Mmm... Apples
Okay, Paulchen is really wowing me! I was cleaning out Aveline's room to get it ready for her. The base's furniture office came to pick up the spare bed, and I put the crib back together. After that, I went through all the loose papers and other odds and ends and tried to organize them. Paulchen came across a little paper apple that I saved for a craft project and said "Ah-mmm". WOW! I asked him a few more times what it was and he kept telling me it was an apple. I'm so impressed!

I'd been working on the letter "A" with him and pointing to the words on the page that start with "A", such as "alligator", "ant", "astronaut" and "apple". He also recognizes the ant now and says "and". I have to say though, "apple" is what really surprised and impressed me. Now we're starting "B", since he has "A" down pretty well.

I have started Paulchen on tracing shapes. I placed fresh paper on his table and took my circle stencil to it. I traced a bunch of dotted line circles for him to trace completely. His hand isn't steady yet, as he's not that comfortable writing yet, but he did really well for his first try. Some of his lines are really close to the dashes on the circles. We'll do circles for about a week and we'll change to a new shape every week after. We'll also do one letter with each shape. So we're starting with "A".

As for Aveline, oh, she is so spoiled. I left her in the living room while I worked on her bedroom. Then she screamed bloody murder. It wasn't just a little cry to say she wasn't too thrilled about being left alone for a bit. It was a heart-wrenching wail that made her choke a little from crying so hard. Yet the moment I came running back in to check on her, she stopped. And she gave me a big grin, as if to say "See Mommy, I knew I could make you come back." Then she was all grins. The little brat. She's doing the same thing Paulchen did at about the same age.

I used to hate letting him cry it out when I put him to bed. But our first or second night in Germany, when I picked him up, he gave his father such a smug, self-satisfied grin, knowing he got his way. At that moment Paul knew our son was playing me and took him and placed him right back into his crib. Then we went through a few nights of me pacing and wringing my hands at the constant crying, until Paulchen understood that bedtime was bedtime. Now it looks like we're about to go through the same thing with Aveline. Oh she's adorable, just like her brother, but she is totally playing it.

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.