

Posted by sportell0 at 11:02 AM CET

Updated: Monday, April 9, 2007 8:45 PM MEST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Well, as if the glitter wasn't enough a few days ago, Paulchen got into some onion dip today.  That was really fun.  It was this time that Paul finally learned it really only takes a minute or two for Paulchen to cause so much trouble. Paul came to hang out with me in our bedroom as I woke up.  While we talked, we heard some squealing and were happy.  Boy were we dense.  Then Paulchen came in with a butter knife covered in white goop.  All I could think was he got into the mayonaise and there was now a broken jar on the kitchen floor.

Paul stepped out of our room and started exclaiming.  I told him I didn't want to see, just tell me.  I eventually looked.  Ava was weraing some of the white goop.  It turns out Paulchen found the French Onion Dip in the fridge and "iced" Ava with it.  The rest of the tub was upside-down on the kitchen floor.

Posted by sportell0 at 4:20 PM CET

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Well, today was a VERY busy day.  First, this morning Paulchen showed me his new understanding of "left" and "right".  He held out his right hand and said "left", then his left hand and said "right".  Okay, so he had them mixed, but he understood the concept finally.  By the end of the day, he had them correctly labelled.

Paulchen is also very eager top learn German.  He remembered that his favorite "buddy" Turtle, is called Schildkrote in German.  All day long, he would say a word in English and wait.  The wait was for me to teach him the German.  So as we were driving and saw a tree, he would say, "tree..." and I would say "baum".  Then he would say, "tree... baum".  He's so clever.

Yet sometimes he's too clever.  It seems we had some more glitter hiding in the craft store within his reach.  So once again, his sister was doused in green glitter.  Darn it, just as I was getting the last batch out of her hair, we have to go through this all over again.

Posted by sportell0 at 12:01 AM CET

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink