Last Minute Cram
Paulchen is ready for college. He has already perfected the art of last minute cramming. His birthday is only two days away and until a week ago his vocabulary was very small. He also refused to repeat any words.

In that time, he has learned most of the parts of the body to point at. He can also say "head", "eye", "ear" and "nose".

I had been working on shapes with him, particularly "circle" and "square". Suddenly, a week ago when I was showing Daddy how well he knew those two shapes, Paul proceeded to quiz Paulchen on the other shapes on the page. It turns out he also knows, "rectangle", "oval", "triangle", "diamond", "star" and "heart".

So now I've been working on his letters. We'll work on "A" for awhile. We also practice his numbers regularly. He'll say and point to "6" and "8".

I've been working for a bit to try to have him call his sister Aveline, "Ava". Yesterday he finally did it. He also repeated "hat" after me today.

It's like he knows he'll be 2 on Saturday and wants to make sure he knows plenty by then. But he waited until the last second to acquire or prove that knowledge.

He also has his own little rattan sword and wooden shield. I've started fighter practice with the SCA and made Paul a sword, so he can practice too. Paulchen refused to use his little wooden sword against us in "fights". He took our swords and lifted them the one inch of the ground he can manage and would "fight". So I wrapped a smaller piece of rattan to look like ours. Now he thinks he has a sword just like ours and he can manage it easier. I made the shield to prevent trouble later. He hasn't seen us use our shield yet, but I know once he does, he'll want to use ours, so again, he has his own that he can maneuver.

The next obstacle will be armour and a helm. But those will have to wait until I can rig something light up for him. Preferably out of fabric.

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!