W is for Whale

I was just putting Evi down for her nap and she kept pointing at the wall, and saying "wall" and then saying "water." After a few times, I said, "Yes, both of those words begin with W." Without hesitation she said, "And WHALE!"

As we speak she's in her crib "napping," but actually singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the top of her lungs and jumping up and down.

Sleep, baby, sleep!

A knitter is a knitter is a knitter

A couple of years ago I taught my dad how to knit, and he is now amazingly accomplished at the craft. He has way more time to knit than I do, so he has pumped out an astonishing number of items, many of which have been for the girls. Sierra has her little collection of dresses and skirts that he has made, and she refers to them as "my Grandpa skirts", etc. It's quite humorous to see people's reactions when she tells them that.

Anyway, we were in the library looking at a book and one of the illustrations had quite a few characters in it, one of whom was knitting. Whenever Sierra sees a picture with lots of people she doesn't recognize, she has to go through and assign who everyone is. (She has been doing this since before she was two--like we pass an A&F billboard with sexy half-naked models and she points out that they are Mommy and Daddy. That's right baby!) So in the library book she was going through announcing who everyone is, and she generally assigns people according to gender and sometimes vaguely upon other factors, but in this picture the knitter was definitely Grandpa! She saved that until the very last and announced it with a certain level of aplomb.

The one and only favorite

The girls were eating a wide variety of cereals that I had poured out in front of them on the table and Sierra was pointing out which ones were her favorites. When I asked Evi which was her favorite, she didn't respond, and I shouldn't have bugged her since I don't even believe that you have to have a favorite, but I just wanted to see what she would say.

"Is it Cheerios?"
"No."
"Is it Puffins?"
"No."
...until I had gone through each one, all with a response of no.
"Evi, which one is your favorite?"
"YELLOW!"

Brand new story reader

Evelyn just "read" me her first book. I have noticed for some time that when I'm reading to her she'll say key words from each page, etc., but this morning I was in the playroom doing my workout and she was sitting on the other side of the room looking at "Papa, will you get the moon for me?" by herself. She was turning the pages one by one and saying the basic jist of each one:

Monica..... 'Papa--get moon!'
Reaching... Reaching...
Papa gets ladder....YELLOW ladder!
[she always notices when something is her favorite color!]
.... to mountain...
.... climbing...
...to the MOON!...

This page folds out in all directions and the result is that the moon ends up being twice the size of the actual book. That's where the book is over for Evi. She has no time for the part where Papa waits for the moon to get smaller and smaller until it's the right size for him to take back for Monica to play with, etc., etc.

Fan Club

Yesterday after school about seven or eight of Sierra's classmates had congregated outside and were running around enjoying the warmer weather. I set Evi down and she was having a ball running up the wheelchair ramp, coming down the steps and then circling around again to the ramp. I didn't see how the whole thing was initiated--it was probably Sierra's doing--but pretty soon all of the older kids were parading after her chanting "E-vi! E-vi! E-vi!" She seemed to take it all in stride and one of the other parents commented that she's going to think she's a rock star! :-)

The fun part was that later I was telling the story to Grandma and Grandpa, and then again later to Louise, the girls' babysitter. On the second telling of the story, when I got to the part of the chanting, Evi herself piped up and starting saying "Evi! Evi!" It was the first time I heard her saying her own name. She was quite proud!

This morning I asked her what her name was and she said "Sister!" That works too. :-)