Horses and Counting
I've been trying to show Paulchen how to climb up on his rocking horse. I'll place one foot in the stirrup and his hands on the handles. Then I try to have him swing his other leg over. Almost like hopping on a real horse. He really hasn't caught on too well. But today he finally hopped on all by himself. I was so proud. He kept working at it and finally made it.

He put one foot in the stirrup and threw his arms over the saddle, sideways. Then he pushed off enough that he could place his other foot on the back spring. Then it was just a matter of pulling and shimmying until he was up enough to turn himself around and sit properly on the horse. He was amazing.

He also counted in English and Latin today. Okay, so he didn't say all the numbers and they weren't in order, but he's learning the words and understands the basic concept of counting. He pointed to objects on a page and said "six, eight, one, quattor, quinque." I was so impressed.

Later I sat him on my lap and practiced counting in English, raising fingers as I said each number. He said "six" and "ten" with the correct amount of fingers after a bit. It's slow going, but moments like this are what make it all worth it.

On a side note, I read an article about how much stay-at-home mothers would get paid if they worked all the similar jobs in the workforce, that they work at home with the kids. My "paycheck" came out to $158,820 per year. If only it were real money. :-)

That?
Okay, my husband wants me to post another blog entry. It seems he's out of new things to distract himself with at work, so a new entry is in order.

Paulchen has made it past the safety lock on the fridge. It probably lasted about two weeks and that's it. So now we have an extra gate for the kitchen. That boy is just too clever.

He's also running around right now and stopping periodically. Then he points and says a sharp word. It sounds like "that!" but I'm not sure. I'll have to listen some more.

It's so upsetting when we can't understand Paulchen. We want to know what he says and he also knows when we don't understand him. He'll say a long sentence and we'll ask him to repeat it, as we can't understand it. Then he looks at us and says "Hi". Basically he starts over with the words he knows we understand Though I'm certain he said "I love you too" the other day. That was so heart-warming that I was so excited and happy.

Today is a busy day. I have a bunch of errands and some work to do. But I'm a little excited about one errand. The children's new double stroller came in. I'll go and pick that up first. Then I can walk later to work and try it out. It isn't the one I really liked, but that one was way too expensive. So hopefully this one will be good.

Two for the price of one
Well, it seems our boy is just too clever for his own good. Today, as I was working in the kitchen, I realized the refrigerator door kept opening and closing. Paulchen learned how to use his weight to pull open the door. We warned the girl babysitting him that he had just figured it out.

Later when we came home, Kayla told us Paulchen unlocked and opened our front door while she was in the kitchen. She just caught him. So now it seems he can open the front door as well. Not a good thing, as we're in the third floor of the building, which means lots of steps to fall down. He knows how to take reasonable steps down, but he still needs us for balance.

What really ticks me off, is the Army doesn't have deadbolts on the doors. We just have a simple turn lock within his reach. We have to request a special chain for high up on the door, but we can't put in the order until Monday and who knows how long the Army will take.

But on the bright side, Paul and I are incredibly proud of how clever our son is. He learned two major techniques on the same same. We're impressed.

Paulchen-ella
I woke up this morning to the sound of clanking dishes. It didn't catch my attention for a bit; I figured Paul was just grabbing a dish for breakfast. Then, after the clanking continued a while longer, I figured he was putting away the clean dishes before he went to work. (Well I can dream can't I?) Finally I looked at the clock and realized that Paul should have already left for PT and wouldn't be home for a bit. That made me guess that it was Paulchen playing with the dishes. I jumped out of bed and hurried to the kitchen, waiting for the inevitable crash of glass and stoneware.

What I found instead thrilled me to no end. Paulchen was attempting to put away the dishes. We often put them away together, since he enjoys helping me at this age. He had two small plates stacked on a bowl, on a large plate; on the floor. He also had all the flatware and mixing spoons put away. Granted, he placed all the tools and flatware in the fork section of the drawer, as that was the only area he could reach, but it was the thought that counts. I was so impressed with his eagerness to help out, not willing to wait until we could do it together. Of course I put away what he took out and closed the dishwasher and went back to bed, but we finished the dishes together later in the day. What a clever little boy!

A Rolling Good Time
I am so proud of Aveline. Today she finally learned how to roll from her front to back. Granted Paulchen did that pretty much from the first day, but doing it in less than a month is pretty good. She's learning quicker than many children out there.

Paulchen is doing pretty well too. He really needs to learn limits with his sister though. He hits his siter too hard or rocks her chair too harshly. He's usually pretty good, but every now and again, he's not gentle enough and has to be kept in check. He does try to be helpful though. He'll feed Aveline the bottle, but gets tired of holding it and takes it back. It's really cute.