Come out please?

Whenever Paulchen gets sent to his room, when he tries to come back out, we ask, "What do you say?"  He answers with "Come out please?"  The other day, when he was in his room and began to come out, I asked him and instead of Paulchen, I heard a little voice by my legs say, "Um ow pease?"  Ava was so used to the routine that she asked for him.  It was so cute.

Then yesterday was an interesting day with Ava.  First, at work, the kids were playing in the backyard.  After a while Ava came in and I saw she had something in her hand.  When I glance for an extra moment, it looked like she had a rock and I let her keep it.  It was too big for her to choke on, so she walked around the store with her rock.  After a while, I was going to take the rock and give her something to eat, when I looked at the rock again.  It wasn't a rock.  It was a snail.  Not just the shell, but the whole snail.  I lifted her by the elbows and carried her outside.  Then I shook her arm until she dropped the snail.  Her hand had slime on it from the snail and I recalled she also had sucked on the "rock" a little.  EEEWWWW GROSS!  She was thoroughly scrubbed.

But on a cuter note, she was nagging me while I frosted cookies last night, so I asked her if she wanted one.  I had cut out Ps and As for Paulchen and Ava, so I gave her an A and told her to say please.  After she said please, she looked up at me and said "ookie".  WOW!  I didn't even know she knew the word.  It was so cute.

Resourceful
While I was in the bathroom today, I took my time and dawdled a little.  Ava was complaining and I thought that I should get her a bottle.  I was almost finished and would head to the kitchen.  Suddenly I heard a crash and I heard Paulchen say, "It's okay Ava, I get you food."  EEK!  I realized he knocked down the gate to the kitchen and was heading in to make heaven only knows what mess.  But I must admit, he was rather resourceful.

Dancing

Paulchen asked me to put on music, so I put on our Medieval dancing music.  He danced around to Single Bransle and was happy.  Then when Horse's Bransle came on, he said "No horse, another song".  He actually knew what the song was!  He also loves to dance to Petit Vriens.  He knows the steps pretty well, though he still needs some guidance.  So at 3, he's learning really quick.  I was just so impressed that he knew the name of the one song.  To people that don't normally listen to this music, much of it can sound the same and even though I listen to it regularly, I often have to give it a few measures before I realize which song it is.  Yet he knew it immediately.

Eyes, ears, nose and mouth

Ava has started to say the parts of the body.  The other day I had her on the changing table and pointed to different body parts on my head and she mimicked.  Then today she initiated the pointing and told me she was pointing to her ear.  She was correct.  I am very amazed.  Paulchen didn't start to do this until he was at least 18 months.  She is now only 15 months.

As for Paulchen, he is incredibly whiney.  I don't know why and it's very annoying.  Yet he is getting much better at his comprehension of what we are saying and how to answer.  We looked through e-mail cards today for father's Day.  He said no to a few of them and then the one I thought was PERFECT, he nodded and said "Yes".  He did like that one for his Da.  A very helpful young man.

Counting

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.